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.
Aakriti Vohra - La Liga Global Network Delegate, India
Her Journey
I have been involved with LaLiga since the inauguration of the India office. I presently work with the International Department of LaLiga and my role primarily entails ensuring that the strategy and execution of the 360 approaches for the league are effectively implemented. Our focus is one on-ground activation, PR drives, commercial growth and servicing of existing partners, developing strategic alliances with the key stakeholders of Indian football and imparting the technical know-how of the Spanish way of football through the LaLiga Football Schools (A pan-India pay-for-play project) among other initiatives.
Her inspiration & inspiring the team
We have a lean set-up in India. We mostly work with our colleagues in various departments in Madrid or through local agencies in India that specialise in their field. The intention is to always get the best value for the buck, keeping costs and impact high. We work with a set of motivated professionals and hence the inspiration flows through the common passion and love for the game of football and the intent to see the brand footprint of LaLiga expand along with the development of Indian football in the country as well.
Empowerment of Women
I am often asked this question, and the answer depends on specific situations. But if you ask me to give you a generic answer and I speak from my experience in sports, there is definitely an immense need to give girls/women a push and encouragement in the right direction so that they never feel the differentiation between themselves and their male counterparts. There needs to be a conscious effort to provide equal opportunities to women, equal pay structures are essential and most importantly we need to reach a stage of gender indifference instead of gender bias. The work environment should be such that it shouldn’t matter if you are sitting in a room with the majority being women or men, everyone should be treated equally and hence empowered in a similar fashion, men and women.
Parul Gulati, Actress and Founder, Nish Hair
Her Journey
My life journey has been truly special for many reasons, especially considering where I started. Growing up in a small town in Rohtak, all I had were my dreams and a deep desire to achieve them. I admit I had an attention-seeking personality, always wanting to be recognized for my achievements. It was during this time that I received a message on Facebook inviting me to Bombay for a television show. I was only 17 years old and still in my final year of high school, but I jumped at the opportunity.
From there, I became a working actress while also pursuing my studies. But eventually, I felt the urge to create something that was entirely mine. While my characters were mine, my movies and shows were not entirely mine unless I produced them myself. So I came up with the idea of creating a brand that was uniquely mine, which led to the birth of Nish Hair. This venture became my life's work, and I view my career as a marriage and my work as my child.
Looking back, I am extremely grateful for everything that has happened in my life. I believe that all of my experiences have led me to where I am today, and I couldn't be happier.
Her inspiration & inspiring the team
My biggest inspiration is Priyanka Chopra. I don't think I've ever seen a woman quite like her—someone who can multitask and do it all. She's truly amazing and has inspired me to no end. She's my hero, along with my mom, who manages to handle me even though I'm a bit of a lunatic sometimes. I think when you're juggling so many things, you tend to lose a little bit of your mind, but my team is always so inspired by how I manage to keep it all together.
I always try to showcase through my work that no matter what is happening, when you're doing something, you should put in your all. I believe my team sees that in my work ethic, which inspires them. I try to be a source of inspiration for them through my working culture.
Empowerment of Women
In my opinion, women are most empowered when they're not told what to do. When you know what you want to do, and you do it despite any obstacles, that's true empowerment. It's important to be yourself and not have to answer to anyone for it. Whether it's in your personal or professional life, being confident in your decisions and actions is what makes you powerful.
Preety Singh, Co-founder and Managing Director, Boomlet Media
Her Journey
Just like any other student, after completing my Post Graduation in Marketing & Finance, I started my career in the year 2008 in the field of media sales. During the last decade I was blessed with opportunities to work with companies including Monster, Cyber Media, Vdopia, Pokkt and also with some governmental agencies and organizations. While learning from the best and developing a strong network in the segment the Influencer Marketing sector intrigued me the most. For me it was the medium to connect with the audience directly and hence back in 2017 Danish and I Co-founded Boomlet Media. The most valuable lesson that I learnt so far is that any person realizing their capabilities can achieve their goals. This doesn't necessarily mean that success will come easily and without effort. It requires hard work, dedication and a willingness to learn and grow.But having a belief in oneself can provide the necessary foundation to tackle challenges and persevere toward achieving one's goals.
Her inspiration & inspiring the team
What inspires one person might not work for others, true inspiration comes from our inner voice. Even now when I am working in tandem with my team I am a firm believer in focusing on goals. I have always tried to inspire my team by enabling them to visualize their goals and in turn aligning the goals for the team as one. If the entire team shares one vision, achieving the goals becomes relatively easier. One of my greatest inspirations is Sudha Murty. Her values and beliefs have influenced me to work hard towards my goals and ultimately give back to society in the long run.
Empowerment of Women
The demarcation between men and women is long gone, in the present scenario either a man or woman can both achieve their goals if they realize their true potential and work towards honing their skills. Women have truly realized their true potential are already empowered, one can see many such examples across sectors. Although there is a need to empasize on tier 2 and tier 3 cities for generating awareness towards how women can search for their true potential by providing them with better educational opportunities.
