The world we live in today is ruled by wom-en and without them no field is considered complete. There are plenty of instances in various fields where women have been flour-ishing on top levels. Shwetha Kondur, Director and Co-Founder, Vista Spaces is one such example who is helping Vista Space grow to new heights using her experience and skill. In this interview with Women Entrepreneur magazine, Shwetha Kondur shares in-sights about her journey, challenges, vision and mis-sion.

Vista Spaces is a next generation city centric re-al-estate development company built on the found-ing principles of transparency, professionalism and reliability. Starting from its first project, Vista Arcot, Vista Spaces has consistently pushed the envelope on creating green living spaces in high-value city centric locations. Today, Vista Spaces is the amongst the most recognized luxury real estate brand in Bangalore. We continue to pioneer contemporary building facades, opulent interior finishes and sustainable environmen-tal measures. Vista Spaces has gained the reputation of a company that completes its buildings on-time and of the quality and specification promised.

What motivated you to Co-Found Vista Spaces? Talk about your role in the organization.

I believed that there was room in the market for a pro-fessionally run establishment delivering high quality real estate with integrity and honesty. We founded Vista Spaces with intent to change the landscape with contemporary facades and sustainable environmental measures focusing on city centric areas which have intrinsic demand in its micro market.

While my role in the organization has evolved to-wards compliance, risk, finance and financial report-ing, as an entrepreneur you are expected to step into various facets of the business, identify problems or opportunities then develop solutions for them. Ad-ditionally, I focus on organization's strategy towards sustainability and reducing a negative impact it may have in on environment. To this extent my role focus-es on integrating our business goals into our core val-ues of sustainability as we strive towards making Vis-ta Spaces one of the greenest real estate developers in the country.

How long did it take you to reach here, what was the journey like? It’s been 12 years since we incorporated Vista Spaces. The journey has been fulfilling one where I’ve had to continuously introspect and dig deep to find my pur-pose. It is crucial, in my opinion, for us women in busi-ness to see, and think of ourselves in a leadership po-sition. Internalizing a sense of oneself as a leader is a process that has to be worked on continuously. There are unseen barriers in place, integrating leadership into one’s core identity is particularly challenging for women, who must establish credibility in a culture that is deeply conflicted about whether, when and how they should exercise authority. Although there is a lot of support for women today, there are still unspoken hurdles that exist because of the stereotypes that are perpetuated about the role a woman plays in the com-munity as a whole.

Please shed some light on your milestones? The milestone that I have achieved is evident in terms of, the organization that we have built. Twelve years ago, we launched Vista Spaces. The accomplishments of Vista Spaces over the past years are measured by the organization we’ve built, teams we’ve nurtured and quantity of projects we have completed, the hon-esty with which each of these projects was carried out, and the communities that thrive in these projects.

"Reflect, perceive and visualize herself as a leader to manifest leadership"

What were the problems you had to face being a woman in this industry dominated by men? We live in a patriarchal society, so male entrepreneurs are widely recognized as leaders whereas women entrepreneurs are still seen as something of a pipe dream. Human tendency is to gravitate to people like oneself, leading men to believe only another man can be at the negotiating/discussion table. Defying social expectations and the struggle to be taken seriously in a male dominated industry are always the biggest challenges for female entrepreneurs. For example, I'm continually asked if an officer can speak with one of the other directors when I handle a particular division.

The communal, consensus-building qualities en-couraged in young girls can leave women uninten-tionally downplaying their own worth. So you need to ‘own your accomplishments' constantly, to be noticed, recognized and respected. Also, a robust support net-work is essential for entrepreneurial success.

Drawing from your experience as a business leader, what would your advice be to young women and girls who also aspire to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future? A professional career gives girls and young women the financial freedom but being an entrepreneur helps to express your full potential. Believing in your poten-tial after you’ve garnered work experience to provide armor to navigate tough business decisions.

I knew that if I had continued working in the cor-porate world I would have had to make a lot of choices I didn’t want to make. Balancing family life and busi-ness is always challenging, unlike fixed office hours as an entrepreneur you are always working with the privilege and liberty to schedule. l do think the culture of work is shifting to allow women more flexibility, which is a good thing. But working for yourself will probably always allow more freedom than working for someone else. Overall, it’s hard work, determination and perseverance that make for a successful entrepre-neurial career while balancing your family life.

Shwetha Kondur, Director And Co-Founder, Vista Spaces

Shwetha is a qualified Chartered Accountant who started her career in London as an accountant with a large Retail brand. After a few years, she joined the Audit Division of SR Batliboi/Ernst & Young, Bangalore. Both these roles gave her an opportunity to understand operations, compliance and risk mitigation, controls and standard operating procedures set up by large MNC clients to mitigate risks and achieve efficiency. She later went on to join the Investment Banking team of Pricewater House Coopers in Bangalore. Shwetha's role at the investment banking team gave her an opportunity to work closely with leading entrepreneurs in south India which helped her understand business strategy.