Germ of an Idea -14 September 2021

WOMEN'S BUSINESS FORUM

Germ of

an Idea TUESDAY SEP 14, 2021 | 6.00 PM

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Ms Shuba Kumar To Join, Click...

Managing Director Natesan Synchrocones Pvt Ltd

FOUNTAINHEAD OF EXCELLENCE

6:00 PM

Welcome Address

Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM Executive Director Madras Management Association

Opening Remarks by the Chairperson Address by the Speaker

Dr Lata Rajagopalan Kumar Consultant - Communication for Development Member - IAICS

Ms Shuba Kumar Managing Director Natesan Synchrocones Pvt Ltd

Discussion and Q&A with the Special Invitees

Ms Mythili Chandrasekar Consumer Behaviour and Brand Strategy Enthusiast

Ms Babita Baruah Managing Partner, GTB India. A WPP Unit

Concluding Remarks by the Chairperson 7:15 PM

Dr Lata Rajagopalan Kumar

Vote of Thanks

SYNOPSIS India has become the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world in just one decade only behind

US

and China with home to over 48 unicorns valued in excess of USD 110 Bn . While we see increasing acceleration of rapidly growing start ups there is a huge missing middle. The country has about 63 million firms, but only 2% employ more than 10 people. Only 14% of the businesses were run by women entrepreneurs last decade but this has rapidly grown to 20% in the current decade. This is the decade for the country to seize the opportunity and create 30 Mn new women owned enterprises leading to creation of about 150 mn jobs.

Shuba Kumar is Management Director of Natesan Group, a market leader in the Automotive and Aerospace Industry catering to OEMs and Tier 1s globally. Natesan has received the

Speakers

prestigious Technology Development award from the Government of India and marquee Best Product Innovation award from industry body and numerous awards from customers.

Shuba has been instrumental in creating their state of art DSIR recognised R&D center and led commercialization of numerous technologies developed in-house as well as in partnership with global technology leaders to create new business. Shuba has been instrumental in Natesan’s forays in Aerospace.

Prior

to

Natesan,

she

has

held

senior

leadership

roles

in

Applied

Materials

(Fortune

500)

company in USA. She created over $1B in new markets, was instrumental in M&A, led Six sigma initiatives and improved product quality and reliability to achieve numerous customer awards.

Shuba is Chairperson of the Southern Region and National Steering Committee member of

Shuba Kumar

Automobile Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA). She is President of IIT Madras Alumni Association (Global) – the first woman to be elected to this role in an institution where women have been a super minority. She is Board member of Automotive Network of Young President’s Organization (YPO) International and Member of the Advisory Board member of the Center of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing and Material of Deakin University, IIT Madras and IIT Hyderabd. She has been recognized in the ’50 Women Achievers in STEM in India’, ebook published by CII. She

holds

an

MBA

from

Stanford

University

Technology (MIT) and B.Tech from IIT, Madras.

and

an

MS

from

Massachusetts

Institute

of

Over 35 years in Consumer Behaviour and Brand Strategy. Recently retired as Senior VP and National

Planning

Director,

J

Walter

Thompson,

India.

Currently

freelance

Strategy

and

Research Consultant.

Work spans cities across India, and categories ranging from talcum powder, deodorants and shampoos, through pesticides, sanitary ware and education to foods, beverages, telecom and cars. Clients include Ford, ITC, Unilever, Hero Motocorp and PepsiCo among many others.

Career Highlights: Created thinking frameworks, models and brainstorming tools in a variety of verticals: food and

beverage,

personal

products,

education,

technology,

automotive;

new

product

development, premiumisation, portfolio planning and digital strategy.

Created over 80 hours of training material.

Initiated and steered Coffee and Donuts with JWT Planning.

Published

Mythili Chandrasekar

over

75

articles

in

leading

Indian,

US

and

UK

media.

Repository

at

www.povfromindia.blogspot.com Created Brand Chakras ™ a first-of-its-kind proprietary toolkit.

