Lesson 1: Hustle more
Teacher: Naina Lal Kidwai
Claim to fame: One of the most powerful businesswomen in the world, Naina Lal Kidwai recently retired as the director, HSBC Asia Pacific in 2015.
“At work, when I would go from my room to the washroom, guys would be waiting to catch that opportunity to trot alongside and establish a connection. They would follow me into the washroom if they could! However, women never took any initiatives in terms of getting to know their management. It’s an indication of how women don’t use opportunity to be noticed, to push their cause, something which men would do quite shamelessly. I encourage women to do that—I know it helped me.”
Lesson 2: Help other women
Teacher: Padmasree Warrior
Claim to fame: One of the most celebrated women in technology across the globe, she headed Cisco as their chief technology officer for several years and was recently appointed the chief development officer and CEO of a Chinese firm that is building an electric car to compete with Elon Musk’s Tesla.
It’s true that women have to face prejudices that men never have to. They are always asked to choose between a career and family. It is important for women to have a support system that they can reach out to. In fact, senior women who reach success in their career should reach out and help other women founders who are starting up. Women need to be each other's support system.
Lesson 3: Take risks
Teacher: Ruchi Sanghvi
Claim to fame: The first woman engineer at Facebook who went on to lead Dropbox and is one of the most well-known tech entrepreneurs in the world.
After college, Ruchi landed a job doing math modelling at a bank in New York in 2004. Math modelling involves making abstract models using mathematical language to predict the future of a system. “Before starting out, I decided to go and check out my office space. I saw a little cubicle on this floor full of cubicles and had a panic attack! I couldn’t work in a company that I wasn’t a core part of. So I packed my bags and moved to California. The first company I interviewed at was Oracle, and within two weeks, I was working there.” It was at Oracle that a friend told Ruchi about Facebook’s California office. “I thought Mark Zuckerberg was still working out of his dorm in Harvard. I was curious to see the office. So I went to Palo Alto,” she says, adding that the first thing she saw was a chalkboard that said ‘Looking For Engineers’. Imagine graffiti on walls, people crammed at a few desks and on the floor—this was the first Facebook office, located above a Chinese restaurant. “The energy in the office was palpable. Even though Facebook had just launched and the risks were high, I wanted to be a part of that environment, working on a product I used every day. After four months at Oracle, I left to join Facebook.”
Lesson 4: Don't let people get to you
Teacher: Kanika Tekriwal
Claim to fame: She started Jet, Set, Go—a chartered flying service that has almost 80 per cent of India’s private jet fleet on board.
Kanika Tekriwal was diagnosed with cancer in her early 20s. ‘So what?’ she said and went on to create one of the fastest growing startups in India. “Every time someone gives me the ‘Oh, you poor thing’ look, I just think to myself, ‘Really? I have everything I want and more. What about you?’ People have achieved a lot more than I have and conquered bigger crises,” she says. Today JetSetGo has a monthly revenue of almost Rs 1.5 crore. Their client base includes corporate houses, sports personalities, celebrities, and HNIs. “We service almost 10 queries a day and average one flight a day. We are seeing month-on-month growth of almost 100 per cent, without giving discounts or creating artificial scarcity—it’s all real business.”
Lesson 5: Let your actions speak louder than words
Teacher: Ameera Shah
Claim to fame: She created a global firm, Metropolis, out of her father’s pathological lab.
“I was studying finance at the University of Texas, US and landed a coveted job at Goldman Sachs. When I moved to India in 2001, I had a clear goal in mind: to create a business out of my father’s pathological lab. It wasn’t easy, but today Dr Sushil Shah’s Laboratory has turned into Metropolis Healthcare, which has 130 labs and 1,000 centres across the globe. There have been times when, as a woman, you will face challenges a man never faces, whether it relates to emotional support or trust of investors. That is the time to let your actions speak louder than words. Learn to manage uncertainty. Don’t let it overwhelm you. Have the ability to micromanage and macro-manage at once.”