Technically, a "women entrepreneur" is any women who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

Successful Indian Women Entrepreneurs

Every corporate environment is said to have a ‗glass ceiling‘ when it comes to women moving up the ladder of success. However, these go-getters have surely proved this notion wrong by achieving success through sheer hard work and dedication.

Profiling some of the top 10 women entrepreneurs India has seen –

Indra Nooyi

Strong-willed, with an acute acumen for financial strategizing, Nooyi is the CFO and President of PepsiCo. Her strong acumen for business has helped the company garner as much as 30 billion dollars worth of crucial deals within the last couple of years. With a Masters Degree in Public Management from Yale University and Masters in Finance and Marketing from IIM, Kolkata, Nooyi held several senior positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri before joining PepsiCo.

Indra Nooyi – the most well-known face amongst Indian women entrepreneurs (Image: http://ledienduc.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/indra_nooyi.jpg)

Naina Lal Kidwai

From being Head of Investment Banking at ANZ Grindlays during 1982-1994 to Vice Chairman JM Morgan Stanley, Naina Lal Kidwai is one of the most successful and famous Indian businesswomen of today. The first Indian woman to graduate from the elite , she is currently Country Head and Group General Manager HSBC Group India. Apart from working at HSBC, Kidwai has also held other eminent positions such as that of Global Advisor, Harvard Business School, non-executive director at Nestle SA and as a member of Governing Board NCAER, Auditor General of India and several other positions. Naina has received the distinguished Padma Shri award for her contributions in the segment of Trade and Industry.

Naina Lal Kidwai – one of the most successful Indian women entrepreneurs (Image: http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/naina-lal-kidwai.html)

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is one of the richest women in India studied zoology at Bangalore University and brewery at Ballarat University. She started her career as trainee brewer at Carlton & United Beverages in 1974. Four years later she started her own company, Biocon, in her garage with an investment of Rs 10000. Three issues –biotechnology was nascent at the time in India, she was a woman and her organization had almost nil assets – made financial institutions turn down her loan application. However, with hard work and commitment, Shaw transformed Biocon into one of the leading biopharmaceutical firms in India.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw – From humble beginnings to being the richest woman in the country! (Image: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/canvas/2002/04/27/ images/2002042700090401.jpg)

Indu Jain

This multi-faceted lady used to be the Chairman of The Times Group – the most powerful and the largest media house India has known. Indu Jain is known by many different identities such as that of a spiritualist, humanist, entrepreneur, an aficionado of culture and the arts, an educationalist but her most prominent and eminent role has been that of Chairman Times Group.

Indu Jain – the perfect picture of the successful Indian woman entrepreneur (Image: http://im.in.com/connect/images/profile/ b_profile3/Indu_Jain_300.jpg)

Priya Paul

Armed with a Bachelor‘s degree specializing in Economics from the Wellesley College in US, Priya Paul, entered the family business and is currently Chairperson, Apeejay Park Hotels. The Apeejay Surrendra Group has many different subsidiaries such as hotel, tea, retail, shipping, financial services and real estate. Her contributions in the segments of commerce and industry and her efforts have been recognized through various citations and awards – Young Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India, Businessperson of the Year, Economic Times Awards and the Park Hotel

being rated as one amongst the best 101 Hotels Worldwide by ‗Tatler‘ magazine in the UK. Priya Paul – one of the most prominent personas amongst women entrepreneurs of India (Image:http://www.abtn.co.uk/files/abtn/Accommodation/ Hotels/Park_Hotels/ParkHotels_PriyaPaul_150sh.jpg)

Sulajja Firodia Motwani

Sulajja Firodia Motwani, the Joint Managing Director of Kinetic Motors and Managing Director Kinetic Finance, is responsible for Kinetic‘s transformation from a moped company to a manufacturer of great versatility. Sulajja has single- handedly designed and developed marketing strategies to spearhead the company‘s growth forward. The recent collaboration with Italjet Moto has provided Kinetic complete rights to launch 7 brand new models of scooters in India. India Today has

honored Sulajja by naming her the ‗Face of the Millennium‘ and she has been selected as the ‗Global Leader of Tomorrow‘ by the World Economic Forum.

