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When Titan employee Rajeshwari joined the premier watchmaker after completing her diploma in electronics and post-graduate diploma in computer applications, she was in for a surprise.
"I thought I would join the IT department, but they put me in manufacturing. I entered the shop floor and saw more than 400 people sitting there. They told me I was the supervisor, and I was shocked. I didn't know the ABCD of watch assembly," Rajeshwari said at Storyboard18’s Share The Spotlight event in Bengaluru.
"I managed. I embraced the situation and the culture, and handled each challenge with a focus on improvement," she said.
Rajeshwari said she soon realised that working in manufacturing requires thorough understanding of every aspect of the process. So she upgraded her technical skills.
"When people broke for lunch, I used to work on the movement and watch assembly. This earned me respect from my peers and subordinates," she said.
Subsequently, Titan promoted her and put her in charge of the pilot assembly for all new products. Later, she was also tasked with training new manufacturing employees at the company's Roorkee and Pantnagar units.
"I joined Titan as a supervisor and now I am heading the assembly for watches and wearables, with more than 500 people working under me," she said.
This was one of the many stories shared by women from various walks of life at Storyboard18's Share The Spotlight event. India's business and brand leaders gathered in Bengaluru on August 30 to shine a light on women in their ecosystems who have forged their own paths and have inspiring stories to tell. These women offered insights into their diverse journeys, experiences, and the challenges they've overcome.
The challenges of women in manufacturing
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the Executive Chairperson of Biocon and Biocon Biologics, discussed the challenge of having women in manufacturing roles.
"For a long time, we could not get women into manufacturing jobs because there was a regulation that they could not work in second and third shifts. When you have such restrictions, it's very difficult to give women certain roles. Fortunately, the government has changed those regulations in the recent past, so we are working on creating all-women teams in certain areas of manufacturing" she said.
In February 2023, the Karnataka legislative assembly passed an amendment to the Factories Act of 1948, allowing women to work night shifts at factories.
Shaw also emphasised the importance of organisations in creating equal opportunities and achieving gender parity.
"When you talk about gender parity, it's not just the percentage of women working in organisations. It's about ensuring parity in pay and promotions because what you really need to see is how you promote women and get them to play bigger leadership roles," Shaw said.
"In this day and age when we have to actually think about compassion, empathy, and EQ (emotional quotient), having more women in the workplace makes organisations better. When you have women in boardrooms, it makes the board stronger and more effective," she explained.
'Culture trumps everything'
Suparna Mitra, CEO of the Watches and Wearables Division of Titan Company Limited, discussed how the early leaders of the iconic watchmaker consistently promoted, encouraged, and nurtured women employees.
Mitra said that when she first joined Titan in 1994, the company's commitment and culture stood out. "Only in the last 10 to 15 years have we introduced policies and processes (about gender parity, etc). It is important that commitment and culture are supported by policies and processes," she added.
For instance, Titan now has a policy that if a woman employee with a two-year-old child (or younger) needs to travel for work, the company will not only cover her travel expenses, but also pay for an attendant and the child's travel costs.
"When I rejoined Titan in 2006, I was very clear that for me culture (freedom, supportive environment, etc) trumps everything — the quality of work, the opportunities, etc," she said.
Mitra added: "Women of my generation believed in keeping their heads down and working, because one day you would get noticed. But today that's no longer the case, and I truly believe that those of us who have demonstrated resilience, capability, and courage to reach where we have and earn a seat at the table, our real responsibility now is to help more women get here."
Nurturing women leaders
Infosys' global Chief Marketing Officer, Sumit Virmani, said that not only is gender parity the right thing to do, it also makes tremendous economic sense.
"Creating an equitable workplace is very dear not just to me but the entire Infosys leadership, because it has been at the core of who we are as an organisation," he said. As a result, about 40 percent of Infosys' employees are women, he added.
"While we celebrate the numbers, we must also realise that if we dissect the reality, not just at Infosys but across corporate India, we will find this phenomenon of the broken rung," Virmani added.
Many women enter the workforce at the entry-level, but as they go up the ladder, several leave for various reasons. A significant factor is the disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities that women end up shouldering compared to men, he asserted.
Hence, Virmani said, Infosys has programmes that seek to address the challenges at every rung holistically.
He spoke of 'Reskill and Restart,' a programme designed for women who have taken career breaks and been away from the workforce for a long time.
"We have had multiple cohorts of women, and are quite delighted to say that not only have they been integrated (into the IT firm) successfully, they've actually stayed with us for several years subsequently," he said.
Another programme is IamTheFuture, which was conceptualised by the Infosys Leadership Institute to identify women with the potential to become future leaders. The programme aims to provide women with holistic development through a multi-year training program, in partnership with leading institutions such as Stanford, MIT, and Kellogg.
Other notable leaders who took part in the event and highlighted the achievements of inspiring women include Intel's Roshni Das, ITC Foods' Ali Harris Shere, Cricketer Veda Krishnamurthy, Adobe's Anindita Veluri, Zivame's Lavanya Pachisia, Para Athlete Malathi Krishamurthy Holla, and Diageo's Vikram Damodaran.