Women Entrepreneurs 2020

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020



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T

he conventional stereotypical comments have always been a part and parcel in the lives of every Indian woman professional. Our so-called traditional mindsets have always been at the forefront in ‘curtailing’ the freedom of education, speech, and opportunities for women who aspire to fly high. However, the turning point that saw an end to this practice was Globalization. It came as a boon for Indian woman as it was ‘the’ dominant force that opened the flood-gates for a revolution that created space for equal opportunities in all walks of life. Breaking the shackles of jobs like HR professionals, secretaries, and supportive roles, women are now the torch-bearers of the new-age business world. Today, women are marching ahead and making in-roads to careers that we all have just dreamt of!

The Indian corporate fraternity is not only accepting this change, but is also acknowledging and celebrating the advent of female business leaders in taking the charge at every step. Countless women have already donned the cap of being the ‘C’ level professionals, but we at Insights Success believe that this is just the beginning of a new era. Today, we take huge pride in recognizing the enormous efforts of women leaders who are the trendsetters in leading revolutions in India. Now, as the torch passes to the next generation, we expect a lot more than what has been achieved so far! To honor the contributions of these women leaders, we bring you the special edition – “The 10 Powerful Women Business Leaders”. This issue encompasses a few among the exceptional players who have mastered leadership skills and are shaping the

business fraternity in the best possible way. Uncovering the insightful journey of these leaders, we commence with Ashima Obhan, Partner from Obhan & Associates. Ashima sums up her professional journey as exciting and deeply enriching – at times more exciting than Today, we take huge pride in recognizing the enormous efforts of women leaders who are the trendsetters in leading revolutions in India. Now, as the torch passes to the next generation, we expect a lot more than what has been achieved so far! To honor the contributions of these women leaders, we bring you the special edition – “The 10 Powerful Women Business Leaders”. This issue encompasses a few among the exceptional players who have mastered leadership skills and are shaping the


Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Devasish Kanojiya Executive Editor Darshan, Rahul Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Poonam Mahajan Art & Picture Editor Sapana Shinde Co-designer Shweta Ambilwade Sr. Business Development Manager Megha Mishra Business Development Manager Nandan Deshpande Sr. Business Development Executive Pravin Yalameli Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Specialist Amar Sawant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executives Uma, Atul Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

January, 2020 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Off. No. 22, Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: +91 7410079881/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85 Email: info@insightssuccess.in For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.in

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Inner Power Tips to Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance, for Women, by a Woman

Articles

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CONTENTS

98 Personifying Inspiration Women Entrepreneurs and their Stories of Perseverance and Excellence


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Akta Sehgal Malhotra Founder & Principal Advisor, Manas Management Advisors

Anisha Singh Motwani CEO and Founder, Q.E.D (Quite Easily Done)

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Anjali Tripathi Founding Member, Lex Jura Law Journal

Ankita Goyal Founder and CEO, Ancourage


Anupama and Janani Founders, Paper Paints and Poetry

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Arti Sudhir Nair Founder and Director, Archiipedia

Banu Priya Subramani Author, Public Speaker

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Bharathi Bhaskaran Founder and CEO, PXIA

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CA Vandana Dodhia Founder and Partner, Vandana V. Dodhia & Co.

Chitra Balasubramaniam Author and Founder, Tres'chic Academe

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Deepthi Awasthi Sharma Vice President – Revenue and Growth, Gohoardings.com

Devika Ghogare Founder, Cookie Bites by Durva Gruha Udyog


Dhwani Jain President, SRPM

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Dipti Verma Director, Pulizia Industries

Divya Doraiswamy Founder, Gurukulam

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Dr. Hasini Yadav Director and CEO, New MumzHub and Mathrusakhi Foundation

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Dr. Latha Krishna Event Producer and Manager, Iris Glam and Iris Events

Dr. Pradnya Dole Founder and Gynecologist, Aayu Saar Women Wellness

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Ginee Wadhawan Founder, Daughters are Blessings Foundation & Happy events

Genslin Vinodh Founder, Farm to Home


Gouree Manjarekar Co-founder and CEO, Pankh Handicrafts

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Jaipreet Kaur Lall Founder, HOURI

Juhi Garg Co-founder, ED Times

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Jyoti Chouhan Patent, Design/Copyrights & Trademark Consultant and IPR Mentor at Startup India

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Kesha Nanavati Owner, Sohgaad. The Gifting Brand

Madhura Dixit Keskar YouTuber at Madhura's EVA.

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Maithillee Zaveri

Mamta Negi CEO, NutriMunchy Pradarbha Pvt Limited

Artist


Manisha Bhati CEO and Co-founder, Dreamhunt India

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Neha Mishra Founder and Communications Coach, Neha Talks

Niki Shah Chartered Accountant, Partner at SN & Co.

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Nikita Shah Founer, CAKĂŠify

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Founder and Principal Consultant, CarbonďŹ xers

Prajyoti Chetan Patil Owner and Content Creator, UVA Studios s

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Payal Rastogi

Rakhi Ghosh Founder and Director, Uqrious Academy

Ranjeeta Ashesh Founder, Kshitij...where dreams meet reality


Rashida Dairywala Co-founder and CEO, OTFCoder

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Raveena Sirohia Founder and Director, Poetic Spaces

Ridhima Batra CEO, Global Council

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Rishika Inamdar Founder, OfficeCraft Virtual Assistant

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Sahiba Singh Dhupar Communication Skills Trainer, Image Consultant and Etiquette Coach

Sejal Ray Founder and Social Entrepreneur, Taare Zameen Par

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Shabia Ravi Walia Founder and Owner, Wild Earth

Shampa Saha Founder & CEO, Augment Advertising


Sheetal Arora Co-founder and CEO, SportsThat

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Shruti Agrawal Chief Strategy OďŹƒcer, Innovative Cancer Care and Rehabilitation

Sherene Aftab Founder, CEO, Chief Counsellor and Trainer at SereneHour

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Sonali Chopra Founder and Principal Designer, SI Concepts (OPC) Pvt. Ltd.

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Sweta Sureka Transformational Life Coach, Author

Thaarika S

90 The LiquidFounder, Pearl Breast Milk Jewellery India

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Trishla Challani Founder and Creative Designer, Pinearts Interior Studio

Urvashi Vats Founder, Kasturi Life Coaching Services


Usha Sahoo Founder, Yeh China Education Pvt. Ltd.

Vidita Kamat Owner, Mezclaa

Yogita M. Deshpande Co-founder, Yungmind Design LLP

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

AKTA SEHGAL MALHOTRA - Founder & Principal Advisor, Manas Management Advisors

finances better, we would be able to redefine ourselves 3. What services does your company provides?

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? What makes a great leader or philosophy of efficient leadership? There isn’t one simple answer to that question, as there’s so much that goes into effective or efficient leadership. My philosophy of efficient leadership is: External: 1.Trust your team 2 Empathy towards the team 3.Grow with them 4. Inclusive growth Internal: 1. Admit your mistakes, call a spade is a spade 2. Lead by examples 3. Be passionate 4. Take initiative and be creative 5. Strong integrity 6. Panache 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women, i feel do a great job as entrepreneurs, as they are extremely good in strategy, management and counseling. They are multi-tasking and competent in many areas due to their Home management skills. One area that i would focus on is the Financial empowerment of women and exclusive networking of women to be able to take their entrepreneurship to the next level. The day we make our business successful and at the same time manage our

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Manas Management advisor, is involved in Distribution of financial products like Mutual funds, Fixed Income Products, Risk cover and Financial Literacy mentoring programs. We offer two such Programs 1. Wo – Mentoring on Money Matters 2. Fin – Mentoring on Money Matters Our endeavor is to make as many women financially competent to be able to manage their own investments and break the myth – that investment is a mans world 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Our Vision is – To demystify that financial services are only for the elite and the wealth - Small is beautiful and to empower the youth and women to take their Investment decisions Our core values are Partnership – Your goal is our goal Friendship – Help you assess your priorities and adjust your strategy accordingly Client Centric Integrity 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I would choose to follow my passion. Passion is a feeling of intense enthusiasm towards or compelling desire for someone or something. In the process of following my passion i would be practical so that i am not whimsical and pursue my passion the right way. I am fortunate to dovetail my passion and source of income and hence i am a blend of both. Its the passion that drives me to achieve the goal with Panache and use the most pragmatic ways thru my journey

January 2020|


Anisha Singh Motwani - CEO and Founder, Q.E.D (Quite Easily Done)

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

3. What are the services/solutions/products that your company provides? 1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Efficient leadership is all about empowering and motivating your team. For me personally, I have been blessed to have had seniors who empowered me to take my own decisions at work, applaud me when I did well and help me cover up when I made a wrong decision. So when I started my own company I followed the same principle. A true leader constantly educates, guides and shares the knowledge and learning that she receives with her team. That for me, is the most efficient leadership strategy. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? I wouldn’t. I’m a strong believer that whatever happens and however it happens, happens for a reason. I love the way women have fought against all odds and achieved victories and how today, we have so many more woman entrepreneurs than we’ve ever had. The spirit to fight is what has contributed to so many successful woman entrepreneurs and I think the movement and space they occupy today is beautiful. So I would leave that untouched.

January 2020|

Quite Easily Done (Q.E.D) offers end-to-end digital marketing services that include content strategy and execution, brand consultancy, websites and applications, search engine optimization, video production, influencer outreach, customer relationship management, online reputation management and much more. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Vision – To effectively create brand stories online Core Values – To maintain a healthy work life balance and personal growth for every employee. Believe in doing what is best for the client and their strategy. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I would say follow your passion, but you also need to make a living so if your passion will not be able to do that in the long run then I would advise to be practical but never forget your passion. Some time in the day or week must be spent on pursuing your passion and what you love. I am lucky to be following both currently.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? In a corporate setting, an efficient leader is one who is aware of the needs and wishes of the people working with him/her. He/she shouldn’t consider anyone below him/her and should always foster team spirit. It should be his/her duty to own up for the company affairs and praise everyone for their good work. A good leader should be a friend of the employees, who knows how to mix positive and negative methods of incentives so that the company runs smoothly.

Anjali Tripathi

2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship?

- Founding Member, Lex Jura Law Journal

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Women are those who are experts in handling and management. Working women ensure that they are able to maintain balance between work and home and housewives are no less, they ensure that the house is managed perfectly, which isn’t a small task. Women entrepreneurs are the perfect employees as well as bosses. They know exactly what to do when. She knows how to make things work and how to make people work, she’s empathetic as well as strong making her an expert entrepreneur. 3. Tell us more about Lex Jura Law Journal. My company works as a publishing company. It is a law journal established by a partnership firm Vidhivyedetta, of which I am partner. Being a law student, I felt the need of a change in legal publishing and thus I strive to make an umbrella portal for most of the legal and informatics need of a lawyer and a law student. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? My organization values the struggle and strength of the members of the company. The organization and its members believe in staying like a family and we ensure that come what may, the company is the top priority. The vision of our organization is to spread legal awareness and ensure that we are above the cut, making the access to publishing facilities easy for law students. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? Following my passion sounds very lucrative and trust me, being a part time blogger, I am living my dream. However, being practical doesn’t sound very good but it’s the need of every business enterprise. Rather than choosing any one of them, I’ll make the best efforts to make a blend of the two and ensure that I pursue my passion in a practical manner and that’s exactly what I'm doing with Lex Jura Law Journal.

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

ANKITA

GOYAL - Founder and CEO, Ancourage

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? My view on Leading people not just letting the people under you to work on their own and ask make sure you do that. But train them to make it easy for them so with a set of predefined template to make it easy for all. leading in a friendly way to make people discover themselves. A very common question in corporates, “PS: Can u do this for me make Sure its on time and no mistakes thanks.” Well every task has a, set of steps, like launching a product, writing a post sending a party mail etc. So we prepare a to-do list of all points under it, whether 5, 50 or15, your employee can just tick and do all the steps it will reduce errors better work. The dig. Is a presentation that we do conduct. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women entrepreneurship its increasing but still not promoted. I think we need entrepreneur not a men or women. so basically gender equality. And more skilled people., Celebrate, and respect women. Goal for this year safe environment at home and work for women. Lot of people see women as future, that is great. But the journey will be successful when

January 2020|

women will not be treated as women, but as I quote again “we will have a great future will some great people.” Given value to all, or say less crime, no special ladies quota, equal respect to women players too. If we talk justice, a world beyond crime, and injustice and men i.e. safety, justice and human (men and women). We are in the race of savings environment, animals that is excellent but don't forget women. For now many women need HELP. I see a future of equal talent if women treated equal, where women will not be and issue but power, and its the crime which is the issue. Hope to see a day in gen next may be women and help will be history. Only talent will be talk. 3. What are the services/solutions/products that your company provides? I’m a digital marketer, and promote start ups. Founder and CEO of Ancourage my Co. 1.Supporting startups by providing authentic content and post 2.Helping find them their niche area, customer and run adds 3.Make special add, podcast, video, musical post for them. 4 Writing blogs, blog post for them. 5.Working on website maintenance. 6 Sharing new tools and training them to

use. Provide checklist on customized basis 7.Converting leads into customers. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Our Vision- To increase innovative use of digital marketing, Built a better brand, from startup to a brand. Help clients create meaningful relationships with their audience through connected digital experiences. Not to forget provide customer satisfaction to their clients too. Core valuesTo support customers, our people Stable working culture, sharing opinions .promoting humanity which gives mental satisfaction too. Motivating the work force. Personalized service for clients, working with coordination of their vision. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? Its about my real life experience I have a Passion of creativity of painting in writing so I learnt and its fashion designing for many years. Being practical I didn’t knew how to stitch clothes I was only good at designing so I I discovered something new to continue my passion of creativity and Discover digital marketing now I am able to complete my passion of reading writing as well as creativity. what little I know today because is because I followed my passion to bring into real existence. i.e. to be practical. I’m passionate about my work, a dreamer and be happy share the same spirit with other too. Life is short we are passionate about many things in some we can join hands to the practical accept as well. Knowledge give light to your passion I say. I am also passionate for women justice, so running a Facebook group – Women Crime N Justice. To spread awareness and real help. Passion for me is to do it. What you do is practical.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I believe an effective leader should lead by example. Fostering an environment which inspires trust, confidence and respect towards the management, a feeling of connectedness, is key to employee retention. I would feel recognizing the right fit/skill for the right job and creating an equal opportunity environment, is key for progress of the company. Integrity in action and approach is vital to retain client respect and confidence in the leadership.

