Small-scale farmers often fail to benefit from available lucrative opportunities of the global export market largely due to their limited ability to participate in high value market chains caused by a lack of knowledge in export quality management. To help small-scale growers overcome these major obstacles and empower them to connect with the global trading market, Swati Sinha founded Swan International in 2016. Today, her organization, with its expertise in understanding the requirements of small players, offers tailored solutions to their business needs through cutting-edge products and services, using technology to facilitate the complex nature of global trade.

Swati is a highly passionate business leader who has spent eight years in Africa exploring the underdeveloped countries of the continent and building a network with women from those communities. This gives her an understanding of the complexities faced by underdeveloped regions in the trading business. By creating opportunities for small growers and small buyers, she is democratizing the complex web of international grains trade, tradition-ally dominated by the big players in the industry.

Through Swan International, Swati is also leading major social initiatives, where she is funding projects for entrepreneurs who are willing to build their own businesses and building career destinations for women who wish to restart their careers after a career break. As a business leader, she believes in a shared prosperity concept where her buyers, suppliers, colleagues, and clients grow in tandem with the organization.

Let’s hear it from Swati as she speaks about the company and more.
What are some important features of your expertise as a business leader?
When it comes to leading a business, I believe in being organized as it helps me to have a clear perception of my goals, where my work is leading, and the loopholes. I also carry a risk taking appetite; this enables me to empower myself to handle risks positively and grab the opportunities that they offer to advance my organization’s mission and goals. Furthermore, in the process of building an organization, I have realized that effective communication is the oil that makes collaboration possible. Inclusive and two-way communication helps improve teamwork, mitigate conflicts by reducing the chances of misunderstandings, and build better relationships with employees, colleagues, and clients. I also believe that my ability to cut through the ambiguity and the uncertainties that have been associated with volatile commodities markets has helped me to deliver profitable outcomes for the organization.

"The existence of swan international is in itself a very big milestone as it is not just a business but a platform for people to work and grow"

Tell us about the various challenges you encounter in terms of leading Swan International. How do you overcome them?
Being a bootstrapped company, funding has been the biggest challenge for us in the process of building Swan International. But our healthy relationships from both the buyers’ and the suppliers’ end helped us to stay afloat in the market. Along the way, I have received immense support from my husband who has introduced me to some of the suppliers in Africa. We started with one country and one product, which has now moved up to five products touching 15 countries globally. Our business is built on the basis of the trusting relationship that we have created with our partners, buyers, and suppliers.

Tell us about some of the key milestones you have achieved throughout your professional journey. What has been your success mantra?
Having been able to transform my business vision into a reality and also drive teams toward a common goal has been the greatest success of my career so far. Swan is a platform for individuals, especially women who are willing to restart their careers after a break; we are building opportunities for these women and finetuning their potential to best suit our organization’s needs. I believe the existence of Swan International is in itself a very big milestone as it is not just a business but a platform for people to work and grow.

Throughout the journey, I have always carried the feeling of gratitude towards the people around me who have helped me to reach where I am positioned today. This indeed has been a powerful mantra of my success as a business leader.

What advice or message would you give to young women who aspire to become business leaders or entrepreneurs in the future?
I believe, there is no age limit for learning if you have the passion, willingness, and correct attitude to learn something. I want to share this message with budding leaders mainly since people think being old is an excuse not to learn something new, not to explore new avenues. But there are people in this world who swim upstream, who challenge conventional wisdom. I am extremely proud that I became one of the latter. I pursued MBA two years back when I realized that I needed modern managerial tools to be able to build my organization successfully. Every individual possesses some kind of strength within them; they must work toward nurturing those strengths to emerge as a successful leader.

Swati Sinha, Co-Founder,  Swan International
Having an MBA from The Wharton School, Swati is taking strong initiatives to help small growers and buyers while offering them ideas, platforms, and financial support and helping them to build their market in the global trade.

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