IILM Institute for Business and Management hosted the HR Conference on September 11, 2015 on the theme “Women in Power : Changing the Business Landscape”. The conference received an overwhelming response where dignitaries from academia and corporate participated with great enthusiasm.

The Chief Guest for the conference was Mr Shitanshu Prasad, , Executive Director Personnel, SAIL.

The event commenced with the lighting of the lamp by the guests and faculty fraternity with recitation of Saraswati Vanadana. Dr. Sujata Shahi, Senior Director, IILM delivered the welcome address and Dr. Ritu Sharma welcomed the Chief Guest, Mr. Shitanshu Prasad, Executive Director Personnel, SAIL.

The theme was divided into four technical sessions, each of them being delivered by industry experts and academicians.

The guest of honour Ms. Ashley, founder of New Global Mind Consulting, focussed on three important things – Follow Your Passion, Look for support from family and Choose your company wisely.

The Key Note Speaker Dr. Sunita Chugh, founder Director of On Last mile.com emphasized on the power of woman by comparing women with Goddess Durga and gave us a powerful mantra of bringing in the power of AND not OR.

The first session of the day was on Designing and Implementing a Progressive and Sustainable Career Path Strategy. Ms. Malini Gulati, AVP Legal, GENPACT, started the day by asking everyone to think about their passion in life. According to Ms. Malini, gender balance brings maturity and sensibility to an organization. According to the Company Law in India, companies need to have women as directors. Nowadays, companies give flexibility to women employees who would otherwise quit in their mid 20’s in order to fulfil their personal commitments. Women need to burn early in life and differentiate between a job and a career in order to create a demand for themselves. Ms. Shefali Singh, VP International Business, Myntra, laid a lot of emphasis on the support of family when we talk about women in power. If a woman gets support from her family, she will be able to sustain herself in the competing world. Mr. Rajiv Kapoor, Chief People Officer, FORTIS, shared with us a survey conducted by E&Y, which states that 65% of the people believe that woman leaders are better than male leaders. 60% of FORTIS employees are women who are given flexibility in their work, are mentored and given training on a regular basis.

The second session of the day was on fostering the environment that encourages women risk taking temperament. Ms. Himanshi Singh, founder and editor of woomag.com took us through the changing landscapes for women entrepreneurship and guided us on how to emerge from being risk averse individuals to risk takers. Ms. Nidhi Aggarwal, Partner at The Grace Solutions, encouraged us to be ourselves and to create our own rulebook. Ms. Aparna Venkatesan, Research Scholar at Sussex University, UK, talked about three important barriers in the way of a woman’s career- individual barrier, social/cultural barrier and structural barrier. She enlightened us about the different ways to overcome these barriers. Research papers on “Gender Diversity in Rural Areas” were presented by Prof. Arjya Chakravarty, MDI Gurgaon and Ms. Bharti Goel, PGDM student, IILM Gurgaon.

The third session was on Social media / digitalization as a tool to promote women power in organizations. Mr. Mayank Narula, spoke about how technology and big data analytics can help in improving HR policies and bringing women in power. He rightly pointed out the power of women and her network by expressing that if you appoint a woman, you appoint her whole social network and if you fire her, it will be the same. Dr. Savita Mohan, Director, GNOIT, presented some eye opening statistics about the status of women in India. She emphasized that social media and digitization revolution is supporting women in their personal and professional lives by giving women a platform to express their opinions and exchange ideas. Ms. Saima Sharif, IABC Accredited Senior Corporate Communication Leader, Head Corporate Communications, Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd. enlightened us on how to manage our image through social media because any postings on these social media channels impact our reputation along with our organizations.

The fourth session was on Building Entrepreneurial capabilities and Mindset. Dr.Srilata, Director, Department of Management Studies, IGNOU took us through the concept of entrepreneurship. Women need to deal with the following aspects to become an entrepreneur – risk taking ability, strategic perspective and integrity. The mantra for success lies in, innovation, value creation, social goodwill, confidence and continued learning. Ms. Geetanjali Saxena, Sage Global HR, spoke about capabilities and mindsets of women. India is growing with respect to women entrepreneurs. According to a survey, women entrepreneurship in India is ranked at 70 out of 77 countries. The key paradigm shift lies in having a sense of purpose, thinking big, moving away from self defeating conditions, team work and taking calculated risk. Mr. Vikram Mall, Partner BEDOHA emphasized the three important things every woman should adopt – passion, patience and perseverance. He concluded by taking about the right attitude. Having a good sense of humor is important to climb the ladder of success as it moulds your attitude.