Strength of a woman

Narrating their story of inspiration to aspiration to achievement,

several successful women addressed the inaugural meet of WE — Women Entrepreneurs, an initiative of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC) launched on July 28, 2012 at the Parsi Resource Group hall of Della Tower in Bombay. "If she can, you can” is WE’s strong belief.

It was Cyrus Bagwadia, president of the WZCC India Chamber, who initially mooted the idea of a women’s group within WZCC, stated Dolly Dhamodi­wala, convener, WE. With women seeking the keys of the kingdom of opportunity, WE would provide the impetus for women in business or profession to grow, be it at the idea, start-up or growth stage, she explained. WE programs would cover networking sessions with established businessmen and professional advisors, personality development, communication skills, comprehending knotty problems of finance and financing options, etc, as per the information forwarded by the organizers.

(from left) At WE’s inaugural function; Dolly Dhamodiwala, Freyaz Shroff,

It’s the fear of failure which holds people back and though women have the required creativity, tenacity and patience, they may lack the capacity to translate ideas into action, stated Minoo Shroff, WZCC global president. That is where WE could help piece together the puzzle. While women like Angela Merkel, Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi have reached the top in government and politics, in the corporate world executives like Indra Nooyi and Chanda Kochar stand out. Self belief, courage and confidence are essential ingredients to success, he added.

Parsi women, stated Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly editor Shernaaz Engineer, are at an advantage since the Parsi community has always treated men and women equally. The Parsis were pioneers in female education with schools like The Alexandra Girls’ English Institution, where Madame Bhikhaiji Cama was once a student, established 150 years ago. A successful woman must have a sense of realism, an ability to multi task given the many roles she is required to play, the capacity to reinvent herself, etc, Engineer declared. Lack of self esteem, risk aversion, financial frailty… are among women’s weakest links.

Moderating the panel discussion was WE core committee member Diana Bharucha who has done her Bachelor of Engineering — Computers and Master of Business Administration from Bombay University. "I have been actively involved in leading engagements across companies in India and advise them on business strategy, processes and choice of technology partners,” she says. Bharucha currently heads the business solutions group of a large finance company for the retail market.

(From left) Cyrus Bagwadia, Minoo Shroff, Shernaaz Engineer and Diana Bharucha

"We need a dedicated group of members to take the WE initiative forward. Women wanting to become part of WE have to become members of WZCC so they can derive the benefits of WZCC’s range of activities and global networking. There is no separate membership of WE,” says Dhamodiwala who has her own management firm called Business Beacon Management Consultants which facilitates registration, funding and credit rating of MSMEs (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises). For WE enquiries and membership, Dhamodiwala can be contacted on dolzeen@gmail.com or call WZCC on 022-23532522/32968175 or email wzccindia@on-lyne.com

WE’s first meet on July 28 featured a panel discussion on "The Road to Success.” The panelists were Pilloo Aga, executive director, Gold Seal Group, Jenobia Driver who founded and heads successful BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) companies, Dr Arnavaz Havewala, who runs her own dental clinic and is attached to hospitals, Lara Balsara, director, Madison World and Freyaz Shroff, who runs her own corporate coaching and consultancy service.

Leading lady

"It is a myth that women entrepreneurs have greater challenges than male entrepreneurs. The world respects and favors women entrepreneurs and managers and processes their orders/payments/loans faster or at the same speed. If they are equally competent, they are given preferential treatment!” says Pilloo Aga. The Gold Seal Group makes world class rubber products for the automotive industry — EPDM (a type of synthetic rubber) extrusions, weather strips, channels and custom made profiles for doors, windows, windscreens and roof finishers and radiator hose systems. Gold Seal Engineering Products Private Limited is the parent company of the Group started by the Aga family in 1958 as the first OEM (original equipment manufacturer) to the Indian auto industry. Among its long list of reputed clients are Ford India, Mahindra and Mahindra, General Motors India, Tata Motors, Force Motors, etc.

Actively involved in the scaling up of the business, Aga spoke about Gold Seal’s international collaborations — a technical license agreement in 1995 with Saar Gummiwerk GmbH of Germany which translated in 1997 into a 50:50 joint venture called GoldSeal — SaarGummi India Private Limited and a collaboration around 15 years ago with Avon Rubber Plc in the UK which resulted in another joint venture known as Gold Seal Avon Polymers Private Limited. Aga has held responsible positions in industry bodies like the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association, where she has been chairperson of the western region and executive committee member, and the All India Rubber Industries Association where she served as chairperson of the western region and managing committee member for a large number of years.

Working in a technical industry in a male dominated environment has not daunted Aga. "Being a woman is a distinct advantage as people listen to you more attentively, are more polite and courteous and find it difficult to say no to a woman, so you get better treatment, better prices, better terms and less waiting time,” she told Parsiana in an e-mail response to our questionnaire. With the next generation of her family also now involved in the business, Aga says they must "build on what the first generation has strived so hard to do and inculcate a sense of ownership of the business in all the employees so they are part of your team and take it forward” for the future generation. An alumnus of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Aga has sagacious advice for the budding entrepreneur: "There is no substitute for hard work and personal life must take a back seat when you are starting a new venture. After it takes off and capable managers are in charge, then the first generation entrepreneur can take a breather, but till then it is work 24 hours and seven days a week!”

"Women work wonders”

Jenobia Doctor Driver is a first generation entrepreneur, investor and co-founder of several start-ups in the field of technology based Business Processes. A CRM (customer relationship management) specialist and director of Vision Call Centers, Driver found her calling when she set up in 1993 her own enterprise managed by women, with offices in Bangalore, Bombay, Delhi and Poona. Driver believes firmly in the strength of a woman — her ability to be practical, patient and realistic and evaluate her projects with care. A critical task, Driver told her audience, is to balance home and business so that children are not deprived of tender loving care especially in their formative years. Working in a bank in the early years of her career, the lady courageously branched out on her own with Vision Marketing and Information Services Private Limited, operating initially from home and then moving to a building in Powai where they are still located. Her clients include corporates like Tata Power, Tata Motors, ICICI, Shoppers Stop, etc.

