RPGCOM :: January 2010

Pulpit: Ganesh Natarajan
Women on top

There’s an economic value to it!

When Vinita Bali stepped up on stage to receive The Economic Times’ “Businesswoman of the year” award for her stellar performance in turning around the fortunes of Britannia Industries, she was cheered on by many others – Chanda Kochhar or ICICI, Naina Lal Kidwai of HSBC and Sulajja Firodia Motwani of Kinetic – all talented women, among a list of 400 CEOs who were there to acknowledge the success stories of the Indian corporate sector. Indian women have demonstrated that they have all the abilities to break through the proverbial glass ceiling and reach the top of the corporate ladder in all industry segments. No wonder then that a recent ET survey showed that companies which were headed by women or had two or more women at Board level grew their revenues by thirty-five percent over a sustained period as compared to an industry average of twenty-one percent and the profits jumped sixty-four percent over a three year period compared to twenty-three percent in the other firms.

The ability of outstanding women to shine has been a fact that most enlightened promoters and CEOs have recognised all over the world and it is a matter of concern that women are conspicuous by their absence at the top in many companies in our group. Zensar proudly claims to be the exception, with many of our women – Prameela Kalive, Vaijayanti Deshpande, Utpala Joshi and Asha Pramod are just a few- having risen to the top of their functions in the last three years. A host of young women are demonstrating that the Women for Excellence initiatives and Diversity & Inclusion policies of the company have eliminated every real and perceived barrier and they can and will compete on equal terms with men for every position in the organisation.

Women have a naturally propensity to shine in senior roles because of their ability to handle diverse pressures, build relationships and listen patiently to the concerns of others and deal with matters firmly and with minimum time wasting. The oft repeated concerns that women
drop out of the workplace after marriage or children is no longer an issue for companies which have supportive and enabling policies that enable young women to have some flexibility at critical times so that they can continue and add value to their jobs and companies.

At the RPG conference recently, I made a statement that we must give our women an unequal opportunity to succeed so that we can redress the gender imbalance that exists in the Group. I am sure that all of us have the ability and the will to make it happen!

(Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Vice Chairman & MD of Zensar Technologies)