Sulajja Firodia Motwani – Responsible for single-handedly changing the face of Kinetic as we know it today (Image: http://inhouse.digitaltoday.in/cmswoman /images/stories/woman/84_150_1041.jpg)

Simone Tata

Holding the coveted title of being the ‗cosmetics czarina of India‘ Simone Tata has been instrumental in changing a small subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills into the largest cosmetic brand in India – Lakme, synonymous today with Indian fashion. She became part of Lakme during 1961 and has been responsible for the metamorphosis of the company into the biggest brands of fashion in India. She became Chairperson of the company during 1982 and is now the Chairperson of Trent Limited, a subsidiary of the Tata group.

Simone Tata – the force behind Lakme as we know it today (Image: http://im.in.com/connect/images/profile/ feb2010/Simone_Tata_300.jpg)

Neelam Dhawan Neelam Dhawan, the Managing Director of Microsoft India and is the head of marketing and sales operations of the company throughout India. At the start of her career she yearned to be a part of major players in the FMCG space such as Asian Paints and Hindustan Lever. Unfortunately, these organizations did not want a woman to be a part of their marketing and sales efforts and hence she was rejected at the time. Before joining Microsoft, Neelam has been part of many prominent companies such as IBM, HP as well as HCL.

Neelam Dhawan – from initial rejection in sales and marketing to heading Microsoft‘s sales marketing division, Neelam has come a long way (Image: http://www.ciol.com/slideshow/50years/images/ Neelam%20Dhawan_1613.jpg)

Ekta Kapoor

Love them or hate them, you just cannot ignore Balaji serials and Ekta Kapoor is the woman who single-handedly founded and made Balaji Telefilms the household name it is today. This baby-faced teenager, who once dreamed of marrying and settling down just like any other woman in India, is the creative head of Balaji Telefilms and counted as one of the top 10 women entrepreneurs of today. Her production house has many hit serials to its credit – ‗Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi‘, ‗Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki‘ and many others, making her the

Queen Bee of the Indian soap opera scene. She has won the Hall of Fame award at the 6th Indian Telly Awards during 2006 for her contribution to the Indian television industry. Known to be fiercely protective of her company and brand, Ekta is also very professional and has strong business acumen.

Ekta Kapoor – the woman who changed the face of Indian television (Image: http://www.indiantvtoday.com/wp- content/uploads/2008/08/ekta_kapoor.jpg)

Mallika Srinivasan Mallika Srinivasan, currently the Director TAFE India, was honored with the title of Businesswoman of the Year during 2006 by the Economic Times. She joined the company in 1986 and has since been responsible for accelerating turnover from 85 crores to 2900 crores within a span of two decades. Mallika has an MBA from Wharton School of Business, Pennsylvania.

Mallika Srinivasan – responsible for spearheading TAFE’s growth and revenue

potential (Image: http://media2.intoday.in/businesstoday/images/ stories//oct19_08/080930040402_women6.jpg)

Editor's note: Most articles submitted to Chillibreeze go through a selection process. Only 30 percent of submitted articles are accepted for publication on the Chillibreeze.com featured article list. All accepted articles are edited and proofread for glaring errors of punctuation and grammar. Sentence structure is changed in certain cases and sometimes, entire sections are rewritten. If you notice any errors that have slipped through the cracks, do let us know! (Email us at info at chillibreeze dot com).

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in November, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

Women Entrepreneur:

Women entrepreneurs have been making a significant impact in all segments of the economy in India, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Australia and the United States. The areas chosen by women are retail trade, restaurants, hotels, education, cultural, cleaning, insurance and manufacturing The New Thrust suggests following two factors pulling or pushing women in an entrepreneurship Factors leading women to be an entrepreneur:Women entrepreneurs choose a Women takes up business enterprises to Profession as a challenge and an get over financial difficulties and respond- adventure with an urge to do some - visibility is thrust on them due to family -thing new, liking for business and circumstances. to have an independent occupation. With the spread of education and new approaches/awareness, women entrepreneurs are achieving higher level of 3E‘s, namely: (i) Engineering (ii) Electronics (iii) Energy. Though we should not forget certain Psycho-Social Barriers which hinders the growth of women entrepreneurs.

