A fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretary, Akansha Rathi is also a qualified Insolvency Professional and a certified expert in the areas of Prevention of Sexual Harassment at workplace and Intellectual Property Rights. She completed her graduation from Kolkata and after qualifying her Company Secretary (CS) exam, she started her career with a publicly listed pharmaceutical company and later on started her own practice  . With 20 years of experience, Akansha is an expert in the Corporate Governance and Compliance domain. Her hard work and passion have brought in a lots of laurels and recognition for her as well as for her firm.

Here are some highlights from Akansha's exclusive interaction with Women Entrepreneur.

Introduce Us To Akansha Rathi & Associates. What Are The Important Traits Of Your Expertise As An Entrepreneur?

Akansha Rathi & Associates is a 15 year old Company Secretarial Advisory firm into compliance and secretarial work with a special focus and specialization in the startups compliance right from the formation of a business, raising investments and eventually their listing on the stock market. The firm provides a holistic compliance solution at a competitive cost, enabling our clients focus on their primary businesses while we take care of the compliance part. Our aim is to ensure zero non-compliance for our clients by eliminating human errors through use of technology and provide quality work and timely delivery.

Akansha Rathi keeps herself in sync and updated with the always-changing business environment through additional knowledge enhancement and furthering her educational qualifications. She also has diversified service lines like practice as an Insolvency Professional, certification in Prevention of Sexual Harassment at  workplace, Intellectual Property Rights, and a well-qualified team to work with dedication.

Tell Us About Your Educational Background And Previous Industry Experiences. What Motivated You To Establish Akansha Rathi & Associates ?

After completing my graduation, I did Company Secretary (CS) course and started practicing in the Compliance and Legal domain. My 20 years of working experience helped me in gaining valuable knowledge of this industry and I realized that there is a shortage of professionals who can provide quality service at affordable cost and firms who provides multiple services to different types of clients which led to the foundation of Akansha Rathi & Associates. My passion for quality compliance service helped my firm in providing curated packages and services as per the client's requirements and after analysing the needs of clients we strive to provide services beyond their expectations.

The key differentiators that make Akansha Rathi & Associates stand out from the rest are  knowledge of the domain, vastness of services offered, experience of dealing with hundreds of companies, par excellence quality of work, and well-qualified professionals in the firms.

Tell Us About The Roles And Responsibilities You Shoulder Including The Challenges You Face As A Founder And How Do You Overcome Those Challenges?

As a founder, I look after the firm's strategy, business development, client engagements, brand building, and pave the path for execution and upholding the quality of the assignments. The new enactments/amendments happen almost every day and keeping a track is the most challenging part. We take pride in positioning ourselves as knowledge leaders and we release a monthly newsletter which consists of all the enacted/amended laws of the month, and our newsletter is very well received by our clients. Another major challenge is hiring, developing, and retaining quality professionals for which we offer the right performance based incentives- both monetary and non monetary, a healthy work environment, and challenging work environment, and a clear career path, to keep the professionals motivated.

What Has Been Your Most Remarkable Achievement So Far And What Is Your Guiding Leadership Philosophy?

Our firm has witnessed consistent growth in services, revenue, number of clients, and team size in the last 15 years of its inception. Having high growth start ups to a winning a listed Entity-turnover of Rs.500 crores as retainer client, having a bigger office space to keep pace with the growing demands, and now handling more than 100 clients as compared to just two when we started are some of the key achievements we have achieved so far. However, the most distinguished accomplishment, I believe, is that we have a client retention ratio of over 97 percent, which is very rare in the industry, and this is a testament to the value we provide to our clients.

"Be passionate about the work you do and never stop from learning, unlearning, and being agile to changes"

My leadership philosophy focuses on harmonising Customer first and Employee first approach in order to achieve the best output for our clients. It entails creating better and more confident professionals by entrusting them with responsibilities, providing them equal opportunities and developing a sense of learning, unlearning, and keeping yourself evolving with the changing dynamics.

Tell Us About Your Future Plan. How Do You Stay In Sync With That? Also, What Advice You Would Give To Young Women Aspiring To Venture Out On Their Own?

The Corporate Legal and compliance industry is dynamic, and is growing rapidly and is fuelled by extensive promotion of government initiatives like Make in India and Startup India. This industry is going through a paradigm shift in terms of adaptation of technology and working on web/app-based platforms. Our goal is to be among the top three Legal, Compliance and Secretarial firm in Mumbai, and have a bigger multi city presence, and be the preferred firm for Startup compliance, and we are working relentlessly towards our goal. We work closely with associates and partners from other cities and encourage our people to keep upgrading their skills according to the changing systems.

I have learnt during the course of my journey is that it is very essential to be passionate about what you do, believe in yourself, be patient, always learn from your mistakes by being open to take feedback and criticism, and always be ready to learn, unlearn, and be agile.  Having your own venture is exciting and fulfiling, and I would encourage young women to take up this challenge.

Quick Facts:

· Services Provided by firm: Starting business incorporation for various types of industry, meeting compliance needs as per company's requirement,  covering the whole life cycle of the entity. Providing Insolvency Professional Services to companies and lenders.

· Awards of recognition: Awarded in the category of "Women Power in Legal & Compliance".

· Headquarter: Mumbai

· Other Office Locations: Ahmedabad and Delhi.

Akansha Rathi,Founder, Akansha Rathi & Associates

Having years of experience in the industry, Akansha has dealt with over 500 companies which helped her in gaining a deep understanding of the start-up ecosystem. Her passion for providing quality work made her establish her own consulting firm known as Akansha Rathi & Associates.