WOMEN'S BUSINESS FORUM
Opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship
6:00 PM
Welcome Address Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM Executive Director Madras Management Association
Opening Remarks by the Chairperson Ms Mythili Chandrasekar Consumer Behaviour and Brand Strategy Enthusiast
Address by the Speaker Ms Revathy Ashok Startup Evangelist, Angel Investor, Co-Founder Strategy Garage, Former MD Tishman Speyer
Discussion and Q&A with the Special Invitees Dr Lata Rajagopalan Kumar Consultant - Communication for Development Member - IAICS
Ms Babita Baruah Managing Partner, GTB India. A WPP Unit
Ms Revathy Ashok
Concluding Remarks by the Chairperson
Startup Evangelist, Angel Investor, Co-Founder Strategy Garage, Former MD Tishman Speyer
THURSDAY
Ms Mythili Chandrasekar
7:15 PM
Vote of Thanks
AUG 5, 2021 | 6.00 PM
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FOUNTAINHEAD OF EXCELLENCE
SYNOPSIS India has become the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world in just one decade only behind
US
and China with home to over 48 unicorns valued in excess of USD 110 Bn . While we see increasing acceleration of rapidly growing start ups there is a huge missing middle. The country has about 63 million firms, but only 2% employ more than 10 people. Only 14% of the businesses were run by women entrepreneurs last decade but this has rapidly grown to 20% in the current decade. This is the decade for the country to seize the opportunity and create 30 Mn new women owned enterprises leading to
profile
creation of about 150 mn jobs.
SPEAKER
CHAIRPERSON
REVATHY ASHOK
MYTHILI CHANDRASEKAR
Revathy Ashok is the Co-Founder of Strategy
Over
Garage a strategy and growth consulting firm
Recently retired as Senior VP and National Planning Director, J
for start ups, mid and early stage companies,
Walter
helping them build value andscale. An active
Research Consultant.
Angel
Work
Investor,
Network,
member
VCATS
and
of
the
Indian
LetsVenture
Angel
35
years
in
Thompson,
spans
Consumer
India.
cities
Behaviour
Currently
across
India,
and
Brand
freelance
and
Strategy.
Strategy
and
ranging
from
categories
investing
talcum powder, deodorants and shampoos, through pesticides,
platforms with investments in over 18 start ups
sanitary ware and education to foods, beverages, telecom and
such as Druva (now a unicorn), Jigsee(exited),
cars.
Pikkol, Chupps, Peppermint, Pi Beam, etc. and
PepsiCo among many others.
works closely with her investee companies on strategy, growth and governance. She
has
held
senior
leadrership
positions
in
global corporations such as Managing Director, Tishman Speyer, PE Fund, where she was one among top 100 global partners, wordwide CFO of
Syntel
Inc,
a
US
based
Nasdaq
listed
IT
services company , first woman from India to
is
a
Member
on
Boards
of
several
leading giants in the country listed or public limited such as Welspun, Quess Corporation, Astra
Zeneca,
ADC,
Microland,
Shell–MRPL,
Sansera and on the Advisory Boards of start
has
Distingushed
won
many
Alumnus
accolades, Award
from
The IIM
Bangalore, Inc 42, named her as one of the leading women angel investors in the country, “Woman
of
Distinctive
Vocation“
by
Rotary,
“one of top women achievers in Business” by CII, “ one of the 10 most powerful women in the Indian IT industry” by Dataquest. She is a gold medalist from the IIM, Bangalore.
Ford,
ITC,
Unilever,
Hero
Motocorp
and
Career Highlights Created thinking frameworks, models and brainstorming tools in
a
variety
of
verticals:
food
and
beverage,
products, education, technology, automotive;
personal
new product
development, premiumisation, portfolio planning and digital strategy. Created over 80 hours of training material.
