1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,360 Poornima Shanoi is in the process of establishing FICCI, India's foremost business body in 2 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:20,960 the United States. 3 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:27,160 At the time this podcast was recorded a year ago, she was heading her own consultancy, 4 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:28,920 Hummingbird Advisors. 5 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:35,580 She has a unique ability to build engines of business growth through industry bodies. 6 00:00:35,580 --> 00:00:41,920 The Semiconductor Association of India and NASSCOM are where she honed her skills. 7 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:48,760 Welcome to the My First Job Podcast, where we find out what drives people, how luck plays 8 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:51,700 a role and the lessons they've learnt. 9 00:00:51,700 --> 00:00:59,920 This is episode 8 and like every career journey, it's full of twists, turns and insights. 10 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:02,560 My name is Venu Gopal Nair. 11 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:09,040 I'm the host of this podcast and CEO of Ideascape Communications, an advertising agency into 12 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:11,980 branding, creative and design. 13 00:01:11,980 --> 00:01:15,720 So settle in, sit back and enjoy the conversation. 14 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:18,560 Hi Poornima and welcome to the show. 15 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:19,560 Thank you Venu. 16 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:22,960 Such an honour to be here speaking with you. 17 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:26,440 It's my pleasure, my honour as well Purnima. 18 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:32,920 It's a wonderful thing to see how your career has gone from strength to strength and right 19 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,160 from the beginning you were always very organised in what had to be done. 20 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:42,600 I noticed most people when they start off their companies, especially men, will talk 21 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:48,680 about conquests and conquering the world and you chose the Hummingbird, which is among 22 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:53,760 the smallest birds and though you work in such a highly technical sector, the semiconductor 23 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,640 space, what's the story behind Hummingbird? 24 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:04,680 So the credit for the name Hummingbird as well as its logo goes to my daughter, Nandita. 25 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:05,880 She's a millennial. 26 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:11,160 I think the Hummingbird stands for flexibility and adaptability, which is what one should 27 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:12,160 be in business. 28 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:14,240 I'm in the consulting space. 29 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:19,120 I need to understand my customers, serve their needs as long as we are on the right side 30 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:20,120 of the law. 31 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:22,200 So I think it's a very apt name. 32 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:26,400 Like I said, that's one of the places when you begin to see the difference between how 33 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,400 women see things and how men see things. 34 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:32,720 You know, even your start, that is you took French tuition. 35 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:35,480 Yeah, I love French as a language. 36 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:40,000 I feel it's very similar to Mathematics, especially the conjugation of words. 37 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,160 And sometimes I really wonder whether I should have studied, you know, my debate when I was 38 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,640 in college is whether I should study French or Pulal science. 39 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:50,720 And then I went and did something totally different. 40 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:53,360 But my love for the French language never goes. 41 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:59,040 And I feel very thrilled, you know, when I watch, let's say, French movies, Helcule Poirot, 42 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:03,120 for example, and can understand the French even after so many years. 43 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:07,920 So when I was in college at Mount Carmel, so I studied French for seven years. 44 00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:11,120 If you want to make a little bit of pocket money, tuitions helped. 45 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:12,480 So French tuitions were it. 46 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,440 I didn't do it for too long, only in the final year. 47 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:17,360 But let's say I had a good time doing it. 48 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:22,280 I hope my students are as good at the time as I did learning from me. 49 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,000 But you say you learned French only in college. 50 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,520 You didn't have a link with the language earlier. 51 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:29,760 No, I did it from school. 52 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:34,680 So I grew up in Goa and there we had a choice of, you know, we had English, we had Hindi 53 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:37,800 and we had a choice of either Marathi or French. 54 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:42,240 And Marathi is something that one could learn in day to day life over there. 55 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:47,160 And I was so fascinated by the French words and the conjugations that I took French all 56 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,840 the way from standard eight to second year of degree. 57 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:51,440 So I studied it for seven years. 58 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:55,040 So and then I went to the Allianz Francaise out here at Bangalore. 59 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:59,720 I couldn't believe it, you know, formally in school, we learned theory, how to write 60 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:03,360 and read, but we never learned how to speak and to pronounce. 61 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:05,060 And the Allianz did that for us. 62 00:04:05,060 --> 00:04:08,320 So yes, I mean, I have very happy memories of learning. 63 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:09,320 Okay. 64 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:14,240 So then from tutor into your first job, which was with an advertising agent. 65 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:15,240 Yes. 66 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:16,240 How did that come about? 67 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,400 So when I was doing my MBA, I really liked marketing. 68 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:24,400 I specialized in marketing and advertising is what fascinated me. 69 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:26,480 And more than that was advertising research. 70 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:32,080 You know, this was way before data science and analytics were even thought of as subjects. 71 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:37,680 And I always felt the market, if we knew the data and if we could analyze it better, we 72 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:40,480 would have more targeted messaging. 73 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:45,920 So I started off in advertising research and I had this wonderful boss called Arijit Ghosh. 74 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:51,680 I think it's from IT Kharagpur, but the most brilliant lateral thinker that I know to date, 75 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:53,480 I've never met anybody like him. 76 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:57,240 I think he was the first person who saw the potential for advertising research. 77 00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:59,880 This was before the internet era. 78 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:03,880 So the show from print publications and that's where I started off. 79 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:07,280 Even today, you know, I always go back to data. 80 00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:08,440 Data doesn't lie. 81 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:10,240 So gut feel is good. 82 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,440 And I like gut feel when I relating to people. 83 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,160 But if you want to take a decision, nothing like this. 84 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,120 There is a bit of luck involved there. 85 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:24,160 Like you said, coming across the one person or one of the few people in India who understood 86 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:30,440 the importance of data in advertising because as we've seen, advertising agencies have kind 87 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:36,480 of split between digital and the traditional agency because agencies, the traditional agency 88 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:39,680 has never really managed data or they understood the shift. 89 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:45,640 Whereas the digital agency is focused on, you know, the data, but they were not too 90 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:46,640 close to a customer. 91 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:48,480 At least that's the way I see it. 92 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:53,680 But now, of course, that whole line is blurred and things are changed quite a bit. 93 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:59,160 Do you remember or recall any specific things that you worked on in systems? 94 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:04,040 So at that time, HMD and microboss were the two largest accounts. 95 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:09,120 And let me say I was not too popular with the copywriters and the and the design folks 96 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:12,960 who could not understand why you needed data. 97 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:15,280 I mean, why was color so important? 98 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:21,240 I mean, I felt color a lot of things which we take for granted today with a lot of analysis. 99 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:25,240 And at that time, it was all on gut feel with gut is good. 100 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:30,760 But to put big budgets and marketing budgets on gut feel and, you know, you have a very 101 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,440 young rookie out of college trying to look at things differently. 102 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:39,640 I'm sure they must have and not as a person, but for what I was trying to say. 103 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:40,640 Okay. 104 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:44,520 So then from advertising, you made another pivot. 105 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:49,600 What is it that went through your mind when you decided that you needed to move to the 106 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:50,600 next step? 107 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:54,640 I wanted more money and I wanted a better salary. 