Their business: Top women

entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-

Shaw, Chairman & Managing
Director of Bioon Ltd., who became
India's richest woman in 2004 (an
estimated Rs.2,100 crore )
~US$480 million), was educated at
the Bishop Cotton Girls School and
Mount Carmel College in
Bangalore. She founded Biocon
India with a capital of Rs.10,000 in
her garage in 1978 - the initial
operation was to extract an
enzyme from papaya. Her
application for loans were turned down by banks then - on
three counts - biotechnology was then a new word, the
company lacked assets, and (most importantly) women
entrepreneurs were still a rarity. Today, her company is the
biggest biopharmaceutical firm in the country. In 2006, Shaw
caused a few Page 3 ruffles after a much hyped photograph
showed her in an embraceand lip-lock with senior BJP leader
Vasundhara Raje Scinidia.

Ekta Kapoor, creative head of Balajji

Telefilms, is the daughter of actor Jeetendra
and sister of actor Tushar Kapoor. She has
been synonymous with the rage of soap
operas on Indian TV, after her most famous
venture 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi',
which started airing on STAR Plus in 2000.
Ekta dominates Indian television, producing
more than eight television soaps. At the 6th
Indian Telly Awards 2006, she bagged the
Hall of Fame award for her contributions.
Most of her creations begin with the letter'K'
due to her superstition that it brings her
good luck.
 Sunita Narain, an
environmentalist and political
activist as well as a major
proponent of the Green concept
of sustainable development, was
awarded the Padma Shri by the
Government of India in 2005.
Narain, who has been with the
India-based Centre for Science
and Environment since 1982, is
currently the director of the
Centre and the director of the
Society for Environmental
Communications, and publisher of
the fortnightly magazine, 'Down
to Earth'.

Neelam Dhawan, Microsoft

India managing director,
leads Microsoft's sales and
marketing operations in the
country. A Stephenian
(graduated in 1980), she
passed out of Delhi's Faculty
of Management Studies in
1982. Back then, while she
was keen to join FMCG majors
like Hindustan Lever and
Asian Paints, both companies
rejected Dhawan as they did
not want to appoint women
for marketing.
 Naina Lal Kidwai was the first Indian woman
to graduate from the Harvard Business
School. Fortune magazine listed Kidwai
among the World's Top 50 Corporate Women
from 2000 to 2003. According to the
Economic Times, she is the first woman to
head the operations of a foreign bank in
India (HSBC). Kidwai was awarded the
Padma Shri this year.

Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Joint Managing Director of

Kinetic Engineering Ltd., is in-charge of the company's
overall business developmental activities. She is also the
Director of Kinetic Motor Company Limited and Kinetic
Marketing Services Limited. A fitness freak and avid
sports enthusiast, she even played badminton at
the national level. The magazine 'India Today' has
honoured her with the title of business 'Face of
the Millennium'. She was ranked among the top
25 business entrepreneurs of the country,and was
also presented with the Society Young Achiever's
Award for Business in 2002. The same year, she
was chosen as the 'Global Leader of Tomorrow' by
the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Jatinder Kaur Arora, an outstanding scientist

from Punjab, was conferred a national award for
her work on women's development through
science and technology. Dr. Arora, perhaps the
first scientist to get such an award, is a doctorate
in microbiology and has a brilliant academic record. An unlikely and fairly
new contender on this list, she is serving as a joint director in the Punjab
State Council for Science and Technology at present.

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, chairman and executive officer of

PepsiCo, was according to Forbes magazine's 2006 poll, the fourth most
powerful woman in the world. She was also named the #1 Most Powerful
Women in Business in 2006 by Fortune magazine. She got her bachelor's
degree from Madras Christian College in 1974, entered the Business
Diploma programme at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and
later moved to the US to attend the Yale School of Management. Nooyi
serves on the board of directors of several organizations, including
Motorola, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International Rescue
Committee, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Among her
friends are former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who describes her
asa 'wild New York Yankees fan'.

Dehoang said...

I'm sure these successful women entrepreneurs are a great inspiration to other women in
India!

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Entrepreneurs are facing some major constraints like –

a) Lack of confidence – In general, women lack confidence in their

strength and competence. The family members and the society are
reluctant to stand beside their entrepreneurial growth. To a certain
extent, this situation is changing among Indian women and yet to
face a tremendous change to increase the rate of growth in
entrepreneurship.

b) Socio-cultural barriers – Women’s family and personal obligations

are sometimes a great barrier for succeeding in business career. Only
few women are able to manage both home and business efficiently,
devoting enough time to perform all their responsibilities in priority.

c) Market-oriented risks – Stiff competition in the market and lack

of mobility of women make the dependence of women entrepreneurs
on middleman indispensable. Many business women find it difficult to
capture the market and make their products popular. They are not fully
aware of the changing market conditions and hence can effectively
utilize the services of media and internet.

