g to check on our yes other panelists as well requesting all of you to please switch on your cameras and mics and join us on screen and Siddir over to you to take the conversation forward Thank you Kati how are you and it's a pleasure to moderate this panel I'm a lawyer but I know why Anurag wanted me and Karan wanted me to come for this panel the reason is I have gone through many successes and failure and maybe there is a story behind it but I'm a great believer in woman power most of my law firm have a majority of women working from partners to associate to senior associate and that has been my journey I'm always very guided by their inclusion about their energy and their positivity so it's a it's a privilege to be here moderated such an important panel Ginni I have been hearing you on Radio City all of us know you very well what you what kind of positive story you talk about you talk about challenging stories all the time Komal I know about your book also and that is something and Akshayn am I pronouncing it correctly Akshayn yeah your name Akshayn Ashwin so welcome you all in this and the topic is the topic is very I don't know who thought about it but it's very interesting success or failure are a prerequisite for personal growth I think all of us I come from a small town and I had mostly my 10th and 12th almost under the tree in in place in Bihar which is called Sivan it's almost like a village it's a very small town and came to Delhi University did my graduation and later became a full-brighter scholar became a lawyer now my door tenant in London in the attorney general of the United Kingdom chamber also run my practice out of India it has been a very torrid journey for me I have seen a lot of failures in early part of my life and honestly speaking I was not knowing that failures also teaches you something but if I look back when I'm 50 I can surely tell you that I feel that my failures whether it's an interview of IS in 98 or some bigger failures in course of my court litigation they taught me so much they were much bigger teacher to be then whatever success or small success a big success as a professional I got so I was very excited about this topic and I will start with Ginny you because you will set us tone for this conference what do you think about this topic what comes to your mind also I'd like to say I'm very complex talking to you because you just told me what are you done and I'm like where is the failure in that this is all super success but I think I can talk a lot about failures because I think my life has been a series of failures and every time a failure has come and I've thought that this is it life is quite over it's actually given me a new direction to move in life so failures teach you a lot but also I like how they've said success and failures both are equally important because inevitably we talk about failures but success is very important for people to actually have faith in you for you to know that you're going down the right path good evening to everybody out there I'm sure that all of you are extremely successful people and I do believe that for everybody who's extremely successful they've had to have some major failures come their way I also think that those people are very very lucky who at the age of 10 or 12 from a small town or a big town can actually sit down and chalk out their life and their life goes like that I wish I I don't know anybody like that in my life and I think that those people would be supremely lucky with the rest of us we start taking a route and then you have a failure you have a cross sign and then you got to change direction completely and go down a different route my route was I was going to be a very successful corporate person I wasn't going to do anything related to media or anything and you know I had it sorted I wanted to do an MBA I knew the institute I was going to do an MBA from I cleared the return and this is it life was going to be set then the interviews happened something went wrong and this was my first biggest failure story throughout school I think I'd been an above average student I didn't know what failure was I come from an army background I was shifting every three years so life had taught me to be on my toes very fast but I think not getting through that MBA exam was my biggest biggest failure and I thought life had ended I went into a series of really bad decisions and decided to go into a shop and start selling stuff there which was horrifying for my parents one who was an army colonel the other who was an established doctor and their daughter who's relatively successful is going to a store to sell but that store is where somebody once asked me to start making announcements where all of you've been to stores right where you say one is free or 20% discount if you're taking a 15% or something those announcements actually led me to meeting somebody who said where from all India radio do you want to give us an audition and I was like are you serious and that's where life completely turned another failure I don't know if it is a failure or not was I was working with a radio station which was a talk radio station I was very very passionate about it and I remember when Miao shut and I had to go back to say commercial radio so from a 40 minute talk time I was coming down to five minutes of talk time and I was like this is not my cup of tea and I left radio and I decided to go down to management which was my original goal realized wasn't my cup of tea and then came back to this and again it was a failure in terms because everybody was like you're going on the corporate ladder you're being stupid you're taking the demotion of such but well those were decisions that I took and were actually forced on my throat at that point in time but they shaped me into the person I was so failure is very very important also keep you very grounded more than anything else and before Sudeer I go back to you I'm going to say that success equally important because if you don't get success I think it's becoming a world where people judge you by your successes people also want to judge you by what you've achieved or not achieved it doesn't matter how much hard work has gone into it so I think success really matters at that time your rewards would matter people talking about you matters also success sort of for me personally I think that you'd be very successful at something that you are passionate about for me as an individual I can't be successful at things that I don't feel passionately about so I think that success was very important for me to know that this passion was well placed absolutely so yeah equally important I'll come back to you Gini one very important observation which I have is that when I was getting success I was being challenged in after 10 years of working for forest, wildlife and transmission, climate change when nobody was doing that in India I was told keep ha yeh putta billi bachana toh thik hai kush payasah bada kum aakhe dikhao so I created a firm which is one of the largest media broadcasting law firm in the country today and if you ask me whether this gives me more happiness happens of course any success gives you you have another top taxpayer you feel pride in it but you know failure is very personal success in the universe that is something which people see your exterior see but failure is something which is a soupy thing which which you live with and you really internalize it and that gives you the energy and other aspect success absolutely success sometimes gives you a bigger vision and direction very few are lucky and you made another very important observation that tendulkas are very few who know that 16 that I'll become a great picketer or one day I'll get a Bharath Ratna people like me we're not even knowing what they'll do till 27-28 actually and everybody said yeh karega kya leh so that way we are fine what are your thoughts Komal how you see success how you see failure so very interesting conversations Gini and Sudeet and I believe in Gini when you said that after hearing your career trajectory I'm trying to find the failure with Gini and totally totally in tandem with her I think success is important let's absolutely agree on that with that validation you need it to be able to say hey you're doing okay if you don't get that so hustle is a great word and what it goes to has negative connotations if you're only hustling you need hustling with success whether it's failure or rather setback failure is a very heavy word you need both sometimes to be able to learn and unlearn and relearn and so it's always my way or the highway it's what is it's to take the road ahead and the long road ahead I use this quite often when I say like entrepreneurship for example is like building a flight as you jump off the cliff because you don't know what you're in for you're doing that whether you're an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur or something who is just even attempting to do something failure or setback is important for you to relook at dimensions of life because you don't know what's in store it's like going to a menu car if you've only been to India and you don't know there it's the Chinese Thai Mexican food out there you do need to know there's a global cuisine and a word out there and I think that it's something you learn and you step up instead of scaling up only with the sign and feedback so that's my two bits on it wonderful very well said Ashkin I will ask you that we three have talked about success or failure which propels you more what actually propelled you more you are influencer and you have such a role so just tell us what propels you more actually both are very important I can say because okay one example I'll say one hand will not climb isn't it so one hand is the failure another hand is success so when you bring together you will hear the sound and it will be achievement of your goal so I can say that which one is more important what are important because to fail it means to learn to fail it means to grow one more step okay to fail it means knowledge experience as more experience you have as more you will grow so yeah as you mentioned the failures is only for yourself and success is for everyone it's true but you know you can't just close yourself and stay alone and say that okay I failed and that's all I never will try again no I just want to say that we have to look babies how they are trying to work okay how they are trying to stand like catching trying finding to stand we are a baby when we are trying to achieve to a new goal our new goals it's like a baby we have to try to do our steps we have baby how many times we fail many yes and never will feel discomfort that oh I never will try to walk no we have to try to walk like a baby so to fail and to have a success it's equal and I wish that yeah now no one will fail the feelings of failure but to have the failure feelings you have to be ready for it also because on your journey to achieve to something there is not only you know just successful stories you have to understand what is the behind also you have to learn from your mistakes whole our life is like a huge journey that we are going through failing and standing up and continuing so it's like a long-term process that we have to go through it yeah very well said so these are the initial thoughts Giddy let me tell you I did few podcasts and I used to listen to you sometime in the evening when I'll switch on the radio and I have very good friends who are RJs and Sharath is a very good friend who Sharath who does in the morning show on that is Red Isle Drive and we are half fever and all of them are training me on my podcast Rahul Martin and him so they asked me who who is the person whom you really want to meet I said I want to meet Gini Mahat are you serious thank you yes I said that and when the fold is back and I'm saying it very openly the reason is I told Anurag he said there is one panel I said I have no time because today there's a very important matter going into people he said there's a panel and this is the panel he said I'm going to moderate that back how sweet thank you so so this I'm saying very openly look positivity stories success failure Jiden Krishnamurti has said that what you should practice is detachment if you are detached from success of failure just be indifferent to it it's very difficult thing to do actually that how indifferent you can be like you watch it flow in front of you that's what I think Ashken also tried saying that like a baby you are doing that journey I have actually started realizing when COVID was at the peak in the second phase I was appearing for many hospitals before the oxygen went to Delhi High Court and we had these letters coming to us that shall we take a consent letter from patient because we can't provide oxygen for the next morning and I was telling them that we will not sign these letters I assure you by four o'clock in the morning I'll get the oxygen to the hospital and I'm talking about large COVID hospitals like Venkateshwar I was representing them my son had COVID at home my mother had COVID at home but I was in these hospitals not even once it bothered me that what is going to happen so beyond success failure how you deal with fear how you deal with selfishness how much detachment you practice ultimately will decide your success and failure stories to guide you so coming back to you Gini tell us you were a journalist also and you came in you are a positive you always talked about a positive side whenever there is some question to you you will say you give a very light response to it sometime which I think is what childlike with Ashken has very rightly said it's childlike which everybody teaches every religion teaches that tell us what is your what is your motivation I don't have a motivation I think that life is cannot be led by being extremely negative or being extremely cynical I think COVID was a realisation of that when COVID happens especially the second phase happened all of us you know I'm sure that there was a time for everybody where you got caught in the whole social media of helping for oxygen plasma beds and it just went on and on and after a point in time you didn't know what was going on and there was this whole nervous dread that we were all living with and at that time I was looking at a lot of things and all of us were actually looking at shows which were more humour which were lighter which would make us feel less anxious because as people I think we want to gravitate towards slightly happier stuff I also think that's an over-enthusiastic response that we are seeing to go with guidelines now when people are going out and eating chole bature openly in the streets because we are positive but I think that basically intrinsically we all want to be happy and happiness comes from small positive thoughts because you can't afford to get too cynical and bitter in life and I think that as somebody who's in a media sector it's our job to make people feel a little better and I think that little seriously so there will be days when you will be low and I think everybody should indulge in those low days when you come out and say that I don't know what's gonna happen and I'm scared and I've said that on radio a lot of times that I'm scared because now this is going beyond control it's in the air I don't know how to protect us but then you get out of it two days later and you want to again spread happiness because that's intrinsic I think it's more intrinsic than anything else and when you were speaking right now about COVID I think COVID taught us all that the things that we run behind right in normal days is not something that you want in life what you want in life is peace of mind a little bit of happiness a bit of people that you feel happy with not spending time in things that you will later on do with those people so I think