"The ability to nurture new ideas and the strength to bring them to reality is only 10 percent of the job done. Converting these into sustained and expandable processes needs a risk taking ability. Ideas need equity funding and debt or loans are not always a quality option, as loans need a track record that is post launch,” Driver told Parsiana. In India, entering into business is a very difficult task, more so as one’s focus is as much on completing the documentation and legal requirements as it is on building the business, she avers. Risks that are inherent in a service organization include keeping a "hawk’s eye on the financials, but we believed in God and He showed us the path through hard work to success. We were always known as the ‘value-added’ service provider, starting with highly involved credit evaluation and credit point validation and moving onwards to becoming a technology support center for various companies.” The current business climate, she adds, has seen a hardening of rules all around, with no incentives to the businessman to concentrate on providing better, cost effective solutions.

Women entrepreneurs are no different, she believes. "We work and walk shoulder to shoulder in the competitive world. To transform success into exponential growth needs community and equity partners. This unfortunately has no forum or structure,” she states. "My family is my team at work and my folks at home. Support from both sections is equally important. I am blessed with a supportive ‘extended’ family!”

Practice makes perfect

"I was very young when I started. I was often asked ‘How much experience do you have?’ It took me more than a year to break even, especially as I was determined that I would be known as an excellent and caring dentist, and increase my practice by word-of-mouth only and my charitable work at hospitals. I refused to pay commission to doctors for referring me patients,” Dr Arnavaz Havewala narrates to us her early days in the profession. "It was tough but I am happier for that.”

Starting in a polyclinic with restricted timings, Havewala had another doctor coming in later, waiting impatiently for her to vacate the room. "It was so bad that sometimes I would have to send a patient back and call him again to complete the treatment. So the very day the other doctor shifted out, I went to the owner and gave him a cheque for the rent for the full evening’s timings.”

Havewala runs her own dental clinic and works towards the promotion of dental education and dental health among children with her free dental checkups. She told her audience that as a professional entrepreneur she has to earn for everybody and keep her team motivated. "For a woman looking to enter business, I think the situation is much better today than it was in the past. The main challenge is finance as most banks and lending institutions are a little suspect of a woman’s ability to pay back. It’s very easy when you already have a good income, but at the start they are very hesitant,” she narrated to Parsiana, recalling how much paperwork and guarantor’s documents she had to submit before getting a loan for a one lakh rupee dental chair! "And that was when they were hypothecating it to the bank. My brother Hoshang, who has his own ship repair company, signed as my guarantor.” Another major challenge, she declares, is to get well-known in one’s field. One of the pluses is that the children of working women look up to their mothers more, have greater responsibility and may even help to grow the business.

Terms of endearment

Lara Balsara completed her Masters degree in marketing from England and joined Madison when it was an advertising agency with a focus on media and a billing of five billion rupees. From a trainee in 2003 in the creative unit, she progressed to become business diversification executive and director, with the added responsibility of organization building. Customer loyalty comes with customer satisfaction, when the client feels assured that you will go that extra mile. Respect for co-workers, innovation, instilling a sense of ownership contributes to growth, she said at the WE meet.

Madison World today is a diversified communication group, with 23 units across 10 specialized functions — advertising, media, business analytics, out-of-home, public relations, rural, retail, entertainment, mobile and sports, employing over 1,000 communication professionals across cities in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Its clients include giants like Proctor and Gamble, Kraft, ITC, Airtel, Godrej and more. The agency has been nurtured through two decades by Lara’s father Sam Balsara, a legend in the advertising world. No favors were accorded to her; she had to go through the grind. In a brief response sent to us while she was travelling, Lara stated: "Among the many challenges I faced was that I really couldn’t afford to make mistakes. So I had to be very cautious before doing anything. Women entrepreneurs do have an advantage. There are many qualities that women possess, like perceptiveness, intuitiveness, ability to multi task, no ego, all of which go a long way in work and business.” Known to be astute, Lara is soft-spoken, enjoys working out and doing yoga, which she has been practicing for 10 years. "WE is a great initiative and I was really happy to see such a large turnout of women. If you are into business, however, there is no ‘work life balance.’ Your work becomes your life!”

Inner voice

"I started my career with First Union National Bank in the USA, moving from the management training program there into their marketing department. The Bank had identified women entrepreneurs as a niche market and developed loan products specifically for them… Post the Bank, I was hired to set up businesses, which included hiring, coaching and disciplining staff. This was my biggest learning time. When in India, I was having a hard time finding the kind of employment I thought would best use my skills, so I decided to create the opportunity for myself and started KurNiv Success Solutions,” relates Freyaz Shroff. Through hard work and building a good reputation of service and performance, clients referred her and that is how her business grew, she asserts. "Last year I launched the corporate strategy arm of my business. In essence, we go in and analyze different areas of the business that may be causing low revenue returns or low customer retention and I help bridge those gaps. I also do a lot of work for the nonprofit world in strategizing their success… I would also like to launch a section for individuals who may find themselves stuck in their lives, who need a little push or strategy to move forward. I have begun this journey informally, but would like to officially launch this!”

Do not wait for all circumstances to be perfect before you start, they will never be perfect! Shroff advises. "Know this; it will not always be easy. But the satisfaction you will feel as you see your dream come to life will be beyond anything you can imagine! Let the voices within you speak louder than the voices around you at all times!”