- Founder and Director, Archiipedia

Arti Sudhir Nair

2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Social conditioning and biases against women in entrepreneurship have to change. A woman’s natural intuition, care-taking managerial skills and ability to wear many hats at the same time can be an asset to any business..We need women entrepreneurs to be role models, dispelling myths and stereotypes. As a woman I would like to be that woman who helps and mentors other women ,and helps others pursue their dreams and passions.

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3. What is Archiipedia all about? Archiipedia Pvt Ltd owns and operates the online platform archiipedia.com “Archiipedia –connect to create” is an award winning, first of its kind, online listing and advertising platform, for architects, interior designers, professionals, vendors and clients of building construction industry. Archiipedia promotes listed professionals and vendors and takes care of their digital marketing needs. Advertisements can be placed on archiipedia’s homepage, and so also product videos and services 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Archiipedia’s vision is to one day provide a web-presence for every small or medium business owner (related to building construction industry). Archiipedia should be the most loved, trusted and respected platform in India. As an organization we value sincerity and integrity, trustworthiness, client value creation. Archiipedia believes in constantly striving to give the best services in an ethical and transparent manner. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? A lot of your entrepreneurial journey is about being patient and persevering through the tough times...I believe that following ones passion is key to ones happiness and a happy individual will eventually be a successful individual. I would always do what I am passionate about because passion can enthuse me to achieve the impossible and even create practical ways of achieving the same..When one is passionate about what she does or believes, one would strive to do the best.

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Anupama &Janani

- Founders, Paper Paints and Poetry

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? It starts with understanding that a hard worker is not the same as a good leader. Leadership is a quality that comes inherently to some people, but more often than not, it is a skill set that can be developed by working towards it. Leadership stems from having strong technical understanding of the subject, combined with confidence to make and own decisions, and exceptional people management skills. It is a fine art, managing between projects and people, while also getting work done. But the key is to be confident and to take charge, but also to take ownership of every action. At PPP, we believe in recognizing and retaining good talent. Something we have also learnt along this journey, is to master the delicate art of delegation. This is our mantra. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? As two women from two very different walks of life, we strongly believe that Women Entrepreneurship does not require redefining. We recognize ourselves as entrepreneurs. We do not see the need to declare our gender as part of our profession. Women are here, we are making it, and we are no different than ‘non-women’ entrepreneurs. We have the same drive to see our dreams come to life, and we work just as hard, if not more, like the rest of the start-up community. Women Entrepreneurship does not requires redefining. What we need is more avenues to showcase our talent, and more stakeholders to have faith in our ability to drive our company towards success. 3. What is Paper Paints and Poetry all about? PPP is a publishing and artist showcasing platform. We are an artist collective for writers and artists across the globe, hosting their talents and bringing together like minded souls to connect with each other. The goal is to take on more

January 2020|

artists on to our platform and facilitate interaction between artist and customer. We aim to give people a platform to express themselves through words or paint. There are many stories that need to be told, and many voices that need to be heard. PPP is focused on providing a safe place for people to come, express and share their tale, breaking all boundaries. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? There are so many of us walking around with hidden talents, carrying an artist within us, but seldom get the opportunity or the recognition for it. Our platform seeks out such artist and gives them a publishing platform to bridge the gap between art and the masses. We function under the simple vision – to bring together more and more artist from multiple forte under a singular banner and give them the platform to shine. Even before we started PPP, for Janani and me, our core value has always been ‘credit must be given where credit is due’. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? Being practical. As artists ourselves, passion is the univocal force that drives us forward. But passion can also act as the biggest umbrella to cloud our judgments. During our initial days, we started to understand how only being passionate about our craft will not make us a successful business. Ever since, we have had to make some hard calls to get to where we are today. As co-founders, we have each had to define our roles in the company, as good-cop (passionate) and bad-cop (practical), to be to make those hard calls. Following one’s passion is truly important, but one must understand the difference planning and performing. Passion is the core strength of a dream, but it can be fulfilled only through practical decision making.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Banu Priya Subramani Author, Public Speaker 1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? According to me, an Efficient Leader should be an Effective communicator, Lead by example, Optimistic, Open-minded and the one who demonstrates Integrity. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? The professional world of Business is certainly massive today. Women are still struggling to cope up in few roles. On the otherwise we have Indra Nooyi, Chanda Kochhar etc., making their marks on Leadership skills. According to me, redefining women entrepreneurship means: •

Empathise: Set aside the assumption about the world. Have your own goals • Define: Define your goals • Ideate: Find the best way to achieve your goal • Implement: Experiment your solutions for promising results 3. Tell us more about yourself. I am a published Author. Women empowerment and IT stress & depression are my prime focus. 4. What are your vision and core values? My Vision is to research on IT Stress & Depression specific to Indian style of working and implement solutions

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5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I would choose being Practical. Handling the current situation is very important to pursue your passion in future. Example, I love to Dance. In my School days, I was asked only to score marks. Though, I was much passionate about dancing I couldn’t choose. Not even after I became financially independent. Now, when I know I can handle both my profession and passion, I have decided to take up dance classes and could reach certain level.

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Efficient Leadership in any setting, whether in corporate, private, public or industrial, it is all about doing what’s needed at that moment, of the person, in his or her powers. To do what’s needed, one must perceive things as they are, devoid of any emotions and must have clarity (of the situation, people or the need). To have clarity one must possess great insight. To have a great insight, one must be centered, This equilibrium happens, when we can access our core and be present in the now. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? First of all, I don’t see the differences between men and women’s entrepreneurship. To redefine it, we must encourage women to take up challenging fields like construction, manufacturing (car, steel) or get into AI. Eligible, passionate, and driven women leaders with vision must be funded. 3. What solutions does PXIA provide? Right now, we are solving the issue of the right positioning by setting a goal at an early age that is Tweens or preteens, helping them channelize their (opening up) energies in a constructive way. We help them find out their blueprint through psychological, cognitive tools also through transactional analysis. It’s a 72-days program split into 3 major courses. We also do counseling for behavioral issues and conflicts. In the future, we would venture into placements/business solutions

Bharathi Bhaskaran Founder and CEO, PXIA

4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? We would revolutionize the way, education is looked at. Create a revolution in the field of child psychology with case studies and results. Collaborate hugely with private, public, NGOs, Government and MNCs to redefine the placement concept. Our core values are Integrity, Insight, Inclusiveness. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I am a single mother, to a teenager. Though practicality needs its attention, it doesn’t make me insecure. I take calculated risks mostly, sometimes risks worth any cost. Now as my son is independent, I am following my passion. I believe in life and what it has to offer. I also believe in divine timing.

January 2020|

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

CA Vandana Dodhia Founder and Partner, Vandana V. Dodhia & Co.

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Philosophy is a part of our everyday experiences about what we think consciously whereas leadership acts as a guiding principle for behaviour. According to me, leadership means having a vision to which team moves forward to its crucial achievement not by bossing or intimidating the team members by his/her vision but by motivating and inspiring them in order to achieve the desired goals. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship is the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of earning profits and it has to do nothing with gender, it totally depends on a person’s ability and business acumen. The work should speak for itself not the gender of the entrepreneur. Women Entrepreneurship refers to a business environment which is independently owned, controlled and directed under the supervision of a woman from its scratch level to its significant stage not only by gathering and monitoring the

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resources required for running it but also by undertaking overall financial as well as business risk. When women as an entrepreneur holding the position of decision makers tend to have positive outlooks of the situations and embrace the organisation with full force, excellence, energy and enthusiasm as they have this inherent skills set. 3. Tell us more about your firm. We provide one roof solutions by advising on Startup of companies with formation guidance and getting various registration number under different Acts. Our Firm specialises in providing E solutions like E- filing of Income Tax, GST, TDS and ROC Returns up to final Scrutiny Assessment. We provide Book Keeping services on site and off site along with Finalization of accounts. We carry out various type of Audits – Statutory Audit of Banks, Co Operative Housing Society, Private and Public Limited Companies, VAT Audit, Tax Audit, Internal Audit and GST Audit. We impart Corporate Training on effective use of office automisation tools for instance Tally.ERP9.

4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Approach of the firm is to make efforts in the direction of maintaining controls over key risk areas related to different organizations of different Industries and to provide cost effective services. Every client requirement is different, every requirement is special. Hence, we consider providing a positive contribution and value to the clients business. We believe in generating a positive investment climate through the constructive relationships between our people and the clients we serve. Understanding your perspective and offering full circle solutions is what drives the force at our firm. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? Life is a marathon and not a sprint. To achieve our goals and pursue our dreams one should practically follow it and that will turn ones dreams into a reality. In my life I have had always followed my curiosity and it is one of the practical way to find your passion as practicality and being passionate are closely tied knots.

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Chitra Balasubramaniam Author and Founder, Tres’chic Academe

myself who started my own entrepreneurial journey from the scratch despite all the setbacks. I have enabled women entrepreneurs to achieve the same by imparting confidence and believing in themselves, to redefine themselves by having space to differentiate themselves, tell their unique stories, share their unique offerings, embrace their brands, build supportive communities, become thought leaders and grow their businesses. 3. Tell us more about what you do. I am an Image Consultant, Author, Founder of Tres’chic Academe, where we provide signature programs for women to enable them to achieve their passion. Website – www.treschic.in 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Vision – To empower women be a leader in building successful and innovative women-owned enterprises that help strengthen their economy. 1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I believe Leadership has a great role in corporate culture. Every employee impacts an organization’s direction, but leadership has by far the largest and most direct effect on company culture, which revolves around employee engagement, environment, atmosphere and the success of the company and its clients. If an employee identifies with the culture, vision and values of the company they work for, they are more likely to feel satisfied in their work and motivated to succeed. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship?

Core Values-Integrity, Empowerment, Creativity, Innovation, Quality Customer Service, Empower one another. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I recognise the perceived gap between passion and practicality. It’s a gap between where we are today and devising and executing a practical plan to get where we want to be. Pursuing your passion—regardless of how big or small the leap from where you are today—requires crafting a compelling vision, successfully strategising, defining the right tactics, and getting into sustainable action. It is these steps—from vision to action—that put the practical into pursuing your passion.

It is a great time to be a women entrepreneur. As a woman

January 2020|

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1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? We all hate failure, and the very last thing that we want to do in life is to fail. What we don’t realise is that failure is nothing but a step closer to success. Call it destiny, or karma, or fate; everything happens for a reason and nothing is impossible. An efficient leadership in simple words is being a good listener and listen to the team and brainstorming while finding solutions. A great leader is never a boss but a mentor who involve team in decisions for change. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? 1) Break the following of gender stereotyped old traditions of studiesmarriage-job-kids etc. I really wish if women can focus on their dreams and nothing else. Dreams to build a lifestyle on her own terms. To be her own boss, i.e. busy with the sense of freedom. 2) Having kids doesn’t mean that her career is over and her primary duty is to take care of her kids and nothing else. 3) Spending solo time with herself should not be selfish but solitude 4) Leading in career and making herself proud.

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3. What services does Gohoardings.com provide?

Deepthi Awasthi Sharma Vice President – Revenue and Growth, Gohoardings.com

Gohoardings.com: provides plan, book, buy ooh branding online across the globe. Helps users to track online the live work status. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Our vision to create a holistic system that helps a user quickly and efficiently plan, book and manage out of home advertising campaigns across the globe. Core Values: 1) To help users to take right decisions in media planning 2) To obey the commitments made to customers 3) Customer first approach

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I am a great believer of perseverance and will see positive side in everything. I would choose without doubt ‘Passion’.

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Devika Ghogare FOUNDER, COOKIE BITES BY DURVA GRUHA UDYOG

We are into production of confectionery items. Initially started up with pure ghee cookies which includes Nankatayi, Nachni cookies, Coconut cookies, chocolate cookies, Oats cookies.

1. What is your philosophy of Efficient Leadership in a corporate setting? I believe in Open thought process and respect opinions of my team or employees. My thoughts are always on focusing the possible resolutions in tough situations. Being an efficient leader one needs to know the strength and weaknesses of the organization, may it be regarding the employees, roles and responsibilities of every employee, their corporate responsibilities towards the organization, trustworthiness, transparency and many more. One should also know the market structure and scenarios and act upon to meet the needs of every customer out there. Efficient Leadership plays a vital role in growth and progress of the organization and also of the people associated with the organization. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Woman entrepreneurship is buzzing in India with startups springing up. Be an Inspiration to all those woman who you know. Create employment opportunities for women and also start skill improvement courses at no additional charges. Keep the focus on working together and built a great team. Someone great said that this is a process from ‘me to we’. Woman Entrepreneurship is a process of facing challenges, gathering resources, undertaking risks, employing others and managing business independently. Woman Entrepreneurship has a principal of “For woman by woman” 3. Tell us more about Cookie Bites by Durva Gruh Udyog.

January 2020|

Later we started with cakes, cupcakes, muffins and customised occasional cakes. Gradually we also started with breads, puff, pattice, cream rolls, toasts, etc. Additionally started with chocolates with various varieties like wasted almond chocolates, peanut chocolates, paan flavours, pineapple chocolates, Gulkand chocolates, coffee flavour, strawberry chocolate, etc. Today we are into protein powder cookies and Energy Bar for Health Freaks Also into healthy cookies and chocolates made in Jaggery. 4. What are your organisation’s vision and core values? Our mission is to serve the best and promised products come may what. Unlike Disney we work to make people happy and healthy. Passion to serve the quality is a target and to keep the quality up to the mark as promised is always a challenge. We work with vigilance in regards to quality as we do not compromise on the quality. Our vision is to introduce new product, new invention in health sector as and when. And core values for our organization is “Give Best to Gain Best” and focus on responding to challenges rather than reacting. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? A famous idiom says “How do I follow my dreams and still pay my bills?” Thus need to be practical as that is the path to pursue your passion. In today’s era no passion/education is pursed for free. Thus can not follow passion without being practical. Being practical helps to simplify the complicated things. A great soul taught me live life as practical example to others.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Dhwani Jain President, SRPM

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? In any setting a leader is someone who leads by example. She must be able to communicate her ideas effectively and share her vision with the team. A leader inspires her team to innovate, think creatively and strive for perfection. Keeping the team motivated and focused towards the set goal is the most important task of the leader. A leader is ready to accept challenges, think out of box solutions and is a pillar of strength for the team. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? More than anything else, I would like to celebrate woman entrepreneurship. Women are the creators of life, they nurture life but still face challenges due to gender bias of society. However, breaking stereotypes, women are making their mark in every field. As a woman change maker, I would want more women to come into decision making roles and be role models for the younger generation. The ultimate aim should be to blur the distinction between male and female entrepreneurship. 3. What is SRPM all about? 1) Gender Sensitisation trainings and workshops 2) WASH training 3) Prison reforms

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Dhwani Jain President, SRPM 4) Climate Change awareness workshops 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Our vision is to build an inclusive and participatory society wherein every individual lives a life of dignity as an empowered and self reliant entity. We strongly believe in equality of opportunity to every citizen. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I have always followed my passion and often taken the unconventional decisions in my life so far. I believe, if we follow our passion, we are never tired. Our passion keeps us motivated to realise our dreams. Sometimes being practical is an impediment to our journey because the way we choose may not be the easiest. The journey may seem impossible. But, when we are passionate about reaching the destination, we create new paths. This is the secret of my success.

