IIMA Women Leadership Society Speaker Series
IIM Ahmedabad hosted its first session on Women Leadership Lecture Series at the KLMDC Auditorium today. The auditorium was packed with young, inspired MBA students from across the city being guided by five women leaders from various walks of life. The event saw participation from colleges such as MICA, B.K. School of Management and Nirma Institute of Technology to mention a few. The speaker session was organised jointly by IIMA's Women's Leadership Society (WLS) and Confluence - IIMA's Business School Summit - which is to be held later this year. It was a fitting curtain raiser to what promises to be a high powered summit.
The WLS aims at developing and supporting women leadership within the IIMA community through continuous and engaging dialogue with women leaders across the country. In the past it has conducted speaker sessions with women entrepreneurs and was instrumental in celebrating Women's Day for the first time in IIMA. Confluence, the largest Business School Summit in Asia-Pacific has a heritage of hosting some of the most inspirational speakers in the country and acting as a forum for aspiring management gurus to exchange ideas.
The event was made exceptional by the illustrious panel of women leaders who graced the occasion. The panel consisted of Ms.Ruchi Kalra, Associate partner with Mc.Kinsey and Company, Ms.Guntaz Randhawa, Brand Manager, HUL, Ms. Neetu Vasanta, a Principal with the Boston Consultancy Group, Ms.Meetali Jain, Vice-President in the Investment Banking team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) and Ms. Sonali Dhawan from P&G India.
The talk began with a very simple yet profound idea that, "You can only change what you are aware of". Ms. Dhawan added impetus to the discussion, by exploring diversity and inclusion. "If your company leadership wants to choose from all the best you have, you need to be inclusive and support this diversity in your organizations." Ms. Kalra supported this by citing company statistics. She argued that "Organizations start with 40% women and have only 3% women in the top leadership. No organization can afford to waste so much talent." Ms. Meetali Jain further added, "A leader is anyone who has a vision and can communicate this vison to otherwise. If it can be articulated so simply, why does one then need to distinguish between male and female leadership."
As Ms. Dhawan well described, the essence of the session is to understand that women need to "lean in" and take up matters in their hands. Every woman has a right to "Expect more".
IIM Ahmedabad hosted its first session on Women Leadership Lecture Series at the KLMDC Auditorium today. The auditorium was packed with young, inspired MBA students from across the city being guided by five women leaders from various walks of life. The event saw participation from colleges such as MICA, B.K. School of Management and Nirma Institute of Technology to mention a few. The speaker session was organised jointly by IIMA's Women's Leadership Society (WLS) and Confluence - IIMA's Business School Summit - which is to be held later this year. It was a fitting curtain raiser to what promises to be a high powered summit.
The WLS aims at developing and supporting women leadership within the IIMA community through continuous and engaging dialogue with women leaders across the country. In the past it has conducted speaker sessions with women entrepreneurs and was instrumental in celebrating Women's Day for the first time in IIMA. Confluence, the largest Business School Summit in Asia-Pacific has a heritage of hosting some of the most inspirational speakers in the country and acting as a forum for aspiring management gurus to exchange ideas.
The event was made exceptional by the illustrious panel of women leaders who graced the occasion. The panel consisted of Ms.Ruchi Kalra, Associate partner with Mc.Kinsey and Company, Ms.Guntaz Randhawa, Brand Manager, HUL, Ms. Neetu Vasanta, a Principal with the Boston Consultancy Group, Ms.Meetali Jain, Vice-President in the Investment Banking team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) and Ms. Sonali Dhawan from P&G India.
The talk began with a very simple yet profound idea that, "You can only change what you are aware of". Ms. Dhawan added impetus to the discussion, by exploring diversity and inclusion. "If your company leadership wants to choose from all the best you have, you need to be inclusive and support this diversity in your organizations." Ms. Kalra supported this by citing company statistics. She argued that "Organizations start with 40% women and have only 3% women in the top leadership. No organization can afford to waste so much talent." Ms. Meetali Jain further added, "A leader is anyone who has a vision and can communicate this vison to otherwise. If it can be articulated so simply, why does one then need to distinguish between male and female leadership."
As Ms. Dhawan well described, the essence of the session is to understand that women need to "lean in" and take up matters in their hands. Every woman has a right to "Expect more".