that's helped in making us all slightly positive in that sense Komal tell us some personal growth stories how you are a business woman and you do so many things and tell us that in your journey of being an entrepreneur what is your personal growth which has guided you more your success or continued success or there has been failures which were the milestones for teaching I think continued success is a great utopian Instagram story if it doesn't exist in your life let's say let's be very real about it but thank God for those thank God for those setbacks and failures it's a very interesting conversation I was doing Harvard course and the professor mentioned something that's perhaps stayed with you and he said that we're not scared of change we're scared of losing what we have in the current which is why we are about to change because we're going to lose what we have but why don't you celebrate failure sometimes a setback makes me say right whatever happens is to be good you also need to embrace and celebrate I think at some point it helps you do as a person it's just so yeah it is very difficult to feel detached so when I had a big smile on my face when you and me mentioned the bound attachment which is it's great to play but the practice part of it is very difficult and remember when I was transitioning so I was working for eight years before I took the ground just starting with my own company in a little purely situation let's put it that way so at 25 I started my company I don't think I slept well for three months because the fact that you don't get a fee will take you at home though you don't think about it in that manner sort of you said okay how are you going to manage it how are you going to play your team you're not thinking for yourself but you suddenly have an attachment to so many people that you're associated with absolutely and that is the founder of a business so I think I'm going to relearn being able to celebrate taking a deep breath and saying okay not only with your past the science thing we currently not come back so you know I make time to move forward it's really going on oh and I was self which is normal to do and I'll celebrate it but I have to do it because I need to get over it and then you get up and you walk because you have no option to keep your goals and heal fire that's how I sort of have lived by and that helps me there's a journey to it I think I'm enjoying my journey really wonderful steady but I'm loving it so good Ginni I'll tell you that I am actually the only social media I know is LinkedIn and I have 75,000 followers there I'm not on Facebook, Instagram I don't know so I just kept the urgent kind of focus on one particular thing and that's what I do in life but feeling responsible about your ecosystem which you talked about and which is a such amazing thing commonly you said the feeling responsible towards your ecosystem the people who are dependent on you the people who look up to you and your journey and being ethical and that's an island concept it's an island concept which they say that don't bother about what others are doing you have your own journey which will have integrity which will have trust which will have a lot of gratitude and perseverance and you propel yourself with these things so basically when you talk about personal growth also it is not in terms of money or it's in terms of something it's more than that so when you generate money you generate for yourself for example when you generate wealth you generate for the entire community your ecosystem so these are the thoughts which should guide you in your journey Haskin tell us more about the examples which you gave us that how do we deal with like you give brilliant example of children very young children tell us more about what other things should guide us when we interpret success or failure um well knowledge so you have to you know the first thing okay I give you some keys the first thing that you have to fix the goal that what you want to achieve okay that is the most important part before the goal you have to like you have dreams yes you have to realize which one is more important for you okay you'll fix your goal and you after fixing I want this or I want to achieve of this level you have to do analysis of your resources okay it can be knowledge it can be financial part it can be your connection your network that your friends who you have around the field and who can help you or what resources or what kind of resources you need to achieve to the goal or if you need to you know improve your knowledge improve your skills to get that goal to achieve to the goal okay what you have to learn how to learn from where to find a teacher or that I don't know expert so when you already write down all these steps everything will be clear for you like what you have to do the next and always be ready the second point is always be ready to study okay in all your life okay you graduated university it doesn't mean that you are a super professional and that's all everyone should hire you everyone should come and ask you so your services or buy from you because you have to grow okay you have to be ready always to study always every day get something new improve your knowledge improve your skills because your knowledge is the most important is the most valuable thing that you have as the knowledge can maximize your potential can maximize your talent and can open doors front of you and you be ready to learn yes that is the second key that will advice everyone not to fail to have a success so always if you try to search on nowadays internet gives us great opportunity you can sit in India you can take the courses from I don't know from another side of the world so and you can improve your skills that is the second point that I'll advise and the third one I'll say that you know be responsible whatever you want to do don't start one day and second day you say oh I'm busy I have a guest I have to go somewhere so be responsible whatever you want to do or what you are doing because if you don't fix it in your mind that this is very important I have to do okay for example no one one day will become an Olympic champion isn't it so you have to train yourself every day if the champion train himself one day and the next day say that oh I'm busy I can't go so he will not become Olympic champion isn't it so you have to be responsible of your goals of your future of your life and the fourth point that I would like to advise that always look around a few like you know be in good people's like be always with good people surround yourself with good people people who will not only help you they can advice you they can teach you or you can inspire from them or you can learn something from them that is very important because to be a failure or to be a successful person in personal life in business in any like generally in your life it's very important to have a connection we have connection we are starting to have a good connection since our childhood since our school so as strong is our connection it doesn't mean like you know financial part okay I did something for you you have to do to me yes it's not like that you have to be kind to people you have to you know give something always be ready to help others especially nowadays like this pandemic is like a really big challenge for everyone if you are able to give your knowledge free also don't feel bad to give it free because it will come back to you absolutely so this is my it is such an exhaustive list and I'll tell you I'm so surprised that we are talking about same kind of stuff I just got a quote from Ami Polar he said the same thing you can't do it alone find a group of people who challenge and inspire you spend a lot of time with them and it will change your life this is what you said in one of the points so what and this is the quote of the day somebody had sent me so good things are being manifested here I can see Gini one important thing I'll tell you when I gave the interview of 1998 for IS me and my father we came out of the final world and he was very dejected person because Gini you know in Eastern UP Bihar IS preparation is a journey of life like you spent four five years in that so I was very dejected very disappointed but he said a very important thing he said son you have no chance now you you came out of 12 lakhs people in last six hundred you didn't clear it but the knowledge you got that knowledge won't go wrong it will be used somewhere so what happened what you just said Ashkini seven newspapers I was reading at that time I was still reading 72 papers even in pandemic and it helped me a lot in my profession I never realized it so my marks in my tenth was very less it was 60 61 percent I had 59 percent in 12 I had barely got admission in any evening college in Delhi I taught my college in final year I did very well in IS but if you rejected from IS until nobody takes you because your academic curriculum was very bad so I told my father one day that I will be teaching one day in the best law schools I just manifested so today I have a full right scholarship because of IV fellowship which I got in 2005 because of my walk on climate change and environmental law and I'm teaching in Ophijindal University with one of the best private university in India as a honorary professor I'm also teaching in Southampton University in London and I said okay I can't study in LLM or something because of my marks but I didn't teach for that there is no academic criteria your excellence, your success is the greater value so life has a strange way of rewarding you life has a strange ways of telling you that no verdict is final no defeat is final and it's only a moment which can change your entire life giving your final thoughts about one, two, three which we should follow this is my time to ask you those things which I can't ever call you and ask that it's so difficult to get you there yeah I think that after hearing everybody I've realized that success is very important because it takes you from point A to point B but success also brings in a certain amount of fear this is what I feel at this point in time because you're too scared to take risks because you've been successful for a while I think what failure does and it's a very interesting thing because now that you're slightly an adult about it and you're not breaking down at every failure is that it gives you the freedom because you have nothing to lose and when you reach that point of nothing to lose is when you actually open up and go ahead with full steam about whatever you believe in so I think both equally important but sometimes I think after every five years of successful living there should be one massive failure in our lives I'm God I'm not calling in for it but literally so that you get back and you're able to take those risks which success sometimes after a point in time does not let you take because it's predefined why would you want to shift the focus so I think that's very important beyond that I just hope that beyond success and failure whether you're very successful or whether you're a failed individual the one thing that you're looking for is happy people around you because that's what you want at the end of the day again COVID biggest teacher in this and I hope that all of us just remember that that's very essential in both cases but yeah don't be scared of any I mean my president just quit the other day and one last lesson that she gave all of us was don't be scared be fearless I think that really works in all situations don't give up okay just final thoughts 30 seconds for Komal what are your final two suggestions to us on success and failure yeah you're mute you're mute be your fan and be your critic both staying both in stride and the opposite of failure is not success and the opposite of success is not failure there's that journey walk that keep your goals high you'll be fine but Ashkin your final 30 seconds I just will say that failure is that the oil and your success is your engine you so put oil in your engine and go ahead wonderful thank you all over to you Kati I'm so privileged to moderate this panel thank you Sudhir Bhai thank you everyone well thank you I said that we've had an influx of knowledge and insights during this sessions so if you'd like to share your key highlights from the session so far go ahead and do that by tweeting to us using the hashtag eformprwomenofchivers and now we're moving towards our next panel discussion which will talk about work beyond COVID hybrid working models are here to stay and we have panelists in this session bringing on screen Anjana Asrani communications lead Yuma Pasna Dash founder and CEO Jhajubar brand consultancy Simran Kodesya communications lead India and Southeast Asia Airbnb P.L. Banerjee head external communications IPM India and moderating this session is Ms. Nafisa Shaheen correspondent at exchange for media a very warm welcome to you ladies thank you so much for the lovely welcome Cathy I think yes and hello all you lovely ladies and welcome to session five of the second edition of eformprwomenofchivers summit and awards 2021 so before we begin are you guys all vaccinated yes fully vaccinated awesome okay I was not at first dose so okay okay so you are on the step and everyone I guess everyone is at least I've got the first dose okay so you have explanations bring us closer to a post-COVID world many business leaders across sectors as well as countries you know have started contemplating the future of work spaces you know on how and where will they fix those workplaces that you don't sit dormant for the past one and a half years so while I was researching for this session I got to know that there are two set of employees the first set believe that they will be comfortable working remotely after the pandemic ends which I feel is a distant dream but we all can be guarded by optimistic thoughts while the second set of employees feel that we will be moving towards a hybrid working model so I'd like to start this session by asking my co-panelist about your views on if hybrid working models will become the norm moving forward so we will start with you Anjana what are your thoughts on the same oh thank you so much for the introduction together Nafeesa it's really great to be here so I think see the fact that the whole work ended to a work from at the same time kind of really put the focus on remote working and hybrid work models right and at the moment I think companies are experimenting different methodologies or models as we can call it like there are some companies that are saying let's have a more staggered approach come in two or three days a week there are some where you know they've probably decluttered the end of 2021 that it's going to be work from home or some have even left it completely up to the to the employees themselves but I think as organizations think about the longer term hybrid working models will become a reality but having said that it will only be in my opinion be impactful or useful for certain sectors right it cannot be applied at a mass scale at the moment and as we go through this I think it's more about what are the new policies what are the new initiatives that organizations are thinking through to make sure hybrid work models become you know or we're creating a more level playing field for employees in a hybrid work model because it's going to come with its own challenges it's going to be brand new there's going to be a lot of unlearning that needs to be done you know culturally and you know in terms of organizations that are thinking through this so yes it is going to be a reality in my opinion but in a very very selective manner okay so according to Anjanay it will be limited to some of the sectors and we need to do a lot of oil learning what are your thoughts of us now on this thanks Navisa firstly great to be joined by such