January 2020|



WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Dipti Verma: Director, Pulizia Industries

Dipti Verma Director, Pulizia Industries

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Running a business successfully means having effective leaders who both manage operations and inspire employees to achieve their best results. Effective leaders know how people need to be motivated to change and to create a positive corporate culture. Additionally, effective leaders in a business setting know how to step back and see the bigger picture so they can see and articulate the vision in a way that others know what goals and procedures will be needed to stay vital in the future.

field. It’s a brave new world and it is so important for women entrepreneurs to tell their stories because it takes just one story to change a life. The dual responsibility has helped women to do become work-live-born thinkers and multi-taskers. 3. Tell us more about Pulizia Industries.

2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship?

Pulizia Industries Pvt Ltd. is a company backed up with enormous zeal & enthusiasm to provide cost effective & customized Hygiene & Cleaning Solutions. We manufactures FDA approved Hygiene and Cleaning chemicals and specialized in innovative disinfectants and antibacterial products with non-hazardous features.

It is amazing to see women bringing up the diverse lines of businesses, doing nothing by halves and aspiring other young minds around. From retail industry to tech, I believe women are throwing signs of mastery in every

4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? At Pulizia, we believe that business and society can thrive together. We are guided and motivated by Performance with Purpose: delivering top-tier

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results in a way that sustains and respects business, society and the planet. Pulizia vision is to help in Creating a Healthy & Clean Environment. In core values we function on four pillars which is most important for us i.e. integrity, commitment, respect and excellence. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? The premise of this question is that you can choose between your passion and being ‘practical’, ‘normal’, and playing it ‘safe’. And also that you can avoid risk in your future. There is no way we can eliminate the risk that is always associated with our decisions that consider our future. We don’t know all about the future. People who have a passion don’t weigh the pros and cons of following vs. not following it. They follow it. Always. Passion is just so powerful. So, follow the passion.

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Divya Doraiswamy

Divya Doraiswamy Founder, Gurukulam

Founder, Gurukulam Divya Doraiswamy: Founder, Gurukulam 1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? One of the primary requisites to being a good leader is the ability to teach well because at some strange in life I was in the lowest rung of the corporate world and made my way up only by learning from mistakes. The task of owning up to our mistakes and the willingness to learn – Learning is a Life long process and I learn something new every single day from my kids at GURUKULAM. Also its important to practice what you preach as I firmly believe that leading by example is the best way to lead. Open Communication is very important because that’s the only way by which a message can be conveyed to the team and it empowers every single team member to be at their best. My philosophy in short would be: A very clear mission, a vision and an atmosphere and culture conducive to success. Efficient leadership is all about helping people grow along with you. Its more about team work 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? An extremely confident, creative and capable young woman with exceptional communication skills capable of achieving financial

January 2020|

independence individually, aiming at keeping our traditional roots in place and keeping our kids abreast of cultural knowledge thereby tapping an area left untapped - Shloka Education and also staying in pace with her personal, family and social life. Simply - “Transform your passion into your profession” That’s true Woman Entrepreneurship to me. 3. What is Gurukulam all about? GURUKULAM is the first of its kind Online Shloka School that aims at keeping traditional roots in place and caters to kids across the globe.. In 2014 I started off with 6 kids and today teach about 50 kids across India, USA, UK, CANADA, AUSTRALIA and GERMANY. WE are an ONLINE SCHOOL only. We provide Online Shloka Education to kids across the world. We follow a uniform Curriculum for kids across the world. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? VISION: I started GURUKULAM on 20th Oct 2014. I started with 6 kids and today teach 50 kids across the world. The main aim of the school is to keep traditional roots in place and keep our kids abreast of cultural knowledge thereby tapping an area left untapped SHLOKA EDUCATION. I plan to take GURUKULAM as a Franchisee model in years to come and have also written to the PM's office seeking intervention

so that we can take SHLOKA EDUCATION to kids at the Grass root level -Govt Schools, Blind Schools and Kids with special needs. CORE VALUES: Pursuing excellence: be it in Training and Curriculum formation. Growth through learning: Along with my kids at GURUKULAM, I aim to learn every single day, because learning is a lifelong process Trust: I work to prove that my actions are guided by the best interests of those I serve my children and parents Ethics: At GURUKULAM there is no compromise when it comes to ethical standards. Embrace and Drive change and deliver the best service. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I've transformed my passion into profession because thats where my heart lies. Being with children, working with children has changed my life for the better. I am a better individual, a happy individual, a content individual and I am so happy that GURUKULAM – through Shloka Education has impacted so many young minds and continues to do the same today and every single day. Kids have the power to create magic and they are our future and we need to nurture them for a brighter and more powerful nation.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

3. What are the services/solu ons/products that your company provides? We conduct Workshops, Sessions, Consulta ons, Assessments Events & Coffee/ Support Groups for the same to Educate, Encourage and Create Awareness for Mothers.

DR. HASINI YADAV

Director and CEO, New MumzHub and Mathrusakhi Foundation

Some of Our Unique workshops also include: ◆360°Women ◆Paren ng Quarter’s ◆Decoding Happiness Our program includes: • Mother and Baby sessions • Mumz Workshop. • Mumz me with Preteen daughter • MumzHub Coffee groups–Support groups for Mothers. • MumzHub Mul Specialty Consultancy-With 10+Consultants for every issue of Mother & Child.

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1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? Being a leader means being able to influence and aspire others, to make the best of them. an efficient leader leads others by example when one has a vision and stays commi ed to his/ her goals. To be an effec ve leader, one need to consistently lead based on their values, the organiza on’s values and what is in the best interests of your employees, customers, and community. I believe crea ng a solid personal leadership philosophy will allow you to do all of that and do it well. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women entrepreneurs are fast becoming a force to reckon with in the business world and are not only involved in business for survival but to sa sfy their inner urge of crea vity and to prove their capabili es. Some defining characteris cs i believe that are unique and make them stand out as women are being ambi ous, confidant, open and willing to learn. Women are cost conscious, balance home and work, resourceful and effectual and these are reflected in their success stories too.

4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values? MumzHub was started with an inten on to guide new mothers and allay their fears and expanded to facilitate every issue related to a motherhood including Self-care, Healthcare, Emo onal care and overall Well-being of a Mother. This being a very sensi ve and unexplored field where mothers didn’t know whom to approach and where to get advice mo vated us to enter this enchanted territory and be that helping hand needed for mothers to introspect and provide confiden ality at the same me. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? While I believe having a passion is what keeps one going, at the same me I do not encourage following a passion blindly. One has to balance Passion with being prac cal. To be a successful entrepreneur, do not forget the basics, compare your passion with the market needs – then balance these two with your strengths. Empower yourselves with necessary skills to strengthen your passion to match up the market needs. And most importantly keep doing the process persistently.

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Leader needs to understand the employees fit within the culture and use that awareness to drive positive changes. Efficient Leaders have a powerful influence on an organization's culture & their employees. leaders shape the culture in their words and actions every day. These actions then gain momentum through structures and policies to shape how employees operate. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship?

Dr.

Latha Krishna Event Producer and Manager, Iris Glam and Iris Events

“Women are born multi-taskers with tremendous potential. Due to the pressures of family and professional life, we sometimes tend to lose track of our authentic selves. My own journey has taught me that giving women a platform to showcase their talent is a powerful way to instil them with confidence and leadership skills and this in turn will create a generation of inspiring female role models” 3. What are the services/solutions/products that your company provides? IRIS EVENTS -designing and organizing highly professional, innovative and interactive for the past 20 years. IRIS GLAM is the first program in India which integrates comprehensive training for the glamour industry alongside personality development and communication skills in a fully integrated holistic curriculum with dance, make up, styling, communication skills, personality development, personal branding, nutrition, fitness ramp walking etc. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Mission: To identify, train, nurture and mentor individuals with the objective of equipping them with all the attributes necessary to make successful careers in Modelling/Entertainment. Vision: To create an entirely new paradigm with never before seen levels of professionalism aimed at simplifying and demystifying the business of Model Management. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why?

January 2020|

Dr. Latha Krishna Event Producer and Manager, Iris Glam and Iris Events Passion itself is when you find something that will develop you to be a 'better you' and also give you an excitement when doing your job so you will complain less during the process.While pursuing my Passion i cant be practical always. For example all projects we undertake may not give us the profit and we might end up break even .we have sustained in the inductry for the past 20 years because of my passion for my profession.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Dr.

Pradnya Dole

Founder and Gynecologist, Aayu Saar Women Wellness Dr. Pradnya Dole Founder and Gynecologist, Aayu Saar Women Wellness

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Effective leadership is about believing in what one is doing. Good leaders don’t and will never say, “it’s just a job,” or “I just work here.” They care about what they do, they care about the organization, and they care about the people they lead and work with. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? When women entrepreneurs have the support and opportunities to thrive, the future is transformed. Businesses flourish. Communities prosper. Economies grow. Attitudes shift. For every woman who has discovered the power of being an entrepreneur, so many more are held back: excluded from the knowledge, skills and self-belief an entrepreneur needs, doubted by those around them, or prevented from accessing the credit or resources a business depends on to succeed.

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3. What is Aayu Saar all about? We provide physical as well as mental health consultation to women. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Our vision is Women Health. It’s better to be healthy than getting sick New young generation women need more mental as well as physical stability as they are multi tasking personalities (super women) now a days. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I will choose passion because, being human in nature, we can be practical all the time but yes our passion can bring us success.

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Ginee Wadhawan Founder, Daughters are Blessings Foundation & Happy events

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? We believe to have set of beliefs and principles. An understanding of your values, priori es, approach to decision making, and what you expect from yourself and others. Your core values as a company are what set you apart. These core values become the business philosophy that your team experiences. When you integrate your values into the business philosophy, your values become part of the company culture. A company that has a posi ve culture, tends to be more efficient and produc ve. I further feel an efficient leadership also revolves round having good leadership quali es like, Ability to Influence Others, Transparency to an Extent, Encourage Risk-Taking and Innova on Integrity 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? We solely believe a women has a power to move mountains, at work woman entrepreneurship is all about equality. When a woman moves, the na on moves ahead. When women entrepreneurs have the support and opportuni es to thrive, the future is transformed. Businesses flourish. Communi es prosper. Economies grow. A tudes shi . There is now what we call a ‘quantum leap’ in women’s economic empowerment, and women’s entrepreneurship is a vital part of that change. It is an effec ve way for women to enjoy decent work. As 2018 has been tagged the year of the woman we take a closer look at the challenges faced by women. Lot of movements also had taken place one of them was “MeToo” women con nue to make notable advances in business and the entrepreneurial terrain 3. What are the services/solu ons/products that your company provides? Daughters are Blessings Founda on works towards save the girl child. Our social media page has 5.5 lakh people globally who help and mo vate each other at all mes. So we try to make them self independent in every possible way. Ensuring that they have equal par cipa on in decision making, whether it’s in the family or at the community level. Providing economic independence to women. Bridging the gap between the rural and urban world has always on our priority list

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1. Draw people to common work 2. Give hope for a be er future 3. Inspire community members to realize their dreams through posi ve, effec ve ac on 4. Every girl child should know it’s worth because she is a blessings to the world. 4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values? Giving us leads to meet people in outskirts. Help us know their needs and what resources they need so we can join hands with people who are interested and work towards it. Contribute their part in whichever way to promote girl child, educate them, empower them, manage their basic needs towards it. We want to help in the development of young personali es. Young children are faced with such adversi es now. We want to help children find the right direc on and pursue life in posi ve ways. We help, women microentrepreneurs involved in small-scale informal work who may be vulnerable to poverty or exploita on. Also, young women and adolescent girls who are aspiring entrepreneurs or need increased economic opportuni es. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? Our mantra – Do more what makes you happy everything else follows. The idea of having a passion for something is empowering. When you follow your passion in life, you're happier overall. You're more sated with yourself and the decisions that you make, and not weighed down by the common stressors that come along with not doing what you love. Overall, you feel more upli ed and have a far greater piece of mind. there were so many reasons to want to follow your passion in life. Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Life is too short It gives you a sense of purpose You’ll be happier It won’t feel like work to you Your dreams will manifest into reality You naturally become more persistent It will help to build character You will realize that the ming was never perfect in the past

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Genslin Vinodh

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting?

Leadership is, at its core, the ability to map out the best route to success. It can be with a team or a company, but it is always dynamic, inspiring and designed to excite others into action. Running a business successfully means being an effective leader who can both manage operations and inspire employees to achieve their best results. Effective leaders know how people need to be motivated to change and to create a positive working environment. When you’re aiming for the top, you need to set your bar high. Take the time to determine who you are, your values and priorities. Be bold, stand upright and speak out your thoughts. Your performance as a leader must inspire, motivate, and bring out the best of people around. A great leader posses a clear vision, is courageous, has integrity, honesty, humility and clear focus. I strongly believe that leaders should be true to their character. They should be committed to doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason. When people know wholeheartedly that the person leading them will always do what they say, they in turn will work tirelessly to help the leader achieve a goal. To put it more simple, leadership is the ability to take control of any situation and guide people around us in a positive way to stay motivated to do their best work. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Being an entrepreneur is a tough journey and being a woman entrepreneur adds another layer of complexity due to the additional responsibilities a women has to handle. Women entrepreneurship is all about striking a balance between your business and home. It's common to lose focus while we strive to strike a balance between work and family, but what ultimately matters is our ability to bounce back and stay focused on achieving our goal. The perks of being a women entrepreneur is the financial independence which puts in loads of self confidence and self esteem in you. Today more and more women have started chasing the entrepreneurial dream and are succeeding in their ventures. This is empowering other Indian women who are still

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Founder, Farm to Home

confined to the traditional homemaker role to think for themselves. Women entrepreneurship is steadily increasing and businesses run by women has started lending voices to the world of entrepreneurship. Women have started achieving in ways that surprise even themselves and realize that their stories are worth telling as well as being listened to. And that’s the thing about women – we adapt. We work, we’re moms, we’re homemakers, we’re bosses; we can be all these things. I always believe Empowered women empower the society. All you have to do is to identify a skill that can be converted into a home based or an online opportunity, Put your heart and soul into whatever you do, Believe in yourself and sky is the limit - Up, up and beyond you go :) 3. What is Farm To Home all about?