108 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:55,720 I love my boss. 109 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:56,720 I love my colleagues. 110 00:06:56,720 --> 00:06:59,880 I love the environment, but the money was not good. 111 00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:00,880 Okay. 112 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:06,160 And I got my dream job in India's leading market research and which are both qualitative 113 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:11,760 and quantitative research and which for me was absolutely what we needed if we had to 114 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:14,460 build strong marketing campaigns. 115 00:07:14,460 --> 00:07:15,460 But I had a bad boss. 116 00:07:15,460 --> 00:07:19,600 I have to be eternally grateful to her because that made me an entrepreneur. 117 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,120 I said, I cannot work under bad. 118 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:25,680 You join a company ultimately and you leave a manager. 119 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:31,160 So my, I'm very grateful to her for making my life so miserable that I decided to become 120 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:32,160 an entrepreneur. 121 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:37,200 So between your first job and your second job, you went from a boss who was possibly 122 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:41,240 one of the best you worked with to a boss who was possibly one of the worst you worked 123 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:42,240 with. 124 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:46,800 I think if you have a great first boss, right, it spoils you for the rest of your life because 125 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:47,800 you keep measuring. 126 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:55,800 They might measure maybe 50%, 70%, but I was just so spoiled with my first job. 127 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:56,800 Okay. 128 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:02,400 So then you decided that you couldn't stick around though the job was fine, the boss wasn't. 129 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:04,160 So then you decided to turn on. 130 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:08,400 Did you really think of it as being a risk at that point in time? 131 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:14,480 I, when there's a very odd question and I find people saying, you know, risk, reverse 132 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:15,480 risk averse. 133 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:22,000 I've never been scared of taking, whether investing in the market or doing a job or 134 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:23,560 doing anything in the, okay. 135 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:27,200 Or maybe, you know, I should not boast, but I don't know what is fear. 136 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:32,720 I mean, only if you ask me to jump into eight feet of cold water in the pool, then that 137 00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:36,660 scares, but the rest of it is about taking a risk. 138 00:08:36,660 --> 00:08:38,880 So no, it doesn't scare me at all. 139 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:39,880 Never scared me. 140 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:44,800 And maybe I'm foolish, but taking risk is part of my DNA. 141 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,020 Sometimes I wonder if that is the way people are made risk averse. 142 00:08:48,020 --> 00:08:52,320 Some people will take risks in areas that they might take physical risk, but not this 143 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:53,320 one. 144 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:57,640 Like you said, your average physical, but this kind of risk, you didn't see it as being 145 00:08:57,640 --> 00:08:58,640 a risk at all. 146 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:01,320 But what are the factors that you consider? 147 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:07,640 So the, the business that I started with a co-founder, I got, you know, I spoke to her 148 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:13,320 and she liked what I was thinking about is that I was looking for a job and I realized 149 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,080 there was no place in Bangalore. 150 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:16,080 You know, I was based in Bangalore. 151 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:18,200 I was already married at a very young age. 152 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:20,080 I didn't see myself moving out of it. 153 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:22,840 And I said, if I'm looking for a job, what are the options? 154 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:24,200 How do I get another job? 155 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:26,880 Then I realized that there were no options in the market. 156 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:28,600 All the options were in Bombay. 157 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:34,320 And so I suddenly felt like someone in her twenties that here is a big opening in the 158 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:36,720 market, which one can take advantage. 159 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:41,320 And this was just as Infosys and Wipo were getting off the, and Bangalore. 160 00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:47,360 And then I realized that advertising or market research and FMCG companies were not growing 161 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:49,160 in Bangalore, but technology. 162 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:54,520 So I was very lucky to have Wipro as my first customer and Infosys as my second. 163 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:55,520 Wow. 164 00:09:55,520 --> 00:09:56,520 Okay. 165 00:09:56,520 --> 00:09:57,520 Yeah. 166 00:09:57,520 --> 00:09:58,520 Okay. 167 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:04,160 Obviously they were not as big as they were as they are today, but it was still a major 168 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:05,160 leap, right? 169 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:07,240 It was, it was a great start. 170 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:13,280 And I think they set such high standards for integrity and works and working that, you 171 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:18,320 know, when you work with the best, you know, you don't compromise on the at all or on your 172 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:19,320 principle. 173 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:23,400 So I think there were great learning grounds to have such fabulous customers as number 174 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:24,400 one. 175 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:28,600 And so I think, you know, we started off with the right time by sheer accident, but in the 176 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:32,960 first year, the Kuwait, I mean, I think around that time there was some Kuwait war and it 177 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:34,040 affected us. 178 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:39,560 Many entrepreneur resilience, women, especially resilience is also part of our DNA. 179 00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:40,560 You don't give up. 180 00:10:40,560 --> 00:10:44,240 I think also people should know when to give up, but at that time we didn't know about 181 00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:45,240 giving up. 182 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:46,240 You just perceive it. 183 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:51,960 And we did that business for 10 years, finally exited when a venture fund bought my partner 184 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:52,960 and me out. 185 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:54,840 What kind of recruitments did you make? 186 00:10:54,840 --> 00:11:00,120 So we focused increasingly, we did a lot of what you would call in parlance as headhunting 187 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:06,920 assignments and some keep and it feels very good when you see some of those people, you 188 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:12,400 know, who are hired as VPs or as part of senior management went on to become CEOs of those 189 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:13,400 companies. 190 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:17,600 It was never about the bulk recruitment or this numbers. 191 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:19,760 It was always quality over quantity. 192 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:23,240 And we always made sure we had a premium pricing. 193 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:25,680 So I never competed on. 194 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:28,240 Did you have any previous experience in Rikha? 195 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:29,240 Nothing, zero. 196 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:30,240 Wow. 197 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:34,840 You figured that you would be able to identify the right talent and deliver. 198 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:35,840 Yeah. 199 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:40,840 I figured out how to do it while you were doing everything is about selling. 200 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:45,680 We know whatever you're doing, like whether you're running a company, everything is about 201 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:51,120 selling two things we need to have in school and at college level sales and how to read 202 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:52,120 business reports. 203 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:55,800 I mean, how to do business planning balance sheets, profit and loss. 204 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:59,520 If people are equipped with these three things right from the school level, there's so much 205 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:00,520 more we can do. 206 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:04,000 And so I think women can, you know, sales is a great word. 207 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:08,280 People think, Oh, I don't want to be a sales for, but I think sales is at the core of it. 208 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:11,960 And if you can sell, you can do anything and sell with content. 209 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:13,800 I don't mean lose selling. 210 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:18,040 I mean, see this, understand what you're selling and have faith in what you and you will work 211 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:19,040 at it. 212 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:21,200 So how do you go about recruiting? 213 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:23,460 The requirements were fairly large. 214 00:12:23,460 --> 00:12:24,460 You would have to find. 215 00:12:24,460 --> 00:12:26,840 I'm not giving any secret sauce. 216 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:27,840 Yeah, I know. 217 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,000 That's where a lot of things are hidden. 218 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:35,560 You've given part of it by saying, yes, you had to know how to sell well. 219 00:12:35,560 --> 00:12:37,360 I think that is really the point. 220 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:41,640 A lot of people assume that second stage is where you have to think it through. 221 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:42,800 How do you get these people? 222 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:43,800 How do you locate them? 223 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:48,400 How do you figure out which I think are the points where you excel, which is why I think 224 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:52,320 you built it over 10 years into what it became. 