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WHY DO WE NEED AN INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY?
Women of the world want and deserve an equal future free from stigma, stereotypes and violence; a future that’s sustainable, peaceful, with equal rights and opportunities for all. To get us there, the world needs women at every table where decisions are being made. Women’s full and effective participation and leadership in of all areas of life drives progress for everyone. Yet, women are still underrepresented in public life and decision-making. International Women's Day on 8 March is a day to celebrate the social, economic and political achievements of women, reflect on progress and demand gender equality. For over a hundred years, International Women's Day has put the spotlight onto issues affecting women all over the world. Today, International Women's Day belongs to everyone who believes that women's rights are human rights. Across the world, less than 15 per cent of the world's countries have a female leader. Only 24 per cent of senior managers are women and 25 per cent of companies have no female senior managers at all. Women do the lowest-paid jobs and earn less money for the same work. This difference in pay is called the gender pay gap, and for young women in many places, including Britain and America, the gap is getting worse. Women are also more likely to do most of the housework and childcare. All of these problems affect women of colour even more than they do white women. When it comes to healthcare and safety, women also face significant inequalities. An estimated 830 women a day die in childbirth. There are some shocking statistics for female murder too. Last year the UN found that 137 women a day were killed by their partner or former partner. Worldwide,
over 50 per cent of female murders are committed by the victim's partner or family. When they have access to health education and care, women are also more likely to be ignored by doctors when they say they are in pain, and serious health problems are sometimes ignored for years.
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The history of Women's Day
In 1908, 15,000 women in New York went on strike because of low pay and terrible conditions in the factories where they worked. The following year, the Socialist Party of America organized a National Women's Day, and one year after that, there was a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, about equality and women's right to vote. In Europe, the idea grew and became International Women's Day (IWD) for the first time in 1911 and the United Nations declared 8 March International Women's Day in 1975.
What happens on 8 March?
In some countries, children and men give presents, flowers or cards to their mothers, wives, sisters or other women they know. But at the heart of International Women's Day lies women's rights. Across the world, there are protests and events to demand equality. Many women wear purple, a colour worn by women who campaigned for women's right to vote. Recently, marches and protests have gained force thanks to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements against sexual harassment. There is still a lot of work to be done for gender equality. But women's movements all over the world are ready to do that work and are gaining momentum. International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women, who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. The world has made unprecedented advances, but no country has achieved gender equality. Fifty years ago, we landed on the moon; in the last decade, we discovered new human ancestors and photographed a black hole for the first time. In the meantime, legal restrictions have kept 2.7 billion women from accessing the same choice of jobs as men. Less than 25 per cent of parliamentarians were women, as of 2019. One in three women experience genderbased violence, still. March 8 is International Women's Day, but the global campaigns for equal rights for women continue all year round.
JB HR Innovation Services
With the ideology that the current 21st century belongs to budding women entrepreneurs, Dr. Julee Banerji is determined to forge her success in this patriarchal industry by the virtue of her exemplary competencies. Without succumbing to the adversities faced along the journey she believes that ‘Gender is not a parameter if you gear up for your milestone and never look back till you reach your aim.’ Through her brainchild JB HR Innovation Services which aims to address the existing gaps in research and education, she is supporting informed decisionmaking in education and training issues. Apart from strengthening the capacity of the workforce by reinforcing effectiveness and expertise through blended learning, she is leading her firm to become a one-point solution to career issues of students, organizations, and large corporate conglomerates.
Give us brief details about your educational and professional background. How are you leveraging the best of these elements across your company’s operations?
I have done Ph.D. in Management and an MBA in General Management and Marketing from the University of Wales, United Kingdom and L.N. Mishra Institute of Economic Development & Social Change, Patna, respectively. I have also done a certificate course in Strategic Marketing from Cardiff University, United Kingdom. Being a management professional, with more than 17 years of experience in Training, Teaching, Sales and Consultation I have taught in various universities and institutes like Army Institute of Management & Technology, Mangalmay Group of Institutions, G L Bajaj Institute of Management & Research, Amity Business School, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Usha Martin University, LNMI, Patna University, and more. I am also a certified Master Trainer from the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Management and Entrepreneurship and Professional Skills Council (MEPSC). My dream is to work on the path to human transformation for betterment through my firm JB HR Innovations Services as I firmly believe that, ‘A small step is a grand step where efforts are bedrock’.