Farm To Home - A Mom's Promise is a Homebased Organic Food Brand, serving 10,000+ happy customers across India and overseas. We started with a very few homemade food products and today right after 1 year and 10 months since our inception we are proud makers of 180+ homemade products out of which every single product has been a super hit among our clients. We deal with a wide variety of tasty, healthy, hygienic and nutritious organic foods like Baby Porridges, Instant health drinks, Millet noodles, Millet cookies, healthy laddus, millet snacks, natural Sweeteners, honey based products, organic beverages, immunity boosters, herbal powders and many more - carefully curated for Babies to people of all age groups. We have dedicated variants for Babies, Toddlers, Pregnant Moms, Lactating moms, Diabetics, elderly people and many more. We at Farm To Home, have tried to give a modern avatar to the age old recipes with a healthy twist. I love creating new combinations and experimenting with food without compromising on the food legacy and all our recipes are self learnt from lot of trial and error methods and we have taken special care to keep the taste, the aromatic flavour and the nutritional value of our products intact without adding any kind of food additives. We also make no use of machinery to ensure that our supplies are handmade. So, the main idea of providing

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Genslin Vinodh Founder, Farm to Home

handcrafted food products is to capture the essence of home made food which is prepared by our mothers with great love and affection in a completely hygienic atmosphere using pure ingredients that are free from adulteration. Our products are prepared using the choicest ingredients that are handpicked so as to maintain an excellent quality.

a leading brand in the field of nutrition with a great social cause. Our core value is, We value and respect everyone who comes through our doors, be they our clients or our staff. We consider their experience with us and their well being as our highest priority.

4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? FARM To HOME - A Mom's Promise - didn’t begin with the aim of expanding, or building a company, or even moving it out of my own kitchen. It began with the simple desire to help my family eat better by cutting off the processed foods that was taking over our shelves and replace them with ingredients I knew and trusted. And gradually things changed when my hubby came up with an idea of Farm To Home and from then I found myself navigating new spaces, growing in ways I hadn’t imagined or foreseen. And today with all our efforts and hard work I'm very happy that we are growing consistently with a strong customer base every single day. Our vision is to see ourselves to be amongst the leading brands in the field of health and nutrition and to be present in every house and become the first choice of health conscious consumers looking out for a healthy yet an utterly delicious treat. When I say to become the leading brand, it is not only concerned with capturing the market so as to make good money. Making money is great and important too, I would not deny that, but in the process how many are we truly able to help is what counts. My venture, therefore, works as a catalyst to help the millions out there struggling with health problems who could consume our products which are healthy and nutritious. Creating millions is a great feeling but helping millions is a state of complete bliss. Working upon this policy, we want to leave a mark as

January 2020|

5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? For me it's my passion rather than being practical. When you are fueled by that inner-fire called passion you will never run out of motivation or inspiration. I think probably one of the main factors on deciding whether to pursue passion or practicality would be one’s financial security. Unfortunately, it would be very hard to pursue passion over money if it’s a struggle to keep our finances afloat. The sad truth is that privilege plays a huge part in our decision-making. Pursuing your passion would be a great piece of advice for some people, but not for everyone. I’m lucky to have my hubby who has always given me the privilege of following my passion and I chose to use this privilege for good. I can very well say that Farm To Home is a Mom's tale of passion and grit.The idea of having a passion for something is empowering. We all want to find a career one day that will have us jumping out of bed in the morning, excited to get to work. That's one sole reason why I'm holding my passion tight. We may need to fight a lot to make people around us to understand our passion, but at the end of the day it's all worth it when we follow something our heart loves to do.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Gouree Manjarekar Co-founder and CEO, Pankh Handicrafts

2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? The world is changing at a great pace, things aren’t the same as compared to a decade back. Women are emerging out from the shells and growing . But s ll the ra o of women entrepreneurs is quiet less. We need more programs to train women to build their skills up enough to give them confidence of star ng their own business. What we need to change is mindset and not just policies. Incredible things are bound to happen when women support women . 3. What is ‘Pankh’ all about? We fabricate eco-friendly products at pankh which includes corporate gi s, Reusable sanitary pads, jute files, corporate/school uniforms, reusable bags. Apart from the products we have dona on drives for underprivileged children which include happy school Kits – school kits which include bags, sta onary, mats, napkins are distributed winter drive jackets — distribu on of free winter jackets blankets of love — free blankets, Happy periods – Free reusable sanitary pads are distributed 4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values?

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a Leader, Success is all about growing others. For efficient leadership in corporate se ng or life in general , you can succeed when your core values are good enough. I believe that we must build genuine rela onships with Clients and more importantly the working force of our company. We need to establish a culture of trust.

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“Pankh Handicra s”, aims to educate, employ and empower the less fortunate rural women. At pankh, we provide unskilled women valuable and relevant skills and a pla orm to apply these skills, thereby enabling them to have a sustainable source of income and a means to financial independence. Our Vision at Pankh is to provide “Pankh” or wings to the needy, to help them grow, develop and “fly” in life. A part of the profit made at Pankh is put back into the society through various dona ons. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? I have always followed my passion. Inspite of having a bright career op on in IT, I quit my job and choose to se le down in a small place called chikodi and work for the upli ment of rural women. Because I believe that if you work where your passion is, success will follow no ma er how hard the road is!

January 2020|


1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? An efficient and effec ve ‘LEADER’ would be the one who empowers people (instead of domina ng) to do what they would not have imagined possible. The more you empower people; the more you help them and your surroundings to grow. And ‘growth’ is essen al every day/ every hour as an individual; affec ng the en re globe.

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Jaipreet Kaur Lall Founder, HOURI

2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Woman Entrepreneurship, I would define as more power to the Woman. But most of the me things hold them back. Like almost half (48%) of the woman entrepreneurs lack mentors or advisors. Mentorship and educa on to be provided to Women; not just in their preliminary stages but throughout their careers. 3. What is HOURI all about? Houri offers a wide range of woman apparels like jackets, dresses, tops, and accessories! (Both everyday and occasion wears). Each product is inspired by the everyday nature and art catering to the working woman of today, and produced responsibly. Just like you and me would wear it! 4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values? VISION: Our vision is to build a place where people can come to find and discover beau ful fashion they need to buy, and to build it with earth and not against the earth. VALUES: Leadership & Ownership, Trust, Passion, Compassion, Personal responsibili es, Sustainability, Customer-centric, Commitment, Result oriented, Time is the most valuable 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? I believe in doing it with Passion or not at all. It is also one of our companies core values. Passion drives one to complete the task and succeed. If you love your work and have passion for it, you never work a single day in your life. It is one of the strongest aspect to succeed.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Juhi Garg Co-founder, ED Times

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? Leaders who make others win, who bring out the best in their team, who can develop a team and take them upwards, who can understand their shortcomings and work with them to help them deliver despite their weaknesses, are true leaders. Acquiring excellent human resources and then performing well is something that anybody can do, but a true leader is one who even if given a mediocre pool of resources, can bring excep onal results for the organisa on as well as for them. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? I would urge women entrepreneurs to look beyond the clu ered markets of fashion, beauty and food, and use their outstanding skills to solve some real problems in India. I would also love to see economic success of women founded startups, big enough to compete with anyone in their industry. 3. Tell us about your blog and its mo ve. Ranked as one of the #Top10 Youth Blogs worldwide* (for the second year in a row), awarded the BEST BLOG at India Digital Summit Awards 2019 by IAMAI and Times Now, ED is a generalist youth media publica on with a team of bloggers trying to do smart stories with wit & wisdom. It’s where Indian Millennials comment on news and stories around them, an opinions place by and for really young people. We believe in crea ng responsible content and a empt at changing reading habits of young India. 4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values?

changing reading habits of young India. Paid media, sensa onal press, frivolous content, non-change driven stories are flooding the internet, which sa ates the need for entertainment but does not add value to the intellect. Most of the content that is available today is extreme, be it sensa onal/click baity or viral or biased or too technical and serious. This presses the need for SMART & ENGAGING content for the youth, which would help them form informed opinions on things that ma ers. And this is again cri cal as the youth is more connected today than ever in issues that ma er to them as well to the community at large. ED a empts to serve this need of intelligent content coupled with the millennial approach. We strongly believe that if serious issues are presented in a wi y format, then millennials can be made to change their content consump on habits to something mindful, thus making the society an informed one, bea ng the popular herd mentality and dangers of half knowledge and fake news. ED’s team of bloggers are from the exact age group as the target audience and share similar needs, aspira ons, likes, and dislikes as their readers. They are probably ideally placed to understand the genera on of millennials and how best to cater them. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? I would like to strike a balance between the two. Passion without prac cality is a li le too adventurous for me, an unsure path. And only being prac cal will lead to a very quick burn out. It’s not always very easy to find the perfect mix of the two, but if your passion can be made prac cal, I feel you already have a winner there.

We believe in crea ng responsible content and a empt at

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January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Joi

Cahn

Patent, Design/Copyrights & Trademark Consultant and IPR Mentor at Startup India

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? Suppor ve: If you’re approachable and empathe c, then you’re probably a suppor ve leader. You show concern for employees, and you treat them with dignity and respect. Your employees, in turn, feel valued and cared for. In mes of change, they trust you to help them manage uncertainty. Par cipa ve: If you’re someone who works hard for buy-in by solici ng employee input, then you’re most definitely a par cipa ve leader. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women entrepreneurship is the process where women organise all the factors of produc on, undertake risks, and provide employment to others.

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The defini on of women entrepreneurship has never been differen ated on the basis of sex and hence could be extended to women entrepreneurs without any restric ons 3. What solu ons do you provide as a consultant? Knowledge Processing Outsourcing(KPO), IPR support, R&D and innova on support, Patent searching, Patent filing, Patent prosecu on, dra responses to Office ac on, A ending Hearing, Trademarks, Design, Copyrights Infringement analysis, Landscaping, Freedom to operate, patent dra ing, Docke ng, Complete IPR por olio management 4. What are your vision and core values?

the knowledge economy, by a rac ng and nurturing the best global talent. Our commitment to capitalize our deep industry knowledge, adop ng innova on rapidly, and state-of-the-art technology based solu ons differen ate us from our compe tors. Our aim is to redefine the research support services by bringing in the client centricity back in focus by listening to our clients and tailor making the solu ons. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? My passion is work. I will be choosing work and some mes being prac cal in life situa ons. It depends on situa on to situa on.

To be the most innova ve and preferred solu ons partner, serving

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WOMEN

.......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... ..........................

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

.......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... ..........................

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? The Philosophy of efficient leadership in Corporate se ngs is nothing more then understanding the needs of the customer and their spending capacity behind a product and specifically the product in which the corporate is working. First of everything you need to understand the current/prevailing economic scenario when and where you want to have your business. It is more important to know the spending power of the customer in order increase your sales/services of your business. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women are Gi ed with lot of skills. Star ng from cooking to adjus ng herself in different city/town a er marriage. Some work and some have their house to run by them. Why can’t we look the hidden skills and develop them in order to support them.

Kesha Nanavati Owner, Sohgaad. The Gifting Brand 3. Give them pla orm to perform her best. 4. Accordingly arrange for those resources to assist them. 3. What are the services/solu ons/products that your company provides? I am entrepreneur in Gi ing Industry. I work in Gi ing Business since 2 years. I work in Gi Ar cles, Gi Wrapping and personalisa on of products.

For which core values play an important role. Core values with which I work are: To develop with everyone not only reasonable profits and to help everyone in their work. Support everyone by recommend their brand; and Growth /Growing together. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why?

Given the chance to redefine women entrepreneurship I would do the following steps:

4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values?

I would choose my Passion and together be prac cal with it. We should to touch the Sky but We need to be connected with the Ground.

1. Look for hidden skills 2. Analyse them and develop them

We need the mission and Vision to reach somewhere in the market.

Being prac cal is mandatory with choosing Passion

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

YouTuber at Madhura’s EVA.

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? A true leader is one who takes the responsibility of well-being and all round development of his teammates. One who understands the value of hardwork and compassion. One who focouses on the mental health of team so that in turn would result in greater produc vity and create an environment where there is no ME its WE!!! 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? I have and will con nue to focus on mental well-being of women. Its important to understand that this is the strengthening of roots. The innate quality of a women is nurturing, and she does that January 2020|

beau fully to her business. That leads to the most inspiring, powerful and trusted entrepreneurship. 3. What is your channel all about? My Marathi YouTube channel focuses on Mental well being of women. I have always believed that a women play a crucial role in building a society. If her mental and emo onal health is taken care.. she in turn would contribute in crea ng a healthy and happy family. This is the change that I am trying to create through my videos. My videos have impacted the mindsets of women and helping them to transform from within, Crea ng healthy mindsets!

well-being of Women. Helping women to understand their own worth, boos ng their self confidence, no ma er if they are a homemaker or a working individual. A Women empowered is a family empowered! 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? I believe passion should be used for contribu ng to the society because there lies the true happiness and fulfillment. Passion gives me a sense of pride and joy when I get feedback from people that my work has helped them to create change in their lives. What else could be the true giving back to the society, that only Passion could make it happen!

4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values? Women empowerment, Mental 55


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Maithillee Zaveri Artist

fraternity or business. Many even today, run their husband's businesses when they are no longer alive. As women enter the workforce in evergreater numbers, they gain professional experience, and managerial skills, both necessary to be successful entrepreneurs. The disparity in the salaries and wages that women earn as compared to men on average has been a factor in mo va ng some women to decide to establish their own businesses. 3. What do you do as an independent ar st?