incredible women and I think this is an important question to ask specifically in the services industry and industries like we are right where all the capital is actually human capital right so how you place them is very very important my personal experience has been that you know my employees actually leaning more towards working in person and tilting more towards being in the office as opposed to being at home very surprisingly we've always had a very democratic setup where people can choose and vote in terms of whether they want to work remotely or in person and surprisingly what they've actually come up to me and said is couple of things right one is that in India the work from home infrastructure still needs a lot of work right access to wifi you know just making sure electricity is there on time private space to work so those challenges still exist for people at large secondly in the field like PR communication a lot of it is to just do you know creative conversations creative thinking in person makes a huge difference yes there are tools except for that available and I think thirdly people loved having that dedicated space for work and you know work there and then come back home so they actually felt like work-life balance was getting heavily cannibalized when they were working from home so these are the three things that got them to really want to be in office but I actually completely agree with Anjana that the future is definitely hybrid I don't think we can have a one-size-fits-all approach here right there are specific industries and specific companies that can do this completely or not and I also think that I don't think we reach the end of the cycle right none of us have a crystal ball to say whether the pandemic is here it's over every week there's a new development right and I think we'll have to be really agile but I think in the in the long run and when I say long run I mean till the end of the year I think hybrid models are definitely here to stay and in certain industries specifically PR and comms I think they'll be tilted a little bit more towards working in office but you have to keep the right checks in place for example we've gotten every employee vaccinated we're enabling vaccinations for them etc so thoughtfully getting them back to the workspace is what I recommend should happen and possibly will happen okay so as you know Basna mentioned about infrastructure for working from home so Sindhu I'd like to ask from you like how can employees at their workplaces accommodate or try to accommodate this hybrid work model that we are moving forward sure thanks thanks Nafisa and you know I sort of really agree with what Basna also just mentioned I think it's you know it's very important that employers are you know taking like a very cautious approach when they're getting employees back so I can you know when talking about Airbnb I can tell you that we've been given flexibility till September of 2022 to decide whether we want to work from home even if our global offices start opening it'll be like a face reopening and employees will still have the option to work either from home or you know relocate to another place you know live anywhere as they say in the terms of travel so I think that is definitely a hybrid model will definitely be here to stay employers are doing all their best you know to sort of aid making sure that employees are getting vaccinated when they're bringing them back into work spaces you know the spaces are now set up in a way that you know not too many people are on one table in some offices I also realize that you know you also have to check in before actually going to work and you know to realize that it's a very important thing to do but I think the most important thing which Basna also mentioned is that you know that that human interaction that people sort of miss that was the best part of going to office you know so even if you were interacting with your colleagues you know some of those best conversations and ideas especially in the themes you know across PR marketing communications we actually used to come across having those Chai Bar conversations right so I think it's a very important it's a very important tool you know for people to sort of interact with one another you know get that creativity and get that energy from one another's but I do think that employers have to be extremely cautious as they sort of bring employees back to work space What are your thoughts on this field? Yeah so thank you for the opportunity and it's lovely to share a stage with all you wonderful women today so I want to step back a little bit you know and I think everybody's echoed a similar sentiment that you know the hybrid model is going away you know it's obviously a blend we're a people centric country we're all about you know sort of meeting each other doing our chai paani doing a little gossip engaging and that's that's going to be primarily a one that all of us have but having said that I think this entire concept of working remotely and working from home had a huge trust barrier like the minute somebody would say pre-pandemic it's like we're working from home so you never know that we're working from home or not you always feel they're not all hands are not on the deck or there's something else that the individual is doing and possibly not being as efficient possibly not being as dedicated and you need to sort of check into that right so all of that has completely been dispelled I think so work from home is a reality and work of home is a reality and our people managers are embracing it was thrust upon us at the back of the pandemic overnight no less but I think it's a format that everybody's figured out where you know that you know it is something that you can do it is something that you can seamlessly sort of incorporate so I think it's a cultural ideological and psychological shift that things can happen you know when you're not physically engaged so that's number one and that actually has to be ingrained in the culture of every organization that hybrid is not any less it's as much as effective and as productive you've done well number one that so it's cultural top down communication which has to find its way into the policies into the cultural narrative into the stories that you're telling your employees so that's number one number two is of course the infrastructure right and you know the government has repeatedly put you know enough and more preventive and precautionary sort of guidelines which need to be implemented it needs to be in a rotational manner it needs to be phased out it needs to be one that makes your employee comfortable you know it doesn't feel like a you know sort of mounting the Everest to come to work so there has to be abundant communication enough soft landing just keep the personal touch keep it not a memo but a dialogue so that people are looking forward to it saying that you know it's a safe haven for us to go through so I think just putting all of that in order and I think everybody's spoken enough about the temperature checks the vaccination so do one camp do two do booster camps and you know make healthcare of you know intervention agenda almost not a camp that happens as a rosy you know thing to do at the end of two years but almost like probably every six months to you know understand what is the what is the privilege of good help so I think all of that come together in making hybrid a reality because I definitely feel that if a blend is right both things can work beautifully so definitely all for it I think we all agree with what P.L. has just said and you have pointed out a very important topic of productivity so while we were working from home and everything started and we had no playbook so we have seen that some of the sectors have gone really high on in terms of productivity while rest have gone you know seats down so when we talk about this hybrid work model so will it have its own implications or will this be a more comfortable and adaptable way of working for the future so this time we can start with Simran sure thanks Nafisa so honestly you know to be very honest with you I think you know when we were going to office you know there was like a routine that you were following you know you could shut your computer down you could actually you know take a breath have a cup of tea when you come back home and you sort of feel that the day has ended you know all of us as communicators are so compulsive about checking our emails that we would still go and check our emails on the phone but now working from home there is no end to your day right because everybody thinks you have nowhere to go you've got nothing better to do and you yourself are now tuned in a way that you know if I have to do this tomorrow why can't I finish this at 10 o'clock this night and you know get one thing off my agenda so when there is no end to your work day you know instead of being productive I also feel that there is a sense of fatigue setting in you know there is no switching off you're constantly looking at your phone you know in your in your mind there are like multiple tabs open at all points in time so there is no rest so I think sometimes if there is lack of productivity in some sectors maybe they're absolutely fatigued with this whole work from home you know another reality which is very true for women is that you know they're also sort of double-hating you know being a mom you know being a homemaker you know managing everything at home and doing their Zoom calls in between it's it's not an easy thing and you know like men folk have obviously you know started helping more you know but you know children are not going to school as well so how much how much of all of that can you sort of manage so there's not one thing which is impacting your productivity but there could be many things and the fatigue of overall all of this pandemic fatigue we've sort of hit the wall with the second wave right when the first wave ended and you know we saw somebody on normalcy coming back and the second wave was like you know episode season two of a show you didn't like the very first time right and nobody was sort of ready for it so I think that's one thing that both employers as well as employees have to take care of at finding that balance still taking your PTO even if you have nowhere to go is like an important way to just sort of sleep off and get that fatigue off to be productive on on your next Monday so that that's my take here okay so what would you like to say Anjana on a pizza so I think see as we transform into this hybrid work model right I think the expectations and needs of employees must be seen as an opportunity for organizations to transform their work culture I'm not saying it's not just the cosmetic changes that need to happen right it has to be at a much much deeper level the concept of office will definitely change like you know what we know as of today so in my opinion I I'm not sure if enforcing rules like employees need to come in two or three times a week or you know just you know kind of binding them by rules in terms of how many days a week they have to be there versus can we look at teams where we feel it's going to be more productive for them if they're in the office right simplest example is if I'm on the innovation team does it make sense for me to come two or three times a week have face-to-face meetings do those you know kind of cat-ups with them so I'm able to see progress in my work versus say someone who's working for the warehouse or in the warehouse right he has to be there he or she has to be there on the floor every day so it's very difficult to say that okay come two or three days a week and you're also not being inclusive because there are certain teams in an organization that don't have that freedom or that flexibility to offer a hybrid work model so yeah I think whether like I said like I've said before and I think a lot of them on the panel have said the way organizations look at it we have to change it of course hybrid work models will become very a lot more adaptable than we are today but I think it's also flexibility versus clarity of expectation and we so you versus yes I think that's really important so Piyal what would you like to add to this you know Anjana has touched upon a point that I wanted to probably be labor with repetition but you know there is no one-size-fits-all right so I think it really depends on the function it's specific to the function that you can sort of enjoy the luxury of you know indulging in a hybrid format but having said that you know also I feel that within functions for instance the sales fraternity of any organization which is intrinsically the backbone as they say of any commercial practice like what we've done for our organizational is that it's rotational so for instance you have a brigade that goes into work at a certain stipulated time and the rest sort of take take precedence from there on so I think the way that a lot of organizations are looking at enhancing predictivity is by saying that it's people first guys for this term and business sort of comes second so we'll be ensuring the lives of our employees first and then livelihoods are a second guess so I think in that whatever needs to happen whatever enhances whatever is the mode to productivity and to efficiency one has sort of walked the path on and like I said like you know it's important some people just have to go in whether it's finance whether it's sales whether it's operations especially it's a supply chain they have to but the way that they can possibly do this and divide and conquer and we've seen that in our organization is that do it on a rotational paced out manner in such time that the inoculation process the vaccination process is all done one of the other things which is important is to do an antigen test after you've done your entire you know doses that have come through you and just to see how much protection do you have and all of these things kind of find their way like I said previously into the policy framework of people today so I think we're sort of rewriting the entire script on that where everything is about safeguarding you know people first and business second and I feel that's going to be a trend now because this is not going away in a hurry we have the third wave quite on our toes so one will manage but we don't have an idea yet we're still learning and unlearning that's the catchphrase of the season I guess but yes that's what I feel about this one point that I would like to you know put forward like I I work for a Delhi office but I am based out of the Pradesh so for candidates like me this hybrid working model can be can be proved as a bliss because I can sit at the comfort of my home and work for in any international organization so I think this one point that can be counted as a positive side to hybrid working come to Pasna you have two cents on this please firstly so many interesting points that came up I think my biggest takeaway is that you know you have to empower your employees to co-create these policies with you right this is something that impacts them deeply you know when the pandemic started a founder once told me that you know stop saying work from home say work from pandemic you know that for completely different ball game and what we started doing very early on I realized was that you know this is not one of those great HR policies that two people in the HR team can make and then implement via email you have to talk to them and I think they also need to be given the freedom to co-create these policies so that's one thing that is very very important that we've seen and second I think there has to be like somebody said on the panel you have to redefine what productivity is productivity does not mean being plugged in for 9 to 12 hours so what we started doing was you know give them metrics and say