In the e-symposium, part of the ‘Women of Faith Series,’ hosted by IIM Ranchi’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee Centre for Leadership, Policy, and Governance (ABVCLPG), Deep Mala, Founder, The Visual House; Saily Lad, Director, Volksara Techno Solutions; Neeta Adappa, Founder, Prakriti Herbals; shared their journey as women entrepreneurs. They spoke about how they turned their challenges into opportunities, and eventually into success stories. Participants across India attended the e-symposium.
Director Dr Shailendra Singh provided an introduction to the IIM Ranchi’s ABVCLPG. He said ABVCLPG is a tribute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the politician who created the state of Jharkhand. He congratulated each of the speakers for the success of their ventures and wished them success for all future endeavours.
Their mantra to achieve success, they said, was to observe, learn, build a team, take small steps, strategise, and aspire. The speakers also spoke about how an entrepreneur has to be a jack of all trades, be it HR, finance, marketing, operations, and so on. In India, gender stereotypes and patriarchy are deep rooted. In a male dominant sector, they had created a niche for themselves and their enterprise, and really prove themselves.
The panellists also said that Covid-19 was a huge predicament for the growth of their start-ups, but they had to accept it. The secret of getting ahead, is getting started, they said. To sum up their journey so far: “If you don’t get an opportunity, you have to create one.”