What were the major challenges that you encountered during the establishment of JB HR Innovation Services and how has your journey been so far?
DR. JULEE BANERJI
FOUNDER & CEO
The initial challenges were how to deliver the baby organization with allied challenges of maturing via basic functions of management - Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling. I decided to walk the unbitten path by embracing all challenges well aware of VUCA and took the gamble on an experimental basis. Inexperience and perceived incompetence were the hallmarks of my challenges but I decided to take up the cudgel and promise myself to move ahead. The journey has been a roller coaster ride with ups and downs which is a challenge best experienced by those who have endured it. Overcoming the hurdles, we are now actively imparting customized training interventions in soft skills and mental ability to forecast and meet emergent needs and drive social and economic transformation sustainably. Covering different thematic areas of education, training and research, we actively support data collection, management and use these to improve education planning through sound and up to date Educational Management Information Systems (EMIS).
Tell us about the various services that you offer and how do you uniquely run the functions of the company?
M/s JB HR Innovations Services (JBHRIS) is an initiative of professionals with distinguished career
profiles possessing rich experience and expertise in the area of Education, Knowledge Management, Training, Recruiting and Consulting. It plays a significant role in the education space as a convener, knowledge creator and forum for policy dialogue, working through its Quality Nodes (QNs) and Task Force on Manpower Management and Policy Support. We attempt to act as a catalyst for innovative education and training policy reforms conducive for quality education and training through the pooling of best practices and exchange of experiences, lessons learned and knowledge. We design, develop and deliver a wide range of training and development solutions for corporations of all levels as well as for students and faculty of many Educational Institutions. Programs are customized to the specific needs and requirements of the client organization and are in sync with its work culture. We are committed to delivering the best-
As a woman in leadership, how are you influencing and inspiring others in and around your professional and personal stratum? How has your family supported you in your career so far?
All the oddities, challenges, encounters, nonconducive waves and all surprises along the journey have strengthened my decisional nerves to overcome challenges of that sort. Gender is no inhibiting factor for a mind and pair of eyes which always propels to occupy the driver’s seat. My husband who is a famous consultant surgeon as well as a good human being has always supported me through thick and thin. I am blessed with 2 handsome sons who have motivated me to excel in life. I am always encouraged by my family to move to the next ladder and this spirit never allowed me to take rest. Dr. Julee Banerjiis a committed
academician and has published several articles and authored eight books on management. She has received many awards like Leadership Excellence Award, Bihar Gaurav Samman-2019, Promising Indian Award 2019, IIWA Best Woman Leader of the year Award 2019, Mahila Sashaktikaran Award 2018 and many more in these years for her contributions in the field of social service and academics. She is an avid teacher and researcher in the domain of Marketing Management and General Management. Her areas of interest are Social Psychology, Consumer Behavior and Decision Making with a focus on how perceived personal control influences satisfaction and well-being.
MANJU MENON
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
Women are gradually making their leadership presence felt across domains at regional, national, and global levels. Even in the entrepreneurship space, we are seeing emergence of women founders. As women are constantly evolving and reaching new milestones across various industries, Manju Menon helps organizations convert ideas into impactful social programs. In 2017, she co-founded NuSocia as an impact advisory and CSR design firm to create action at the intersection of knowledge, research, and practice. She believes that there is a need to apply new technology solutions to enable those who are busy solving complex social challenges and thus improve the way the world works and lives.
Kindly brief us about your journey to establish NuSocia?
Sustainable development of society needs active engagement from all social institutions. Currently, many of these institutions like SMEs, students, communities, individuals, corporations, NGOs, etc. lack information, capability, design, or platform to contribute. There are many actors in the social impact ecosystem, but there is a big gap of mediums dedicatedly focused on enabling these actors to perform their social responsibility actions better. NuSocia exists to fulfill this gap through its offerings. Several factors motivated us individually and collectively to start a venture to address the identified gap. In my previous roles as a professional, I had identified this problem and was addressing some of these issues with a limited group of stakeholders in my professional capacity. However, I realized that this challenge’s scale is much bigger and therefore demanded a focused intervention. Fortunately, I met my co-founders from different corporate and technology backgrounds, who have also identified similar issues in respective domains. The reason for joining the efforts to start a venture also emanated from an urge to build something that will remain for perpetuity, which was not possible through individual volunteering and consulting. We want to create an institution, not just a company.
uniquely run the functions of the company?