Opportunities :  Free entry into world trade.  Improved risk taking ability.  Governments of nations withdrawn some restrictions  Technology and inventions spread into the world.  Encouragement to innovations and inventions.  Promotion of healthy completions among nations  Consideration increase in government assistance for international trade.  Establishment of other national and international institutes to support business among nations of the world.  Benefits of specialization.  Social and cultural development

Challenges:  Problems of raising equity capital  Difficulty in borrowing fund.  T hought-cut completions endangered existence of small companies.  Problems of availing raw-materials.  Problems of obsolescence of indigenous technology  Increased pollutions Ecological imbalanced.  Problems of TRIPS and TRIMS.  Exploitation of small and poor countries, etc.

Suggestions  Govt. should provide separate financial fund of women‘s entrepreneur.  We should provide her special infrastructure facilities what ever she deeds.  Govt. should arrange special training programmes of women entrepreneurship  Govt. should felicitated top ranker women‘s entrepreneur.  Women entrepreneur should more competitive and efficient in the local & international market.  Use should invite successful women entrepreneurs from foreign countries.

Women Entrepreneurship in India

Out of total 940.98 million people in India, in the 1990s, females comprise 437.10 million representing 46.5 percent of the total population. There are 126.48 million women workforce but as per the 1991 census, only 1, 85,900 women accounting for only 4.5 per cent of the total self-employed persons in the country were recorded. As per a rough estimate the number of SSIs are expected to be2.5 billion having 9% women entrepreneurs in to it. Considering this trend, women participation in another five years was 20 % more, raising the number of women entrepreneurs to about 5, 00,000. Combined effect of motivational drive, preparation of information material, conducting training, creation of women industrial estates, and training of promoters and use of mass media all together is bound to accelerate the process of women entrepreneurship development. Some psycho-social factors impede the growth of women entrepreneurs are as follows:

 Poor self-image of women  Inadequate motivation  Discriminating treatment  Faulty socialization  Role conflict  Cultural values  Lack of courage and self-confidence  Inadequate encouragement  Lack of social acceptance  Unjust social, economic and cultural system  Lack of freedom of expression  Afraid of failures and criticism  Susceptible to negative attitude  Low dignity of labour

What New Awareness has to say about it? The new Industrial Policy of the Government of India has specially highlighted the need for special entrepreneurship programmes for women entrepreneurs in the nature of product- process oriented courses – to enable them to start small-scale industries. A majority of women entrepreneurs are from the middle class families who have low technical education, less family responsibilities but desire to become entrepreneurs. This potential should be identified and tapped.

Rural Entrepreneur Succeeding as an entrepreneur and an innovator in today‘s world is vastly different from what it was earlier. Besides the existing generation of entrepreneurship also is passing through the transition period. They experience financial resource limitation to promote or to develop a venture and there is also look of research and innovation to meat with marketing challenges. Indian rural economy is also experiencing behavior of entrepreneurial. Aim of most farmers is to earn profits from farming as from any other business, if he determines the objectives. A farm business necessary requires deliberate decision and proper investment, after assessing risk and available resources to maximize profit. There for entrepreneurship is not simply adoption of new activity but it is transformation of a person from traditional of modern India is known as ―Home spices‖ and is in fact the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices in the world. Though, cumin cultivation requires more inputs and production prices are high but last two years monetary output is uncertain. It is also sensitive crop to many disease, pest and also highly risky crop considering natural hazards, as well as the day to day fluctuating wholesale price index. Organizations will face seven trends in the next decade as they flight to survive, grow and remain competitive.

 Speed and uncertainty will prevail.  Technology will continue to disrupt and enable.  Demographics will dictate much of what happens in business.  Loyalty will erode.  Work will be done anywhere, anytime.  Employment as we know it will disappear.

Opportunities For rural Entrepreneurs.  Crashed Scheme for Rural Development  Food for Work Programme  National Rural Employment Programme  Regional Rural Development Centers  Entrepreneurship Development institute of India  Bank of Technology  Rural Innovation Funding  Social Rural Entrepreneurship.