hey this is the metric this is the timeline feel free to do it in whatever format you like and whatever time you've got left right let's have fun right let's do a virtual meeting take the day off you know watch shows together do whatever you like so that gave employees a big sense of power and they felt like they were in control of what was happening to them as opposed to oh my god you know have to show up have to be productive have to deal with vaccinations and so on and so forth so I think empowering people very important secondly redefining productivity and third is you know the biggest problems that erupt are when you set a certain policy framework and you think this is great I don't need to look at it again for the next couple of months right I think that's that's one approach that really hinders you know great employee productivity you need to relook at it every couple of weeks if needed until everybody is satisfied and I think that's the third thing that we did we did try implementing certain stuff for example we said here on Friday everybody let's sit then you know catch a show together but after two weeks everyone's like no we don't want to watch a show together we literally just want to go take a nap or you know we love the metric approach we don't like the whole being plugged into the hours approach so I think the biggest takeaway is go create this with your employees and redefine productivity and I think we've been lucky most of our clients and a lot of incredible startups and founders have been so empathetic and I know that people on the brand side here who have been so empathetic to the agency side and I think it really this pandemic also showed us the best of what happens when all stakeholders come together so many big agencies you know work by closely with really big brands who said hey it's okay to not meet this particular target right now let's rework and relook that was such a beautiful thing to see throughout this ecosystem and I think we need to see more of that happening so yeah I think productivity needs to be redefined relook that and then must be co-created with employees completely agree with you Basna I think empowering our people is really important and being empathetic as I think has become prerequisite now that's not something that has to be there in the agenda that has to be the norm now so moving forward like talking about work and productivity and talking about office spaces so this this session will be incomplete if you don't discuss about the safety of both employers and employees so how do you think I will start with you Ali Basna how do you think employees can remain safe from or be at minimum risk and what can employers do in order to maintain that kind of safety yeah well this is so important and you know I think couple of things one of course is really you know it's not enough to just say hey go get vaccinated you have to step up and enable them empower them we had somebody in the team who was dedicated to making sure that vaccinations happened right so one is you have to sort of empower them second is I think every week right you need to look at you know I mean at least I'm waking up every weekend there's a new variant right so I've actually you know touched base with a friend of mine who works in a medical profession and I say hey just give me a condensed you know zoomed out you know what's happening and what should we be doing so it's very important to keep track of you know what's happening externally send out memos etc third of course is making sure you're socially distant as much as possible while we've called back our team to the office we make sure you know office layouts etc have been changed and put a lot of transparency right anytime anybody is feeling sick make sure you you know you don't feel scared to do this we actually heard some really scary stories about you know people being scared to say that they're feeling sick because they were like oh my god we can't ask for an off so you have to remove that from their mindset and you know just we can take away sort of any fear and taboo and just you know work as closely as you can with them to make sure that you're able to get them the resources that are needed to be safe and vaccination being of course the most important thing and also cut down on in person as much as possible just because we're starting to go back from to the office doesn't mean you need to keep doing these meetings etc so and in those are some of the couple those are few things that we've already implemented and could be important okay and Sindhu what are your thoughts on this sure thanks Nefisa so obviously workplaces will change for good you know there's absolutely no playbook to how do you know come out of a pandemic so the important thing is that you know a lot of things you know from layouts to how we sort of interact with one another will change you know a very important perk for most of the startups and offices is a cafeteria where you could actually just go and have lunch with your colleagues you know in a common area and common space I do think you know that that will probably go away for the next one year or two years so I think you know some of some of those perks so my employees might feel that a perk is being taken back right so it's very important to keep and you know keep that communication going and keep telling them that this is what is important for your health and safety the other thing about vaccination is that you know it's not just about companies looking at vaccinating their own employees but I'll tell you what Abby and me has done so we set up a camp and office and we told that you could bring in your family members your in-laws your friends you could bring your domestic help you know so bring as many people as possible but get them all vaccinated right like I am we are not out of it until we are all out of it and that mindset and that approach has to happen and like to somebody like how somebody else on the panel mentioned that you know we don't know how many booster shots and doses we'll need to sort of get out of this so I think it's important to have that approach for a longer term to ensure that you know employee safety is the number one priority okay so we have discussed a lot about you know getting vaccinated and following some protocols from by the employees and the employees both but don't you guys feel that the physical proximity that's there when we work in an office environment the corporate culture that's there you know when students are trained to enter the corporate life we are given a kind of training that we will have to you know follow when we enter that that phase so with this hybrid model coming into action and pandemic becoming the way of life so how will this be this physical proximity thing be disrupted at the bulk places what are your thoughts Anjana on this you know that's a very interesting question Nafisa because there were some organizations I heard were experimenting to introduce pay cuts for those who've moved into you know non-metrocities because obviously the cost of living is much lower and I think that is such a deterrent right and that is that that just I don't know it it seems very wrong at many levels and very unimportant and sensitive on many levels to me so talking about proximity I think proximity buys will be a real challenge we can't run away from it right there will be people in the office who will feel more included superior compared to those who are working remotely but I think they are like you know I think Simran or one of them pointed out earlier I think it's the organization culture that needs to change right and it has to become a culture that hybrid working model is okay and it's it's absolutely fine whether you're at home or you're in the office that's one and two is I think you know as leaders we need to level the playing field for everybody right imposter let's face it right I think imposter syndrome is real for many people and just because you don't speak up in a meeting it does not mean you're not capable or somebody is overly confident just because they're speaking a lot more in a meeting so I think it becomes very very important for us give everyone an opportunity decide what the quorum for those meetings should be if you're in a hybrid work model give everyone an opportunity to be heard to be you know to have a chance to speak and finally I think technology will evolve even further to any of you right I heard somebody from Microsoft say that you know virtual whiteboards are y'all and you'll have microphones in different parts of the room but you'll also have camera technology where probably the camera zooming into the person who's actually talking from the room so the person working from home feels like you know it's a more close setup right and it's a more knitted setup so technology will evolve to enable that but the most important thing is for leaders like us to level the plain field for everyone right so Piyal Anjana talked about technology would you like to add something on the same lines no I think I'd also like to mention you use the word disruption right and disruption in the new age world is usually when something new and something novel is you know at the helm of things right so I see this as a positive transformation right we can look at it in any way and we can debate and discuss this but I feel like it's I don't see it so much as a disruption as opposed to a transformation to a newer and different way of working things out and technology I mean look I don't know how much one needs to say it's the backbone of our existence today it's not just about the workplace it's about everything it's like my grandfather at 78 is online today and trying to sort of make a WhatsApp call to me or just see me on the phone so that you know feels less of a divide so I think technology as much as I say is going to be less because it's I don't think we could function in this world today without the backbone and creativity and the innovation of technology leaders and they're constantly sort of upgrading our life so it's kind of synonymous to that and the other thing that I want to also say and you know we discuss this a lot that you know I mean there's no replacement to human interaction humor interface but I also feel like you know work-life balance and one of your mentioned this is lot more detail how it's taking away from time but I also feel it's forcing us to take time out because it is not just work from home it's working for home I remember the first six months I could not work all the time because I had chose to run I had things to do and so I had to align it with my managers and my superiors that I'm going to be off so I know it's at the back of a really brutal time and a really harsh time but it's forcing us to take that time away and I wish we did it differently but we have to stop work and do something else of course the flip side of it is like we'll start working at three in the morning or wherever we have time and there's no such line or such timeline as it were but at least in our organization we're very clear that it's eight to twelve and then you know do what you need to and it's in a way forced upon us I just feel like we can evolve from this and make this as a good as a good learning as a leaf of progression and not so much as about what we're missing out but what we're really entering we've just made ourselves future ready we probably would have done this about a decade into the life cycle of technology but we've had to embrace it much ahead of time and we've done a really good job with the ecosystem that's come along of course but I feel like there's also an advantage in this like Nafisa you pointed out you're sitting in UP and you're able to be with all of us and you're being productive and efficient about it the barrier of you know efficient working if you're working from more remotely has is sort of going away right everybody's embracing it so I think I think it's not a disruption it's a transformation and I feel it's going to be good for all of us yeah so it is a transformation and we have come towards the end of our session so as parting remarks I'd like to ask all four of you you know one key point to keep in mind to be virtually ready like we all are right now all four five of us are virtually ready so one key point or one suggestion that you would like to give our listeners to be virtually ready we'll start with Simran sure Nafisa sure so people to people connection is the most important thing that's one thing that you know a pandemic has taught us and just think of technology as an enabler okay technology as an enabler upasana I think tools have a really really great way to make this experience much better find and invest in the right tools they exist and they will just make your experience and interaction so much richer investing in the right tool tell your thoughts engage don't transact and make a technology or holy grail humanized technology to sort of f the gap humanized technology and we'll we'll you know end with you Anjana your thoughts on this so I think flexibility is great but it's equally important for all of us to draw boundaries and be very clear on expectations flexibility is great thank you so much all you lovely ladies ladies it was really an insightful and an interesting conversation and I hope we'll be able to meet soon thank you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you so much the pizza I'm going to invite quickly our next panel discussion for the day the journey to perfection real life stories on success and failure of the women leaders so I'd like to welcome Raki Lalwani vice president public relations and corporate communications IHCS CL Josna Ghoshal executive director enterprise lead government affairs and policy in India Johnson & Johnson Shravanidang independent consultant Ruby Sinha founder and managing director commune brand and moderating this session is Mr. Ruhil Amin exchange for media and Ms. Ruchika Jha from exchange for media they're going to be talking about the journey to perfection real life stories on success and failure of the women leaders a very warm welcome to all of you and Ruhil over to you thank you so much Khyati and welcome all of you hope I'm audible first of all am I audible to everyone all right okay so we have a very interesting topic and joining me would be my colleague Ruchika Jha who would also be posing few questions and the topic that we have been given has a context you know it's like not just about the practice of corporate communications and the communication space it's also linked to the societal societal you know aspect to it so I have a couple of questions and I want to start with Ms. Lalvani first if you can hear me so we're talking about you know we're all here I mean all of you are celebrated leaders and you have your own journey to talk about you have been through certain phases the ups and downs so what was the story before you have become the celebrated leader that you are a little bit of that Ms. Lalvani starting from you so your audio is muted I guess I cannot hear can I am unable to hear yes can't hear okay okay let me quickly jump to Ms. Dang with your thoughts the same question till Ms. Lalvani comes back give me a sense of the various challenges that you've faced as a women leader there were many I think the most important thing is to act and behave as if it doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man you're there to do a job and you do the job I remember once I was being interviewed and the gentleman actually turned around and said that you know I really like you and you're great and you're just the perfect fit but you know what you're a woman and I said yes I am so what and I don't think he he just spoke aloud and I don't know what he had in his mind maybe because I was married I had kids but I just put that aside and I said it doesn't matter gender has nothing to do with the work I've been given all my responsibilities I have to do what I have to do and I think that's my biggest learning and that's the way I've dealt with at all my workplaces with all my supervisors with my CXOs who you know I've been a devil's advocate to a lot of them and that's the way I've been treated right right Miss Lalvani your thoughts? Yes am I audible?  