R. Radha, a seasoned CFO and Co. Secretary with two decades of experience, excels in driving company turnarounds through strategic partnerships across functions. She specializes in scaling startups, establishing e-commerce platforms, and implementing transformative initiatives, including ERP and ESG frameworks.
In a recent conversation with Women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Radha discusses strategic advantages of women-led startups often overlooked, advocating better ecosystem support. She talks about optimizing productivity, innovation through harnessing skills and innovative policies promoting work-life balance for CXOs, especially for women in high-pressure roles.
Women are starting fewer companies compared to men. What strategic advantages do you think women-led startups bring to the market that may be overlooked, and how can the business ecosystem better support their growth?
Funding women startups is low worldwide, not just in India. It takes a lot of courage to overcome gender barriers and start a company, so fewer women do it. But Indian finance has seen great women leaders like Arundathi, Chanda, Renu, Kalpana, Shikka, Naina, Shanti, Madhabi, etc., who have changed the sector with their leadership and achievements.
Hence, women will challenge the status quo and improve the situation. Women-led startups have many benefits for the market. I have seen that women-led teams are more collaborative, communicative, and open to learning, which leads to a positive company culture and higher revenue and profitability.
To help them succeed, the ecosystem must support them at least for the next 10 years. This can be achieved by:
Allocating more venture capital to female founders: Women-led companies do well financially, but they still struggle to get capital. More seed and follow-on financing for women-led businesses can help close this gap. Large venture funds can start by setting aside 10% investment for women-led ventures, which will help women get more funding.
Support diversity and inclusion even at startup level by large organisations and institutions like CII. They can run events and programs that help women entrepreneurs network with successful business leaders, learn from them, and scale their businesses.
Government can help with different tax slabs in the initial years and relaxed valuation and secretarial compliances
Similar to MSME, faster payment rules to enable them to realise their money within 30 days f, so they can self-fund if they can't raise more money
Banks can support them with preferential interest and extend credits without securities to encourage them to raise funds and start businesses.
By focusing on these areas, the business ecosystem can help reduce the gap in support for women-led startups and use their unique strengths for more economic growth and innovation.
The ability to multitask is often highlighted as strength for women in leadership roles. In your opinion, how can organizations effectively harness and support this skill to maximize productivity and innovation at the all levels?
I also strongly believe women are multitasking, and can throw myself as an example. However, not many organisations realise this either due the traditional way they are built up or because of lesser women participation in the type of Industry they are in. In such organisations inclusion has to be a top downmandate and it is crucial for leaders to be willing to make bold changes and lead by example. When leaders champion diversity and inclusion, they pave the way for a more innovative and inclusive workplace culture.
They need to allocate small budgets for Investing in programs that empower women leaders. Ensuring that women have opportunities to grow and lead with authenticity is key. Programs should focus on developing and mentoring subordinates with care and empathy. They can also sponsor them for programs which provides support to advance their careers and break through barriers in traditionally male-dominated industries.
Leaders should strictly prohibit unconscious biases that influence decision-making at various levels, allowing women to thrive in their roles.
Women excel but at times struggle with official timings, hence promoting work-life balance and flexibility in office timings can help them contribute well
Recognizing the importance of mental health and providing a supportive environment where women can discuss their challenges without fear of stigma or career damage is essential very important and would request every organisation to foster this culture.
Last but not the least, organisations must coach and train the male employees also to accept women as superior leaders and change their perception about them.
Balancing work and personal life is challenging for many executives. From your observations in the industry, what innovative policies or practices have you seen that successfully promote work-life integration for CXOs, particularly for women in high-pressure roles?
Offering flexible work timings, child care support, transportation, training etc., can help women at an entry level and middle level to succeed, but for women at CXO level the challenges are different.
We are still in a gender biased economy, less than 10% women hold the CXO positions in corporates, Government could not implement mandatory 33% women director in the Board well, and the society is also not very safe for women leaders to travel well in late hours, and women still love to be a good daughter, sister, wife, mother in spite of being a corporate leader.
Hence, at a CXO level, instead of blaming the organisation or the culture or the society, I would advocate women to self-develop and succeed. We need to embrace our own strength and excel. I find women, including me work hard, work smart, delivery the result but are quiet, when it comes to showcasing the same. We need to master the art of self-promotion and overcome the imposter syndrome. We need to build support system to handle our family side and also build support network to handle professional challenges. We cannot socialise well over a drink party does not mean we cannot build our professional network. We need to master the art of balancing work and life which may not be a big challenge for men. Since women are multitasking and definitely are inclusive, must ensure they put forth their views with conviction and without ambiguity. Women can attend targeted training and development programme to improve their acceptance. And beyond all, must advocate diversity and inclusion to a maximum extent possible.
Women's leadership is gaining momentum globally. Based on your insights, what cultural or regional differences have you observed in how women approach leadership roles, and what can international companies learn from these diverse perspectives?
I worked for Indian Conglomerate , Retail Giant, IT giant, Hospitality Giant, Indian Startup, and I also worked for American MNC, British MNC and European MNC. Every country has similar challenges what we face in India, just that a few countries provide very safe environment for women to work in odd hours, travel, and India is also improving on that field . In European countries one of the ESG sustainability matrix has gender diversity as a criteria for measurement, and if they excel in their ESG score, understand the bank finance comes at a cheaper rate compared to other corporates. Hence, commercial benefit is also forcing them to add on more women at all levels. Once they add women quotient in their CXO/Board positions, it cascades to the regions across the globe and it helps open up a lot of CXO positions. As I mentioned earlier, research has shown that women's leadership is often associated with collaborative and inclusive decision-making, which can be beneficial in diverse and globalized work environments.
Digital transformation is reshaping industries. How can women in finance leverage emerging technologies to overcome traditional barriers and drive innovation, particularly in sectors where female representation is historically low?
Digital transformation is indeed reshaping industries, and it is definitely a boon for women in finance who can leverage emerging technologies to overcome traditional barriers and drive innovation. COVID and the resultant importance given for digital transformation and the ability to handle work from home has created a lot of avenues for women to excel , especially in Finance function which always hover around timeliness and deadliness. I would strongly urge Women in finance to leverage these emerging technologies and initiatives to break through traditional barriers and contribute to innovation in their sectors. By harnessing digital tools, women can embrace a more creative, flexible, and less gender-biased approach to entrepreneurship as well leave alone finance.
