'Every day is a challenge but fun': At BT MPW 2023, female bosses share experiences of being at the corner office

Female bosses on Friday described their experiences of being at the corner office, which primarily refers to top management positions, at the 20th edition of Business Today's 'The Most Powerful Women in Business' event in Mumbai.

Ameera Shah, MD, Metropolis Healthcare said despite being at the "corner office" she was always involved in everything at the diagnostics firm because that's what it meant to be an entrepreneur. 

"I have started at the counter and went to the corner office. I moved furniture, was at customer desk and was equally responsible for thousands of people," said Shah at a session titled "A View From The Corner Office". The session was moderated by Business Today TV's senior associate editor Sakshi Batra. 

"I went through boardroom battles, three rounds of private equity, public listing, Covid, lack of Covid. Won't change the roller coaster journey for anything," she said. 

Prabha Narasimhan, MD & CEO, Colgate Palmolive India said: "As long as you are enjoying and personally expanding your capabilities, you will reach where you are destined to. When people ask me where I see myself five years ahead, I don't have an answer. A day better than yesterday approach worked for me."

Vinati Saraf Mutreja, MD & CEO, Vinati Organics Ltd, "I'm a second generation entrepreneur. When I joined my father at the company, we were making one product and supplying within India and market cap was Rs 20 crore. Today, we are making 30 products, supply to 30 countries, trading at Rs 18,000 market capitalisation. We both built this business together. We are into specialised chemicals and process is our forte. It's been a combination of challenge and fun."

Devita Saraf, Chairperson & CEO, Vu Group said: "I started my company 17 years ago. Consumer electronics is a very competitive world. It gave me a chance to redefine the industry, which is a low margin space. She said that the turning point in her career was when she decided to be an entrepreneur and build her own company."

Upasana Taku, co-Founder & COO, MobiKwik said: "I became an entrepreneur by accident. I come from   family of academics. Stanford never admitted anyone from India without non-IIT background but I hustled. After pursuing a career in the Silicon Valley, I returned to India and wanted to do something in financial services. We had a million users after 3-4 years after starting the company, became cash positive."

The women bosses also touched upon the subject of stereotypes attached with females in India Inc. 

Vinati Saraf Mutreja said, "If you go abroad, you see lot of women. If you are passionate about the subject, manufacturing is a very equitable industry and it doesn't matter who is selling as long as the product and price are good."

Prabha Narasimhan said, "Empirical evidence showed diversity adds to the quality of decision making."

Metropolis' Ameera Shah said having a safety net allowed her to take risks. 

Ameera Shah said: "Women in India aren't conditioned to take risk, we are always given a thousand instructions to keep us safe. Thus, we stay far away from risk, which isn't good for business. In 2015, I took Rs 600 crore loan to increase my stake in the company by buying out a private equity firm's stake. I used to wake up at 4 am and have panic attacks. Deepak Parekh (former chairman of HDFC) supported my decision but told me to keep Rs 25 crore away. When you have a security blanket, you can take risk"

Upasana Taku said despite all the talk, participation of women in CXO roles in India is less than 10% but she hopes that as India becomes a more powerful economy, women can play a huge role in that.