Thanks Rohit so basically you know I think I'm really fortunate that I'm part of the Tata group which has always been an equal and fair organization and gives women an equal and enabling environment to grow so I possibly am I'm in the lot that is blessed but that doesn't mean that I didn't encounter my fair share of individuals who would you know stereotype you who would sort of you know have these prejudices and you know who you would like who you would have issues with you know whether it was in the decision-making table or any of that you know management issues that you come across so I think what I did very earlier very early on in my career was to what was the myth that I need to be louder for my voice to be heard you need to be in your face for my presence and all of that was actually the wrong thing to do and I realized that I just need to make sure that I'm accepted the way I am and I need to be authentic and I don't have to pretend to be a man or you know say that okay now listen I need to kind of show these guys that I can do it and you know I too can be louder and I too can be sort of just like the men in the room and that was a mistake I made and yes there were individuals who were constantly judging me but I overcame that by just making peace with the fact that I am in the minority but I can still make my presence felt with the personality that I am with the value that I bring to the table and with the raising my level of competencies and skills and I like I said the culture was enabling the data culture is still enabling they always tend to nurture and you know sort of give them in that opportunity you know as much as that they would give the men so I'm kind of fortunate from that perspective so yeah I didn't have too many obstacles but yes certain individuals one had to kind of battle with and you know in terms of perceptions and things absolutely absolutely miss gushal you're your story I mean have you faced such situations what miss dang and miss lalvani spoke about so no thanks Rohil Rohil I'd be you know I'd be amiss and and probably not speaking the full truth if I said I haven't faced situations but at the same time I have to say that you know the challenges that I faced were also to do with the fact that a bit of stereotyping and not just stereotyping because you're a woman and you're supposed to only do so much but stereotyping also because of the choice of career that I decided to take very early on which was public relations and somehow the career itself so here was Rohil sorry was was you know was sort of stereotyped into a women's career was stereotyped into a good to do thing was stereotyped into something initially which was you know which was not part of the decision making of a corporate you know and a corporate culture and and was not that the center and was not always a function that had a seat on the table so for me that was you know in the early days of my career I would say what what was you know what was an eye opener but at the same time I think a couple of things happened on the importance of public relations and corporate communications became more and more realized and more and more something that people realized was intrinsic as we saw challenges as we saw opening up of the economy as we saw global companies coming in as we also saw you know issues becoming center stage and which were you know which were literally leading the stock price of a company to go up and down the importance of public relations became more and more and I think as leaders we started being appreciated and started getting a voice and a seat on the table and and that is you know to me that is the initial part Rohail which I will say was an initial part of the challenges that I faced in my career not so much as a woman but more as the career choice that I took which was looked as as a softer career sometime ago and nobody will say that today nobody will ever say that today when we you know when with all the women power that you see in the room right now and all the corporate communication power that you see and then of course was the next step that I took in my career which I I went into uncharted territory which was into government affairs and you know policy and into CSR and those were areas that I hadn't done before but at the same time you know the the challenge of taking those on the challenge of learning a new area but also then leading that for an organization perhaps the people reporting to you who had far more experience in that area but what you brought in was your insight what you brought in was the experience of a full corporate communication professional as well as a corporate professional and that you know so those those were the challenges around around the way but I think the one thing that has underscored my career and has been the win beneath my reins has been mentors and sponsors across the way and at some point you know during this discussion I think that's a really really critical point that I'd like to bring you know up for discussion and the importance of sponsors the importance of mentorship especially where women are concerned and the importance of paying it forward right I saw Ruby around I think if she is here okay I can't see it but so I want to request my colleague Ruchika to ask her a set of questions Ruchika why don't you start yours yeah thanks Ruhi, I hope everybody's available so could you lead to our esteemed guest here you'll have to be louder I can't hear you okay can you hear me now slightly better yeah first of all a very good evening to all the esteemed guests here my first question is that women leaders value work-life balance so what do you think are the key reasons that made them great leaders? yeah so if I heard the question it was about how do they manage work-life balance was that your question and what are the key reasons that made them a great leader? good leaders okay so yeah I mean women want to give their heart and soul to everything they do whether it's their profession or their family life and I think that's who they are it's not like they have a great work-life balance they want to have it and sometimes for people like us who are career women and like my other colleagues here on the panel today we struggle but the thing is that we're equally passionate about making things work for our family and whether it's our children or our extended family so that's who we are as people what makes us a successful leaders is I think the obvious ones which everyone perhaps has stated in the past which is we do have a higher emotional quotient and therefore we can understand people better bring in that layer of empathy which is very important in leadership and we bring that very easily because we are nurturing we're very collaborative I think it comes very easily to us to be a team player we don't necessarily like to operate solos because we feel teamwork can make the dream work but we're very good with conflict resolution again because we pick up nuances we pick up dynamics very easily and we're able to work around it and are extremely adept at you know at conflict resolution like I said so a lot of soft skills and apart from the obvious ones of having the competencies and having the skills that is required for the job these are really good soft skills that make them effective and successful and empathetic leaders and thank you so much. Ms. Dang I would like to ask the same question what is your take on this? agree with Raki I think at some stage we realize that we can't be and we're not super women we can't do everything but at the same time I think there is a drive within us to be good at work as well and at least for me I learned as I think Raki also said that to be assertive and not to be aggressive which worked I'm very ambitious as well and I think I am lucky to have a partner who understood that and that we and we both wanted to be extremely good professionals and also somehow managed to you know chat time between the family and between work manage the pressures there were some bad ones when my kids both had their boards and things like that or when I took a small sabbatical in between because my kids were very small so you managed to do these things because you have to you have all your responsibilities that you need to do and I think also if you give your team that understanding that yes you give your best and I also want that understanding from my you know mentors and and the persons I work for directly that helps you know the companies I've worked with whether it was the entity or the CSC the you know and and other international companies that even the Indian ones Indian ones tend to be a little more I think patronizing which you need to put aside the which is changing which is good to see but yet they understand and when you deliver and you get your teams to deliver you manage to somehow get a work-life balance it's not easy do we get pangs of guilt on on occasions from about what we're doing to a family or what we're doing at and able to do something at work I don't think this happened I think we tend to push ourselves more at work and something has to give way at home so somebody picks up that flak at home that's how it is or somebody doesn't pick up the flak at home and you make it up at some other time it's never easy I agree it's always juggling yeah okay so moving on to Ms. Roshal what is what do you want to say on the key aspects that make a woman a great leader I think a couple of things I mean Shravani and Raki have spoken about quite a few things but the one thing I think which makes us really good at leadership is that we're good at multitasking and prioritizing at the same time and it's something I mean I don't have anything against men's surreal sorry about that but it's something that I feel women do better that they're able to multitask far far better and also within the multitasking prioritize far better so I think that's one thing that I would say that it makes women leaders really special in addition to what Raki and Shravani has spoken about the other thing is we're not shy to ask for help and and that is something I think that rarely underscores you know leadership you're not trying to raise your hand and say this is something I need to know more about this is something that I need to learn about or ask for help and I think I think that that asking for help also extends in the personal space where you have a conflict and you know and you have to have then an ecosystem of support around you to be able to then succeed in your career you have to have something that is a support back home someone something an ecosystem a system in place that is there that is allowing you to take all those chances that is allowing you to extend yourself that is allowing you to vote for men and women but I think women are just better asking for help and better at setting up that ecosystem of support so I think I've been extremely extremely fortunate in having that ecosystem of support from the beginning whether it's with my mother my husband or you know or even my son and everybody else around me and I I think that's the other thing that makes women leaders even more effective not that men don't have that support but they will think twice before asking for it so so these are these are the two sort of things that I think that sort of stand out for me okay I I want to come in here Ruby if you can switch on the camera we can see you here in case you're able to oh great sorry I told Saran lovely so let's have some perspectives from you quickly some initial what I my first question was some initial incidents or you know situation that you remember before you landed up in that leadership role what all do you have to overcome so sorry for the background noise you know suddenly I was driving up but I stopped the car and now I'm you know thanks thanks for this opportunity Roel and Chika you know as I started off as a journalist and you know when when you start up as a career when I was studying journalism there were a lot of men around and but eventually when I went to do a course in filmmaking there were very few women over there I think I was probably the only woman amongst the batch of men around there and from there when I came to communications as people earlier mentioned there were a lot of women in our business but what I also saw is that a lot of women actually left midway in their careers so when you start your journey at the entry point there are a lot of women and eventually you know many of them had to take a sabbatical in between or leave because of all the challenges that they faced on the way and so eventually when I started commune my own enterprise that's my that was my initial purpose you know because I could I had faced these challenges myself you know after the birth of my daughters and I felt that let me bring these women back into the forefront so we started commune with a bunch of working working work from home mothers so work from home was a reality for us then and we got these trained communications professionals who had taken a sabbatical and were at home to come back and join the business and according to their flexibility of course the biggest challenge that I faced as an entrepreneur along the way was to get people to take me seriously and do not think that it's part-time business that you're doing so you know so if you are really looking at a scalable business somewhere it's a challenge for even the woman to come across and you know what people are saying a lot of my co-panelists have said work-life balance is a big issue with women but now I also feel it's more about work-life integration so if you feel you can really work it out amidst the challenges and there can be no excuse for not being professional enough with the client or committing you know a delivering on something that you have promised so yeah so that was one of the biggest challenge to you know really get big clients and people to take you seriously that you are in there for the long run perfect you know what's brilliant about this panel is that men are in minority here very few panels that you see so you know you touched upon you touched upon this subject this word of mentorship you know leadership and that plays a crucial role in addressing the gender gap that we often speak about one my question to Mr Alvani starting with you is how are you mentoring the women in your workforce what is the current situation of the workforce like in your industry is it are men also very sensitive about that you know they have been on the receiving end of this conversation and they need to address these issues what is your observation on that front sorry audio is muted yeah your first question was also about mentorship and how we're doing that yeah so at a personal level I'm mentoring a few people through various organizations and bodies like GWPR and also Promise Foundation at a professional level I've just been made the head of diversity for Indian hotels company and one of my biggest sort of goals and objectives is to increase the participation of women at all levels not just at the entry level which actually is fairly high in the industry across hotels across unstructured structure and like every other industry they drop off in the middle and at the senior level it's a huge challenge and honestly that is going to be my number one sort of point in the agenda is to increase participation for participation across all levels especially in the middle level so that they make it to that