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? Efficient leadership quali es should not only include in a corporate office, but anywhere else too. To run any business, as a CEO/managing Director/Director, I believe its important to know about who you are as an individual, the ability to understand your own strengths and weaknesses. I also believe to be a quick decision maker, able to take risks and challenges, commi ed and dedicated to complete a task, willing to experiment and learn new things, knowledgeable and Enthusias c. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Flexibility is one of the factors in many women’s decision to start a business. Woman Entrepreneurship is o en seen as an ideal way to juggle the compe ng demands of career and family. Not many woman entrepreneurs get no ced in their

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My company provides various crea ve services for various clients across the globe. They include the following: 1) Commission works – An image given via messages or personally to the ar st to paint it exactly the way it is. This also gives them the freedom to chose their required size, medium and material they would wish to get it made on/with ( material and medium). 2) Giving them Vastu ps as to what kind of pain ngs would suit their home/office 3) styling their office/walls as per their preference or giving them sugges ons by closing working with interior designers 4) selling artworks through private collec ons and through art exhibi ons 4. What are yours vision and core values? As an ar st, I visualize my environment & perspec ves ar s cally. As most of my works depict landscapes with waterfalls and architectures, I believe in crea ng peaceful artworks as it

would help relax anyone who would view it ar s cally. I use bright vibrant colors which make me happy. My architectures, are mainly of Rajasthan made in black + white using mixed media. Black + White is an interpreta on of reality and they flourish even today. They take a en on away from the texture, tonal contrast, shape, form and ligh ng effects with a touch of a color as well. Hence, I try to capture the intricacies as closely as possible while making my works live from the spot and, filling in the shades by carefully visualizing them in black + white. Value is the lightness or darkness of a color or hue. Believe it or not, value is more important than color to the design and success of a pain ng. Use value to create a focal point within a pain ng or drawing. The human eye is immediately drawn to a light element against a dark element. This creates the focal point of interest. I can use “low-key” or “high-key” values to achieve drama cally different results. Today, many successful ar sts believe in keeping a narrow value scale — limi ng their composi on to approximately four values. In this case, it seems, less is more. Fewer values help to create a cohesive and harmonious work. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? I would choose both because when you chose following a passion, one does tend to become prac cal as well. A passion could turn into a business than just a hobby which could eventually develop prac cality.

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WOMEN

CEO, NutriMunchy Pradarbha Pvt Limited

Mamta Negi

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? Efficient Leader adopt a holis c and pragma c approach in corporate se ngs. All the stakeholders be it employees, customer or channel partners should feel inclusive in the decision making. The corner stone of success lies in profit making and sharing in a sustainable manner. The vision of leader should be well percolated in each individual. Confidence to stand alone, empathe c to people, make tough decision, egalitarian approach and integrity of ac ons should be the founda on 2. Given the chance, how would MMJanuary 2019 | 2020|

and healthily. Our healthy snacks comprise of the goodness of assorted vegetables such as carrot, beetroot, spinach and quinoa without any chemicals & preserva ves and are glutenfree. We believe in Healthy Crunchy Nutri onal Munching to sa sfy your un mely midmeal hunger pangs, whether in between mee ngs, while traveling, while watching your favorite show, while late-night studies for that exam, cha ng with friends. 4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values?

you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Entrepreneur needs to have a balanced approach which is inherent in every woman. In each sphere of life they play a key role in shaping individual, family country or entrepreneurship at large. The path of every entrepreneur is different. There is no said formula for endurance, team management, raising funds, consumer sen ments so all the aspects should be well taken care of 3. What are the services/solu ons/products that your company provides? NutriMunchy is your true friend when it comes to snacking smartly

The visualiza on is that without compromising on either the health or taste every age group from 1.5 years to 96 years can enjoy the products to sa ate the hunger pangs. Our products possess the following features: High quality Ingredients, No added preserva ves, Zero Tran’s fat, No ar ficial colors and flavors, Gluten Free, Super Foods, Baked and not fried, No added MSG, Cholesterol Free which we shall adhere to always. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? For every entrepreneur there passion is what they would like to see actualizing in the prac cal world. So a li le added every day is to achieve the passion and turn it into a reality. 57


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Manisha Bhati

CEO and Co-founder, Dreamhunt India

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? I feel a leader is someone who can address every business aspect on the face value. She/he has to be fierce and bold. No bullshit. To the point. And at the same me, leader has to be empathe c as well. When you blend fierceness with empathy you have a recipe for a magnificent leadership. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship?

confidence is the way forward.

business ready.

3. What solu ons does Dreamhunt provide?

Values – We believe in providing ul mate services for individuals in developing their mental growth. We enhance their confidence and help them in reaching their highest poten al.

We are into training and development services. We specializes into, • • • • •

For me, the fastest way to redefine woman entrepreneurship is by ins lling an unshakable and indestruc ble confidence in woman. Everyone knows, entrepreneurship is no child's play. The journey is hard and rough and to tackle the same you have to develop a thick skin. And

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Engineering confidence in Woman. Provide public speaking training. Provide coaching, counseling and training services. Provide campus to corporate training. Provide services in form of, Anchor, host, Keynote speaker, trainer.

4. What are your organiza on’s vision and core values? Vision – Our vision is to Revolu onize woman's lives by making them

5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? Being passionate means chasing your dreams and being prac cal means coun ng the steps. We have to be prac cally passionate in what we do. Because either you’re moving towards your goal or just dri ing away from it. But if I ever have to choose only one, I will choose passion over prac cality. Because, passion is fuel we need to move on, without that we just feel we are going somewhere but we aren’t in actuality.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Neha Mishra Founder and Communications Coach,Neha Talks

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate se ng? “My opportunity is our opportunity”, “My success is our success”; when a leader thinks, speaks & inculcates the thought process of collabora on over compe on within their teams is when they are working in the direc on of Effec ve Leadership. When I conduct training sessions with leading corporate houses, some recurring topics are conflict management, team collabora on & effec ve communica on, and one thing that I stress upon each me is that team members should not forget that compe on is short lived, you should observe and learn from your compe tor and then be crea ve enough to collaborate with them which can bring out team's best strengths to play. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women are very intui ve and they believe in building genuine rela onships wherever they are. And these are the quali es which I would never bargain for anything because this is a special gi to women especially when they don many hats. I feel that today's women entrepreneurs need to be more courageous w.r.t taking risks in business, or strong decisions and be asser ve towards them. To do this, they must be able to speak up about the things that truly ma er and be asser ve about what they need and want from and for their team for achieving the goals of the organiza on. Today's women entrepreneurs do not shy away from the hustle that comes along with entrepreneurship. 3. Tell us more about Neha Talks. Determined to lead an environment of constant learning, ‘Neha Talks’ is an enterprise into personal coaching, training and development with leading clients in Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi. Training at Neha Talks is designed & delivered a er a thorough understanding and assessment derived from Training Need Analysis. We work our best in areas of so skills and func onal skill development aimed towards building emerging leaders. Some of our most recognized training programs are into Conflict Management, Crisis Management, New Manager

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Development Program, Nuero Linguis cs Programming workshops, effec ve communica on skills & team building workshops. We would with corporate houses, educa onal ins tu ons and also conduct one to one personal coaching sessions for individuals on self development. 4. What are your vision and core values? Led by Ms. Neha Mishra with a team of senior talents who come from diverse experience of working within leadership wings of organiza ons over years realized a need for developing a culture within organiza ons that is driven by the self iden fied and expressed need of an individual instead of a mandatory learning a endance approach. Hence ‘Neha Talks’ adopted a constant and con nued approach towards desired sustainable change through new mediums of learning in the likes of personal coaching assignments, customized individual and group training, focused group workshops leading measurable results, prac cal working sessions, companionship. Our vision is to empower individuals to help them become their best versions by accep ng the journey that comes along with it. Our core values are persistence, gra tude, empathy & growth. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being prac cal? Why? Wow! Feels nice to answer this question for myself because most of the time I am busy coaching my clients to bridge this gap between pursuing passion & paying bills. For me, it boils down to realizing my motivation triggers, because at the end of the day my performance suffers if I am not motivated & I cannot pursue it for long. Fortunately I am multi-directional, and the best thing I know is to balance these unique combination of talents without leaving the practicality of what they say ‘Money Talks'. Like how Maslow’s Need Hierarchy illustrates that once the basics have been taken care of, focus on creating a plan for your life that will maximize your feeling of purpose and serve your passion. Till then, continue multi facets of your ever growing personality because why choose when you can visualize success & happiness on a higher pedestal.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Niki Shah

Chartered Accountant, Partner at SN & Co. business. 3. What are the services/solutions/products that your company provides? Being a Chartered Accountant by profession and a passionate entrepreneur myself I bring a unique combination of macro business acumen with micro implementation strategies. I specialize in developing and executing workable and sustainable business model. Evaluating and extracting maximum potential of a product/service is one of my core skills by helping entrepreneurs in – 1. Business Strategy development & implementation 2. Virtual CFO services, 3. Valuations 4. Financial Modelling, FEMA advisor 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values?

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Leader is a person who drives a company’s growth to next level, it is his vision for the company and its employees that gives the business required force, energy and fuel to go on. I believe the ability of the leader to effectively transfer his vision to his employees is the test of his efficiency. It is impossible for any business to grow unless the entire team which includes the top level management and the ground level staff lives the same dreams and follows the same philosophy. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Woman are born entrepreneur’s, they have been weaving magic around their homes, kids and families. Now they are also weaving magic in

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We are on mission to help each entrepreneur achieve its max potential because that is the state wherein he/she is the most happy and satisfied. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I believe there is no single answer for it as it completely depends upon case to case. But yes I believe a person is not living to its fullest unless it is following its Passion. And life becomes bliss and boon when ones passion is its Profession. Hence, I believe everyone should walk the journey of converting Passion 2 Profession, which will dilute the conflicts between passion and practical.

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Nik a Shah

Founer, CAKéify

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Its very simple! ‘BE YOURSELF’ I believe, a perfect blend of HARDWORK, LEARNING and confidence makes you an efficient leader where you are proud of being a the BEST EXAMPLE TO EVERYONE! 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? For me, raising other women is women entrepreneurship! Letting them believe that they have superficial creative brains and strengths and can rise like sun everyday in spite of clouds around! 3. Tell us more about CAKéify. We Customize Extraordinary CAKES with super quality INGREDIENTS! We customize acccording to requirement and UNWRAP a SMILE on ones FACE! WE also teach all kind of bakes in our studio! 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values?

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

OUR vision is to provide best of our product with exceptional design in a healthy way and capture best of opportunities and make them happen successfully! our core values are undoubtedly hardwork, perseverance and sacrifice! 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? Both are factors are MUST! when you are following your PASSION (the love of what you are doing) have to be followed by being a practical persona so that you conquer world with ease!

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Payal Rastogi

Founder and Principal Consultant, Carbonfixers

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

need to focus on men who need to manage lot of empowered women to not get intimidated and support the cause. Talent will always prove its metal. 3. Tell us more about Carbonfixers. Carbonfixers is in the business of climate change. Its consulting firm which makes businesses and infrastructure Climate Resilient and Sustainable through Strategies, Technology Aggregation and Resource Efficiency. We focus on old buildings and infrastructure that needs to be overhauled to match with new technologies and smart cities. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? 1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Efficient Leadership is about improving skills sets of your team, managing process excellences and delighting customer expectations. We always prefer to deliver more than expected and delight all the parties involved. I like to deliver extraordinary project performances. I have done that a lot in the past. I never over promise or give fake promises to the team and clients. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? I don’t want to re-define woman entrepreneurship at all. Its a personal choice of a person. I am not a feminist but i do believe in equal opportunity. If a person, irrespective of a man or woman, wants to do something in life that is a bit different, they should be allowed to do that. Yes, in present scenario women are judged at work and at home. We also

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Our vision is to be a global leader in what we do. We have still a lot to innovate and design solutions to suit the environment. Everything we do will have the environment and climate at its core. We want to deliver extraordinary solutions and solve basic problems of infrastructure and finance in the future. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I am following my passion and yet being practical. You need to be practical to earn money if you are a passionate person. Passion alone does not bring success. Passion is a drive and does wakes you up every morning. Practical Approach may help you achieve the results. Ultimately what I have realised in last 23 years of experience, all businesses run on very basic business rules whatever your passion is. I have learned to balance both approaches in all these years.

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Prajyoti Chetan Patil

Owner and Content Creator, UVA Studios

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? The society engages and learns through the mode of communication. The creation of content thus becomes paramount in the endeavor of companies to reach out to their target audience. The more meaningful the content, the higher the chances of customer acquisition and retention. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? “Knowing that things could be worse should not stop us from trying to make them better.” - Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook CEO, Author. I always follows this quote. There’s nothing more empowering than a business woman in a high position that would traditionally belong to a male. Time passes by, more and more women entrepreneurs start rising and the opportunities available for all women keep appearing at higher and higher rates. Each woman have the ability, just keep eye on them and stand for yourself. 3. Tell us more about UVA Studios. We have been working in the fields of design and animation for more than 15 years. UVA Studios has a team of

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enthusiastic artists who are united in their vision to provide creative solutions via the medium of design and animation for all industries. We take on even the most daunting of challenges. Some of our work has been utilised for activities ranging from marketing, branding and creating digital training material for staff and students. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? With a big business dream of moving the hearts and minds of people worldwide, UVA Studios is steadily working towards creating a global footprint with its studio. With “Content that Connects” 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I believe, if you have a passion naturally it's being a practical because without practical passion won't work.

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

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1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? My philosophy has always been, “Believe in yourself and your idea, don’t get carried away by others view”. For me treating someone well and respecting the one has always been important, being a leader or one whom people look up to, I always ensure they are treated the way I want myself to be treated by others. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? In my point of view, woman entrepreneurship is not only about showing gender equality but being a face to all the women out there and letting them know, what more opportunities as a woman they hold, to unveil them, to conquer, to be inspiration of another woman, to be role model of another woman most importantly to be a helping hand to another woman. 3. What is Uqrious academy all about?

Rakhi

Ghosh

Founder and Director, Uqrious Academy

Uqrious Group is in Education and Media. In our education venture, we provide training on communication, personality development, digital marketing and many more we hold different types for workshops for different groups of people in society. Whereas, under Uqrious Media, we provide all types of online business solutions to individuals or organizations in building their brand. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Vision: Creating confident individuals; Transforming the youth of the Nation Core Values: Passion, Honesty and Ownership 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? Following My Passion. Had I not chosen my passion, I wouldn’t have been where I am today or what I am doing today. Whether you are learning something or you are working, if you are passionate about it, you will definitely receive great results.

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

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Ranjeeta Ashesh Founder, Kshitij... where dreams meet reality.

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I work on the principal of community building. I am working in a very new field which is untouched, that is Poetry Sector and we are the pioneers of ‘INDIAN ICONIC POET’ in India. Leadership for me is serving my budding poets (clients) so that they can excel and achieve success in field of poetry 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? It needs a whole lot of courage to stand by your virtues, morals and vision. Women being the creators next to God are very powerful if they acknowledge their powers. Woman entrepreneurs are more stable, emotionally strong and professionally sound. It's just the risk taking factor which once they cross then sky is the limit 3. Tell us more about your initiative. I myself am a published Author and Poet. When I started attending poetry meets, I was disappointed with the stereotype events where only seniors were acknowledged. Budding poets had no platform to showcase their talent and non-poetic audience used to find poetry events a waste of time. This made me start KSHITIJ, as I firmly believe poets are blessed and if youth will not get the opportunity to express their emotions, the talent will be lost. Therefore, we came up with transformation in poetry i.e. Indian iconic poet.

