Mumbai: Today, women are breaking the glass ceiling in every sector. Beyond all this, there still exists a patriarchal mindset. Not many women are in the C-suite taking important decisions. And, of course, there still exists pay parity.
This Women’s Day, we, at Indiantelevision.com, are acknowledging some women leaders of the media, marketing, and advertising fraternity and also from other professions, who have given more than expected.
Her journey
My family and I moved to Mumbai when I was only 18 years old. My father worked in the Civil Services and I graduated and post-graduated from Mumbai University. Despite having a Master's degree in Statistics, I somehow stumbled into the world of media sales and began my career at Star TV. I had the privilege of having great mentors in the early stages of my career at Star and then at Network 18, which gave me the opportunity to gain experience and face challenges across all media mediums including TV, print, and Digital. For the last 4 years of my 12-year stint at Network 18, I was the chief operating officer at moneycontrol.com, which helped me to get an understanding of the swiftly changing and ever-adapting digital world as well as experience leading multi-functional teams. Following the COO position at Moneycontrol, I was chief executive officer of iProspect, a leading digital marketing agency under the Dentsu umbrella for five years, post which after a short stint at a short format video platform, I found myself here at AnyMind, working with a rockstar, talented team. AnyMind is a D2C enablement platform that provides solutions for brands, publishers and content creators.
Her inspiration and inspiring the team
I have been working for over 23 years, and all along the way, inspiration has and continues to come from different people. I am grateful to the organizations and leaders I have worked with that have encouraged me to dream big, think strategically, and take calculated risks. One of my biggest learnings has been that success comes with the willingness to change how things are done, to bring a fresh perspective, to inspire new ideas, and to think out of the box as far as possible. When I am with my team, I try to share as many of my experiences and learnings as possible; more importantly, I tell them that perfection is a myth - there are always ways to improve on all levels - from personal to professional. And I try to lead from the front because I believe it is one of the most effective ways to inspire one's team.
Empowerment of Women
I think individuals, organizations, and industries - all seem to have good intentions when it comes to women's empowerment and gender fairness. However, we still continue to raise the same topic of discussion every International Women’s Day, which is not a bad thing because nothing is done till it's truly done. True empowerment stems from equity, from being treated equally, free from any bias and judgments based on stereotypes. Although we have made great progress, I think, there’s more to achieve. Anthropologically speaking, we are trying to shape and shift thousands of years of social behaviour into something new in a relatively short period of time.
We are making great strides, but we must also be realistic and be happy with the progress the women's empowerment movement has made in the last half-century. I think the glass is more than half full already.