level to grow into senior leadership roles the percentage is not great it's between 17 to 20 I think at an average we're possibly a little higher being being a data organization but we need to do far far better I mean as we know there is you know a huge potential population in our country that is waiting to be tapped and we're an industry that I think fits very well for for women because they have so many natural skills that they can sort of bring to the table which is very great for hospitality so yes I think it's a it's a huge agenda point for my organization and me personally because I feel very very strongly about getting more involved Ms. Daing up where do you see the gender conversation right now in the times we live in has it improved where is it headed oh so let me flip your questions around a little bit when I answer them I think the gender conversation is at a very good place now and if I've seen it from my career and if I look back to even to my mother who had a career it's unbelievable where we are I think women have a voice they have a seat at the table and are given opportunities and it's not happened automatically I think we've all worked hard for it I was lucky I got the right breaks I got the right bosses I got a seat at the table and at the same time I think there is an awareness that the leadership skills and the professional skills that women bring are very different and a balanced leadership is is something that organizations do need and I don't think there's any argument on that front right two things that have happened in the global world one is of course the me too thing that happened and other issues like that I'm so I'm just bringing that in I know it's unpleasant but that has enabled women worldwide to bring in issues that was actually stopping them from having an equal kind of an opportunity or being equal in the same world and that is good that is good that's what I have to say right miss Gushal the point came from your earlier answer about mentorship in your organization how are you hand-holding people and sensitizing both agendas about you know the divide that is there that we very often talk about so Rahel I think you hit the nail on the head when you said both the genders and I think that's the point that I do want to bring at this point that it's not about mentoring women alone and it is not about sensitizing women alone if we don't bring in men into the conversation we'll never be able to be an equal and that to me is absolutely vital to the whole discussion so even at Johnson and Johnson you know it is part of our credo this entire piece about you know about about being a equal opportunity employer and creating an inclusive environment respecting the dignity dignity diversity of all people irrespective of gender so that is you know that is the most most important thing that I want to you know wanted to highlight and I think also you know for for large organizations and a number of us to represent those or have worked with those in order to succeed in order to grow in order to innovate we need to understand the diversity of our customers the diversity of our consumers every everybody that we save serve and therefore you know this this entire piece about diversity about having a conversation becomes fundamental to that discussion so when it comes to mentorship also of course we have formal programs at Johnson and Johnson both at the regional level and at the you know at the India level but at the same time there are programs that are focused towards say women but there are programs that are gender agnostic and for this reason only that it is most critical to bring in men into the conversation otherwise you're not going to succeed with what you want to do and and the other thing I do want to say is that you know especially covert times have made it so important to understand about this whole concept of a purpose driven compassionate agile organization that can only come if we appreciate diversity if we get that you know empathy going into that entire discussion and and mentorship of course has a role to play there but at the same time you know it is it has to be gender agnostic and it has to pull in everybody because also what's happened in Rohil that set stereotypical roles even in the home environment have changed you know the the the areas which were demarcated I feel have changed as well you know both partners are playing equal role in in in achieving success professionally as well as in in the home environment and covert has only sort of precipitated so I would just say that that's a critical area absolutely to we need to bring up as well totally we have 10 minutes left so before I go to Richika I want to quickly go to Ruby with her thoughts on this on the question yes on the gender diversity thing you know you know that's a very that's a very important topic and when you look at it there are two aspects you I'm just speaking as an entrepreneur right here because I've been through this experience where I've seen it's very different the gender diversity is very different in India between the metros and the tier two and the tier three cities and there you require a lot of mentoring for women especially along with a lot of empathy which I feel is so important from a leader leadership point of view so what I what I started after starting commune I felt there's a lot of mentorship requirement for women at that especially in the tier two tier three cities so I started a started a platform called sheatwork.com which which is like an information platform for aspiring women entrepreneurs especially from the smaller cities that's what my focus is beyond and as well as we go to other geographies and these women can be entrepreneurs across different you know different professions or different any sector that they look at and that's where we started even mentoring programs for them we started scaling programs for them so so for me I feel you know if you get if you bring in more entrepreneurs you'll have 150 to 170 million new jobs by you know women will bring in those jobs by 2025 so so men do have a very important role to play in this entire conversation and we can only do our best to bring in more and more women into this phone over to you Ruchika I was told is five minutes so it's going to be a 30 second answer so over to you okay thank you so my I have a question that is that today also we see that most of the decision-taking making positions is in this country or any other country or organizations are male dominant for what do you think that there is still a distrust in the women leaders what is your take Ms. Dan we've had a woman prime minister for men don't agree with that at all you know maybe inside I think most organizations the decisions are weighed against certain parameters they are taken because it has to be a good business decisions good business decisions so I don't think gender comes into it that's my answer discrimination definitely but you can't just spin it only to discriminate I think there is an issue of numbers of women at that level who are competent and capable enough to to take that seat or that position so we need to grow the numbers we need to definitely mitigate the discrimination as well parallely and also realize the importance of gender balance which I think everyone has spoken about which is very important today and the fact that we perhaps very very genders whether it's to country or to organizations which is required today you know so whether it's in terms of social change like you said Raul at the beginning of the session or in terms of just you know partaking in education and increasing sort of welfare initiatives for women or even climate change which is extremely extremely critical today to realize the importance of the fact that women can bring in that change and to have them in the decision on the seat and in the decision making table but yes I feel that there's a lot that we need to do as as as a unit as well as individually so yeah and I I say something here please if you look at school and college 50 percent if you look at school and college over 50 percent of people coming out or women they are getting into the work work life into the workforce so I think we're getting into better times and decisions will be well balanced and taken by for the right reasons no absolute yeah we are short on time I'm sorry yes yes yes sorry Ms. Ghushala and Ms. Sinha to you I just have one point here which I can quickly add oh sorry sorry I dropped it yeah just one point you know we need more women at the top so if you look at it amongst the nifty fifty companies there's only one woman CEO in India if you look at our parliament today there are only 4.3 percent women parliamentarians they were 20 percent earlier so if there are no if we need more women at the top who can bring you know because women will know women in the problems which other women feel so diversity from a women point of I mean of course organizations have their own business decision but it helps to have more women at the top which I feel which is solely lacking right now in India so I mean the data supports that so just very quickly Rohil and Ruchika to me the challenge is not that women are not heard at the top it is of course about the numbers but me for me the challenge is unconscious biases and that you know when those come into decision making that becomes a huge huge sort of challenge and and therefore it's not about the fact that I'm a woman I'm not being heard but it's about the fact that they might be people around the table who have an unconscious bias or I might have an unconscious bias and therefore that's become a very important area Rohil and Ruchika for you know for companies to really focus on today in order to ensure that everyone is heard everyone voice is heard and that decision making happens in a very you know not always a democratic manner but after everybody's opinion is taken into account but ultimately there has to be one decision maker so thank you so much I feel extreme minority okay thank you Karan I can see me here okay over to you Cathy now I just I just want to say thank you to everybody thank you Raki thank you Shravanji thank you Jyotsana and thank you Ruby and thank you Karan for coming and giving some value to the gender yes no no you know your Ruby was traveling I said no you'll have to come and Raki was being very kind and so is Jyotsana Shravanji of course there's a very big announcement which we'll make later in the evening we can't reveal it now but yeah I'll look forward to it thank you everyone how can you call me Shravanji you don't have to call me Shravanji okay it's a horror reverence and respect for you thank you thank you Rohail thank you thank you ladies for sharing the insects thanks a lot thanks so much so without further ado I'm going to invite our last keynote session of the day most awaited one here I'd like to welcome Dr. Maya Akbil B. Bilakbil doctor of clinical psychology psychology for you welcome Maya Maya has decades of expertise with a multicultural and multinational population she firmly believes in evidenced based and community based programs promoting self-actualization in an integrative approach promoting clients in our resourcefulness today she's going to talk to us about emotional agility a key skill to achieving success facing change so very warm welcome and we are really looking forward to the session thank you so much I'm really honored to be part of the women achievement awards and summit thank you so much Karen for having invited me and thank you for exchange for media to allow me to participate in this great event I was listening to the previous participants and I was really happy to hear really fall into the psychological functions that I'm going to address we do right now that really contribute to women achieving success and not only women but also men I'm just going to take a minute to share the slides and here we are what what I find very interesting is that and what we're looking at right now is we are facing very peculiar times times that are really hard and I find it always very controversial when I hear people talking about how we could lead the stress-free life right now well I want to say we cannot really lead the stress-free life since the outburst of the pandemic and and by the way I hope that things are much better in India I hear throughout the world that even here in the Morocco where I'm where I'm based things are not doing that great but hopefully things are going to just get better with all the I said the interventions that are put in place by the different governments but what I wanted to say is we cannot really talk about stress-free I really want to talk about stress-friendly and to talk about stress-friendly there are a lot of and different psychological functions that take in place and one of them is what we call emotional agility earlier for great women I had the chance to hear what you were sharing in terms of your personal and professional experiences all of you were talking about empathy about disability of juggling different things the agility of leading the work and personal lives the multitasking and right now women and men are exactly facing that since we've been facing a pandemic that has really put our lives I would say upside down and I really like this quote because we never know if down is better than upside unless we experience it so right now as I work with my clients I really can observe a broad range of emotions as I listen to them sharing how their lives have been completely changed and moved around and they were really facing different way of looking at things and perceiving their daily routines from leaving work dropping the kids and going to their offices men women and kids found themselves in the same place trying to figure out how they were gonna about their daily activities some are embracing what is ahead and others really feel the grief for what our normal lives used to hold for us and the current forecast gives us an outlook that make it seem that normal will be will actually be gone for an extended period of time so we either put in place new tools and strategies to face what is ahead or we live the struggles of trying to go back to what is familiar but without much success so this situation that we're living really gives us the opportunity to enhance our emotional agility how we see the current situation is mainly rooted in three factors our beliefs our experiences and our assumptions so as we can change the circumstances we cannot change the current pandemic but being able to adjust our frame of reference and to choose how we react to this situation is where our personal power lies and I want to say not only the pandemic but just the daily changes working from home having to organize the workspace at home while the kids are next door and having to take online classes and then doing the homework so this is something that really applies on every single level of our daily lives and when we look at the modern psychology we see that how our belief system impact our own abilities and potential it really fuels our behaviors and it predicts or not our success much of that understanding comes from the theory that has been presented by Dr. Carol Dweck where she speaks about the growth of the mindset theory and basically what it says is that changing even the simplest belief will impact nearly every aspect of our life and I think all of us did experience that with the lockdown where we throughout the planet we found ourselves locked within our homes having to really look into what seemed normal as being abnormal and to relearn how we could manage our daily responsibilities in our daily lives so depending on which way we see the challenge or the opportunity Dweck's work shows the power of our most basic beliefs whether conscious or subconscious they strongly affect how we want and