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4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Our vision is to create STARPOETS, so that budding poets get confidence to pursue their passion into profession. The recognition will help them to follow their heart and make their career as budding singers and dancers do. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I definitely choose, following one’s passion as it gives me tremendous joy doing what I love the most. I am a live example of changing hobby into passion and passion into profession. I saw the plight of budding poets and decided to take up this challenge hence working more for society is what gives me utmost satisfaction and happiness and I can spend 19 hours of a day to create difference without any complaints, that’s the joy of passion.

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Inner Power

TIPS TO

MAINTAIN

A BALANCE,

HEALTHY WORK-LIFE F O R

WOMEN, BY A WOMAN

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alancing things is the key to a peaceful life. Balance eases things. Maintaining balance between professional life and personal life for a woman is like juggling tons of things at once. Depending on the stage of life she’s in, she has to play the role of a mother, daughter, wife, etc. at home. These roles come with certain responsibilities that she needs to fulfill. Similarly, pursuing a thriving career makes things more difficult for them. Finding balance between work and personal life is like an ultimate goal for women these days. In the 21st century, the women from all walks of life want to have a happy family life, a rewarding career, and some time for themselves too. How do we manage the endless struggles to balance family and work? A few ways that could help us achieve work-life balance are as below: • Sorting Out Priorities: Setting priorities in both personal and professional spheres is the first and foremost step towards balance. Some hard choices need to be made to decide what is important and what can be eliminated. Having discussions with our families regularly could help understand the upcoming occasions that need their attendance. Taking regular meetings with the team regarding the projects going on or targets to be completed, eases the pressure. These help set priorities ahead of time and plan accordingly. Further, setting clear

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priorities facilitates a smooth flow of personal and professional life. • Talking to Employers: By effectively communicating with the HR or the reporting manager, working women could be on the beneficial side. Being honest and transparent about their problems to their superiors is very important. Due to their responsibility towards the family, there might be times when they are late to work or miss meetings, etc. At such times, if the management is aware of the problems of the employee, they might be excused. In some cases, the management might adjust their working hours or help them by keeping their hours flexible. • Delegation: It is not always possible to do all the work alone. Multitasking is an important skill but it is not always the best option. Sometimes delegating the work is a wise option instead of doing everything alone. It is necessary that one should decide what they should do on their own and what work could be delegated. Same goes with regards to the family and at home, seeking help from family members or spouse should be considered. Family members can divide tasks and get the chores done. This is not a point of weakness, rather it shows a team spirit. • Drawing a Line between Home and Work: The biggest mantra to successfully juggle between work

and personal life is to learn to say NO. Learning to set boundaries between work and home is vital to give hundred percent output at both the fronts. Try not to bring work stress home and problems at home to work. Mixing both the fronts together will create chaos at work and at home. Keeping both the aspects of life separate creates peace for them, for the family and the team members. • Having some ‘Me’ Time: Even after going home after a hectic work day, women have to complete certain chores everyday. Taking time out from this busy schedule to do something they love is the secret to maintaining a perfect work-life balance. It is okay for them to take out some self time and pamper themselves by going to the salon, going to the spa, watching some series, etc. Only if women take good care of themselves, will they be able to take care of their family and work. Maintaining work-life balance for women requires constant adjustments, compromises, and sacrifices. Making proper work schedules and setting priorities eases the stress on them. Setting some rules around the house for the family like – the kids should do their own dishes, pack their own school bags, etc. reduces the work they need to do. When the we women realize our life goals and act upon them, we will enjoy a successful career along with a happy family.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Rashida Dairywala Co-founder and CEO, OTFCoder

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? As rightly said by John Adams, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Leadership comes with responsibility. My philosophy of leadership is to inspire, convey my vision to the team that it becomes their vision to turn into the reality. Being a leader is to encourage the team, walk with the team, give a nudge where ever required, be there when they need, knows the team’s strengths and weaknesses and push them to become better each day. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women entrepreneurs believe in a comprehensive way of seeing favorable outcomes at the point where genders no more define success. Women entrepreneurs have stepped into diverse business categories and showed their competency. I believe they are showing sign of mastery in every field from education to AI and technology. Certainly there are few segments which are still male dominated, women are stepping there too. Determination is the key, women can achieve great heights and elevate each other. 3. What solutions does OTFCoder offer? OTFCoder is all about providing Complete Digital Solution like websites, mobile and web apps, CRM, CMS, Designing,

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Marketing etc. ERP (Enterprise resource planning) is our strength and have developed several softwares that has helped businesses solve complex problem and make processes simple. We have designed and developed ERPs for Restaurant management, Genetics and pathology, School management, job portal, etc using PHP/Laravel. OTFCoder is one of the best Laravel web development IT Firm. 4. What are your organization's vision and core values? We thrive to solve problems and make complex things simple. OTFCoder’s vision is to become an automated organization dealing with IT (digital) services and employing cutting edge Technology to serve a global clientele using PHP Laravel. We believe in excellence and being ethical in the workplace – Every Today. Our values encourage towards taking responsibility and accountability, embrace change, Collaborate with each other, Communicate constructively, Drive Innovation and being action oriented. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? You cannot drive your passion unless you have a practical approach. Both are interdependent. Passion is what keeps you going forward and being practical helps you with the process to run the business successfully and take the right decision. When you just follow the passion, you are less likely to explore new potential areas of interest. Keeping it open-ended helps getting more exposure and space to grow.

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Raveena Sirohia Founder and Director, Poetic Spaces

WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Leadership is very important to efficiently manage the business with ease. Together to experiment and explore fun new ideas and designs. To me the set up of work for each one to feel at home is having brainstorming sessions to actually getting our hands dirty together we have to do it all together. Our major part of growth is visualization, if we feel alike we think alike. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? One women can reach and change millions. If she works for herself she can benefit the society in a large scale by being an entrepreneur. 3. What are the services/solutions/products that your company provides? We are working on a variety of residential and commercial projects,

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making each a masterpiece to cherish. Modern trends and diverse requirements of our valuable clients is our top priority at the time of designing. We focus on our customer's fulfillment at every stage and keep extraordinary benchmarks in our work process. This makes us a preferred choice among clients. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Interior designing is more about giving life to every inch of space to give users, an experience of a lifetime. More like a breathing poetry. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? Following my passion with being practical can always go hand in hand. We don’t have to choose one to be an entrepreneur. To me, being practical is choosing my passion in the correct way.

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RIDHIMA BATRA CEO, Global Council

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I believe in building a platform where people are expressive and they share their ideas and bring in the innovations in the society. Also I believe in the proper of building leaders by providing them a space to put their views and points. Under my leadership one can create and innovate in the organization.

4. What are your organization's vision and core values? Vision Statement: To provide a platform to all the young minds where they can create, innovate and inspire each other to become leaders of the world. Mission Statement: to be a leading global institute that provides a transformative education to create leaders and innovators

2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship?

5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why?

Women Entrepreneurship is not just creating benchmarks in business but also impacting lives to larger extent. I want all the housewives to stand up and take in charge and run family and work professionally too.

I believe in following my passion because this will bring me closer to achieve my goals and fulfill my dreams. Being practical is important in today’s world but following your own passion will bring you closer to your goals.

3. What is Global Council all about? My company provides transformative education and we aim to provide a platform to all the young minds to create and innovate and reach to their full potential. We provide personality development courses and various courses on skill development which an individual to grow in life.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

January 2020|


WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Rishika Inamdar Founder, O ceCra Virtual Assistant

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Leadership covers several aspects of relationship building; first with oneself. As a leader one ought to innately practice ‘being watched’, it’s the primary element of being conscious in a progressive thought process. ‘Leadership’ is an intangible bond created within a team, but as a team member through selfless yet goal oriented actions where one earns the regard and respect as a ‘doer’. Leadership is motivation through action. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women are enterprising in nature; they hold every attribute entrepreneurs could possess. Women don’t seek opportunities, they create them, for themselves. If there is any redefining, it’s in the mindset. Neither domain knowledge, nor fuelling encouragement is a necessity for a woman who has identified her own traits and has sensed her purpose. A report shows; women entrepreneurs have greater likelihood of innovativeness than men across 74 economies. Women are redefining entrepreneurship. 3. Tell us more about OfficeCraft Virtual Assistant OfficeCraft Virtual Assistant services helps entrepreneurs &

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professionals build their Personal Brand optimising their digital presence to generate leads and increase traction within their network, creating consistent lasting impressions and build valued relationships. OfficeCraft Virtual Assistant Services is driven by the honed penchant for Personal Branding, Corporate Communication, Project Management, Event Coordination whilst enhancing Operational Efficiency for Small & Medium Enterprises. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Integrity, Competency and Credibility are the adage and core values of OfficeCraft Virtual Assistant services. As India’s First Virtual Assistant, I am successful in creating a proficient service model that is time-saving, costeffective and facilitates accelerating growth for emanating entrepreneurs. OfficeCraft Virtual Assistant Services envisions growing as integral and reliable operating partners and aiding in making today’s Small & Medium Enterprises – tomorrows’ Global Ventures. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I chose to practically be lead by my passion not follow it! I believe there is no reason why any individual should need to choose between the two. I didn’t. I see myself as an ordinary person taking extraordinary steps to reach my goals and raise the bars, reach and raise again. Today’s millennial has more time at hand, advancing technology and far more clear vision unlike our previous generations. All one needs to do is align. Pursue Passion – there are no two ways about it!

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Communication Skills Trainer, Image Consultant and Etiquette Coach 1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I truly believe that great leaders are those who leave a legacy and create more leaders like themselves for the future. This is not just for illustrious leaders of gigantic platforms but applies to every individual who has even one person they are accountable for. Being intellectually sound makes you efficiently discerning, but a magnanimous heart makes you an efficient leader beyond everything. Work, KRAs, targets and deadlines all can be dealt with with a meticulous approach to leadership, but an efficacious leader is he who knows how to give! 2. Given the chance how would you redefine women entrepreneurship. I don’t really see much difference between a gender based entrepreneurship in the first place. An Entrepreneur holds no gender roles, the society does! That’s what we need to redefine. It may seem as a digression from the question but the truth prevails. We need to have egalitarianism in the opportunities for Men and Women in the dynamic world of Startups and Freelance Professionals. I, being the latter, possess no inhibitions to be a woman in a patriarchy. Times are evolving, slowly but it needs to gradually turn tables and invariably begins with us. But from a Woman to Woman perspective, We need to be empowering

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both students and lecturers), Companies (For young and middle level officers), NGOs for relevant and fundamental training modules. 4. What are your core values and vision ? As a Trainer of holistic personality development, the focal point of my professional life is to help people witness the champion in themselves and their relationships. Unravelling layers of under confidence and overcoming unhealthy self image is my prime motive as a Soft skills Trainer and Image Consultant. Integrity and Empathy are my left and right hand at work. I envision to utilise the power of transforming lives all my life, step by step. My fingerprints should not fade from the lives I touch.

each other and grow together. We need more fellowship and uplifting camaraderie between women entrepreneurs.

5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical ? Why ? I’d rather be a passionate realist!

3. What are the services you provide ? As a Communication Skills Trainer, I deal with the opportunity to upscale a person’s Communication through three aspects. Firstly, Practical English, leading to Business English for working professionals, ending with vocal communication. As a Soft Skills Trainer, My services pan from life skills to people skills that help in enhancing an individual's personal and professional relationships. A few topics I cover in this domain are, Emotional Intelligence, Interview GD skills, Body Language etc.

One needs to realise that you need not be ecentric to be following your passion. If a pragmatic thought process is your friend, you can be successful in your choice of profession as well. What matters is, are we being equipped with the right skill set to even identify our passion ? I couldn’t identify mine until I was 24 after an MBA in HR and a well paying job, which I left very happily to realise, I never wanted this. Nobody forced me to pursue MBA, but I did not possess the right judgement to identify my true calling. This, we need to change, from our formative years itself.

The role of an Image Consultant, Etiquette & Grooming Coach enables me to empower people by developing their inner strengths and then reflecting it through appearance management. Building a powerful presence through the aforementioned capacitates me to call myself a Personality Consultant that amalgamates all the domains above. I am a Freelance Professional Trainer in the fields aforementioned and provide my services to age 5-115. My services are majorly absorbed by Schools (for both students and teachers), Colleges (for

Help children identify what they are naturally gifted at, and what they are effortlessly inclined towards. Most of our answers lie there and not in which field will fetch you fatter paychecks. I am a public speaker, someone born to address people, I could find that out when I was representing my state in theatre but I couldn’t! I am a commerce student and you are supposed to do an MBA. Today, I am a multiple international certifications holder and a certified trainer by NABET, but my natural skill set of a public speaker is being utilised at its best.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Sejal Ray Founder and Social Entrepreneur, Taare Zameen Par Romal Surana, Nivedita Singh, Riddhi Doshi, Dimpaal Sahy, Darshana Aradhye, Prachi Rathi, Pallavi Patankar, Arpita Kathane. The purpose is to create a platform for parents to connect to expert psychologists and get support with no additional cost and encouraging kids to pursue their passion and provide visibility to their passion through this platform.

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I am an IT professional working in IT organisation for around 20 years now. I think efficient leadership is all about setting an example. It is about having a purpose that everyone can relate to and are inspired to be part of. It is equally important to be able to empathise when needed and balancing it with being straight, specific, compassionate along with ability to say “No” when needed. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women entrepreneurship is about having confidence to create a vision, walking the path, having courage to unfold the unknown and creating other leaders to support the vision. Number of women entrepreneurs are increasing with time and it’s great to see women coming out of their cocoon and exploring their talent and skill. 3. What are the services/solutions/products that your company provides? My group “Taare Zameen Par” is a social initiative and for a community cause. I would call it social entrepreneurship which is not for profit. It’s about creating awareness on importance of mental and emotional health of kids n families in general. There are eight psychologists and counsellors who have joined me in this cause from all over India who are experts in this field for 14+ years namely

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Some major personalities associated with Education and Parenting like ECA President – Dr Swati Popat Vats, Founder iQube – Mr Pranay Oswal, Parwarish Founder – Mr Sushant Kalra, Child Psychologist and Ted-Ex Speaker Riddhi Doshi are supporting my initiative by being part of it. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Taare Zameen Par is purely created to make this world a better place. The primary vision of creating this group is to have more and more happy and lively families all over the world. It is important that parents realise what happiness means to them and what happiness means to their children. When this is clear, having happy a happy family is easier. This group facilitates positive parenting, having open communication with kids which in turn would bring joy to their lives 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I would go mid-way, just the way I am doing right now. Being Computer engineer, IT is a profession for me. I am an IT professional for 19+ years. I love my work and enjoy doing what I do all 5 days a week. It’s my bread and butter. At the same time, I would love to follow my passion. That’s what i am doing through this initiative and my FB group “Taare Zameen Par” to reach out to the world. This gives me a sense of fulfilment and happiness of giving back to the society that I live in. I am fortunate to have best of both!

