Vol 23, No 4; Article by Anitha Kurup, S Chandrashekar and K Muralidharan; December 2011
Interview with Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & MD, Biocon Ltd
This article presents trends from an analysis of data on women directors who occupied directorial positions on the boards of 166 Indian companies for the period 1995 to 2007. It complements other gender related studies in India.
Though there is some increase both in the number as well as in the percentage of women directorships, women occupied only 3.63% of the total directorships available in 2007. This percentage is well below the percentages of women directorships held in other countries for which such data is available. Our data also suggests that once women get on to boards they occupy more directorships than their average male counterparts. However the most well-connected male directors are far ahead of the most well-connected woman director.
Though family connections appear to be increasingly important, public sector banks and ICICI Bank are the two largest contributors with 16% and 13% of all women directorships for this period. Our data set did not throw up a single first generation woman entrepreneur.
To fill this gap we conducted an interview with a first generation woman entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar Shaw who heads one of the most successful biopharma companies in the world, Biocon. The challenges she faced as a woman, as an entrepreneur and finally as the head of a successful global company are covered in detail.
Though women have to cross an initially higher threshold to succeed, the professional challenges they face after this hurdle are no different. Gender appears to play a role only during the initial period and a less significant one or no role once success has been achieved. However, India still has to go a long way if women are to match men in the role they play in the Indian corporate world.