NuSocia offers impact design, impact communication, and impact assessment services to its corporate clients. We offer capability-building training to NGO leaders across South East Asia and curate knowledge content that motivates youth towards responsible behavior/ social entrepreneurship. Being a research-focused firm, we have kept a high focus on undertaking sectoral research, which can serve the requirements of universities to government bodies to international development agencies and large foundations. We have chosen a human-centred approach, backed by appropriate technology leverage, towards our customized solution design methodology. Moreover, as an organization, we have a high focus on being process-oriented and agile at the same time. We function as a genuinely new age company in a complete virtual office mode, keeping our operational costs lean. We are a young team with a high share of females. Youngest of our team members are involved in decision making, giving them a platform to learn and explore. Internally, we undertake periodic knowledge sessions and fun sessions – making it an organization that every one of our team members loves to be part of.
Explain your current role at NuSocia, and how are you leveraging the best of these elements across your company’s operations?
In my current role as CEO at NuSocia, each of my previous roles and my education is coming of immense help. Both my sectoral domain knowledge and work experience are of direct benefit in convincing clients, as a subject matter expert. Additionally, working with various organizations and roles gives me the ability to understand different stakeholders and clients’ needs well. Experience in team management in previous roles and cross-functional experience across HR, finance, marketing, projects is immensely helping in managing in my current role as a multitasking CEO.
How do you manage to maintain a balance between your personal and professional life?
Being an entrepreneur, personal and professional life often interjects search other’s time; therefore, family support becomes exceptionally critical. My family completely supports my passion and encourages me to pursue my endeavors, whether it has been my long stints away from home for following some coursers shorter international travel stints participating in training and brainstorming visits. Both my co-founders and my leadership team at NuSocia come with a lot of experience and are entirely hands on, to take charge, if and when I need those small breaks.
Do you have any advice or suggestions in mind for other peers or women who seek to fulfill similar dreams in the realm of technology or the world in general?
If you want to work at your pace and your terms, just believe in yourself and take the plunge into entrepreneurship. One thing that you must always remember, though, is to never compromise on your values. Keep experimenting and exploring, and don’t stop learning. Keep your family in confidence and share your passion with them. Manju Menon carries over 15 years of rich experience in the social sector across a broad spectrum ranging from managing large social projects at the national level to driving international programs like Action for Children or leading a consortium of organizations in an EU funded project, or working with impact fund. Her expertise lies in designing, piloting, and scaling up community-based social projects. Offerings: CSR Strategy Advisory, CSR Project Management, CSR Monitoring and Evaluation, Impact Reporting, CSR lifecycle management and Capability building training in impact space.
MATHANGI SAMPATH
CEO
TIMELESS BEAUTY SECRETS
In a world where pure and safe beauty products are a rarity, we strive to relive ‘the forgotten way’ and reawaken the skincare and hair care routines of a simpler time, when natural ingredients were used in their most untainted, unadulterated and uncontaminated form. Today, the market is plagued with an increasing number of brands that advertise authentic organic products, but in reality, delivery chemical-heavy health and beauty products. According to studies, an average woman uses 12 personal care products a day containing a minimum of 168 different chemicals. Also, a recent study has revealed that the skin may absorb up to 60 percent of the chemicals
in products that comes in contact with. In fact, a whole range of endocrine disrupting - chemicals are found in common personal care products like shampoos, respiratory diseases, skin disorders, and even malignant disease like cancer by damaging the immune system. Thus, looking at these adverse effects on the human body, there has been a significant rise in demand for adopting a new, natural lifestyle with health and beauty products that can aid people to look and feel beautiful and healthy without having to worry about any health hazards. Perfectly understanding this situation, Timeless Beauty Secrets has been playing a significant role in offering products that are totally effective, delightful, organic, safe, affordable and also environmentally friendly. Their range of products and solutions are a re-imagination of treasured ancient beauty rituals from various civilizations; successfully melding ancient wisdom with today’s science to come up with potent regimes to enhance beauty or solve a concern. Due to its quality offerings, Timeless Beauty Secrets has been successfully serving customers across the globe. Kindly enumerate on the major points/factors about your company and its entrepreneurial journey that you would like us to highlight in the article. We started with simple everyday products like lip balm, lotion, soap and hair products. Soon we started making Anti-Ageing serums, products for hair fall control etc., based on the wisdom of our ancestors. Our early customers loved the products as their problems like dandruff, sensitivity etc. was going away. That encouraged us to expand our range of offerings to cover most of the common lifestyle triggered problems of skin, hair and beauty Timeless Beauty Secrets is all about bettering the people’s lives by solving their concerns or just enhancing their natural beauty. We not only use only organic ingredients but we also make sure that all ingredients are of the highest level of safety both to humans and the environment. We are much more than not using harmful chemicals like parabens, sulphates, silicones etc. We use ingredients that are approved by international organizations like COSMOS and our products are something that we would freely use on our own children.
