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BITSian Women -
You go girl!
BY
Himabindu Chitta ('02), Krithika Kalyan ('00), Bharathi Balakrishnan
('00), Deeptha Ganapathy ('95), Aditi Pany ('00) and Dileepan Narayanan
('00)
Enterpreneurs
Experts and surveys
conducted in recent times reveal that the lack of role models is the
No. 1 factor discouraging women from pursuing MBAs and taking up roles
as business leaders. But if you take a look at the illustrious list of
BITS alumnae that we have been able to identify, you will find that not
only has BITS left you with a fine education and memorable life
experiences, it has also left you with an inspiring legacy to follow.
This article profiles the achievements and experiences of BITSian women
entrepreneurs from around the world, in fields as diverse as
Consultancy, IT, Education and Manufacturing and batches as far apart
as the mid 60s to early 90s.
Female entrepreneurship is expanding around the world. The Global Monitoring Report 2005 on Women and Entrepreneurship
estimates that more than one-third of all people involved in
entrepreneurial activity are women. The growth of the IT-ITES industry
in recent times has resulted in the narrowing of the gender divide,
particularly in the field of entrepreneurship. From mom stores and
traditional businesses, today’s women are beginning to make their
mark in the ranks of high tech entrepreneurs.
Much has been written about Punita Pandey (1980-84, EEE),
CEO and Founder, netCustomer, a leading provider of enterprise software
support and services. Her company has customized its innovative
services for clients like PeopleSoft, J. D. Edwards products, Sony,
Dell, Qualcomm and IBM. In fact, netCustomer’s success is taught
as a case study at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford
University and at several leading universities around the world. But
there’s more to be said, and learned from.
She started off like most of us. The daughter of retired educationists
says she owes her current status to her education and her family.
“I was good at math and science in school. My father encouraged
me to pursue engineering schools and recommended BITS. That was my
entry ticket into the field of technology. After that there was no
turning back. I pursued a career in IT and software development and
later, after my MBA, I started refining my business skills with a
career in management consulting and marketing. A culmination of all
these experiences led me to found netCustomer,” smiles Pandey.
And today she’s an icon in the Silicon Valley. For Punita,
starting her own business has been a most rewarding experience. "The
creation process is so exhilarating - to conceive something, assemble a
team, execute, and offer your customers something which is valuable for
them, your company, and all the individuals involved. There have been
lots of ups and downs, but I have never been more satisfied", she says.
 Another inspiring example from the very same batch and discipline is that of Vandana Malaiya.
She began what was to be a remarkable career at DCM Data Products in
Delhi in hardware R&D. A few years down the line, she left behind
stints in the US and Verifone, Bangalore and co-founded a software
services firm, EximSoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd., in the product
engineering space based out of Bangalore. Her clients were primarily
from Japan, the U.S. and Europe. In October 2004, her company merged
with Trianz Consulting a Silicon Valley based management consulting
firm. Currently, she is Director at Trianz.
Vandana juggles traveling, photography, painting, gardening and cooking
for hobbies. Whew! All this of course apart from spending time with her
son, playing an important role on the Software Process Improvement
Network and promoting entrepreneurship among women particularly in IT
and BT through the TiE Women Bangalore chapter. “Perseverance is
the key to success”, she maintains.
We asked her what it was like to be a woman entrepreneur;
“Personally I do not give much weightage to gender biases of the
people working with me. I guard against taking any privileges
specifically designed for women. I make sure that people do not nurture
pre-conceived notions about what women can do and cannot do, will do
and will not do.” She goes on to say, “As women, we will
always have to create a good work-life balance. However, if you choose
to give more importance to one over the other based on the phase in
your life do so without guilt and without losing sight of your
professional and personal goals.” Different strokes for different
folks? You bet!
Then there’s Sangeeta Patni
from the ’81 batch, also a EEEite –a woman with several
firsts to her credit: she was the first woman in the management team at
Eicher Motors, an automobile company, and the first woman engineer at
Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals, Udaipur, a mining company! This
trailblazer went on and co-founded Extensio Software Inc. which builds
and sells information delivery solutions to enterprises all over the
world. She currently wears two hats for Extensio -as Vice President,
Engineering and also Country Head. Sangeeta leads the engineering
center based out of Nagpur and has been successful in building a core
middleware solution that has been reviewed positively by analysts such
as IDC and Gartner, and has partnered with companies such as IBM and
webMethods. For her achievements, Sangeeta was featured by Network
Computer magazine in November 2002 on its cover as one of the four top
successful CIO-turned-entrepreneurs.
Sangeeta loves to dance, read and write and teach her an eight-year old daughter, Nidhi.
The youngest entrepreneur in our list is Gayathri Viswanathan.