225 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:55,920 So then that I think was another gateway. 226 00:12:55,920 --> 00:13:03,000 So after Nexus, which was my company's name, was acquired by the venture fund. 227 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:07,320 I worked there for some amount of time and then I took a break of about six months to 228 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:10,800 understand what I wanted to do in life and what were my priorities. 229 00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:14,920 At that time, I was very intrigued by what industry bodies were doing. 230 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:20,400 I thought they had a very pivotal role to play in shaping the economy, you know, presenting 231 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:24,280 the sector, you're representing industry out there. 232 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:26,600 So I worked with NASCOM for a while. 233 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:32,480 Then I worked with the Manipal Group heading their marketing and strategy, where I worked 234 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:33,480 with two great guys. 235 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:38,560 You know, I've been so fortunate in the one was Dr. Ranjan Pai, who now heads the group 236 00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:39,560 and the other one was D.F. 237 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:44,120 Prasanna, the person ex-G and ex-Vipro head. 238 00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:50,360 I turned from a person who was focusing on inputs to being totally outcome driven. 239 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:54,520 So I'm very grateful to them because they saw obviously some potential in me, which 240 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:56,680 I did not see in myself. 241 00:13:56,680 --> 00:14:01,720 The hours were long, there was a lot of travel, but the learning was tremendous. 242 00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:07,640 So when you say industry body, you of course are the founding resident of the semiconductor 243 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:08,640 system. 244 00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:13,760 So was it something that you saw because of the interactions you were having or you felt 245 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:18,680 that given that India was a growing power in IT services, this would be one of the areas 246 00:14:18,680 --> 00:14:20,800 that needed to be focused? 247 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:25,560 So actually the IAC at that time, it was the India Semiconductor Association. 248 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:29,240 It went on to become the India Electronics Semiconductor. 249 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:35,560 About 33, I understand about 33 companies met together at the Leela in Bangalore and 250 00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:38,360 said we need to have a trade body of our own. 251 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:41,680 You know, semiconductors are not IT services. 252 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:45,240 So they decided to set up this trade body called IAC. 253 00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:50,120 And I think they spoke to 11 people globally, they wanted to hire a president to head it. 254 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:53,000 And finally, they found this woman in the backyard. 255 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,160 And I said, no, I don't like this title of president. 256 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:57,160 It's too fancy. 257 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:59,840 You know, give me a little more down to earth title. 258 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:00,840 Okay. 259 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:02,840 And anyway, they found me suitable. 260 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:04,520 I wasn't even interviewing for the job. 261 00:15:04,520 --> 00:15:08,280 You know, when you have some great CEOs sitting across the table and say, Pudimha, we want 262 00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:09,280 to do this. 263 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:14,040 And you know, you are an entrepreneur at heart and see it as an entrepreneurial venture. 264 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:20,680 So I started by like employee number one registering the company, opening a bank account, working 265 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:25,960 with some really nice, you know, semiconductor industry always say has a nicest human being. 266 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:27,960 Okay, wonderful human beings. 267 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:32,600 And at that time, a lot of people try to say, you are going against NASCAR. 268 00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:34,640 And I said, no, this is David and Goliath battle. 269 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:36,360 We're not doing a battle. 270 00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:37,360 Everything is about people. 271 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:42,560 Like I said, semiconductor industry people cannot be hired by IT service. 272 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:46,880 IT services people cannot be hired by semiconductor companies. 273 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:48,560 So there lies a differentiation. 274 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:49,560 It's not a competition. 275 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:50,560 It's different spaces. 276 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:55,960 You know, it's like saying civil engineers and architects are the same. 277 00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:01,360 I mean, semiconductor is the civil engineer and IT services are the architects. 278 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:06,160 It's only in India that the architects came before the civil engineers. 279 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:11,120 I think I get an idea of how you're convincing people in high places as to how to simplify 280 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:17,520 things and were you often the only one of the few women in that when you started off? 281 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:22,720 Yeah, actually, I'm still used to being maybe one of two women unless it's like Thai women, 282 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:28,400 you know, which is a women's forum or a spy for her whom I believe in and which I want 283 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:30,400 to see growth where I see a lot of women. 284 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:34,400 A lot of the places and a lot of meetings still today are very rarely where I see a 285 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:35,400 second woman. 286 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:38,240 And if I see her there, she's usually a chartered account. 287 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:44,080 And I'm very thrilled that so many young girls are turning to the CA exam and passing it. 288 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:48,880 So in one of the groups that I work in, one of the team members, she's a 23 year old CA. 289 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:52,800 I'm so impressed because she's going to have such a tremendous growth path. 290 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:53,800 Right. 291 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:56,800 So I think these are two completely different challenges, right? 292 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:01,200 The first thing is that you have to set up the foundation when you're saying that you're 293 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:04,160 setting up something for the India Semiconductor Association. 294 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:08,640 Like you said, you start off from the point where you open a bank account, then figure 295 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:14,120 out because in a lot of these cases, you have a policy, you have an objective, but each 296 00:17:14,120 --> 00:17:17,520 and every point has to be navigated. 297 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:23,400 And like you said, you won't be given a quarter by anyone else who thinks your competition. 298 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:29,280 So at times it is having to overcome the misconceptions that people have. 299 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:35,000 And semiconductors are an expensive business, right, setting up a facility can be very, 300 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:36,000 very. 301 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:41,360 See, I think we should differentiate between design and manufacturing. 302 00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:44,720 So India's intrinsic strength lies in design. 303 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:51,080 Manufacture, you know, you don't need a dramatic policy change for the design industry. 304 00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:56,240 What could help is more up to date curriculum in the colleges, but design by itself will 305 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:57,240 grow. 306 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:02,200 So I will say, you know, India has its pockets in Bangalore, Noida, Hyderabad and up to an 307 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:03,200 extent in Pune. 308 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,200 These are our hubs. 309 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:10,600 And you know, when we speak of the numbers of chip designers in India, the world gets 310 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:11,600 very excited. 311 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:16,560 If I were to speak with these numbers to, let's say, folks who compare it with IT services, 312 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:17,560 they don't get excited. 313 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:20,360 OK, OK, because the numbers are so different. 314 00:18:20,360 --> 00:18:24,880 And I used to always say one chip designer creates jobs for 10 embedded software engineers 315 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:28,400 who in turn create jobs for 100 software engineers. 316 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:32,320 So it is actually the chip designer is the seed from which the tree grows. 317 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:34,960 So we're very strong in design. 318 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:39,160 And I think Bangalore from the white, if I were to use a Bangalore example, the white 319 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:46,080 fields, the Jhapur road, HSR layout is at the heart of the world's chip designing. 320 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:47,440 And why do you think this happened? 321 00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:50,080 Is it because TI set up, was it TI? 322 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:52,560 Texas Instruments started long ago. 323 00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,920 Was that one of the early influences? 324 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:58,080 Why do you think India got good at chip? 325 00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:01,680 See, one of the things that I'll go back, I'll come back to Bangalore's history. 326 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:06,600 We have to see that the defense also, long ago, apparently there was a study, I don't 327 00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:11,560 know, this is your seat, where they said if the missiles were to come from Pakistan, they 328 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:13,320 would not reach Bangalore. 329 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:15,060 This is some geographical study. 