Storming The Male Bastion With A Vengeance

Gone are the days when women with pinstripes were a rare phenomenon. Think of some of the largest companies in the world and several of them are headed by women. Take the feisty Enron lady, Rebecca Mark, to cite just one example. Why look so far. We now have our own desi businesswomen who have successfully created mega empires on their own and whose fame has spread all over the world. Theres the high priestess of beauty, Shahnaz Hussein, who has minted money out of herbal potions and lotions. Or Rita Singh, the army officers wife whose enterprise, Mesco, has become a diversified business empire that takes the rough with the smooth.

 

This book documents the success stories of 50 Indian women entrepreneurs. Commissioned by the Ficci Ladies Organisation, the aim of the book is to encourage more women to enter the business arena. Abroad, as the introductory figures reveal, they have already made inroads into what was for long considered a male bastion. In the United States, in 1993, 70 per cent of new firms were started by women. In Germany, the figure was 40 per cent. There are no comparable figures for India but the trend, according to the author, Anuradha Rajivan, is that an increasing number of women are taking to enterprise out of choice. Rajivan, in fact, claims that she had a tough time choosing her 50 -- so wide was the choice. The basis was to include as many sectors as possible ranging from beauty to art to hardcore areas such as shipping and steel.

But one has some complaints about Rajivans final selection. Why include, Threety Irani, whose business appears to be riding piggyback on Shahnaz Husseins beauty chain. There must be any number of cases like that. And there are some obvious misses Bina Ramani, for instance. If enterprise was the criterion, then Ramani certainly should have made it to the list since she pioneered the village shop concept. And, why exclude Shobhana Bhartia, who perhaps is the only woman media head so what if it is an inherited fiefdom. After all, the book does profile several inheritors such as Priya Paul and Rajshree Pathy, who have simply moved into the family business.

Another irritant in the book is its lack of substance. When one goes through the trouble of preparing a book on 50 of Indias most enterprising women, there should be something more than what appears in an average newspaper article. Some of the profiles have hardly any depth. One gleaned nothing new about the grand dame of Indian business, Simone Tata, that one had not read elsewhere. The enigmatic Vinita Jain of Biotique remains an enigma, with Rajivan basing most of her profile on ET Esquire and Business Standard articles on the beauty baroness.

But on the flip side, the book does provide interesting insights into new areas of enterprise. The story on Kiran Mazumdar, who runs a successful enzyme biotechnology business manufacturing designer genes, is very interesting. So is the story on Sumati Morarjee, who at 88, is perhaps India's oldest business women, starting as a partner in Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd.

Most of the stories are eulogistic. Of course, profiles usually tend to be so, but even so, some of them are cloyingly so. When the whole world has been writing about Rita Singhs propensity to flaunt her wealth, Rajivan paints a different picture showing Singh as a modest person.

But how the various women featured here have solved the problem of combining work with home is a question that Rajivan tackles well. It comes as a surprise that even somebody like Simone Tata had a tough internal struggle about combining business with bringing up a child. Others like Rita Singh and Shahnaz Hussein openly admit that they were so driven by ambition that they gave their families second priority. Singh, even going so far as to move into a five-star hotel for five years to be absolved of all household chores.

For all its drawbacks, the book is an interested read success stories usually are so. Hopefully, it should inspire many women to flock to Ficcis entrepreneurial development centre for ladies.