Priti S Sidhwaani, Founder and CEO, DreamzKrraft
Her Journey
Over the course of 25 years, I have encountered both triumphs and setbacks in my personal and professional pursuits. Despite this, I have remained steadfastly committed to pursuing my passions and creating novel ideas. Achieving my objectives has required effective time management, relationship-building, risk-taking, and sales savvy. As an introvert, my self-expression often manifests through my work, and each stage of my journey has been a source of motivation and inspiration. My unwavering focus, determination, and willingness to embrace the prospect of failure have been critical to my growth. Above all, cultivating trust with my clients has been a top priority, and I firmly believe that persistent effort can never truly be in vain.
Her inspiration & inspiring the team
I find inspiration in a variety of sources, including the world around me and the people I encounter. However, my greatest source of inspiration is my family, who have supported me throughout life's ups and downs. As a leader, I strive to inspire my team by setting clear goals, sharing my vision, communicating openly and honestly, fostering teamwork, and providing opportunities for growth and development. I also prioritise offering positive feedback, trusting my team members, showing gratitude for their hard work, and creating a healthy work environment that empowers individuals to achieve their potential.
Empowerment of Women
I believe that women should have the power to determine their own destiny and should be afforded the right to make autonomous choices and decisions. It is critical that we respect women without resorting to judgement or discrimination. Every woman deserves to be treated with dignity and reverence, and I am committed to promoting this ideal through my words and actions.
Tanisha Bawa, Certified Nutrition Coach, Founder of TAN |365 Health & Wellness studio
Her Journey
It’s been 2 years since I shifted my career from being a lawyer to a Nutrition and Health Coach and started TAN | 365 Health and Wellness studio.
The past two years have been an incredible journey helping my clients navigate their health concerns through food, assisting them with tools to achieve their optimum health levels and live happier, healthier lives as the best versions of themselves and that has been personally rewarding for me.
Helping clients understand food is medicine. Food is Information for our body-whatever you choose to eat is communication for your cells, hormones and gut
Coaching my clients about their gut health and hormonal imbalances, educating them about their concerns and helping them evolve through building habits and lifestyle changes and improving their conditions has been great.
Her inspiration & inspiring the team
For me my inspiration comes more from a “what” than a “Who” !!
Health and fitness were not always a way of life for me. Like most people I was oblivious to the concept of what being healthy and feeling healthy actually means.
My stint with health and wellbeing started in 2016 when I was in Law School in London. My mindless and unhealthy eating habits led to PCOD – a syndrome common in most women. This further accelerated a domino effect with issues like excessive weight gain, poor skin, hormonal imbalances etc.
This was my starting point for a complete lifestyle makeover. I educated myself about healthy eating and started my fitness training to achieve an improved lifestyle.
After I finished my Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from London, I started practicing as a litigating lawyer at the Delhi High Court.
Being a former litigating lawyer in India, having a 6-day work week with long hours and hectic workload, I aced the art of being consistent with my healthy eating and finding time to work out daily by incorporating techniques that are practical and sustainable.
Being a professional, owing to its high stress and time commitments I observed how health & fitness always take a back seat. I observed every other person was struggling with either hormonal imbalances or from Poor Gut Health.
People succumb to mindless eating of unhealthy food resulting in poor health. I observed the same with my friends and family and realized that the majority of people have an ingrained fixated mindset that being healthy is tough, time consuming, takes away from meeting their work goals, reduces their family time etc. However, the fact of the matter is quite contrary, speaking from my own personal experience.
Exercise and Nutrition not only make you feel better, fitter, stronger, but gives your body an energy boost to meet your daily goals. My passion for health & wellness stems from this aspect of making it Attainable, Practical and Sustainable keeping in mind people’s professional, social and family lives.
It was during COVID-19 when offices & courts were closed I decided to get qualified as a nutrition coach. After completing my education I got certified as a Nutrition Coach from National Academy of Sports Medicine. Soon after, I got qualified in Advanced Gut Health from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, New York.
Owing to my passion for nutrition and upon getting qualified I decided to make a career shift & start TAN | 365 to help individuals understand health & nutrition.
Empowerment of Women
As a health professional, I interact with so many women on a daily basis and I feel more strongly than ever that women need to prioritise their emotional, mental and physical wellbeing to lead a happy and healthy life. I see women trying to juggle everything on their plate unable to manage the stress they have on all fronts be it deadlines at work, raising a family etc neglecting their health and wellbeing which in turn opens floodgates of all hormonal and health issues.
As women we need to make self-care a priority.
Promoting our sense of self-worth, ability to determine our own choices, and our right to influence social change for ourselves and others can only happen if we are healthy mentally and physically and have the courage to strive for change
Tanima Dhawan, National HR Director, Zoo Media
Her Journey
Human resources was always my passion but it took me a little while to identify what industry would fuel my passion and align with my personal goals. After a lot of thinking and contemplation, I commenced my HR journey, in 2014, with FoxyMoron, (Zoo Media’s flagship full-funnel creative and performance digital agency) as a senior HR Executive where I successfully set up HR operations in the North and established processes that would help streamline operations and foster employee growth in the Gurgaon market.
