April 1 2016, 15.50 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
Neither Age nor Gender Is a Barrier for One to Become a Leader
Bangalore 1st April 2016… The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) – Indian Women Network (IWN), organized its Annual Leadership Conference 2016 with the theme ‘Leadership to enable the Change’ in the city today. IWN was set up three years ago with the primary aim of helping women professionals manage multiple roles in their life through several learning and development sessions. In line with IWN’s focus, the objective of todays conference is to prepare young aspiring professionals for changes with respect to leadership challenges. Eminent speakers form across industries, who had witnessed significant changes in their own career and leadership roles shared their views.
Mr. Ravi Raghavan, Chairman, CII Karnataka and Managing Director Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd, in his special address said that there is an increased need for gender parity in the Indian industry. He emphasized on the 5P’s to make the change process effective in an organization namely Purpose for change, people or potential, passion, patience and persistence. He said that these 5P’s would enable a leader to bring in the right changes. Success stories without failure in change management is very rare he added.
Delivering the special address Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Past President CII and Co-Founder, Infosys Limited said that we are in a period of rapid change and we will witness significant change in the next 30 years. Change creates unprecedented avenues for new leadership both for individuals and the business as a whole. It is a huge opportunity for us in India to create businesses that are leaders not just in India but Globally. Elaborating on principles required to lead change he said that it is extremely important to internalize what it take to be a leader and be committed twenty hours a day, seven days a week. One needs to evaluate what it takes to accept a leadership position. He recommended leadership by example enumerating that the best kind of leader should be prepared to ‘walk the talk’. He said that an effective leader should understand the context of change and the implications that it will bring to the business. It is vital for a leader to be communicative and use tools and technology competently. According to him Neither age nor gender is a barrier for one to become a leader.
Ms. Gayathri Vasudevan, Chairwoman IWN Karnataka and CEO, Labour Net Services India Private Ltd said that successful change management requires an organization to overcome several leadership challenges and to develop a focused and proactive strategy to address change. She said that the emphasis at IWN is to add value to career women and professionals through learning and development, health and wellbeing and policy and advocacy. According to her, IWN acts as a support group for career women who table at a point and often find themselves isolated with stunted growth due to the multiple roles they play in life.
Ms. Meena Ganesh Managing Director, Portea Medical & CEO, Growth Story, in her keynote address said that the business environment is going through massive disruption. Companies sometimes stumble when they fail to read the change in time. Sometimes even expert predictions can go wrong for the same reason. She opined that a leader should have at least one area of core competence along with the ability to work with people with competency is various business domains. She said that leaders need to have cross cultural competence, be it geographic or demographic. She stressed on the need for leaders to be open to continuous learning, re-learning and filtering of pertinent information.
Ms. Geetha Panda, Vice Chairwoman IWN Karnataka and Director-Global centers, Asia Pacific and Japan, Mobility and Workplace Services HP in her message to career women and young aspiring professionals said that they need enjoy their careers as much as they enjoy building homes and for this they need to strike a balance to align the work-life ecosystem as per their preference. She said that IWN aims to impart skills that would enhance the career growth of working and aspiring women professionals towards leadership roles. She also spoke extensively about encouraging the leader to create a safe inclusive work place for women.
The daylong conference witnessed panel discussions on ‘Negotiations for Career Advancement’, ‘Leadership Challenges and Strategies for Change Management’, ‘Women Safety and Security: Leadership Role’ and ‘Developing Future Talent Through Effective Leadership’.
Photo caption:
Ms. Geetha Panda, Vice Chairwoman IWN Karnataka and Director-Global centers, Asia pacific and Japan, Mobility and Workplace services HP; Ms. Gayathri Vasudevan, Chairwoman IWN Karnataka and CEO, Labour Net Services India Private Ltd; Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder, Infosys Limited and Past President CII; Ms. Meena Ganesh Managing Director, Portea Medical & CEO, Growth Story; Mr. Ravi Raghavan, Chairman, CII Karnataka and Mr. G K Moinudeen, Director CII Karnataka at the inaugural session of CII – Indian Women Network (IWN), Annual Leadership Conference 2016