The Hindu Business Line : Facing the credibility hurdle

In the mid-1970s, the woman who qualified as India's first female brew master could not get a job in any brewery. So she went ahead and started her own biotech company - Biocon India. Perhaps the distance from brewing to fermenting was a small one.

Today the vivacious and energetic Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon India Group, runs India's largest biotech concern. In an interview to Canvas, she shared her perceptions on women managers.

Excerpts:

Do you think that women in corporate India face the kind of hurdles that men don't, especially in starting a business?

One of the things that women must realise is that everyone faces hurdles and I believe that if you are really serious about running an enterprise or a business, nothing is going to be easy; nothing come on a platter. And I think it's the same for any entrepreneur trying to set up a business. If you believe you have hurdles because you are a woman I don't think you'll make much progress. Let's remember even men face the same kind of hurdles.

But yes, maybe there is a different kind of hurdle we face apart from what men go through which is the credibility hurdle.

Can you elaborate?

I guess bankers tend to perceive women entrepreneurs as being not that capable, competent or business savvy compared to men. Maybe they are perceived to be less risk taking and less capable of problem solving than men. These are all perception problems and women have to understand that they are at a disadvantage in terms of a perception problem. But we have to use it to our advantage and prove to others that is actually not so.

How was your own experience, because after all you were India's first trained woman brew master.

Oh yes, I qualified to be a brew master but I couldn't get a job as a brew master, the simple reason being that they wouldn't accept me for all these very reasons. They felt that how will a woman deal with labour problems or a breakdown at the factory and come at odd hours in the night. How will she deal with trouble shooting problems.

Maybe trouble shooting they knew I could solve because they used to call me only for trouble shooting! But they really had a serious problem about how I would command respect from male employees.

Which year was this?

Around 1976-77 and that is the time when instead of resigning myself to my gloomy fate, I said to myself I am going to prove these guys wrong. In fact I was about to get a job in the UK and I got this opportunity of starting this company (Biocon India). I've never looked back and there are no regrets. I think today I can look back and say I've certainly proved that I am not a risk prone investment. I've proved this to all my investors and given them very good returns. I think I have the capability and competence you would expect in any world-class manager because I've created a great team of people.

I've also proved to them that I have no labour problems and I would say my relationship with my employees is fantastic. We have a great team and a camaraderie that you don't see in most companies.

Do you think a woman manager has that little extra advantage of her gender, in that she is a little more sensitive or understanding?

Not really. I concede that women do have a little more sensitivity, but that doesn't really help because a lot of men too have a great amount of sensitivity. So I don't subscribe to that. I feel what is really important is that you must command the respect of your people. That's what makes the difference. I've managed to get together a team of like-minded people who have a great deal of mutual respect and gender has never played a part.

Are you happy with your women managers?

I have women at senior management levels; the head of my quality assurance is a woman and so is the HR chief and one of my production units is headed by a woman too. They are all such competent, self-assured, non-nonsense women; and are doing fantastically well.

On the other side, when people have HR problems I do make a lot of time for them. When women are involved, they turn to me and say: Well, you'll understand what we're talking about. There I think it makes a bit of a difference but there again I have a woman HR head and she too can effectively address such issues. But the woman is also able to solve a lot of other problems, which are not gender related.

Can one safely assume that in your organisation women will not face a glass ceiling?

They've never faced the glass ceiling and I can tell you that I have great male managers as well! I have a lot of confidence in both men and women and don't have a gender bias in dealing with them. Yes, I do realise that women in our country do suffer from some kind of a handicap because of societal pressures and perception problems but a the end of the day I feel that every woman must have it in her to succeed, to achieve and get on top of all these things.

One of the big problems in this country is that women still feel that their place is at home and I find highly qualified women resigning themselves to that. They have themselves to blame and nobody else because if you are an educated woman who is qualified and has actually denied another person of that education and then choose to remain at home I think it is criminal. I don't have time for such women.

These are the same women who will criticise you saying: Oh, she can do all this because she doesn't have kids. When I was not married, they'd say: Oh, she can do it because she is single. They don't realise the kind of pressures and responsibilities we too have to shoulder. I have a lot of women friends and family members who have managed to cope with both worlds very efficiently. I don't concede to the excuse women make in this country that it is difficult to handle both worlds; you either sacrifice one or the other. It's not true. I think children learn to respect you a lot more if you are a working woman.

I think women have a big role to play in our economy. I totally subscribe to the fact that if women are educated they should apply their education in a meaningful way.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Women Managers: To the top and beyond

Sorry... I'm a woman manager

Where women excel

Making choices

Nature versus nurture

There's still room at the top

Facing the credibility hurdle

They make all the difference