whether we succeed in getting it so basically much of what we think we understand of our personality comes from our mindset so if we're thinking we could handle another lockdown let's hope it's not going to be the case well we might really develop the internal resources to face that situation one more time if we really think that we don't and we can't handle that well basically that's not going to be a walk in the park so if you're like most people a typical day at the office or working online from home raises all kinds of challenging and involuntary thoughts and feelings so stress can be a sign that we are doing things that are valuable and a lack of stress well could be a sign of boredom or doing something that is disengaging and it is often during times of greatest growth and learning and challenges that we are experiencing stress and as Susan David the psychologist says you don't get to grow in your career raise a family or leave the world a better place that you found it without some stress or discomfort so basically discomfort is the price of admission to meaningful life so today the question is do we have the emotional agility to put our inner turmoil to good use and do we address it or do we just run from it doing exactly what we know what to do and how to do it basically just going with the familiar habits so how can we tell the good stress from bad stress well the answer is pretty simple it really comes down to coping bad stress is caused by stressors that are beyond our individual personal coping resources you're going to tell me well we don't have all the same coping resources and that is true bad stress is really different from everyone so just like what overwhelms one person might be walking the park for another person so when we look at leaders workers executives within the work environment there's a prevailing wisdom that says that they should be either stoic or cheerful so basically stress-free and they must project confidence and dumb down any negativity bubbling up inside them so basically if we're looking if we're talking about women achievers there is that expectation especially when they are in leader positions that they're not and they should not be emotional and they should not address any kind of situation from an emotional point of view or perspective but actually that goes against basic biology all healthy human beings have an inner stream of thoughts feelings that includes doubts criticism joy stress fear and that is just exactly what our minds need to do that's the job they were designed to do trying to anticipate and solve problems and avoid potential pitfalls and I I believe that every woman is going to say that it's exactly what we do on a daily basis we are multitasking we're going to be thinking about how we're going to do the next project presentation in front of the CEO but at the same time we're thinking about that homework that our son or daughter has to do while planning a family dinner and that's exactly what our brains do but for them to do that they need to be tuned to what they pick up from the external world through our emotions so at work individuals stumble not because they have undesirable thoughts and feelings actually that's inevitable but because they get hooked by them like fish come on the line and this happens in one of two ways they either buy into their thoughts treating them lack facts and they avoid any situation that evoke them so let's say if some of if a worker thinks that her job is not good enough and that she doesn't is not comfortable presenting early she will avoid constantly putting herself out there and presenting her ideas to her chief because she believes she cannot do it or it could be a different way a person will challenge the existence of the thoughts and try to rationalize it by actually exposing herself to a situation that is against her core value either way the person the individual is paying way too much attention to her or his internal chatter and allowing it to sabotage important cognitive resources that could be put to better use for her achieving success so the internal the internal chatter turns into stories that interpret the facts it is therefore important to identify what kind of internal chatters we have mind you that 16 000 is how many words we speak on average each day so imagine how many unspoken ones course through our minds and most of them are not facts but evaluations and judgments entwined with emotions some positives and helpful and some less so I'm thinking about all those women trying to juggle personal professional life their couple their family relationships their children caretaking while not expressing how they feel and not accessing their internal resources because they have to portray themselves as only thinkers and achievers who are only thinkers and basically that would be a perfectionist style of internal chatter which is a thinking trap and these stressful thinking traps make actually change hard and as we cannot change the current circumstances the pandemic or as an executive or worker or collaborator cannot change the work environment well her ability to adjust her frame of reference and to choose how she can react to that situation is where her personal power lies and to adjust to a frame of reference where there are three important things that needs to be put in place agency agility and attitude and today I'm really going to focus on emotional agility emotional agility means you can accept understand and manage your thoughts in productive way effective leaders don't buy into or try to express their inner experiences instead they approach them in a mindful value driven and productive way developing what we call emotional agility and emotional agility really englobes empathy the ability to juggle between different tasks the multitasking and performance agility so in our complex fast changing knowledge economy this ability to manage one thoughts and feeling is really essential to achieving success in his research studies friend bond showed that emotional agility can help people elevate stress reduce error and become more innovative and boost their creativity so Susan David who was the first to address the notion of emotional agility speaks of four essential steps the showing up the stepping out the walking your why and the moving on so the first step is having the space to show up for your emotions and stress not to dwell on them but to learn from them what am I feeling right now what does it say about my values an emotional agile woman is able and a man is able to recognize his or her feelings with self-compassion and understanding the stepping out is the next step well basically it means specifically labeling the problem for example I feel stressed well I want to tell you I feel stress doesn't really mean much it might mean an individual is disappointed and it's in a situation it might also mean he or she feel right about an obligation or it might mean they are not being heard perhaps and somebody speaking I'm just gonna stop I just heard or I'm just gonna go on no no you go on you go on please okay so it might I feel stress we really need to define what it means so it might mean also that I'm not being heard at work during my meetings or at home so once a stressful situation is diagnosed specifically it's much easier to create an action plan to move forward walking your way is the third step of emotional agility it involves self-identifying values even in times where we are right and others are wrong we still have the capacity to make choices that are values aligned it is important for individuals to reflect even in the context of all this change for example who do I want to be even in the context of a conflict who do I want to be it is important for me to be a contributor is it for me important to be a collaborator or an innovator so I think it's really important that to ask ourselves what kind of person I want to be in the situation that I'm facing even if a situation is a conflictual one a challenging one and a stressful one and then moving on so once we've unpacked what we're feeling why we are feeling the way we are feeling and aligned all the next steps with what we want to be and focus on and it's time to move on and take action so emotionally agile individuals handle situations as they come up feel them fully make a plan and don't delay and I'm smiling because most women have that I believe one of the speakers earlier was saying that women leaders are inclined to have much more success because that's a natural resource they have so emotional agility is both a practical set of tools and a means of building resilience it is a pathway where individuals can stop ignoring or being beaten by their stress and learn to become more comfortable with feeling uncomfortable so if a mother is really stressed because she needs to be up on her task ready for her am presentation while she had to care for her baby well that's okay to feel uncomfortable and it's okay to feel and to be attuned to her emotional needs so they can guide her to get to get what she needs to be a better performer be it as a caretaker or as a work collaborator so whether it is in the workplace or in personal situation emotional agility provides the framework for people to think about who they want to be in difficult situations and then become that person so I really thought that all of us beyond our borders beyond our languages beyond our cultures we look to inspiring people and like these inspiring individuals who embrace their fears face the diversity define their values and foster changed each one of you each one of us really can foster emotional agility to build a dynamic that will tackle problems inspire growth and effectively manage stress along the way and I really believe that developing emotional agility will get you and anyone to open their wings and to continue achieving and thriving so while I really like this quote because while crawl through life when we were born with wings so for me women achievers are women who were able to really spread their wings and inspire younger girls and continue transmitting their ability to be emotionally attuned to their needs and the needs of their ecosystem a woman who is an achiever and who has succeeded she didn't succeed alone and she doesn't succeed alone because she's always working within her community I'm gonna stop here and I'm gonna let you thank you Maya we have two questions which Khyati will share with you and then we'll sign off okay we have the winners waiting so we'll just proceed yeah Khyati please move on absolutely so Dr. Maya firstly thank you for sharing those insights here with us and we have this question which says that what are the advances and barriers within psychology for women could you could you just say the last part because I couldn't hear you yeah what are the advances and barriers within the field of psychology for women well I'm not gonna I'm gonna answer the question differently in the field of psychology we really look at personality functioning behavioral attitudes and thoughts so I'm not gonna talk in terms of successes or barriers it's a field that really tries to look at the individual's development from an integrated and an integrative perspective so specifically for women research will always look at what are women's what women are facing as challenges but also as successes and there are different themes that we could look at in terms of what women are facing as challenges and successes throughout their lifespan right Dr. Maya a very interesting question I have for you which I'm sure a lot of our viewers will benefit from which is that do you think gender disparity and mental health are interlinked? It's an excellent question it's really an excellent question I don't think and that's based on my experience and expertise I would link the gender disparity to the economical access to mental health so we know statistically that women have less access to health overall because of lesser access to higher salaries you know and the rates of poverty are higher within the female community versus the male community so accessing mental health is not due to gender disparity it's more due to not accessing it because of a lack of means right that's one the second point is when you look at small communities villages the inaccessibility to mental health is due to the fact that there is no way to access larger cities and towns because there are no commutes means of commutes so men are able to access public transportation while at times women don't access that easily public transportation so they don't access health services right and if you'd like to throw some light on what COVID kind of implications has had on people in general if you'd like to put some light on that I think really the pandemic has exposed humanity to really question our essentials to really reevaluate our core beliefs in terms of our abilities and limitations and what we have found is that people who were previously more attuned to their emotional needs and had developed stronger internal resources facing challenges did better facing the lockdown and facing all the consequences of the pandemic and people who were struggling beforehand well it was much more challenging to make sense of what has been going on since the outburst of the COVID absolutely thank you so much Dr. Amaya it's been a pleasure to have you on this platform and share your expertise and your insights with us thank you so very much thank you thank you for having me and congratulations to the winner thank you thank you Amaya so thank you Karan thank you it was amazing Fiati Mr. Ahuja is joining us in some minutes and then followed by so we'll take a quick one minute break and then we'll get on with the valedictory session absolutely so till then let me thank all of you who've been part of this summit so far and if you have any key highlights that you'd like to share with the wider audience then don't forget to do so in the comment chat box or tweet to us using the hashtag e4m women achievers and yes we have the awards coming right up and my friend colleague Abhavna Bhatia will be taking you through it so I'll be signing off here and leaving you with some audio visuals while we get the stage ready for the e4m second edition of e4m women achievers awards thank you so much everyone we will see you again shortly but not with me but with my friend Abhavna so till then stay tuned everybody can we have the AVs till then hi Abhavna Hi, how are you doing? very well thank you how are you doing? I'm doing great so firstly thank you so much the summit was excellent let's first have a look at the AVs and we'll progress here is what you're talking about hey you were thinking of taking a scooter which one did you take? hot pink or baby pink what do you think of girls? wow new pleasure right okay firstly I thought of power no this is a thought you better put it in then do you know what thought? what thought? mileage shall we go to Khandala? okay leave it then thought about power to weight ratio baby now I forgot to think about your pink in these summits now do you know what you're thinking? what are you thinking? why should boys have all the fun? bold new style zippy right but very easy handling new hero pleasure plus just phone pay sweet jab har baat ko nahi kahi tum sahi har baar jab thordi ho glass ceiling jab khul ke express karthi ho feeling tab har baar manati ho tum aazadi har baar jab lagati ho comments pivre jab karthi ho apne career ko accelerate aur har baar jab tum be fikr bindaas sard ko pe nikalthi ho tab har baar manati ho tum aazadi kyunki aazadi tumhare liye e bin nahi id aadat hai mana aazadi har baar har din we believe that every corporation and brand has a public and today's public is more powerful than ever before they have the power to topple CEOs reshape strategy influence government policy kill products and create unicorns