Won the Patricia Mann Award for Women Marketers, UK, 2008, winning a bursary to the Executive Marketing Programme, in Stanford.

Co-authored "Voices Within"(with two leading South Indian musicians) a coffee table book on the maestroes of carnatic music.

Took short breaks from advertising to write for UNICEF and in dotcom

Specialties: cultural

and

Brand

strategy,

ethnography

integrated

research,

marketing

new

product

communication, development

knowledge curation, content creation, writing, teaching.

insight

and

mining,

portfolio

socio-

planning,

EDUCATION -PhD - Communication, Dept of Mass Media & Comm. Studies, University of Madras, 2007 -Research Methods, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, 2004 -M.A. Communication, University of Madras – 1988

EXPERIENCE 2014 onwards: Founder – Director, Curious People (a C4D project) and free-lance advertising/ communication consultant 2001 onwards in Academia: Guest Faculty at CEG, Anna University, Dept of Science & Tech Communication, Madras University, WCC, Loyola, NIFT and MOP colleges. Subjects: branding, communication, advertising and creative strategy 1988-

2001

agencies

in

Advertising

industry:

Chennai,

Bangalore,

Worked Delhi,

in

the

creative

Coimbatore

&

departments Hyderabad

of

leading

across

advertising

leading

agencies

including Artig, Insight, Euro RSCG and Mudra Communications. Held leadership positions in the

Dr Lata Rajagopalan Kumar

creative depts.

Handled national accounts like Henkel, Cavin Care, TI Cycles, Kurlon, ICI, Wipro, Pricol, Nalli Silks, ITC,

Mysore

Silks,

Crocodile

and

HMT.

Won

awards

at

the

regional

and

national

levels

for

advertising creativity and brand communication.

PAPERS PUBLISHED Written and published papers in Communication, CSR & Marketing/Advertising for Development within India at national and international conferences.

OTHER INTERESTS Sports- Former ranked tennis player, represented Madras University and TN State. Won All India Inter University tournament & Bronze at the National Games. Keen interest in classical arts and reading.

In her 24th year in the industry and with WPP, Babita Baruah now leads GTB India as Managing Partner. She joined HTA ( Wunderman Thompson ) in Kolkata in 1996. Over the years, she took on roles in the agency’s Mumbai and Delhi offices, as well as working with the Wunderman Thompson Unilever team in Bangkok on Sunsilk and Lux. Her portfolio and experience extends across categories in FMCG, Finance, Technology. Besides being part of global agency teams on Nestle, Johnson and Johnson and Radiant & Knorr in Unilever.

She led the team on Nokia India, before moving on to setting up a dedicated integrated solutions team for PepsiCo, India, in 2016.

Babita is passionate about the intersection of consumer behaviour, culture and technology, leading to creative solutions that shift the needle for the brand and business. Collaboration with WPP and non WPP partners has been key to her business relationships. She believes in the power of influence of the communication industry towards a purposive future.

Babita Baruah

In 2004, Babita was one of the 12 Indian women to be selected for the prestigious British Chevening scholarship in the U.K, on Women and Leadership. In 2016, she was invited to Harvard Business School as a speaker on Trends in India Marketing, in the India Conference. In 2017, Babita was invited to speak on Women as Professionals, at the Women Influence Forum in Geneva.

Babita

is

driven

by

her

efforts

on

diversity,

mentoring

young

professionals,

engagement

with

management institutes, initiatives for making the workplace culture conducive to inspired talent and strong partnerships. She has initiated programmes like SheHour, with her team, to connect and empower women at work in her workplace.

She lives in Gurgaon with her husband, and her fifteen year old daughter, Joya.

CONNECT WITH US

Email Address mma@mmachennai.org

Phone Number 044 - 28291133 / 28291166

Website www.mmachennai.org

MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

TEMPLE FOR KNOWLEDGE AND WI SDOM