Naina Lal Kidwai didn’t start her journey thinking she’d become the CEO of a company one day… it was just another aspiration she achieved along the way. “Life is just a series of goals you keep setting for yourself, and every time you achieve one, you put your head over the parapet to see what else is out there,” says Naina, the country head of HSBC India.
The milestones she’s achieved have also been path-breaking in the world of business. She’s the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School. She is the first woman to guide the functioning of a foreign bank in India. She’s also the first woman president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). All her life, Naina has broken myths and set trends for many more to follow, and yet, there are women in this country who aren’t aware that they can even dare to dream. “Disparity and discrimination against women is something that has existed around the world. I think what we, in India, don’t do is celebrate our successes. We forget that we have women who have achieved as much as they have,” says Naina. One of the inspirations for her latest book, 30 Women in Power: Their Voices, Their Stories is precisely this. In 2012, Naina took over as FICCI president a couple of weeks after the Nirbhaya incident and was invariably posed with questions about the status of women in India at global forums. It was then that she realised that she didn’t even have the statistics to show off to the world the many women who were leading large organisations and making a mark for themselves in this country. So she chose 29 other women who were doing path-breaking work and setting trends in different industries — law, banking, media, advertising, healthcare, FMCG, government services, consulting, NGOs — and brought the narratives together in their own voices.
“For every story that gets out there, there will be resonance amongst thousands of women who will, hopefully, follow in that path, so that we have an army of women who are moving forward in their careers.” The book launch by FLO (FICCI Ladies Organisation) at the Crowne Plaza brought together two more powerful women who’re also part of the book — Sangeetha Pendurkar, managing director of Kelloggs and P. Preetha Reddy, managing director of Apollo Hospitals — for a panel discussion on issues related to the book. Together, the three women shared their experiences and thoughts on a woman’s style of leadership, the trials of juggling work and home, and the role men play in the success of a woman, among other things. While Sangeetha’s husband encouraged her to move countries for her career, it was Preetha’s father-in-law who pushed her to keep working when she felt the pressures of playing many roles. The support of important men — fathers, husbands, bosses — has been a key factor that connects all these narratives. So this book, she says, is relevant for any man with a daughter, a working wife or female colleagues. “It is written for everybody, but I suspect it will have the deepest impact on other working women.”
Naina says she was particularly struck by how fathers were critical influences in the stories of these successful women. “If the generation of women in the book were to emulate somebody in their work life, the father invariably stood out, because he was the only working member in the family. But going forward, I’d like to believe I’ll have an influence on my daughter as a working mother,” she smiles.