330 00:19:15,060 --> 00:19:19,760 So they set up the defense labs and the air like HAL, DRDO. 331 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:22,080 All of these labs were set up in Bangalore. 332 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:26,680 So you had a very strong engineering community out here. 333 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:32,840 And people who went to work and came back and were engineers are very true to their 334 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:33,840 performance. 335 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:34,840 Today, a lot of engineers also do other things. 336 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:37,980 But at that time, they were doing hardcore engineering. 337 00:19:37,980 --> 00:19:40,360 So there was this culture in Bangalore. 338 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:44,080 And then TI set up its center in 1987. 339 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,800 And I think it's a fabulous company. 340 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:51,280 And so many people have come from their entrepreneurs in this space. 341 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:56,680 So from there, one, let's say, if the Queen Bee comes, the others will follow. 342 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:01,240 But a lot of the following happened, I think, after 2006. 343 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:08,600 And I remember in 2005, 2006, my continuously pitching to so many US design companies who 344 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:11,880 wanted to know why they should come to India and where they should come. 345 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:16,960 So I remember nonstop selling why India should be a destination for them. 346 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:23,360 So I think ISA as a trade body has done extremely well in attracting investments and design 347 00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:24,680 companies to India. 348 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:29,760 I'm wondering if personally, whether your experience in recruitment and understanding 349 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:36,320 what were the skill sets required for the companies that were growing shaped your understanding 350 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:40,800 of where the market itself is going or what exactly is happening? 351 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:46,840 Or was this all that you had to literally ferret out from multiple interactions and 352 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:48,480 research all of these? 353 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:53,520 See, a lot of it is also swimming with the tide and swimming to save. 354 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:55,880 I just take an example from ISA. 355 00:20:55,880 --> 00:21:00,280 So when I looked at it first, it was a deep tech sector which used to get buried on the 356 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,240 tech pages of the Times and where nobody read it. 357 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:08,920 OK, I mean, today, Times has made the tech page very interesting by featuring other technology 358 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:09,920 leaders. 359 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:11,440 But it wasn't so some years. 360 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:16,680 So my first goal was I want to move semiconductors to the business pages of the economic times. 361 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:20,680 I gave myself 18 months to do it and we did it in 11. 362 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:25,000 When we released research reports on the sector, it used to come on the front page of the Hindu 363 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:26,000 business. 364 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:27,000 So it suddenly became cold. 365 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,040 That's what the difference is. 366 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:33,800 It's not about being submerged and surviving, but getting your head and shoulders out of 367 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:36,320 the water and resist is very important. 368 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:41,680 And what I've seen here is that you just waded into the deepest of waters. 369 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:47,880 Typically, I think a lot of women would be very conscious of their professional borders. 370 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:49,960 I want a job that does this. 371 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:52,440 But you never put any of those limits on yourself. 372 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:55,480 I never saw a career as a job, Venu. 373 00:21:55,480 --> 00:22:00,240 OK, so you have to see my mother was a mathematician. 374 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:01,240 God bless her soul. 375 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:04,680 And she worked in Southern Railway before I was born. 376 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:09,400 My sister is a PhD in electronics and I come from a family where there are so many teachers. 377 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,840 They're never limited by gender. 378 00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:16,800 So gender and we were never brought up that, you know, girls can't do something. 379 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:22,760 So it doesn't even enter any part of my brain that women should have and can have. 380 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,460 Like you said, you saw what was required. 381 00:22:25,460 --> 00:22:29,080 You should get on to the business building that you come into the first thing because 382 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:33,080 you understood that those are the things which will actually make a difference as far as 383 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:34,080 you went. 384 00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,920 So how did things move forward from there? 385 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:42,800 So I think the first things we did was in a public policy because six policy level out 386 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:48,040 of the center and at the state level also got a lot of research report and data and 387 00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,360 got something like nearly 200 companies to participate. 388 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:57,360 OK, when I saw it was on such a good scale, you know, finally I'm an entrepreneur at heart. 389 00:22:57,360 --> 00:22:59,160 I wanted to get into the ed-techs. 390 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:03,680 I thought there was tremendous capability for great content and possibly that is the 391 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:06,840 only I wouldn't say it was misjudgment. 392 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:08,560 Maybe I was too early. 393 00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:13,200 So after I left ISA to be an entrepreneur, I raised money too. 394 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:15,120 But I made one mistake. 395 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:19,720 I say I look at it for numbers, not for revenues and not for profitability. 396 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:25,840 OK, so even when I did my first business Nexus, I know we were we earned very well in dollars 397 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:27,880 too and that keeps you afloat. 398 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:29,840 The conversion is so good. 399 00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:37,080 But here I was working on the India market with Indian customers who do not pay their 400 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:38,840 vendors in time. 401 00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:43,360 And the whole thing was getting messier and messier in working capital. 402 00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:45,160 And I used to have so many. 403 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:49,840 So I've been there as an entrepreneur to a very good business and through a business 404 00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,200 where I could not sleep in the night because I was worried whether the bills are going 405 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:54,200 to get paid. 406 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:55,200 How am I? 407 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,400 How many FDs am I going to break to pay salaries? 408 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:03,320 Because as the leader of an organization, your first responsibility is to pay your employees 409 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:04,320 on time. 410 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:07,400 These are the people who have left what they're doing to have faith in you. 411 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:10,000 And you know that you've been there and you go through it. 412 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,960 If you can't pay people, how will they have faith in you and how will you have faith in 413 00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:14,960 yourself? 414 00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:19,000 I would say that was a really traumatic period of my time when customers who have raised 415 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,240 money, who had money in the bank, tortured their vendors. 416 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:28,160 So I was very happy when we became a part, Latitude became a part of Money Park Technologies. 417 00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:29,720 My team continues to work. 418 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,400 This was in 2017, 2018. 419 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:36,520 And I'm very happy that, you know, the business they acquired, the people they acquired are 420 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:37,520 still working. 421 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:38,520 Okay. 422 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:39,520 Okay. 423 00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:44,440 But I moved on because I cannot see myself hitting into a very large organization where 424 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,000 I have to clock in at nine o'clock and clock out. 425 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:52,680 I think, you know, Gautam Pai out there has a lot of vision and he's a great guy. 426 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,160 And I'm very happy that, you know, my company come a part of the company. 427 00:24:56,160 --> 00:25:00,760 But I was very relieved because the tension of paying monthly salaries, that was my biggest 428 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:01,760 problem. 429 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,120 And even today when I work with entrepreneurs, I say, I know what you're going, I know what 430 00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:06,440 is going to kill you. 431 00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:11,320 And we start dealing with it from day one, not, you know, on the 29th day of the month. 432 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:12,320 Right. 433 00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:13,320 Right. 434 00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:14,320 No, these are massive lessons. 435 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,320 You know, getting into a business, you know, customers will come. 436 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:18,320 They don't come. 437 00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:19,320 No, it's not about customers. 438 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:20,320 It's about customers paying you on time. 439 00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:21,320 It's not about getting business. 