With legality being a crucial and complex aspect for any organization, the role of the Company Secretary firm has also transformed from mere service vendor to formulator of winning strategies. However, partnering with different Company Secretary firms for aiding different mission-critical business needs of an organization often turns into a bane. While many service providers in the industry have realized the situation and running towards becoming a one-stop-shop, a Mumbai-based full-service Company Secretary & Advisory firm – Jaya Sharma & Associates- has already carved an exceptional impression by providing high quality comprehensive legal and advisory solutions that include corporate laws, startup advisory, consultancy, compliance, CSR advisory, secretarial diligence and more - covering every corporate legal need under the sun. The firm has been instrumental in guiding its clients with a rare blend of best professional advice and a distinctive personal service according to the client's needs.

Jaya Sharma founded the brand in 2009 and ventured into the untapped opportunities in the corporate legal arena of Mumbai. Post completion of graduation from NM College, Mumbai, she pursued LLB from prestigious Government Law College, Mumbai, and completed CS from ICSI (Institute of Company Secretaries of India). Her rising glory also brought her under the limelight corporate legal shelter, while she has also bagged awards like Shri Kanhaiyalal N. Dusane Wala Vakil (Nandurbar) Memorial Award and WIRC Past Chairman VK Mathur Memorial Award (for Female candidates clearing the professional exams in one attempt, scoring second highest aggregate at WIRC- ICSI). She recently cleared the exam for Independent Director from the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs.

Never Stop learning- Be a student for life. We live in the digital era, where everyone knows a bit of everything. Continuous learning is required for every leader and he/she needs to be self-motivated in acquiring knowledge and competencies in order to expand their skillset and develop the current and future opportunities.

In an exclusive conversation with Women Entrepreneur India, Jaya shares interesting details on her journey and the brand.

Highlight the key services of the company. Also, elaborate on the clientele.

Jaya Sharma & Associates has been a corporate consultant & solution provider for entities of all sizes and categories. We have acted as Consultants to Startups, matters on Secretarial Audits and Due Diligence, CSR audit and consultancy, Corporate Governance audit, NGO advisory, PoSH Compliance, FEMA Compliance, Labour Laws license and Compliance, Directors and Independent Directors advisory, Trademarks. We have clients ranging from telecom, hospitality, department of advertising associations, associations who support SME’s, foreign investors, real-estate, entertainment, start-ups, MSMEs, NGOs, and more.

Highlight the usps and key performance indicators of the company.

I recall the wise words of Willard Marriott, an American entrepreneur, “If you take care of your people, your people will take care of your customers and your business will take care of itself.” This quote reflects the ethos & culture of our brand, making us stand ahead in a crowd. If people are not happy, if they're not comfortable, they won’t perform - the company will not grow. Therefore, we always emphasize a transparent, positive, balanced, and employee-friendly work culture. Even while we hire a member, we ensure that the vision of the candidate aligns with the vision of the brand. If our vision and their goals don't match, it will be challenging to cope for both the organization and the employee.

Most importantly, togetherness and transparent communication are the key performance indicators. We have also introduced a hybrid model of working from (home or office), which results in a win-win situation for the firm and people. We have a strict DND policy after work hours emphasizing the importance of work-life balance.

How do you ensure to offer the best to your clients?

We always focus on one transaction at a time and give up 100 percent dedication to that. At Jaya Sharma & Associates, we work closely with our clients to understand their vision, business, requirement, and their goals. As legal advisors, we focus on achieving results by integrating our legal acumen with practical, creative business solutions tailored to our client’s particular needs. The Company Secretary Firm started as a Sole Proprietorship by me has grown over the years to ensure delivery of the best services with professional knowledge, insights, and resources for the benefit of our privileged clients. We always look at the bigger picture, beyond compliance and invest in the long-term professional relationship with our clients by offering customized solutions. With this vision since 2009, we have clients with whom we have been associated for more than a decade.

Highlight the interesting facts of the company’s journey?

I started this professional journey with a single table and chair in a small room. The transformational journey so far is worthwhile and commendable. We are always focusing on creating the next line of leaders. In my opinion, a true leader is someone who lifts others to become a leader. The transformational journey has not happened over night. Keeping the mind open as parachute, motivation from the mentors and peers, learning, re-learning has and always will help us to enhance this professional journey.

We being in the knowledge-based industry, we have since beginning emphasized on absorbing, processing and implementation of the professional knowledge by attending knowledge based programmes, seminar & webinars. Our firm’s Bodha learning sessions have weekly internal discussions in person or through webinars, regular clientele updates. We always make sure that when people step out of the firm, they carry the traits of performance, leadership, integrity, and goodwill to a very great extent and grow at personal and professional levels.

We adhere to social responsibility and values - supporting girl’s education, donation of food and edible items, clothes on monthly basis, or whenever the opportunity comes along. Lending a hand and social responsibility is very much ingrained in the DNA of our firm because no matter how much smaller you do; it is a responsibility to do and is a must by every team member of the firm.

Roadmap

We envision contributing on the professional level in accomplishing and be a part of Vision India 2024, which was launched by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in 2019. We plan and are already in process of adopting digital transformation, virtual client meets, hybrid workspace for the team, improvise video conferencing tools, going paperless, adopting artificial intelligence (AI), e-filings, e-hearings, e-billing, collaborations, consolidations, and more of tech-driven processes.