Second Careers for Intelligent Women

Harish Bhat

Description

From steel to beverages and from supercomputers to automobiles, TATA companies have broken new ground and set new standards of excellence over the past two decades. Written by a TATA insider, TATAlog presents the hitherto untold stories about the strategic and operational challenges that TATA companies have faced, and the forward thinking and determination that have raised the brand to new heights. This is one of the eight riveting and inspiring stories from TATAlog that reveals the DNA of every TATA enterprise. Be sure to check out the other seven: *Tata Indica *Okhamandal *Tata Finance *Tanishq *The EKA Supercomputer *Tata Tetley *Tata Steel

Sujets

• Histoire
• Strategic management
• Economics
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351183037
• Langue: English

Extrait

HARISH BHAT
Second Careers for Intelligent Women Eight Modern Stories from a Timeless Institution -->
Contents Dedication
Foreword
A Path Well Paved
Tata Indica, the Very First Indian Car
Uplifting Tales from Okhamandal
The Tribulations of Tata Finance
Tanishq Sets the Gold Standard -->
Second Careers for Intelligent Women EKA: Birth of an Indian Supercomputer
Tetley Enters the Tata Fold
Tata Steel Wins the Deming Prize
Epilogue: One Day in Kolkata
Acknowledgements -->
Copyright Page
Second Careers for Intelligent Women
When both women and men bring their strengths to the workplace, business benefits.
-Nancy Clark, CEO, Womensmedia Inc.
Women should be encouraged to stay in the workforce. Many women would opt to keep working, if only companies offered more options, more flexibility.
-Ruma Rao, human resources team, Tata Group
A proud woman at the cricket World Cup finals
On 2 April 2011, India won the cricket World Cup for only the second time in history, generating instant national euphoria. The venue was the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, and the din of the 45,000 spectators drowned out the sound of the waves lapping the shore of the Arabian Sea nearby. Standing in the midst of these joyous spectators, one woman felt very emotional for entirely different reasons.
Priyamvada Merchant, mother of two children and partner in a company called System Rex, felt as elated as the victorious Indian cricket team that night, because she knew she had won her own personal World Cup. The firm that she managed along with her business partner had created a very innovative underground drainage system at the stadium, using corrugated and perforated plastic pipes placed below the ground. It would ensure that water drained off the ground very fast, and minimize the possibility of cricket matches being washed out by rain. However, despite all these underground structures, the grass above the ground would stay fully in place. And it had worked perfectly on the night of the final.
Priyamvada recalls her proud feelings on that day:
Sachin Tendulkar and M.S. Dhoni-they were playing on my ground, and the grass had stayed perfectly in place throughout the match. Only a few years ago, when I was looking after my children and my home, I would not have had the confidence or the courage to do this, to work for days on end and launch such an ambitious business venture. At that time, I was out of the work mainstream, and my self-esteem had fallen severely. But then I joined the Tata Second Career Programme (called SCIP), and I discovered myself once again. SCIP gave me back my wings to fly. And how I flew.
Priyamvada is one of the many SCIPPIES, as the alumni of the Tata Second Career Internship Programme, prefer to call themselves. It is a programme that has the potential to unlock the tremendous amount of latent productivity that lies within qualified women who, for myriad reasons, have opted out of the workforce. This could completely change the way women and their employers perceive careers in India.
What is SCIP?
SCIP, launched by the Tata Group in 2008, provides women who have taken a career break with a flexible platform to return to the corporate sector. So many well-qualified, intelligent women put their careers on hold to take care of their young children and families. As the years pass, these women find it increasingly challenging to return to the workplace, despite wanting to do so. SCIP is a very special programme designed to meet these aspirations and to tap into an enormous pool of experience and talent.
What SCIP offers women is a simple, powerful package. It provides attractive internships to women who have taken career breaks on account of personal commitments. By doing this, it eases their return to full-time work, and ensures that they are not lost forever from the productive workforce of the nation.
Satish Pradhan, who heads the human resources function of the Tata Group, is very proud of SCIP.