Challenges For Rural Entrepreneurs  Growth of Mall Culture  Poor Assistance  Power Failure  Lack of Technical know how  Capacity Utilization  Infrastructure Sickness

Present Entrepreneurial Scenario

Mr. Ratan Tata had clearly articulated to us his ‗vision‘ for Tata Motors. The company has very successfully launched its passenger cars- ‗Indica‘ and ‗Indigo‘ and recently in January‘ 2008 they have set a benchmark in the history of four-wheeler industry all around the globe by offering their masterpiece ‗NANO‘ to be the world‘s cheapest car worth 1 Lac rupees only. The company has also taken over the business of Corus, a giant in the steel industry.

Vijay Mallya and talk of innovation, to hit the Indian market. Vijay Mallya‘s mission was to create brand Kingfisher as a generic brand for lifestyle. There happened to be some sort of compatibility between the way he lived his life and the brand image that he was thinking to create. One of the key ingredients of innovation is to simply be yourself. He did the restructuring process of United Breweries without any sense of embarrassment. We are all sometimes stymied, curbed and limited by ourselves. Philips, Sony, Honda, Ford provide the signposts of entrepreneurship today for all to emulate. Some of these have come up only in recent years and from small beginnings. In India, too, one sees glimpses of such entrepreneurship. ICICI‘s experience tells a great deal about entrepreneurship – good as well as not so good.

Following Indian firms will keep on dominating the corporate world in the future too —

& Motors  Indian Oil Corporation  Technologies  Moser Baer  Bharti Tele-ventures

Twaalfhoven and Indivers (1993, pp. 3-4), they are run by dynamic entrepreneurs, who manage and lead their companies not only to remain in the business but to expand it. Dynamic entrepreneurs look for growth, they do not have only a vision but are also capable of making it happen. They think and act globally, look for expansion, rely on external resources, seek professional advice or they work with professional teams. They challenge competitors instead of avoiding them and take and share risks in a way that leads to success. In this way economic vitality of a country largely depends on the overall level of entrepreneurial capacity, i.e., on its abili

ated links:

1. Management and Control:

A woman or a group of women manages the whole business of enterprise. She prepares various plans and executes them under her own supervision and control. There may be some persons to help her but ultimate control lies with the woman.

2. Employment to Women:

A woman entrepreneur must provide at least 51 percent of the employment generated in her enterprise to women.

3. Risk-taking:

Risk means uncertainty. It is the condition of not knowing the outcome of an activity. A woman entrepreneur takes calculated risk.

She faces uncertainty confidently and assumes risk. She has to tie up capital and wait for good returns. A woman entrepreneur likes to take realistic risks because she wants to be a successful entrepreneur.

4. Good organizer:

The most critical skill required for industrial development is the ability of building a sound organization. A woman entrepreneur assembles, co-ordinates, organizes and manages the other factors namely land, labor and capital. She obtains factors of production from the society and supplies them finished product. 5. Self confidence:

It is essential to be a self confident for a woman entrepreneur. She should have faith in herself and in her abilities. She should have the confidence to implement the change and overcome any resistance to change. A woman entrepreneur should have courage to own the mistakes and correct them.

6. Decision-maker:

The main function of a woman entrepreneur is to make decision. She takes various decisions regarding the activities of her enterprise. She decides about the type of business to be done and the way of doing it. A woman entrepreneur must be clear and creative in decision making process.

7. Visionary:

A woman entrepreneur is one who incubates new ideas, starts her enterprise with these ideas and provides added value to society based on their independent initiative.

8. Hard worker:

A distinguishing feature of a woman entrepreneur is the willingness to work hard. She has to follow the principle, “Hard-work is the key to success”.

9. Achievement oriented:

A woman entrepreneur is an achievement oriented lady, not money hungry. She works for challenge, accomplishment and service to others. Achievement orientation is a derive to overcome challenges, to advance and to grow.

10. Optimistic:

A woman entrepreneur must be optimistic. She should approach her venture with a hope of success and attitude for success rather than with a fear of failure. The positive thinking of woman entrepreneur can turn the situation favorable to her.