Published
over
75
articles
in
leading
Indian,
US
and
UK
media. Repository at www.povfromindia.blogspot.com Created
Brand
Chakras
™
a
first-of-its-kind
proprietary
toolkit. Won
the
2008,
ups. She
include
Initiated and steered Coffee and Donuts with JWT Planning.
be the CFO of a NASDAQ listed company. Revathy
Clients
Patricia
winning
Mann
a
Award
bursary
to
for
Women
the
Marketers,
Executive
UK,
Marketing
Programme, in Stanford. Co-authored "Voices Within"(with two leading South Indian musicians) a coffee table book on the maestroes of carnatic music. Took short breaks from advertising to write for UNICEF and in dotcom
Specialties:
Brand
strategy,
integrated
marketing
communication, insight mining, socio-cultural and ethnography research,
new
product
development
and
portfolio
knowledge curation, content creation, writing, teaching.
MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
planning,
SPECIAL INVITEES
profile
DR LATA RAJAGOPALAN KUMAR
BABITA BARUAH
EDUCATION
In her 24th year in the industry and with WPP, Babita
-PhD - Communication, Dept of Mass Media & Comm.
Baruah now leads GTB India as Managing Partner.
Studies, University of Madras, 2007
She joined HTA ( Wunderman Thompson ) in Kolkata
-Research Methods, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, 2004
in
1996.
Over
agency’s
-M.A. Communication, University of Madras – 1988
working
EXPERIENCE
the
Mumbai with
the
years, and
she
took
Delhi
on
roles
offices,
Wunderman
as
in
well
Thompson
the as
Unilever
team in Bangkok on Sunsilk and Lux.
2014 onwards: Founder – Director, Curious People (a C4D
project)
and
free-lance
advertising/
communication consultant
University,
Dept
portfolio
and
experience
extends
across
categories in FMCG, Finance, Technology. Besides
2001 onwards in Academia: Guest Faculty at CEG, Anna
Her
of
Science
&
Tech
being
part
of
global
agency
teams
on
Nestle,
Johnson and Johnson and Radiant & Knorr in Unilever.
Communication, Madras University, WCC, Loyola, NIFT and
MOP
colleges.
Subjects:
branding,
setting up a dedicated integrated solutions team for
communication, advertising and creative strategy 1988- 2001 Advertising industry: Worked in the creative departments
of
leading
advertising
agencies
in
Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Coimbatore & Hyderabad across leading agencies including Artig, Insight, Euro RSCG
and
Mudra
Communications.
Held
She led the team on Nokia India, before moving on to
leadership
PepsiCo, India, in 2016. Babita
is
passionate
about
the
intersection
of
consumer behaviour, culture and technology, leading to
creative
solutions
that
shift
the
needle
for
the
brand and business. Collaboration with WPP and non
positions in the creative depts. Handled national accounts like Henkel, Cavin Care, TI
WPP
Cycles, Kurlon, ICI, Wipro, Pricol, Nalli Silks, ITC,
Mysore
relationships. She believes in the power of influence
Silks, Crocodile and HMT. Won awards at the regional
of the communication industry towards a purposive
and national levels for advertising creativity and brand
partners
has
been
key
to
her
business
future.
communication.
In 2004, Babita was one of the 12 Indian women to
PAPERS PUBLISHED Written and published papers in Communication, CSR & Marketing/Advertising
for
Development
within
India
at
be
selected
for
the
prestigious
British
Chevening
scholarship in the U.K, on Women and Leadership. In
national and international conferences.
2016, she was invited to Harvard Business School as a
OTHER INTERESTS
speaker on Trends in India Marketing, in the India
Sports- Former ranked tennis player, represented Madras University
and
TN
State.
Won
All
India
Inter
University
tournament & Bronze at the National Games. Keen interest
Conference. In 2017, Babita was invited to speak on Women
as
Professionals,
at
the
Women
Influence
Forum in Geneva.
in classical arts and reading.
Babita is driven by her efforts on diversity, mentoring young professionals, engagement with management institutes, initiatives for making the workplace culture conducive to inspired talent and strong partnerships. She has initiated programmes like SheHour, with her team, to connect and empower women at work in her workplace. She
lives
in
Gurgaon
with
her
fifteen year old daughter, Joya.
MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
husband,
and
her