they demand truth transparency and the highest behavioral standards we are embracing change constantly innovating the way our clients and the public communicate whatever the sector and whatever the challenge our client obsession means constantly evolving new products and services we are innovating the future of public relations our belief is brands with a clear authentic purpose and performance strategies aligned to business objectives are most likely to succeed we use strategy creativity and innovation driven by data and analytics to put your purpose and performance at the heart of all communications together purpose and performance drive audience preference we call this approach three p communications hill and nullton strategies always in beta ladies and gentlemen well we hope you're having a great time welcome to the second edition of the exchange for media PR and core communication women achievers summit and awards 2021 presented by ad factors PR part by standard chartered bank hero motorcock phone pay hill and nullton strategies gold partner to consulting well ladies and gentlemen the summit and awards are the celebration of the contribution of women and their relentless pursuit of excellence in the field of public relations and communications my name is Bhavna Bhatia and I shall be your host for the awards segment well the second edition of the awards identifies acknowledges and felicitate those women leaders who are shaping the industry through their incredible work through this initiative we would applaud the agencies and profits who are setting remarkable examples by encouraging gender diversity in their work culture well ladies and gentlemen this year's jury panel was headed by Dr. Anurag Bhatra chairman and editor-in-chief BW business world and exchange for media Nidhi Ola director integrated marketing microsoft Mr. Parthas Bhosh VB and head corporate communications and CSR Samsung Ms. Ramapal VB marketing ABP Mr. Sanjeev Handa senior VP and head of communications corporate communications Maruti Mr. Subhaya Mishra MD and head corporate communication standard chartered bank Ms. Jasrita Deer head marketing and communications Antara Mr. Atul Sharma managing director Rudevin Ms. Pallavi Singh senior business advisor Mr. Abhishek Guliani CEO hill and old and strategies Ms. Racheera Jaitley head of marketing India HMD Ms. Kavita Jaktiyani chief marketing fidelite Ms. Raji Mohapatra marketing head Dr. Reddy's Let me tell you firstly a big big thank you to all our jury members for taking out their valuable time. The jury went through a rigorous screening process and shortlist is best 100 out of the 140 entries. Out of the shortlisted entries top 50 plus winners tall birds were selected and will be honored today. Well, we also have two special lifetime achievement award winners as well. Last but not the least we also have 10 best organization which have set new precedents milestones and have supported the women word force through various initiatives. We will be honoring those best organization for women empowerment tonight. Well, ladies and gentlemen before we move further with this fantastic evening ahead, let me remind you on our hashtags once again which is hashtag E for MPR women achievers awards as one word. E for MPR women achievers summit as one word and E for MPR women as one word. So ladies and gentlemen before we progress into this wonderful ceremony, let's first have a look at the intro avis and partner avis please. Requesting the team to please have the intro avis and partner avis please. Amna, I will because Dr. Bhattra and Naval are here. Let's ask them to give an address and then we move on to Of course, let's do that. Let's do that. So ladies and gentlemen, we are very honored. We do have Dr. Arora Bhattra and Naval Uguja who are right with us. Dr. Bhattra, first over to you, sir. Thank you so much, Amna. Thank you for hosting this and doing a great job.  This is the second edition today, the deliberations and the ideation and the thoughts that were shared by the leaders throughout the day. It gave new perspectives to the communication and PR and COPCOM domain, seeing these women leaders. We can safely say that our future is bright. And as I said in my opening address in the morning, the marketing advertising industry has a lot of women leaders, thankfully, at all levels, senior level, middle level. But within that PR and COPCOM possibly has more women leaders than the average. So that augurs well for the industry. We're in the first week of July. June is celebrated as the diversity and inclusion month. So clearly this initiative has come at the right time. This is the second year. If it is so good and big in the second year, I can't wait to see it in the third, fourth, fifth year. I only want to say that looking at the winners, the age of achievement is only getting lower and lower. And clearly the winners are multi-faceted in the true sense of it. They have a day job, they have an evening gig, they have hobbies, and they're juggling families. So clearly they're multi-faceted in the true sense of it. And I salute these winners tonight, these organizations, who have led these leaders prosper and foster. So all the work is best. And the world of PR and COPCOM is changing because social media, because of online reputation management. And I think in the last 16 months, when the spends on advertising marketing media, at least for some time came down, PR and COPCOM made sure that the connection with consumers, with stakeholders kept going. July is the month of mega-IPOs. You'll see many IPOs being announced. And coming up that again means that the PR and COPCOM professionals will be very busy. I think over the next 10 odd months, you'll possibly see a lot more IPOs. And in terms of the July itself announced, and the actual number will be, we're looking at $25 billion of being raised on the Indian bosses. So clearly it's a month that will keep the PR, PR professionals busy. So I will just say this and hand it back to you so that the awards are in the progress. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Dr. Anurag Bhattara, for joining us and giving us your inputs on the same. Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time to call upon the stage and screen, Nawal Ahuja, who is the co-founder of Exchange for Media Group. Nawal, over to you. So we have him on the ballot decree. Thank you, Gavna. Thank you. And good evening to everyone. And it's a pleasure for us to have you join this second edition of the Top Women Achiever Awards. As Anurag has already mentioned, PR, corporate communication is not a domain that has an issue with gender diversity, unlike lots of other parts of corporate India, especially the media entertainment sector. It is up there already, where women have broken glass ceilings. And this initiative, in a lot of ways, recognizes that effort that women have made in the industry to break the glass ceiling to make it to the top. As Gavna has mentioned, and as you will see in the AV, this year we got more than 150 entries, which were shortlisted down by the editorial team of Exchange for Media. And finally, I'm told 50 odd winners were chosen, all of them top notch professionals in their respective domains. What is most interesting this year also is the recognition of corporates who are making extra effort towards gender diversity. And I think that's a very important aspect of what's happening across corporate India, where companies are going the extra mile to create an environment for women to succeed, for women to compete better, giving them extra opportunity to be able to balance their various pressures and various goals. So I think that's an important thing. And some of you who have logged in through the day, I did listen partially to a couple of sessions, one by Manmeet of Ponte and the other one by Lucy Harvey of Hill and Nolton. I think there were very interesting sessions around gender diversity, what's happening, as far as inclusion in the industry, in the corporate NPR industry is concerned, hybrid working environment, what COVID has done, it's put significantly extra pressure on a lot of women, because now you are the line between office and home, as not just blurred, it's completely disappeared. You are sitting at home in your office, so that's doubly hard to handle, so to say. So as Anurag said, kudos to all you women for having led admirably. We look forward to the knowledge you have to share and congratulating all the fantastic work you've done. Just to share of nugget, I was discussing this with a colleague the other day, eight of our nine heads of various division in exchange for media are women. So you can imagine gender diversity for us is something we practice. It is not just something that we talk about with that. Thank you again, Bhavna. Thank you everyone for joining us, and I look forward to celebrating the winners tonight. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Navadan. It's great to know about the gender diversity in that respect, because you're walking the talk out there. So thank you on that, Navadan. Thank you, Dr. Anurag Batra for joining us to amazing visionaries who just started the awards for us. So a big, big thank you once again to both of you. So ladies and gentlemen, it is now time before we start with this wonderful ceremony. Let's have a look at the intro Avis and partner Avis before we get ready to welcome all the wonderful winners on the screen. Could we have the Avis now? The second edition of Exchange for Media, PR and Corporate Communication, Women Achievers Summit and Awards 2021. Presented by Ad Factors PR. Powered by Standard Chartered Bank, Hero Motor Corp, PhonePay, Hill and Nolten Strategies, Gold Partner, Tute Consulting. The Summit and Awards are the celebration of the contribution of women and their relentless pursuit of excellence in the field of public relations and communications. The second edition of the Awards identifies, acknowledges, and felicitates those women leaders who are shaping the industry through their incredible work. Through this initiative, we also applaud the agencies and corporates who are setting remarkable examples by encouraging gender diversity in their work culture. This year's Jury panel was headed by Dr. Anurag Bhattra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, BW Business World and Exchange for Media. Ms. Nithi Hola Microsoft Mr. Partha Ghosh Samsung Ms. Rama Paul ABP Mr. Sanjeev Handa Maruti Mr. Swapayu Mishra Standard Chartered Bank Ms. Jasritha Thir Antara Mr. Akul Sharma Radafin Ms. Pallavi Singh Senior Business Advisor Mr. Abhishek Guliani Hill and Nolten Strategies Ms. Ruchira Jaitley HMD Ms. Kavita Jaktiyani Peterlite Ms. Parachi Mohapatra Dr. Reddy's Exchange for Media and the Jury congratulates all the winners. Hi, my name is Pallavi and I'm glad that I was part of Exchange for Media, PR and Communication Women Achievers Award. It was amazing to be part of this jury because eyed industry peers were also part of this jury. And I think for me, it was most important to look at the entries which came in and a lot of efforts everybody's put in. It's amazing for all the women professionals who've put in so much effort to fill in the entries. So everybody, I think in my view is a winner for taking that effort and giving it that amazing shot. For me, there were two important criterias to judge the entries. One is apart from the work which is your domain, how have you kind of shown or paved the path for the organization's growth overall and how is it, how your role has led to overall growth of the business. In the role of what you've done, whether it is to do with PR, communication, working with different peers and organizations to get your company up there in the list. And second, most important thing for me was how have you developed yourself as an individual because that is the key as a professional. How are you changing and how are you developing? That was the second one. And I think if you look at for women achievers, we've come a long way to what it used to be a decade back. Organizations are more receptive for women now, especially for whether it's senior positions or for that matter even if I were to say some interesting strategy work, but we still have a long way to go. I mean, I'm only talking about maybe 0.5% or lesser of what has happened till now. I think organizations have to still invest a lot of time and not just do a tick box for firing women and giving them a platform. But it's also very critical to help them and they should help themselves as well. And yeah, so in the last one, I would just say, I just want to say that everybody during this time has done amazing work, what I read through all the detailed notes, what exchange for media has put out. And it was very, very nicely done, simple to evaluate. And it's a great platform. I think for me, it's a great platform, exchange for media, anything to know about marketing, advertising, any news, any new thing, which is coming into the market from an industry perspective. So yeah, I wish them and I wish all the women who've come in the entry best of luck. You guys have been us any which ways and be safe, take care and let's really make this community proud. I'm so glad I was part of it. Thank you so much. Let me start by congratulating exchange for media for organizing an event that celebrates power of women in the communications industry. It's like come on. And in case strategies were very proud to partner with the second edition of E4M, PR and corporate communications where energy was involved. The experience due to the jury meet was very rewarding and a change of ideas very thought provoking. It was a delight to be a part of an esteemed jury panel that cut across industries. The entries this year for the second edition of E4M, PR and corporate communications award were not only exemplifying clarity of thought, but also showcased innovation, leadership and a remarkable zeal towards driving and contributing to the future of communications in India. The entire process was very transparent and the criteria very holistic. However, for me, it was important to see leadership skills and the future in contribution to the industry. All the stories this time were very authentic. Women today are leading organizations or actively contributing to the success of an organization and are really driving us into the future. And platforms like exchange for media women achievers award recognize and celebrate the contribution made by women. What's a very good experience when this invite had come? One was wondering that looking at the number of people, how are we going to make it happen? Because so many heads and so many opinions. Also, the nominations ran into about 140 which had come down to a short list of about long list of about 80. And from a long list, we had to bring it down to a short list of, let's say, about 50 odds. So one thought this was going to be a daunting task, but full marks to the exchange for media team, the planning team, they've meticulously planned it out in terms of breakout rules in terms of breaking us into two, three different groups and then allocating about 21 order entries to each one of the breakout groups to do. So I think my experience has been very good. It was meticulously planned, well thought out. And the experience of meeting other jurors has also been quite enriching. If I talk about the first the quantum, then I am given to understand that 140 nominations were received out of which the exchange for media team brought it down to about a long list of 80. From a long list of 80, our task was to bring it down to a short list of about 40 to 50. That tells you about the quantum and which means that this is, this continues to be a very popular summit and award. As far as the quality is concerned, I can speak for the entries which were allocated allocated to me and the quality was