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Shabia Ravi Walia Founder and Owner, Wild Earth

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Lead by example, Have faith in your people, Take calculated risks, Credit needs to be shared, mistakes need to be owned. A good leader puts his/her team first, self second. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? By making it gender agnostic. Entrepreneurship or the spirit of it is gender independent. The passion to create something, the fear of failure, the pride of success are independent of whether you are a man or woman. We need equal opportunities for both genders, equal receptivity towards both kinds of entrepreneurs and leaders, equal support for both and a healthy dialogue irrespective of their gender. The brand should speak for itself not the gender of the founder. Neither should it carry their gender as a medal or a deterrent. The more we women entrepreneurs shirk off the need to be segregated as women entrepreneurs, the more equal the playing field we can create for ourselves. 3. What is Wild Earth all about? We create beautiful, handmade bath and body products based on the principles of Ayurveda and from the best of ingredients from nature. We are free of all harsh chemicals,

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nasties and cruelty too. Whilst nurturing you we also nurture the very nature that nurtures us by being very aware of doing least damage while creating our products. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Our core values are transparency, honesty and sustainability. Our vision is to create a trustworthy natural brand that’s sustainable in nature and loved by people for its quality and affordability. Great products always need not be expensive. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I think passion and practicality need to move hand in hand. At times you have to let passion carry you forward, at times practicality. If you just fly on the wings of passion always, you will run out of resources soon whereas its also the fuel that creates magic so being totally practical at all times at the risk of killing your passion is not advised too. I think the stage of entrepreneurship you are at, determines what rules – passion or practicality. At early stages of entrepreneurship when you are creating a product, its passion and idealism. As you grow, enter markets, taste reality, practicality sets in. A healthy mix of both is key.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Shampa Saha Founder & CEO, Augment Advertising

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Leadership for me is having the ability to command a group of people and operate an organization. Efficiency is working towards a particular goal effectively. A good leader trains, guides, aligns every team members with the organization's vision and lead them to the right direction, and do all of that being compassionate to them. Utilizing every man hour efficiently by distributing the work into the team. An efficient leader doesn't only direct the team, also works with them to reach the goal. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? I would like to define Entrepreneurship in fact. Entrepreneurship is a career, not just having a business and making money. Entrepreneurship is creating a business idea, design and set the processes to execute that idea, launch it and execute. Take a calculated amount of financial risks, be insightful about the resources requirement and manage the finance and business wisely. Being a woman is just a biological incident, I can't relate that with Entrepreneurship. 3. Tell us more about Augment Advertising?

Development, Digital Marketing, Content Development as our core services. We offer marketing solutions to SMEs to Large size companies across the globe. We provide consultation at all levels, for online and offline medium, pertaining to the technology in the larger picture, in almost every vertical of Retail, Real Estate, e-Commerce, FMCG, Hospitality etc. 4. What are your organization's vision and core values? Now-a-days many organizations come up with the ideas of advertising and digital marketing, but unfortunately that doesn't bring any value to the brand or help them generate revenue. We try to develop technology and marketing tools for high return branding and the entire system can be automated. Augment aims to be a Media Tech company to help the brand do their own marketing and understand whats effective for them. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I will practically follow my passion. Honestly, Entrepreneurs always follow their passion and hence they don't stick to their fixed, paid, stable jobs, they want to build something for a bigger cause. Some of them are practical enough in risk calculation and manage the finances.

Augment is a 360 degree Media Communication company with an objective for Innovation. We cater into Technology

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Sheetal Arora

Founder & CEO, Augment Advertising

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Leadership is all about conveying your vision and sharing your passion to the team and inspiring people to accomplish amazing things. Leadership is all about thinking out of the box, being innovative, and exploring opportunities. Being a leader is to help my team realizing in their true potential, understanding their weakness and strength and push them to become better each day. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women are increasingly striking out on their own and finding success as entrepreneurs. As more opportunities are becoming available and access to opportunities is being constantly redefined because women across the globes are using the ecosystem to their advantage to realize their dreams. For me, women entrepreneurship is all about showing faith in their capabilities and with determination and confidence; women entrepreneurs can reach any heights. 3. What is SportsThat all about?

It provides platform for fans to showcase their talent and flaunt fandom in unique ways. Fans can connect with each other based on their passion and interests for their favorite team, sports and players. SportsThat helps fans in connecting with like-minded fans, also it helps in finding fans in their vicinity to play and hangout with each other. In one line, SportsThat is community of sports fans. 4. What are your organization's vision and core values? Our vision is to connect 1 million fans in 2020 across the globe and enhancing fan experience inside and outside the stadium. Our core values are integrity, passion, accountability and fan-centricity. We are fan-centric platform and we believe in helping fans realize their dreams and making them feel happy and valued. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? Following your passion is tough sometimes, as it requires a compelling vision, successfully strategising, defining the right tactics, and getting into sustainable action. Sports has always been my passion and it is helping me in turning my vision into action. So, I would say I am practically passionate in what I am doing right now.

SportsThat is a fan recognition and fan profiling platform for sports fans to flaunt their fandom and showcase their talent. 82

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Shruti Agrawal Chief Strategy O cer, Innovative Cancer Care and Rehabilitation.

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? An efficient leader is a visionary with strong ethics and possesses the capability to drive organizational goals. They are result oriented, passionate, keen observer and ardent learner. They are agile and quickly adapt to the dynamics of the market to be very competitive and meet all the standards. At the same time, they are considerate towards environment and their employees. They grow by shaping other's growth. They are influential and harness energy of their resources appropriately. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Most of them believe that women entrepreneurs concentrate their business to sectors which offer emotional value than the real value add like education, social services, healthcare, etc. I would redefine this perception and prove that women can master in all segments by building channels for startup funds and investments to budding entrepreneurs so that they can color their dreams with their full capability. Every service or product a women entrepreneur offers is more value add than emotions. 3. Tell us more about Innovative Cancer Care and Rehabilitation. We work in cancer rehabilitation and tobacco cessation. We have an online portal where rehab products for cancer patients are available at affordable prices. We have a comprehensive wellness program to quit chewing and

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smoking comfortably from home. We also offer certificate course for medical practitioners to become a 'Certified Tobacco Cessation Specialist'. This course is accredited by Gujarat University. We do Corporate and Community Wellness Program which includes talks and health camps. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Vision – To be the leading builders of an ecosystem for quality care and wellness facility that transcends innovation & technology for transforming healthcare, prevention, cure and rehabilitation for cancer, tobacco and its related diseases. Our Core Values – Commitment, Passion, Ownership, Empathy, Pioneers of Innovation, Comprehensive & Integrated Healthcare, Simplicity, Timeliness, Strong team and being open. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I would choose following passion practically. It is because passion is the spark to drive the vehicle of business. At the same time pragmatism is extremely essential to establish the market for the service and product we offer, build strong customer relationships and ultimately add value to the lives of our customers through our services. Sometimes we build a service around needs which takes time for customer realization and acceptance. Hence, practical implementation is required for new setup.

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Ad



WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Sherene Aftab

Founder, CEO, Chief Counsellor and Trainer at SereneHour

Meet the woman who fought conventional norms to create her own success story. A double Master’s Degree in Management & Psychology along with the various diplomas and certifications in counselling; her work experience as lecturer, trainer and now a counsellor seemed like an unconventional bag of degrees and work experience to have. She seemed to have redefined how anyone could achieve their dreams and aspirations only if they swore to never let go of their true self, their belief in themselves to achieve and to continue to evolve and redefine their goals. “I did not make the best Career decisions when I was a 15year-old. I also felt a nagging need to reach out to someone who would help me understand myself, I did not know I could,” says Sherene.

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“I was good at too many things, had too many aspirations and could excel at most things. I knew I loved to communicate, to reach out and help another person, I was gifted with an unusually high emotional IQ for my age, I was sensitive, curious and investigative, idealistic to a fault, creative and loved doing my own thing and implementing my own ideas. Constantly rebelling and questioning anything called ‘conventional’. But, I couldn’t align all these characteristics and create a profession for myself that I would look forward to, every day of my life”. Sherene elaborates, “I followed everyone else’s advice over my inner voice. I paid heed to what others thought about who I was over what I had to say about myself. The adults who spoke to me about the professions and careers that existed, spoke from their biased perceptions or their inexperience and lack of thorough knowledge. The result of a silly aptitude test

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taken in school with a bunch of other students, that we didn’t even take seriously, decided my career those many decades back. When I look back, the decisions I made were not completely wrong, but they just didn’t feel wholly right too.”

Sherene laid the foundations of Serene Hour Counselling and Career Advice Consultancy on the very thought that every individual needs a counsellor to help them identify and work through their emotional issues. Irrespective of age, the need to reach out to someone who could provide unwavering support when plagued with emotional difficulties is crucial. The other aspect being, when children have to make a career choice, the choice they make will decide their happiness quotient, their job satisfaction rate, their choice of livelihood and their future. In a nutshell, What they choose to do for the rest of their lives better be right. How they arrive at that decision better be made with the help of a good mix of professional counselling & scientific techniques. What was the turning point in your life, when you decided to establish Serene Hour? During my tenure as a Lecturer and Trainer, I would come across talented and bright students who were studying a course because they were forced into it, made an ill-informed study decision, or just didn’t know the right career path for themselves. Together we would find ways to take the next best career action. Much to my surprise, I realised that children began to gradually confide in me about emotional issues and concerns that they wouldn’t trust anyone else with. I had begun to play a role far beyond their Confidant and Mentor. This was a crucial turning point in my life. I decided that I needed to have the right knowledge about human behaviour, counselling skills and therapy to be able to help them holistically. I decided to pursue an education in psychology & counselling. It was funny how I’d write an exam one week and be examining a paper another week. However, this felt like the most natural path for me to follow. When I was 15, I wanted to pursue a degree in Counselling Psychology. For whatever

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reasons I didn’t pursue it then, I decided to pursue it now. Did you come across any challenges in your journey? Yes! to name a few. I had to get over my personal inertia of challenging my comfort zone. Others being, that as much importance and emphasis we give towards our physical health, unfortunately, as a society, the same is not true for mental health. For many people, counselling is not the first degree of help they pursue rather it is the last step. Apart from this, there seems to be a stigma attached to seeking counselling. Especially in the Indian society, career counselling seems to be looked upon as a frivolous waste of time and money. In most cases the child’s career is decided either by their parents, their friends, entrance exam marks and college seats available, which really isn’t the right approach. My primary challenge has been in creating awareness for the need to ‘reach out to a professional’ for ‘Counselling’ when plagued with an emotional crisis. Creating awareness in students for choosing their career wisely and liaising with parents. I help parents understand, communicate and connect with their children; I encourage them to adopt a balanced approach when helping their children make career decisions. Is there a message you would like to leave our readers with? If there is anyone thing that I hope to inspire you from my journey, it would be that – it is never too late to pursue your dreams, the right time to start is now. I spent my early twenties pursuing academic degrees and a career path different from the one I have now. Coming to understand my passion and the right career path for me wasn’t a smooth linear road. I explored various career paths, pursued academia where I discovered my knack for counselling and my skills for communicating and connecting with children. Furthermore, I developed various ‘Soft Skills’, ‘Career Development’ and ‘Personality Enhancement’ programs, training thousands of students. I finally decided to weave and connect all my skills, knowledge, experience and expertise to take the plunge and pursue Counselling full time and the rest, as they say, is history.

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WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS 2020

Sonali Chopra Founder and Principal Designer, SI Concepts (OPC) Pvt. Ltd.

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Efficient leadership is must in a corporate environment – philosophy of efficient leadership for me means a leader who is capable of leading the organization from one paradigm to the next. A paradigm is the way we think. The way we do things. The way we approach things. We need to think differently. We need to do things differently. The leadership philosophy serves as a kind of ethical and professional compass that everyone on your team or in your company can look up to and hopefully make their role model. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? If I were given a chance to redefine Woman Entrepreneurship, I will define it as a right of a woman to fulfill her dreams and set an examples her for male counterparts, because I don’t think that women are dependent on men to achieve something in their life. All we need is inner strength which comes from will power which we all have but because of the society and its myths, we women fail to recognize our own strength. But if we believe in ourselves, we can take all the responsibilities very well.

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3. Tell us more about SI Concepts (opc) pvt. Ltd. Making a statement in style, we introduce ourselves as SI Concepts (opc) Pvt. Ltd. interior and architectural design consultancy firm. Our specialization lies in interior design of residential and commercial projects and delivering a unique blend of comfort and style to our clients. We are also known for our premium consultancy services related to vaastu, and 3D view. Si concepts is a dynamic, designdriven studio focused on delivering unique, functional and affordable solution. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Integrity Boldness Honesty Trust 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I will choose my passion in practical manner because it is important to be practical professionally and personally. Being passionate is important to be successful person. So both being passionate practically is parallel to each other.

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Sweta Sureka Transformational Life Coach, Author

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Leadership according to me means leading by setting example. We all can be bosses but very few are the true leaders. Efficient leadership in corporate or for that matter any set up brings out the best for the growth of the team or the organisation as a whole. Effective and efficient leaders move ahead keeping in mind the opinion of his team members. The feedback is appreciated and there is positivity in the work environment. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women are the upcoming force across the world. Their contribution outside the domains of household can no longer go unnoticed. They are the force to reckon with. As

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globalization is breaking down the barriers that limited businesses by cultures, gender and geography, many partnership and trade agreements have been developed in an attempt to encourage global economic activity among women. 3. Tell us more about your Life Coaching consultation I am a certified life coach and I help individuals lead their top-notch lifestyle by overcoming limiting beliefs they have about themselves. I work with their mindset and help them create positive habits. I also, run a special product for women where I help them realise their true potential and to not give up on their dreams. Along with this, I am also a public speaker.

My core purpose us to help millions of people to create a better tomorrow and I want to do this through my impactful coaching and speaking and living a life of fulfilment, joy, happiness and abundance. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I would choose following my passion. The reason being that I believe that when we follow our passion with full dedication nothing can stop us from achieving it. Practicality works out on its own. We have to believe in our passion and our capabilities to achieve it.