440 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:22,320 It's about getting paid in time. 441 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:32,760 Yeah, that's, that's I think another one of the attendant issues of all. 442 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:34,360 But why do you think that happens? 443 00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:38,640 Is that peculiar to India because you have worked in, you have looked at other markets. 444 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:43,800 Do you have any, the thing on why is it that we seem to, employers seem to be built that 445 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,160 way or is that just a aberration? 446 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:51,280 I have not found it to be an exception for me or any other entrepreneurs. 447 00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:56,520 I think Indian businesses need to be kinder to the SMEs and pay them on time. 448 00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:01,280 You know, if you push an SME and don't pay them their money on time, salaries of a lot 449 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:02,280 of people suffer. 450 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:03,280 Okay. 451 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:05,280 And there's a limitation to how much the banks may talk. 452 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:10,400 Today, I think Mr. Modi has done a tremendous difference by pushing for SMEs, but it was 453 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:12,040 not so some years ago. 454 00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:14,520 You went to the banks and they behaved horrendously. 455 00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:15,520 You have to give collateral. 456 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:21,080 You have to give your FDs to get any kind of OD facility from them. 457 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:26,160 So I think, you know, I have never found any overseas customer delaying on payment even 458 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:27,920 once in my entire life. 459 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:29,680 And this is nothing unique to me. 460 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:33,080 You speak to anybody and they will not tell you anything different. 461 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:34,760 And people were in the B2B space. 462 00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:36,880 I have done hardly anything in the B2B space. 463 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:42,760 No, it's a, like you said, it's one of the things where you're holding so many threads 464 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:48,800 together and try to move things forward that even if one thread slips or it gets cut somewhere 465 00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:52,600 in between, there are consequences that ripple right across the system. 466 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:53,960 So it's a, yeah. 467 00:26:53,960 --> 00:27:00,160 So I mean, first of all, getting into an area that is, like you said, not too many women 468 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,800 in the field in the first place, then understanding what needs to be done and then going to the 469 00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,800 source of the problem and then saying, okay, it needs to be tackled at that point. 470 00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:09,800 Okay. 471 00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:14,840 So set up the semiconductor association and then decided that you didn't want to be part 472 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:15,840 of something. 473 00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:21,880 So you like the largeness of the idea, but not the management of very large companies 474 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:24,640 because they come with their own set of dynamics. 475 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,080 I don't have any problem with large companies at all. 476 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:31,680 I just decided to go back and start my own company and be an entrepreneur again. 477 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:33,680 Absolutely no issue with large companies. 478 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,160 They are the oxygen on which a lot of companies survive. 479 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,480 I just think I started an edtech company a little too early. 480 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,480 There's a matter of timing. 481 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:44,760 When I started Nexus, the timing was right. 482 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,920 When I started latitude, the timing was wrong. 483 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,720 So I exited in 2017, 2018. 484 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:56,400 But in 2020 when COVID struck, the amount of people who called me up said, Purnima, 485 00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:57,400 are you still running latitude? 486 00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:00,400 You know, we want to buy it or we want to work with you. 487 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,400 I said, guys, you're three years too late. 488 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:04,400 Okay. 489 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:05,400 Okay. 490 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,560 But I was glad I exited at an honorable exit. 491 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:13,480 I did not, I mean, I could, I did not let anybody who had worked with me suffer. 492 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:14,960 Nobody got their money. 493 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:16,360 It was a very amicable move. 494 00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:17,360 So my conscience is clear. 495 00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:18,360 I feel happy. 496 00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:22,480 I could have, I would have been happier if I had made money from it, but at least I did 497 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:24,720 not have losses from it. 498 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:29,120 Sometimes those are the best points of whatever that you have done. 499 00:28:29,120 --> 00:28:35,600 When you said latitude was a little early, was it in terms of the market or your setting 500 00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:37,800 up, was it a question of timing? 501 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:39,320 I think it was a matter of timing. 502 00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:43,080 If I had started off two years later, it should have been great. 503 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:46,560 And what happens is when you start a little too early and like I say, you're planting 504 00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:48,200 seeds in a dry field. 505 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,520 If you know, you are, there's no water for it. 506 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:55,680 And you know, by two years go by and then you start getting impatient and start getting 507 00:28:55,680 --> 00:29:00,040 a little weary rather than starting two years later when the timing is right. 508 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:01,880 And then everything works out well. 509 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:05,680 So I think the timing is a great part of luck. 510 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:06,680 So I've seen it earlier. 511 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:07,680 Luck works. 512 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,480 Of course luck works, but bad luck also works. 513 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,000 It pushes you in the wrong direction. 514 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,680 What is latitude's main focus? 515 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,720 So we were creating content, educational content. 516 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:23,280 Like, you know, for example, we did one of the alliances that we had was with it. 517 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:24,280 Okay. 518 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:26,000 So we create content for online learning. 519 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:30,760 Online learning is like so easily accepted today, but in 2011 people were still struggling 520 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:32,560 with this concept of online learning. 521 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:33,560 Yes. 522 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:35,040 So it's a matter of timing. 523 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:42,120 So 2011 was too early, but by 20 it had matured into something which was red hot. 524 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:43,120 Absolutely. 525 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,640 What made you think at that point that this is the way it's going to go? 526 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:51,840 I did not have too much of data, but I felt that people would be wanting, you know, there 527 00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:56,120 were so many, especially in urban areas, there were so many people who are going to work 528 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,120 and who wanted to improve themselves. 529 00:29:58,120 --> 00:29:59,600 Bangalore teaches you many things. 530 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,520 If I'm staying at one end of Bangalore and there's a great class going on the other end, 531 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:04,840 you cannot travel. 532 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:09,840 The traffic is so horrendous that, you know, your life is limited to a particular geography. 533 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:15,240 And I felt at that point of time that people are going to start learning online. 534 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:20,440 And why will I go and learn online only if I'm going to get some great teaching and content 535 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:21,440 material. 536 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:22,440 Okay. 537 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:23,720 So like I said, I'm not a B2C player. 538 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:29,960 So I do not know how to go and sell to consumers, but I know how to get customers who can deliver 539 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:30,960 to these consumers. 540 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:31,960 Right. 541 00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:32,960 The government had so many flip flops. 542 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:34,960 First they say the universities can do online. 543 00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:36,960 They can't do, they can do. 544 00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:38,840 It went back and forth so much. 545 00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,280 And then you are someone who is supplying that content. 546 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,280 You're also feeling the flip flop. 547 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:44,280 Right. 548 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:48,440 But it's like actually universities can deliver content online. 549 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,080 I just thought, you know, that they are going to do it. 550 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:55,480 And I thought they would do it much faster than the pace at which they worked. 551 00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,000 But generating content was never a problem. 552 00:30:58,000 --> 00:30:59,880 This is a wonderful city. 553 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:02,400 Bangalore is a fantastic city with great people. 