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.
Journey
I was born in a traditional Mumbai-based joint family set-up. During my growing up days, by virtue of me being the first child, I was always looked after by uncles and aunts who also inculcated a strong drive towards academics in me. Thanks to my grandfather I was the first girl in the family to start working outside my family business, pursued my post-graduation degree and even started my own venture. Now when I look back, I started working when I was 17 and by the time I turned 21 I had a decent resume to boast of. I have my graduation degree in media (BMM) followed by post-graduation from MICA, Ahmedabad and then pursued a short stint in Anthropology from Oxford University as the studies of culture and people always fascinated me! My growing-up years were a lovely blend of work, family and friends in one heady cocktail that I am still drinking! Like the legendary artist Michelangelo said at the ripe age of 87, Ancora Imparo (translates to “Still, I am learning”), after 21 years of experience in PR and marketing, the journey has only begun for me!
I was always bitten by the proverbial “entrepreneurial bug” and had the urge to do something of my own at some point in my career. When I started, the start-up culture was in the upswing and challenging traditional business models. The media landscape had also started evolving rapidly with digital becoming mainstream. That’s when I sensed that there could be an opportunity here to offer a highly personalized yet scalable service to clients (both new and old) without using the same cookie-cutter approach which was the norm. Back in the day (or even now) you could just change the logos of the companies in decks and you wouldn’t know the difference between one agency or client strategy to another because they were all the same! The trigger was to be able to create a future-ready organization wherein not only do you learn the nuances of new-age media and traditional PR but also deep dive into the business of the brand to make a meaningful impact.
I had only 5000 Rs in my pocket and just a lot of conviction when I started. We are nothing but a sum total of our experiences. It was one such rainy day when 4 friends gathered round the table and yapped, some notes were scribbled on tissues, pizzas washed down the throat, one thing led to another and voila! That’s how Tute Consult was born! But this was relatively the easy part. The next set of challenges ranged from explaining the company name and pronunciation to why the client needed PR and communications in the first place to what PR as a service means amongst many others. I gave myself 3 months to figure out whether I could do it and deal with the anxiety of not getting a stable paycheck at the end of every month! The initial days really shaped the way things are today… Hard work and loads of it (changing 5 trains a day to do 6 meetings across the city) to save costs by walking to the office whenever possible to work out of a pigeon-hole where my team played “elbow-nics” with each other – the initial days involved all of this and more. I learnt many a new thing along the way – bit of accounting, tons of negotiation skills, art of selling, team management, HR skills and most importantly – vasooli… all in one as the days went by!
Inspiration
My grandfather was my biggest inspiration. Few golden words like “A verbal promise is also a contract”, return even 50paise if taken from others that too on time and “we are humans first” are learnings which I have been able to grow our ethos on. Simply put, our philosophy is “Per aspera ad Astra – a Latin proverb meaning the journey to stars through hardships
Empowerment of Women
Be the domino and take the fall first to voice, talk and debate even though it may be a bitter pill for others to swallow. Empowerment starts from within and you have the power to make a difference. It is our ‘kartavya’ to do that! We support several charities and education (including that of people at Tute when it has been the need). We have a long way to go but it’s a big start, the mountain is still steep and we have miles to climb.
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