In 2017, my dedication, loyalty and work towards constantly becoming a business ‘partner’ to FoxyMoron’s business goals earned me the designation of agency’s HR Director and eventually grew in a national role to take up the mantle HR Director at Zoo Media in 2020. With the responsibility of turning around struggling attrition issues across the organization and creating a workplace culture that fosters growth and productive development, I focused on overcoming all obstacles in a challenging journey. Over the course of 5 years, I grew the Human Resources function at Zoo Media and built and nurtured a strong HR team that helped employees adapt to the Work from Home scenario when the pandemic hit us. This not only included setting processes for ensuring timely attendance but also planning weekly team building and engagement activities to keep the employees engaged and connected.
I have always been passionate about building and nurturing relationships, keeping empathy at the epicenter of everything I have done. Whether that was introducing holistic leave policies like paternity and wellness leaves or initiating perks with strategic partners (like Pazcare & HOPCO) for discounts on travel bookings, and gym memberships, the aim was always to cultivate a work environment that values people for who they are and the efforts they put in each day at work. I also addressed employee mental health and wellbeing as a priority and onboarded certified partners (individual counselors as well as a mental wellness platform called YourDost) to provide employees with mental health counseling support.
In 2022, pursuant to my demonstrated success in the network’s growth from 150 to 600+ people, I was promoted as Zoo Media’s national HR director to lead talent and culture across Zoo Media’s owned, acquired, and partner agencies across the country. I have been pivotal to the network’s growth and have been instrumental in conceptualizing successful mentorship programs for talent growth and development.
I am also a part of the Zoo Media Executive Council as well, where we make executive decisions on growing the business across agencies within the Zoo Media network.
Her inspiration & inspiring the team
Being a daughter of an Army General, I’ve been brought up with abiding by principles that have always inspired me to do more than the norm - adapt in a fast changing environment, give everything you do your gold standard shot and practice what you preach. I’ve lived by these principles all my life and am proud that they form the foundation of my personality.
I am also fortunate to have a family (and extended family) which has celebrated working women in all ways of life and encouraged us to break glass ceilings all the time. Women were treated with equal opportunities as the men in our house and imbibed with the learning that there’s nothing women cannot do. Growing up, I saw my cousin sisters working hard and carving individual niches for themselves in varied fields such as law, education, social work, technology etc and that laid the foundation for how I wanted to live my life! So I worked hard to make sure I lived upto the family tradition and evolved my own niche in this competitive world.
I was also blessed with the best of mentors and bosses who didn’t create any bias based on gender. Performance was the only criteria to measure success or failure and I am so thankful for that. The testament to this is that Zoo Media has a significant participation of women in leadership roles. In fact, I myself am a part of the Zoo Executive Council and am given an equal opportunity to take executive decisions.
As far as inspiring the team goes,
1. I believe that everyone needs to be honest and put their best foot forward. I’ve led by example each time - whether it was during my maternity leave or when I tried to balance things once I was back. There is no place of mediocrity in today’s competitive world.
2. I’ve always believed in celebrating failure because it defines movement. Learning from failure and accepting the learnings from it is the biggest lesson in life.
3. Always encouraged an open and fearless dialogue. My team and most other people also feel comfortable in sharing their life issues with me and seek my mentorship in guiding them. It’s self reassuring that people believe in me as a leader!
Empowerment of Women
Empowerment is gender agnostic according to me. Gone are the days when only women needed to be empowered. Today, women are given equal opportunity at work places, are equal contributors to household expenses and chores and are recognised in various platforms as well. So as leaders, we need to empower people agnostic of gender and push them to give their best.
At Zoo Media, there is a huge percentage of women in leadership positions who are empowered to make important decisions and lead from the front. I’ve always believed in cultivating and nurturing a performance based culture and am glad that we’ve been able to build that at the Zoo.
Sharmilee Agrawal Kapur, Co - founder & Director, Atmantan Wellness Centre
Her Journey
My journey in the industry started almost two decades ago when we decided to create Atmantan, a centre for result-oriented and transformative wellness. While this was a teenage dream for me, the journey of this in the real world started with research, planning and funding; Today I feel like my journey thus far has become a supremely fulfilling one because of the many blessings our guests shower on us. Also we are all grateful to be part of the wellness industry in India, as India is known world over for its centuries old miraculous Ayurveda and other natural cures, we are the land of Prana {Life giving force}.
Her inspiration & inspiring the team
For Atmantan my inspiration has always been people like me who are all searching for trust-worthy and result-driven wellness… People who want to get well and want to trust holistic sciences to get cured.
The transformations we achieve, inspires the team, and I always remind our team that they could be out there doing anything but they chose to work in wellness and that is one of the most karmically rewarding choices they could have made!
Empowerment of Women
True empowerment begins with the self. We as women need to start revelling in our strengths, embracing our choices and truly believing that we are better than what sometimes others would have us believe. Empowerment for me comes in how we think, live our daily lives and also the people we befriend… we need to know we are superior emotionally, and socially. New research proves that people who have women or women friends in their social support circle, live happier as opposed to those who don’t have us… So true empowerment is knowing that we women are the pills of longevity!