554 00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:03,400 Okay. 555 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:07,320 There is nothing in terms of knowledge that you cannot get from the people. 556 00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:09,000 There is every kind of skill. 557 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,640 So if I want to do in a particular area, you have great content. 558 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:16,760 But when some of these things start out, there are only a few people who really understand 559 00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:17,840 where it's going. 560 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:22,600 In terms of online learning, do you think that it will ever prove to be any kind of 561 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,360 competition to colleges and schools? 562 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:32,100 The two are kind of parallel tracks or it's more of filling some of the gaps rather than 563 00:31:32,100 --> 00:31:33,100 understanding. 564 00:31:33,100 --> 00:31:37,640 See, I think students need to be in college to learn social skills. 565 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:41,880 You need peers, you need friends, you need that warmth, you need society that cannot 566 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:42,880 be replaced at all. 567 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:48,360 And we have all seen that how burnt out we got out with Zoom in 2021 and students also 568 00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:50,120 are very, very weary with it. 569 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:54,280 But I think a lot of labs, for example, cannot be replaced. 570 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:56,080 Something physical which has to be done. 571 00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:57,080 Okay. 572 00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:58,220 It's some things like design. 573 00:31:58,220 --> 00:32:01,960 People do work projects in groups that cannot be replaced. 574 00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:03,560 But so much of learning. 575 00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:08,000 For example, I did, there's an exam to be an independent director on the board. 576 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:09,640 I did that exam 100%. 577 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:13,080 I studied for that exam 100% online content. 578 00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:14,640 You know, it was all there. 579 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:18,000 I had the time because I was not commuting and I was not traveling. 580 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:19,560 So those things can be done. 581 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,000 I don't need company to do that kind of learning. 582 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,920 But if I had a project, I would have been happier sitting with three people across the 583 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:26,920 table. 584 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:31,520 Yeah, everything has its pluses and minuses, but nothing can replace human interaction. 585 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:32,520 Yeah. 586 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:33,680 But how do you manage all that? 587 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:37,560 You run your company and then you're on the boards of several companies now. 588 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:38,720 How did that come to be? 589 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,040 So serendipity, I have no words for this. 590 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:45,040 So I was first on the board of a public-diminished semiconductor. 591 00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:49,640 Alongside that, I'm right now on the board of two companies whose managements are very 592 00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:50,640 solid. 593 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:56,400 One is Dixon Electronic and the other one is NSE IT, which is a subsidiary of the National 594 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:57,400 Stock Exchange. 595 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:02,160 So there's a lot of management, a lot of transparency, a lot of corporate governance and the other 596 00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:06,000 independent other directors on the board are people whom I also learn from. 597 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:07,840 And there's a lot of mutual respect. 598 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:12,720 So every year I get about four requests to be on the boards of companies. 599 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:19,520 I am lucky I have friends whom I can sound off and say, should I go ahead or not go ahead? 600 00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:23,320 So it's not about being on a board and being on committees. 601 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,400 I sit on a nomination and remuneration committee. 602 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:27,880 I sit on the audit committee. 603 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:33,200 This requires a lot of reading and knowledge and you'd be so neutral but have an impact. 604 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:34,660 It takes a lot of time. 605 00:33:34,660 --> 00:33:38,080 So I admire people who sit on five, six, seven boards. 606 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:41,640 And I said, wow, you guys, I don't know how you do it. 607 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:46,040 But you know, two boards, it's a lot of work that goes on. 608 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:51,800 So the exam that you did, which you qualified, you said the online, what exactly do you, 609 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:58,780 is it a process of how do you manage governance or how is it that you provide inputs? 610 00:33:58,780 --> 00:34:00,320 What does that course cover? 611 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:04,920 This is from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance, Government 612 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:05,920 of India. 613 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:09,840 The Government of India has mandated that independent directors should have qualified, 614 00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:11,320 should have passed this exam. 615 00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:15,600 I was already sitting on boards and somebody just told me, you know, you have time now 616 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:19,080 due to COVID because you're not traveling, you're not going anywhere. 617 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,760 And Sunday you are three hours easily at your disposal all day. 618 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:23,760 So the content is great. 619 00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:26,920 I'm not saying it's delivered superbly, but it's online content. 620 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:28,360 It teaches you so much. 621 00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:35,040 You know, these are laws, corporate laws, finance, all of it that you need to understand 622 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:39,040 what are related party transactions, what is right, what is wrong. 623 00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:41,160 I think the card is really good learning. 624 00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:44,960 You know, I could apply so much of it after I did this exam in the May. 625 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:49,280 I think it is great at anyone, even if you don't, if you want to run your own company 626 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:53,600 sometime, if you know this, it really helps you keep good governance. 627 00:34:53,600 --> 00:35:00,760 And from this to continue, so Hummingbird Advisors is looking at semiconductor design 628 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:01,760 opportunities. 629 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:04,480 What exactly is the role that Hummingbird does? 630 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:06,480 So we are a consulting firm. 631 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:08,960 There are a couple of things that we work on. 632 00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:14,120 I work on basically three projects at a time and I put up teams by project. 633 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:18,680 So for example, I can speak about some of the things that I can speak about. 634 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:26,920 For example, C dot has just got decided to support innovation and startups in the telecoms. 635 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:30,720 The whole policy document for that was put together by us. 636 00:35:30,720 --> 00:35:31,720 Okay. 637 00:35:31,720 --> 00:35:32,720 Okay. 638 00:35:32,720 --> 00:35:36,360 And C dot is a great organization with stellar people within. 639 00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:40,600 So we got good inputs and good sounding boards and it took us three months, but we have a 640 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,580 very comprehensive policy, all documents. 641 00:35:43,580 --> 00:35:45,720 So they can just go ahead and implement that. 642 00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:47,760 I'm just sharing some of the work right now. 643 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:51,880 We are helping a company in Southern India, which wants to get into this industry. 644 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:57,480 So I have a great team with one of the best leaders in the electronics manufacturing space, 645 00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:03,520 a great finance guy, a great strategy person and myself, and we're putting the whole recommendation 646 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:04,520 together for them. 647 00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:10,460 Just handle the acquisition of an Indian design company by US public limited semiconductor. 648 00:36:10,460 --> 00:36:14,640 So these are some of the assignments and they're all in a deep tech related space. 649 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:20,640 You know, you can see they're all first cousins to each other, but it is fascinating. 650 00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:25,000 And since I'm not about quantity and it's always about quality, I spend a lot of time 651 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,880 thinking about relating to my customers. 652 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:31,360 Besides that, I support three startups. 653 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:36,360 One of them, which is very dear to my heart is Aspire for Hope set up by my friend Madhura 654 00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:37,360 Dasgupta Sinha. 655 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:41,520 She and I were chieftain scholars to the UK many years ago. 656 00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:43,320 How did that come about? 657 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,640 How did we become a chieftain scholar? 658 00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:48,080 So a British chieftain scholarship is a mid career. 659 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:49,840 There are lots of kinds of scholarship. 660 00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,080 This was for women in leadership and management. 661 00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:53,640 This was a mid career thing for me. 662 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:58,960 It really, you know, 12 of us were selected from here, which is about 12 out of 500 applications. 663 00:36:58,960 --> 00:36:59,960 Okay. 664 00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:01,880 We had some four or five rounds of selection. 