Gayathri graduated from BITS in 1995 with a degree in
Chemical engineering. In 2002, she co-founded a company called Maarga
Systems, a software company focused on the Lotus Notes technology which
has today grown to a 25 strong organization. Gayathri specifically
looks into the entire delivery organization.
Her career path follows a sequence that many of us women can relate to.
Gayathri joined IBM from BITS and rose up the ranks from being a
programmer to becoming a project lead. She then moved to the US where
she consulted briefly with Lotus Corporation after which she worked
with PriceWaterhouseCoopers as a Senior Consultant. When she moved back
to India from the US, Gayathri started Maarga.
Gayathri had always wanted to climb the corporate ladder and be a top
executive by the time she was 30. But today, she is far happier facing
the challenges of entrepreneurship. However, she boldly adds that she
is not afraid to limit the growth of her business so that she can
retain the time to do her other activities.
Senior to Gayathri by more than two decades is Chandralekha Bhaskar whose story
is truly ground-breaking. Chandralekha joined BITS in 1966 to pursue
Electronics engineering and forty years down the line she is Director
of Bhaskar Energy Private Limited, a 150 Crore group manufacturing
generating sets.
Prior to her current role, Chandralekha headed the Marketing Divisions
of leading OEMs of Kirloskar Cummins of their times and gathered
experience in Gensets for over two decades. In 1988, she set up an
assembly plant at Noida and has been the OEA of Cummins, Kirloskar Oil
Engines and Leyland since then. Chandralekha’ hobbies include
reading, traveling and theatre and she also has worked in the area of
girl child development. She encourages as well as cautions us with her
message for the BITSian woman, “You have great opportunities and
challenges ahead.”
 In the early 1990s Anuradha (Anu) Parthasarathy,
MMS Batch of 1983, founded and built Nexus Search Consultants which is
the No.1 Search Firm for the technology sector in Bangalore. Her
clients at Nexus included technology giants such as Autodesk, Cadence,
Compaq, CA, 3COM, Cisco, Epson, HP, IBM, Sanyo, SUN and Siemens, as
also startups such as Aspect, Aztec, Entevo, IDEA, Silicon Automation,
Sierra and Talisma. Prior to founding Nexus, Anu was the Head of
Marketing for Wipro’s International Operations Division. In 2000
Anu co-founded e4e in the US, a company that provides business
processes and engineering outsourcing services through its portfolio
companies. She didn’t stop there; today she is the Founder and
CEO of Global Executive Talent, a senior executive search firm that
identifies leadership talent for US-based companies going offshore and
Asia-based companies making forays into the US market. Three role
models in one great gal!
Anita’s story of success is very powerful. Anita Sakuru, from the ’87 batch, is the
founder, CEO and Chairman of Kenpeople. Just before starting Kenpeople,
she was selected for the Executive MBA at Kellogg. She joined when she
was 32 after having two kids and when her second child was just 3
months old. At the same time she was running a $25M business unit and
commuted to Chicago from Boston every alternate weekend. In between the
program, her family moved to India and she commuted from India. The
pressure of being a role model for her children and her never say die
spirit kept her going!
She has clear advice for budding women entrepreneurs. She warns,
“If you are a perfectionist- forget it. Prioritize and
that's very, very important.” Anita stresses the importance of
building a support group. “Your family will be the most important
support factor for you. Take help from parents, in-laws, network with
friends and people from the same college and schools. Find them and
build newer bonds”, she says.
 And finally, a lady with a most exciting profile – Chandni Sahgal!
We’ve all watched the music and madness of MTV, but little did we
know that the person behind the launch of MTV India was none other than
a BITSian! Yes, Chandni was the Country Head of MTV India, and was
instrumental in launching it in India. She has also worked with Pritish
Nandy Communications as the CEO and was a key driver in establishing
the company. She led a complete turnaround of Times FM, Cyanamid India,
Novartis and Eicher Motors and has been instrumental in establishing
the operations of Cyanamid, Novartis and Eicher Motors in various
markets.
Chandni, an MMS
graduate from the 1981 batch, is today the founder and Managing
Proprietor of D'Essence Consulting, a Management Consulting, Business
Advisory and Talent Management Consulting Boutique firm. Chandni, who
believes that learning is a continuous process, was awarded the
prestigious Graduate Gordon Fisher Fellowship at the University of
Toronto in 1993-94. But she didn't stop there. She landed at the London
School of Economics in 2001 for the Leadership Program.
Anita Balasubramanian
is an entrepreneur of a different kind –she has started two NGOs.
We have profiled her in the section on Community Leaders. Rashmi Datt, author of ‘Managing your Boss’ runs Dialog, a Learning Services delivery consultancy. And there is
(’87, MMS) who started a web services firm called NetResult Co.
in Mumbai, before moving to the US. Each of these women has broken
stereotypes and stand testament to the amazing opportunities that lie
before us. Go girl!
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