4. What are your vision and core values?

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Thaarika S

Founder, The Liquid Pearl Breast Milk Jewellery India

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? Running a business efficiently means a lot and it is not an easy thing. The efficient leader should also run a business effectively and use their time adequately in the assigned tasks. They require a motivational goal, hardwork, goal setting, team building etc. Time management is one among the numerous responsibilities, that one should not waste his/her time unnecessarily. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women need to be a leader in order to lay more bricks in their path For other women following them. Each and every woman must be a role model in some way. If women entrepreneurs believe in their

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capability, they can make magic happen. 3. What products that your company provides? Well, Breastmilk Jewellery is exactly how it sounds. A breastmilk jewellery that is made from a mom’s own breastmilk is very special one to a mother which commemorates her nursing journey and serves as a reminder of her selfless gift. I am a mother of a 15 months old baby boy. I’m a lactation consultant student and also a budding Lawyer. I do this enormous job of transforming mom’s Liquid Gold (Breast milk) into beautiful jewels and keepsakes using various metals. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values?

rings, earrings etc. but now you can also get bracelets, pandoras, baby jewels and keepsakes as well. I can give shape to Breastmilk in any way the mother wants, to cherish their bond with their little one throughout their lives. These jewels can also be made from • • • • • • •

Breastmilk Baby’s umbilical chord stump Baby’s first locks of hair Baby’s milk tooth Baby’s first clipped nails Ashes (cremation) Wedding flowers and funeral flowers etc.

5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I would like to choose my passion as it more practical.

Usually I make chain with pendant,

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Founder and Creative Designer, Pinearts Interior Studio

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I have always believed in doing things in a very practical way and the corporate world works only in the practical format. It has always been in believing in yourself which allows you to make others as well confident of what they are doing and leads to amazing leadership. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Women entrepreneurship is very hyped that women these days are equal to men and a lot more. But I always believe that if a person wants

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to achieve something then nothing can stop them irrespective of their gender. So I would want women entrepreneurship to be re-defined in a very subjective manner. 3. Tell us more about We are into complete solution for interiors and we are pioneers in providing workshops with interior styling across the country.

following your passion and being practical? Why? I always believe in enjoying what I do and make the best of it. I don't think that your passion cant be practical or it can’t help you earn. Actually your passion can make you do things which you had always dreamt of, juts that you need to get a practical on it and just work for it. They walk parallel for me.

4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? Our vision is to touch nearly 40 cities this year with our workshops and to serve nearly 20+ happy clients. 5. What would you choose between

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we deserve to be in life that’s what is my vision for founding Kasturi life Coaching Services. The query related to 1) Parenting/Family. 2) Career coaching. 3) Personality Development, 4) Relationship. 5)Positive Attitude, 6) Building Confidence 7) Fear of Public Speaking, 8) Key notes for BBA & MBA. 9) Coaching to MBA & BBA students. are sorted out by providing solutions.

Urvashi Vats Founder, Kasturi Life Coaching Services

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? My philosophy is Be the people's person is taking care of your employees, & they will obviously work better for your organization. Employees are the backbone of any company or organization. If they are taken care well, well paid with incentives(intrinsic & extrinsic). As well have equal participation in decision making or important matters by giving the employees the opportunity to share their views helps an organization to grow more effectively. For example- whenever any decision is taken by Top management employees should be given equal opportunity to express their views & suggestions as it on one hand it makes them realize that they are important key aspects in management. Employees should be given intrinsic & extrinsic incentives i.e., Financial incentives in terms of bonus & perks, & non financial incentives i.e, holidays for family, health clubs, gym & sports. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine women entrepreneurship? Woman Entrepreneurship is all about

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seeking out the opportunities, exploring them & taking your own stand by breaking the stereotypes & having a practical approach with a vision that would add a value to the society. For example, When I was going through a failure in my life, a phase of struggle & hardships came in my life I thought of doing something on my own many things came as a barrier in front of meHow will I arrange the funds? How will I manage on my own? How will I take steps towards doing something on my own? How the society will see me? How will I be able to step out of my comfort zone? But then only one thing came in to my mind that I will take my own stand & will do something on my own, then I thought of starting my startup Kasturi Life Coaching Services. 3. What are the services/solutions/products that your company provides? Recently started my start up -. Kasturi Life Coaching Services Change always has to begin with ourselves, which results in transformation that lead us somewhere

I have both the mode offline & online wherein I give sessions & consultation to my clients by helping them to sort out their problems. Kasturi Creations- An online clothing store for women’s. A wide variety is there in various categories like women accessories, handbags, shoes, jewelry, western outfit, sarees, ethnic wear, party wear dresses, Bridal collection, kitchen utilities & home & decor. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? 1) If we want to see the change in the world we have to begin with ourselves & that begins with a change in our way of thinking & our attitude towards various perspectives.That's what my vision is behind starting my start up. 2) Employees are a backbone of an organization. 3) Believe in yourself. 4) Failures are the ladders that pave a way to success. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I would choose to follow my passion because passion is something that keeps you going while sailing through a journey called life. But at the same time I would prefer a practical approach as well because that helps you to analyse the situations, market trends as well as change in customer’s needs & preferences & then finding out the solution.

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Usha Sahoo Founder, Yeh China Education Pvt. Ltd. 1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I feel like as a leader we must analyze our own strengths and shortcomings. In a leadership position, we always try to see things from our own perspective, but its important to understand the team’s perspective on each and every goal setting. As a leader knowing the organization and its products well will help us to set a clear vision and achievable goals. The important role of a leader is to constantly motivate the team, taking risks and giving decisionmaking powers to them will be beneficial. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? The whole concept of “Women Entrepreneurship” has been redefined in recent years. There are innumerable numbers of micro, small, medium and large businesses are running by women. Women are always natural entrepreneurs. Looking at my 20 years of homemaking before starting Yeh China, I honestly feel we know how to budget, save, spend and do money management. The only thing is as women we need to start taking the risk, take our own decision, support and

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engage with fellow entrepreneurs and get trained and mentored to become a new age entrepreneur 3. Tell us about Yeh China Education. We do a very simple yet powerful skilling. We solve the language barrier between two large nations India and China. One of the largest trade partner of India and the world, Chinese language comes as the biggest road block and communication barrier between people. Our work is to train people in Mandarin Chinese language skill and help them communicate to 1.3 Billion people and connect to a deeper level not just in Asia but across the world. Not just business or corporate our young learners enjoys learning Mandarin Chinese as well. As rightly said by Edmund De Waal “With languages, you are at home anywhere”, our philosophy is give people confidence to communicate with Mandarin Chinese speakers. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core

values? We strive to give our clients and students real world language skills and help them speak Ni Hao with engaging and fun filled methods. Our core values are always empowering women and building more language entrepreneurs Customer satisfaction, Constant innovation and blended learning with technology and efficient teachers. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I will like to become practical. My first entrepreneurship project failed because I was too passionate about it, but could not handle the day to day practical problems I faced. We can all be passionate about our dreams, ventures or businesses, But at the end of the day, a successful enterprise will need a practical approach to solve problems, make profits, take good care of employees and provide better service to stakeholders. Passion can build a great product but we all need to be practical to work hard and take it to our consumers.

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party events (where we have a fancy display with food that are all bite size). We also handle events and organise them under another brand name as we are expanding in other sectors. 4. What are your organization’s vision and core values?

Vidita Kamat Owner, Mezclaa

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting? I come from a male-dominated industry that is the hospitality industry, but the area where it mainly consists of most number of males is the kitchen area. In earlier days there were mostly 99% males in the kitchen and only 1% females, however it is not the case in the present time. It was very difficult to survive in a place where you are needed to put your weight around. As a female if you are the Head Chef, people look up thinking why should we listen to her as she is a female; and in the kitchen we have lot of males coming from different cities so their mind-set is that women should have no authority to take a decision in the kitchen area. As things started getting better and more females started to join this industry in the kitchen department there has now somewhere been a level of acceptance. However, till date, compared the man to woman ratio in the kitchen is stark, with more males than females. The kitchen is a place where you need to be very strong-headed, ready to battle physically and mentally as you need to stand around for long durations

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depending upon how busy the restaurant or hotel would be. It very important to set standards, be disciplined, help you team members in achieving the goal together to reach the target, as in the end, it is all about team work and also balancing their mentality and emotions; making sure their freedom is not jeopardised. Although, it is squally important for then to know where to draw the line. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? I feel women should be head-strong and believe in whatever their heart says would work because a woman's intuition is much more stronger. Plus they dedicate themselves towards their goals and achieving their target. There is tremendous competition and I feel one must believe in what they feel good for themselves not what others feel or say, because at the end if you have and idea a believe it in very strongly you will achieve your goal…no one has succeeded in one and it is only when you FALL that you RISE UP stronger. 3. What is Mezclaa all about? ‘Mezclaa’ is a brand which deals into food catering and services. We cater entremenets, bonne bouche to small

Our vision is to serve satisfactory, quality products to our clients with a smile, as we believe in not only giving out the best to the clients but also making sure that they are happy and satisfied with the product. Personally I feel that, it also sends out a positive prospective about the brand so we would always want our costumers to always come back to us for more. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? It’s important to follow your passion because you put your whole heart and soul into it and making sure you give your customer the best because when they are satisfied and happy. You know that they would definitely be loyal to you and would come back to you, having appreciated your efforts and the personal touch that you have given to it. In this world, there are going to be a lot of things which will be beyond our control, but what you do have control over is how you react to whatever happens in your life. You become exactly what you believe and if you believe in it the universe helps you to achieve it. When you are passionate about something is where things comes from your inner soul while being practical comes from the head. If you need to achieve something you need to be passionate about what you love doing and that’s where you would succeed because that is where your heart is at!

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Yogita M. Deshpande Founder and Creative Designer, Pinearts Interior Studio

1. What is your philosophy of efficient leadership in a corporate setting?

entrepreneur is just about "DARE TO SHARE and SHARE TO CARE" 3. Tell us more about Yungmind.

A person who is swimming not with the flow, but like a pro..just to create the new path for others to grow and glow. Efficient leader is the mind reader. To read the minds of others, you need to be complete with yourself. And once you clear that you are on the track of abundance to connect with people and dive into the world of possibilities. 2. Given the chance, how would you redefine woman entrepreneurship? Every WOMAN herself is a form of SHAKTI. She can create wonders (“if given a chance”-no-no-no...now it's a history) creating possibilities for herself and others. Woman as an

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Customized creative services from Yungmind to young minds. We are treating all age groups as young which itself makes them feel happy and connected. We are formed out of the need to evolve ART in every possible way. From corporate gifting to advertising and branding, we are spreading wings creatively. Paper bags, Paintings, warli paintings, fabric painting, graphic t shirts, handicrafts (out of waste) these are the products which we created and exploring more in future.

providing them effective creative solutions causing breakthrough results in their sales. Making people bowled with never before presentation. We ideate to generate your profit. We also celebrate our happiness with few NGOs like Bosco Boys Home Borivali, CPAA, Rotary as a part of contribution. 5. What would you choose between following your passion and being practical? Why? I am very much practical that being passionate makes me and the world around happy and content. So PASSION is the HIGH FASHION, simply wear to dare!

4. What are your organization’s vision and core values? To connect with the people,

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Personifying Inspiration

Women &

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Entrepreneurs

their Stories of Perseverance & Excellence

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I

ndia has become a business hub due to its favourable demographics, ample amount of labour and affordable infrastructure. In the steady growing Indian economy, women have been on par with men in contributing to the surge in number of startups over the past few years. Many women entrepreneurs have emerged and succeeded in their venture. The increasing competition in the business arena introduces numerous challenges for women to excel in their journey of becoming a successful entrepreneur. The obstacles make their journey a long and tiring one, which only a few people survive. Becoming an entrepreneur is not only a personal challenge but also a professional one. Raising capital for women-owned firms is quite difficult as investors are (stereo)typically not confident about such businesses. Being a female in the business sector, earning respect is a struggle. Balancing the business and family life is a dual responsibility and finding a way to devote time to both is the key to a happy life. As a parent-entrepreneur, one has to take care of the children and also the business equally. However, the advantage of owning a business is that one gets the freedom to have flexible work hours. This allows them to work and handle the household chores at their convenience in a better way. Overcoming the Challenges Women entrepreneurs have faced various challenges and overcome them in their own ways. Some women have soared higher than one would expect. Here are a few stories of successful women entrepreneurs and how they overcame their struggles: • Vandana Luthra – Founder of VLCC: VLCC is a beauty giant and has its presence in 11 countries across Asia, Africa and Gulf Countries. The founder, Mrs. Vandana Luthra was awarded the Padma shri in 2013 for her contribution and was listed as the 33rd most powerful woman in Business in India by Fortune India, in 2015. Vandana started her journey in 1989 when her first daughter was 3 years old. Vandana, while talking about her challenges said "When I started, there were hardly any women entrepreneurs in India. It was a male dominated environment. I had to face a lot of criticism, a lot of people tried to ensure that I did not succeed and grow. The only thing I believed in, was that my concept is unique, unusual and it was being introduced in India for the first time.”

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• Suchi Mukherjee – Founder and CEO of Limeroad: It is said that the idea of starting her business, Limeroad, came to her when she was on her maternity leave. She began her journey of building Limeroad along with Manish Saksena, Ankush Mehra, and Prashant Malik in 2012. Suchi and her associates had to face many hurdles like building the right team for a business like this one, getting the right infrastructure, delivering unique products, etc. Dealing with the vendors to ensure a sustained stream of good quality products, was the biggest hassle Suchi and her team faced. But due to her determination to achieve her dream, she succeeded in her venture. • Upasana Taku – Co Founder of Mobikwik: Upasana had to fight her way up to becoming what she is today. She and her husband founded Mobikwik in 2009. She left a promising career in the Silicon Valley to start this mobile wallet for her country. She gave up her luxurious life, ignored the gender bias, shared home cooked meals with her team, and faced various other challenges just to give back to her home country – India. They started mobikwik with a simple motive of making it a recharging platform which soon turned into a mobile wallet. Every entrepreneur—male or female—has to go through various challenges to reach the highest level of success. The best way to succeed, they say, is to never stop trying, because it is the only way to not fail. The biggest asset is to stop pleasing others and only please oneself. Building the right team could be the first stepping stone towards success. Women entrepreneurs face many questions and challenges by the society, for venturing into a business. In some cases, even the family members do not trust the ideas and discourage the women. Even gender bias by the male counterparts is one of the multiple challenges. Many women have striven hard to make an impact in the society. These women have not only tried to change peoples’ perceptions regarding women entrepreneurs, but also have motivated other women to take this challenge and succeed. After all the criticism, a significant number of women have proven that leading a company does not require anything but self belief and courage. Having a dream and the wisdom to achieve it has led women to various heights.

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