665 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,000 Spent three months in the UK. 666 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:05,000 Really good learning. 667 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:06,000 We had a project. 668 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:07,000 We did it here. 669 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:12,120 It was a lot of bonding and six of us are very close even today, so many years later, 670 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:14,640 but it actually gave me a great direction. 671 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:19,280 I should give a lot of credit to the Chignin scholarship because it set me, you know, at 672 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:23,620 some time your one's mind is a little bit clouded on how do I proceed. 673 00:37:23,620 --> 00:37:27,200 And then you see women who are your peers, who are in different spaces. 674 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:29,360 How are they proceeding with their lives? 675 00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:31,940 And then suddenly you see no obstacles at all. 676 00:37:31,940 --> 00:37:36,920 So I'll give a lot of credit because it just removed, if I had any reservations or barriers, 677 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:37,920 in my mind. 678 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:38,920 Okay. 679 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,360 So Madhura set up a spy for her. 680 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:45,800 I've been there from day one supporting her because I think what she's doing is going 681 00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:48,200 to be so much economic importance. 682 00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:50,360 It is not social cause. 683 00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:51,960 It is an economic cause. 684 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:57,240 I also work with Uniqrin, which is set up by this amazing young entrepreneur called 685 00:37:57,240 --> 00:37:58,240 Roshni Mohandas. 686 00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:03,600 She's worked with Infi App in IKEA and this is an enterprise SaaS company for product 687 00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:04,600 pricing in e-commerce. 688 00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:10,520 Again, the B2B space and third one is a processor company out of Indian Institute of Science 689 00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:11,800 or Morphin Machine. 690 00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:15,280 So I'm deeply involved with these three companies, Hummingbird and the board position. 691 00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:16,280 I do nothing else. 692 00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:20,040 I cannot take on any more assignments and I'm very long-term with these. 693 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:25,800 And yet you managed to write a book and bring up a fine young lady. 694 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:28,800 So I also get the great marriage going. 695 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:29,800 You remember this. 696 00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,320 I've been very happily married for many years. 697 00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:33,320 Yes. 698 00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:35,520 How did the book come about? 699 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:36,520 Okay. 700 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,040 So I wanted to write a book since I was 14 years old. 701 00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:42,000 Credit for the book should actually go to COVID. 702 00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:43,000 Okay. 703 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:47,200 Because like I said, the two things that happened during COVID are the passes exam and the other 704 00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:48,200 thing is I wrote a book. 705 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:49,200 Okay. 706 00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:51,200 I mean, you get so much of time suddenly, right? 707 00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:52,200 You're traveling nowhere. 708 00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:53,200 You are not commuting. 709 00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:57,080 You're doing everything from one physical location. 710 00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:01,880 My co-author Supriya Panchangam is an amazing young person and I think she'll go far. 711 00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:02,880 I like her thinking. 712 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:05,080 I like the way she puts things together. 713 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:10,400 We wrote this book in three months, but it took us another three, get it published, editing, 714 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:11,400 all of it. 715 00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:16,920 It was released at Tea Hub last year on Women's Day as part of the Women's Day celebrations 716 00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:22,200 and Tea Hub CEO M S R M Srinivas Rao was very supportive and he released it. 717 00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:26,800 It went to number six on Amazon's business books and I think that gave me great thrill. 718 00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:28,880 How would you describe the book? 719 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:36,040 Is it covering things that women would have specific things as entrepreneurs or is it 720 00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:38,120 a kind of reference guide? 721 00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:39,120 How exactly would you classify it? 722 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:45,160 So the book is called Accelerating Her Business and it's more like a guidebook on how to 723 00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:47,800 help you accelerate women's businesses. 724 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:49,480 So you could be an accelerator. 725 00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:50,960 You could be a corporate. 726 00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:51,960 You could be a university. 727 00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:55,840 How can you help women who are entrepreneurs? 728 00:39:55,840 --> 00:40:00,680 Because the needs of women and the way market treats women as who are entrepreneurs is very 729 00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:01,680 different. 730 00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:05,880 So how do you help these businesses to grow and make this program successful? 731 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:07,640 So I would say it's a guidebook. 732 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:08,640 It's a good guide. 733 00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:10,160 I would say a very good guide. 734 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:11,160 How do you see that difference? 735 00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:16,240 Are there a couple of things that you can say about how businesses or accelerators see 736 00:40:16,240 --> 00:40:18,040 women entrepreneurs? 737 00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:19,160 What are the differences? 738 00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:21,960 I think women need to have more confidence in themselves. 739 00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:22,960 I keep saying this. 740 00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:26,960 Most women and I find even if entrepreneurs they always begin with an apology. 741 00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:27,960 Okay. 742 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:29,760 Women are most apologetic about what they do. 743 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:30,760 A lot of women. 744 00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:32,400 And I say that is not necessary. 745 00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:33,400 Everybody has the same flaws. 746 00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:35,040 They're just different degrees. 747 00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:36,520 But how to raise money? 748 00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:40,680 A lot of women I find them saying I don't know how to raise money. 749 00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:42,760 I don't know how to manage money. 750 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:46,160 And they will give it to a husband or brother whose knowledge is same or less. 751 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:49,040 So this is not I mean I'm so surprised by this. 752 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:50,240 But small businesses. 753 00:40:50,240 --> 00:40:54,840 So you know if women were to learn you know selling and how to manage their money and 754 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,160 how to have more confidence in themselves they're already doing well. 755 00:40:58,160 --> 00:40:59,640 They can go so much more further. 756 00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:01,360 I really believe in them. 757 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:07,720 And I think it's very clearly by focusing it accelerating her business rather than saying 758 00:41:07,720 --> 00:41:09,480 accelerating a business. 759 00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:16,600 You made it very clearly about saying that women need a different kind of approach and 760 00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:19,880 given the current social situation. 761 00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:24,480 So how has it been bringing up a young lady as a parent? 762 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:26,840 What has been your opinion? 763 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,440 I think today's kids are so smart. 764 00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:32,880 My daughter is a millennial and I'm learning from her. 765 00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:36,240 Her maturity in her 20s I wish I had. 766 00:41:36,240 --> 00:41:37,240 Okay amazing. 767 00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:40,080 Today's generation is so smart. 768 00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:45,400 Okay and I'm like you know blown by the way they analyze situations. 769 00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:48,280 They understand you know where how hard to work. 770 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:50,120 They work incredibly hard. 771 00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:54,560 They use social for example you know so many so but knowing what is a full stop. 772 00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:55,560 What is a comma? 773 00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:58,640 How do you balance your personal life and work life? 774 00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:03,240 You know at one time I think in my 20s and even in my 30s everything was a comma. 775 00:42:03,240 --> 00:42:04,520 There were no full stops. 776 00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,400 Okay one merged into the other. 777 00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:09,160 But today I think very very smart. 778 00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:10,720 They work so hard. 779 00:42:10,720 --> 00:42:14,180 But they know also how to have you know balanced life. 780 00:42:14,180 --> 00:42:17,080 So I think you know I'm very lucky to have a daughter. 781 00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:18,760 She's my great sounding board. 782 00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,000 I mean like I said that's what I said. 783 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:23,840 She works as a children interaction designer. 784 00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:25,400 She works at Maintree. 