What inspired you to establish Timeless Beauty Secrets?
The beauty category is unfortunately “ugly” where we have a whole host of malpractices and brands which do everything under the sun to keep the prices low and the appeal high. Also, most brands in the category green wash their labels to make it look natural, but, the reality is that most of them add a miniscule amount of natural ingredients while the rest of the product are chemical-based. All these lead to health hazards and cause many disorders like dandruff, hair fall, oily skin, acne etc. So we came up with products that are not merely “green washed” but are genuinely inspired by ancient wisdom, that truly works and which is a delight to use. All our products also environmentally friendly.
Tell us about Timeless Beauty Secrets and the various self-care products & solutions that you offer.
We are a “Conscious Self-care” brand which offers products that solves skin, beauty and hair concerns in an environmentally friendly manner. All our products enhance one’s natural beauty. Our hurried and toxin laden lifestyle causes many problems such as dandruff, acne, hair fall, pigmentation, among others. Many of these problems are addressed through a combination of lifestyle which then will be complimented with the correct use of products. We offer a full regime of products for various problems so that they can be effectively and holistically addressed. We try to solve the root cause rather than merely addressing its manifestation or the symptom.
At Timeless Beauty Secrets, we place people above everything else. Our people are empowered to take decisions to help meet business goals and enjoy complete freedom to chart the route to meeting their goals. Moreover, we are always on the look for people who are innately entrepreneurial. As a start-up, we provide them the freedom to express their skills and views so as to stride towards the bigger picture. We have also partnered with the experts from various related fields to help meet our business goals.
Also, explain about your current role at Timeless Beauty Secrets. I’m a postgraduate in chemistry and Electronics Engineer and have been deeply passionate about plant botanicals and formulations, right from my childhood years. I have done extensive research and have got in touch with experts across the world to bring the best of science and ingredients for our products. We have combined the knowledge of ancient secrets from 24 civilizations across the world to come up with the best-in-standard beauty and health products. We will bring out more such secrets and products to enhance self-care and solve concerns in an affordable way. We will continue to keep our thrust in these areas so as to come up with innovative and safe products.
Women bring in a certain amount of gentleness, be it towards people or the environment while being strong at the same time. They are also more likely to display emotions like empathy and behaviors like inclusiveness. We are better in understanding issues faced at home and how they can impact the time at work. Thus, making, working and interactions a lot more joyful without needless stress. Furthermore, we are more sensitive to the fact that personal and professional life cannot be entirely compartmentalized, as one has influence over the other, both being required for the overall well-being of an individual.
Where is Timeless Beauty Secrets positioned in its related self-care product industry of India and what are your thoughts on the present scenario and future of this industry?
knowledge from the civilizations of the world- from the Mayans, Egyptians, ancient Chinese, to the Aborigines of Australia including our own Ayurveda to bring out the best in our products and solutions. Going forward, we will offer the ability to customers to customize their products so as to take full control of our their self-care regime.
Mathangi Sampath is a graduate from BITS-Pilani with 21 years of industry experience. She has astute understanding of business in technology, consumer, services space, and has been a successful entrepreneur with a chain of retail stores. Her past associations include organizations such as Labournet, Symantec, IBM, Syntel, Wipro etc., across various functions and geographies that include India, Europe and USA. If we look at her key professional achievements, for a company called LabourNet Services, she had increased the corporate client base by 10 times and revenues by 6 times in two years. And for Varna Agro Products, she had created a brand (Tilia) and achieved operation profitability in a span of 3 years from inception, and similarly expanded the retail presence to 35 outlets in 4 years.