d) Motivational factors – Self motivation can be realized through a

mind set for a successful business, attitude to take up risk and
behavior towards the business society by shouldering the social
responsibilities. Other factors are family support, Government policies,
financial assistance from public and private institutions and also the
environment suitable for women to establish business units.

e) Knowledge in Business Administration – Women must be

educated and trained constantly to acquire the skills and knowledge in
all the functional areas of business management. This can facilitate
women to excel in decision making process and develop a good
business network.
f) Awareness about the financial assistance – Various institutions
in the financial sector extend their maximum support in the form of
incentives, loans, schemes etc. Even then every woman entrepreneur
may not be aware of all the assistance provided by the institutions.
So the sincere efforts taken towards women entrepreneurs may not
reach the entrepreneurs in rural and backward areas.

g) Exposed to the training programs - Training programs and

workshops for every type of entrepreneur is available through the
social and welfare associations, based on duration, skill and the
purpose of the training program. Such programs are really useful to
new, rural and young entrepreneurs who want to set up a small and
medium scale unit on their own.

h) Identifying the available resources – Women are hesitant to

find out the access to cater their needs in the financial and
marketing areas. In spite of the mushrooming growth of associations,
institutions, and the schemes from the government side, women are
not enterprising and dynamic to optimize the resources in the form
of reserves, assets mankind or business volunteers.

Shahnaz Husain

Shahnaz Husain (Shahnaz) was another successful woman

entrepreneur of India. She popularized herbal treatments for beauty
and health problems. Her company, Shahnaz Husain Herbals, was the
largest of its kind in the world and had a strong presence in over 100
countries, from the US to Asia. By 2002, the Shahnaz Husain Group had
over 650 salons around the world, employing about 4200 people. The
net worth of the Group was $100 million.

Shahnaz Husain was born into a royal Muslim family which

originally came from Samarkand (in Pakistan) and later
held important posts in the princely kingdoms of Bhopal
and Hyderabad before India's independence. Shahnaz's
father, Justice N.U Beg, was a progressive man who
instilled in her a love for poetry and English literature.
Shahnaz Husain received her schooling in an Irish
convent. A western education coupled with a traditional
family background gave Shahnaz Husain wide exposure
and developed her into a well rounded personality. She
was married at the age of 15 and had a child by the next
year.
When her husband was working in Iran, Shahnaz Husain became
interested in cosmetology. After she began her training, she realized
that chemical cosmetics had a harmful effect on the human body. As a
result, she turned her attention towards ayurveda, the ancient Indian
system of medicine, which used natural substances and extracts to
heal and improve the body. Subsequently, she trained extensively in
cosmetic therapy for 10 years in some of the leading institutes of
London, Paris, New York and Copenhagen. On her return to India in
1977 she set up her own salon at her house in Delhi with an initial
investment of Rs 35000. Instead of offering chemical treatments like
other salons, Shahnaz Husain's salon offered Ayurvedic treatments.
Shahnaz's custom made natural products for skin and hair problems
quickly became successful.

Shahnaz Husain pioneered the commercialization of ayurvedic

cosmetics. Until she started her business, ayurveda was practiced in
peoples' homes or by local ayurvedic doctors. The commercialization of
ayurveda was relatively unknown in the 1970s when Shahnaz Husain
entered the business. Shahnaz Husain capitalized on this deficiency.
She identified ayurveda as a niche market and catered to it. Her
products gained popularity in India, and her treatments were booked
months in advance. Encouraged by her success in India, Shahnaz
Husain started exploring avenues abroad. She was disturbed by the
fact that India was not represented in any of the international beauty
forums. Determined to change the situation, she represented India for
the first time in the CIDESCO beauty congress,[17] where she was
appointed President for the day's proceedings. She used this
opportunity to focus the world's attention on India and ayurveda.

The turning point in her business came when she represented India at
the Festival of India in 1980. Her team was given a counter in the
perfumery section of Selfridges in London. She managed to sell her
entire consignment in three days and also broke the store's record for
cosmetics sales for the year. As a result, she was offered a permanent
counter in Selfridges. Shahnaz Husain was also the first Asian whose
products were retailed in the Galeries Lafayette in Paris and to be
featured in the 18-foot shop window of the store. Although it was not
easy to enter the highly competitive western markets and especially
difficult to attract attention to the Indian system of ayurveda, she was
able to gain a firm foothold in the markets. Shahnaz Husain products
were carried by many prestigious stores across the world, such as
Harrods and Selfridges in London, the Galeries Lafayette in Paris,
Bloomingdales in New York, the Seiyu chain in Japan, Sultan Stores in
the Middle East and other exclusive outlets in the Middle East, Asia and
Africa.