Challenging the status quo ….

In july 06, I had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion organized by the TiE – Women’s Forum in Bangalore. This was the first time, I had the opportunity to meet so many women from the Indian IT industry. The last I attended an event similar to this one was when the TiE Santa Clara launched the TiE- women’s forum. Essentially both events seem to have become just one-off events, and nothing emerged from it since then.

The contrast is interesting – the santa clara one had all women entreprenuers in the panel, infact some of them had done multiple startups, that too, product companies. The bangalore one had senior VPs from the industry – Wipro, Lucent, Prof Vasanthi from IIMB. The topics also could be contrasted, the santa clara event had a lot of discussion on leadership (Michelle Bolton, author of Third Shift), taking risks, finding support from family & friends etc. The bangalore event was mostly concentrated on the management challenges in the IT industry, attrition, expectations of younger generation etc. Both were very engaging.

I met very interesting, smart women from different streams in the industry – finance, mktg, consulting etc. For once I felt that the women in B’lore were much more attuned to the industry and were business savy. Ofcourse, coming back from the US, I have had a tough time getting used to seeing saree clad women executives . The only women role models in saree I had seen were my people in my mothers generation, or my school/college teachers. It has required getting used to seeing saree as a professional attire in India.

The issues that women entrepreneurs talk about continue to be similar – family support, work-life balance, priorities, team support, challenges raising funding (VCs are still a male dominated world) etc. A lot about entrepreneurship is dependant on your educational, work experience, credibility as well as networks that you can rely on to raise funds. I have had the opportunity to meet many women CEOs/executives – Radha Basu (CEO of Support.com), Kiran Mazumdar (CEO of Biocon), Vani Kola (VC w/ NEAIUV), Uma Reddy (CEO of Hitech Magnetics), Jayshree Ullal (SVP @ Cisco),Anu Shukla (CEO of Rubric, Rubinconsoft), Judy Estirin (CEO of packet design), many others. Many of them ofcourse in Silicon valley. It was an amazing experience to have had the opportunity to listen to this wonderful and diverse group of women who have stuck it out on their own and been quite successful.

The role played by the NSRCEL @ IIM Bangalore by offering workshops for women entrepreneurs will go a long way in creating a similar environment in Bangalore. I am helping my friend Anjana Vivek (founder/director of Venturebean) with the business plan workshops as part of the program. I highly recommend this program for aspiring women entrepreneurs.