An identity of her own

Entrepreneurship was her calling: she had founded a tiny enterprise, Sublime, when she was barely 13. (She is too shy to reveal its business line.) Now 30, and Executive Director with the Prestige Group, the Bangalore-based real estate company, Uzma Irfan has revived Sublime—to handle the group's advertising.

Given a chance, Uzma would have jumped straight into the business her grandfather founded in Bangalore 24 years ago soon after her BCom. But her father Irfan Razack, CMD, Prestige, was firm about her higher studies. After working for two years as a Marketing Executive, she went to the American InterContinental University in London for a Bachelor's in Business Administration. She was on the Dean's list, too, for distinguished academic performance.

Uzma Irfan, 30, BBA, American InterContinental University London Work experience: Marketing Executive in Prestige Group from 1999-2001. Now : Executive Director (Corporate Communications), Prestige Group Lesson from parents: Never take anything for granted, especially relationships and money. Fast forward 2020: Ensure the company has grown globally. Best friend/guide in India Inc.: None; always my father.

When she returned to join the business in 2006 after five years in London, Uzma had to first go through a threemonth training to figure out where she could fit and add value. It was on the branding side that she discovered a gap. She took that on, and lifted the public image of the company, says an industry observer. The Rs 1,000-crore group, which has 20 million sq. ft of development, is slated for a listing.

The mother of three-year-old Alayna finds time for her family. Married to Zaid Sadiq, also a Director with the company, she has kept no domestic help. She does all household chores herself, that's part of values she imbibed from her mother. Of late, she has taken on another kind of branding, too: to create her own identify distinct from her father's. Her belief in life: "Pride goeth on horse back happy and gay, but comes back on foot begging its way."