785 00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:27,320 So I'm very happy about where she is. 786 00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:33,120 And that is so fulfilling because I think you're saying yes I'm not taking anything 787 00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:35,800 away from kids today who are very smart. 788 00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:42,440 But looking back at what you have done when you started to wear women are seen today. 789 00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:49,160 Like you said you were probably the only woman in the room and it was having to go up against 790 00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:54,800 men who traditionally believed that they should be you know managing things whether it was 791 00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:56,200 at home or at the office. 792 00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:58,680 So yes your background prepared you. 793 00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:02,760 Your family background prepared you for never seeing those limits. 794 00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:09,440 But I think it's a different kind of strength to be able to take on an established norm 795 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:14,920 and then say that no but I will see I will make the changes because getting people to 796 00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:19,080 accept these changes is I think 60 percent of the problem. 797 00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:20,080 I don't know. 798 00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:23,400 I mean all my mentors have been amazing men. 799 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:30,880 You know all of them said men who have had faith and never treated me with any concession 800 00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:32,280 because I was a woman. 801 00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:34,840 Neither did they be software targets. 802 00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:38,600 Neither did I need to have shoulders to cry on. 803 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:46,000 I think amazing mentors that 100 percent men great women as friends because you need friends 804 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:47,000 and family. 805 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:52,040 So great you know even men being friends and mentors have played an important part. 806 00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:53,880 My husband has been amazing. 807 00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:57,920 So I mean I should not take away from that at home when you get support then you realize 808 00:43:57,920 --> 00:43:59,120 that I'm a block. 809 00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:02,240 So yes I wish that credit should be there. 810 00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:07,760 Also you know I think in places like Bombay where banking and FMCG has a lot of women 811 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:09,960 there'd be far more women in the room. 812 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:15,360 But being here in the say a hard deep tech space the number of women earlier were lesser 813 00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:19,480 but I'm happy hopefully there will be more and not the lesser women. 814 00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:22,640 The pressure is really at the middle management. 815 00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:23,640 Mentoring is one part. 816 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:29,200 The second part is how do you balance your family and your work life which is a problem. 817 00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:30,200 There's nothing called balancing. 818 00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:31,200 It's how do you manage. 819 00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:32,200 There's no balance. 820 00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:33,200 Men also women also. 821 00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:34,200 There is no balance. 822 00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:37,080 Just how do you manage it is great. 823 00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:41,840 Are you seeing a difference from the time that you got in versus today. 824 00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:47,160 Are you seeing based on since you're working on Aspire for Her what kind of changes are 825 00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:50,420 you seeing in the women you interact with today. 826 00:44:50,420 --> 00:44:51,920 I think today's girls are fabulous. 827 00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,880 Like I said they do not see any limits for themselves. 828 00:44:55,880 --> 00:45:01,840 It is you know because I'm a girl I can't do it or will I be able to do it is never 829 00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:03,180 a question for them. 830 00:45:03,180 --> 00:45:07,120 I think India's future is in great hands when I see the girls. 831 00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:12,640 It's not that the boys are not great but since you're asking me about girls I'm so impressed. 832 00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:14,960 Yeah because I'm saying that's the other part. 833 00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:19,640 You have a special interest in them and your work is also does involve. 834 00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:24,040 So the three startups which you are involved with are they all helmed by women. 835 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:25,040 It's very surprising. 836 00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:31,640 Okay this is by sheer coincidence that the co-founders or founders of all these startups 837 00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:32,640 is a woman. 838 00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:33,640 Okay. 839 00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:40,800 That's a great place to be in also because I think as you see a company slowly grow having 840 00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:46,320 to contain like you said difficult aspects of growing a business either it's the environment 841 00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:49,520 or the policy is not right or something else is not okay. 842 00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:55,160 The biggest thing about a woman is the resilience that she has got both within the family and 843 00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:56,440 outside. 844 00:45:56,440 --> 00:46:02,760 So what is it that you would like to tell young women who lack the confidence or who 845 00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:03,760 are unsure of themselves. 846 00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:04,760 Just hang it there. 847 00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:05,760 This too shall pass. 848 00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:06,760 As simple as that. 849 00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:14,060 I think it's been a wonderful experience talking to you from the time you started. 850 00:46:14,060 --> 00:46:19,800 One of the things you said was that you were always very clear about what you wanted to 851 00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:20,800 achieve. 852 00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:21,800 Where do you think that came from? 853 00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:27,040 Because a lot of people are not. Is it that you simply have an ability to analyze things 854 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:32,360 and then act in a way that ensures that you know exactly what needs to happen. 855 00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:35,540 No it also comes from knowing what you don't want to do. 856 00:46:35,540 --> 00:46:39,320 So it eliminates let's say a lot of things off the table. 857 00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:42,920 There are things that I will not compromise and which I don't want to do. 858 00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:43,920 So it makes life easy. 859 00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:46,800 It just removes you know the chaff from the wheat. 860 00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:50,120 So then it becomes easier as you go along. 861 00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:53,880 So instead of saying what do I want to do be very clear about what you don't want to 862 00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:56,200 do and the options will present themselves. 863 00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:57,720 You know exactly what you want to do. 864 00:46:57,720 --> 00:46:59,520 In a way that becomes the same. 865 00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:02,040 So it's been wonderful talking to you Purnima. 866 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:06,560 Thank you for sparing the time and I think you've taken us on a journey which is quite 867 00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:12,200 rare because let's face it at the point when you got in and then you worked your way up 868 00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:15,720 into being the president of the Semiconductor Association. 869 00:47:15,720 --> 00:47:22,400 Like you said it required a lot of anticipation, analysis and action. 870 00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:25,520 All of which you displayed in equal measure. 871 00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:31,200 So whether it was seeing how the future of content would play out and how online. 872 00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:36,400 I think you gave a very clear example of where online works and where online doesn't. 873 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:42,160 To everything that you're doing for women today and how you see the focus and writing 874 00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:43,160 the book. 875 00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:48,960 Usually I'm always amazed at what women are able to achieve because men have everything 876 00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:53,520 spread out on a plate in front of them and they'll still say that you know I don't have 877 00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:57,760 enough but women stepping back are able to do so much more. 878 00:47:57,760 --> 00:47:58,760 Thank you Venu. 879 00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:00,960 You have been such a fascinating interviewer. 880 00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:03,960 I don't know whether I spoke too much but you certainly got me to speak. 881 00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:10,000 I'm glad you did that because the thing in all of these conversations is I want to understand 882 00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:14,760 the mind of the person, what were the decisions and why you made some of this. 883 00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:20,680 It's very easy to get a listing and a point by point but if you stop to examine what happened 884 00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:23,880 then I think the conversation goes in fascinating directions. 885 00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:24,880 Thank you. 886 00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:27,600 It's been a pleasure interviewing you and thank you for coming. 887 00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:28,600 Thanks a million. 888 00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:29,600 Thank you Venu. 889 00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:30,600 Bye bye. 890 00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:31,600 Thank you. 891 00:48:31,600 --> 00:48:32,600 Bye. 892 00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:37,840 My first job, the podcast is a production from Ideascape Communications. 893 00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:44,720 Text relations, promotions and creative is managed by Deepa Ravi with occasional support 894 00:48:44,720 --> 00:48:46,760 by Venu Gopal Nair. 895 00:48:46,760 --> 00:49:15,320 Archiving and technical help is provided by LPS Jayachandran.