Catalyst Blog

By Ilene H. Lang, Deborah Gillis and Deepali Bagati

Earlier this month, we met with CEOs of Indian companies to discuss the importance of expanding opportunities for women and business in India Inc. Women currently make up 36 percent of the Indian labor force, yet 67 percent of Indian employers are struggling to fill jobs. One solution to this talent crunch: educated and ambitious Indian women.

CEOs across Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore shared with us inspiring, and effective, ways in which they’re shifting their organizations’ cultures to ensure that all talent is valued. One CEO talked about “leading by example.” He has taken action and asked each member of his leadership team to mentor three women, while he personally mentors five!

Another CEO talked about consciously changing the way he viewed women—namely, by thinking of them as natural leaders. Once he started from the assumption that women were born to lead, it helped him to confront and shatter biases and stereotypes about women that he grew up with.

Finally, a CEO talked about changing the default question at his company, so that when women are considering a new role with bigger responsibility, they are not asked, “why would you want to do this job,” but instead, “why wouldn’t you want to do this job?”

Actions like these are clearing a path for the success of talented, and ambitious, Indian women. Gender gaps exist in India, but we’ve discovered on this trip that many companies understand how women can fuel India Inc. And they are acting on it—an inspiring model for senior leaders in India, and around the world.

During the 2010 Catalyst Awards Conference, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi shared with attendees an old Chinese proverb: “If you want to understand the past, look at current conditions. But if you want to understand the future, look at today’s actions.”

This saying came to mind as I read Deborah Gillis’ recent account of her time in India in Catalyst CanCon, cross-posted below. Deborah highlights the actions companies are taking today to leverage female talent in India, including providing safe and reliable transportation and conducting family outreach. These actions are commendable—and reflect the beginnings of a bright future for India’s working women.

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Perhaps it’s because one million Canadians are of Indian descent, or because diversity is a defining characteristic of both India and Canada. But for some reason, the sounds, fragrances, and colours that I experienced during my recent visit to India felt strangely familiar.

Certainly, as I met with business leaders in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi, our conversations about the challenges women face at work could easily have taken place in any Canadian city—struggles with work-life effectiveness and the lack of role models, mentors, and sponsors were at the top of the list.  (And who would have thought that a story about Canadian ice hockey would resonate with a business audience in Mumbai?)

However, the Indian cultural context adds layers of complexity to the issues facing women and organizations. Women in India are fighting battles that Canadian women have largely already won, for personal safety, reliable childcare options, and more egalitarian societal assumptions about women’s roles. As a result, organizations are adopting programs that go beyond the flexible work arrangements or talent management practices that are familiar to North American ears. They are providing transportation to and from work sites, implementing recruitment programs that target women who have been out of the workplace, and reaching out to the parents and families of current and prospective employees.

The good news is that a hungry economy is creating jobs for young, educated Indians at an amazing pace, and organizations understand that women represent an underutilized talent pool. (Going to India, I expected to hear about the rapid pace of growth, but I wasn’t quite prepared to hear business leaders casually talk about hiring tens of thousands of people!)

Every day, some newspaper—and there are many—carried an article on the important role played by women. One talked about the growing number of women pursuing higher education and urged businesses to be prepared to open their doors to a generation of bright, well-educated, and confident young women. Another talked about the fact that the oldest woman in a family had been declared the “head of the household” for the purposes of a new program that will distribute food to families living in poverty. And in a story that is close to the heart of Catalyst researchers, “the gender gap” was the theme of National Statistics Day!

Each of these stories describes a country that is coping with the social and cultural jolts that accompany rapid growth. I’m thrilled that women are recognized as a critical success factor in navigating the changes, and I look forward to forging closer connections with India as Catalyst grows and learns from this amazing country.

What’s measured gets done. After all, if you’re not tracking and measuring progress, how do you know how far you’ve come? Or how much further you need to go?

These are the takeaways from the just-launched 2010 India Benchmarking Report. While 68 percent of companies surveyed have formal strategies for advancing women, many lacked metrics and indicators to measure their impact. In particular, the majority of companies did not hold managers accountable for the retention and promotion of women.

The broad array of diversity programs on offer in India is impressive, but with the severe talent crunch that India is facing, tracking the progress and effectiveness of programs to advance women is essential to maximizing organizational investments in recruitment and improving retention of top talent.

This is one key to solving the crunch.

News about the talent crunch in India still dominates headlines, with analysts predicting a talent gap of more than 5 million people by 2012. Fortunately, there is a solution— one way to keep India’s staggering 7% annual GDP growth humming along.

The answer: The women of India.

These women make up a huge untapped talent pool—and companies headquartered or operating in India have a lot to gain by empowering and advancing them. Catalyst’s 2010 India Benchmarking Report can help them do this. The report will be launched this Friday, March 4, 2011, by a stellar array of experts and industry leaders in Mumbai, India.

Please join us—don’t miss it.

What is India Inc.? For me, it’s not just India’s booming business sector. It’s also a phrase suggesting tremendous opportunity for Indian women and business.

India is undergoing explosive GDP growth—and a skilled labor shortage to match. Yet amid this tremendous thirst for talent, deep gender gaps persist. Women represent only 36% of the labor force—less than half that of men—and only 3% to 6% of senior management.

To mark the launch of our new report, Leadership Gap in India Inc., I’ve asked our Senior Advisor in India, Deepali Bagati, to write about what’s at stake in this emerging market. Women, she says, are core to India Inc.’s sustainable growth.

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Deepali Bagati writes:

India Inc.—the land of opportunities, relationships and contradictions—is a place where organizations find themselves thriving on growth and innovation, but also challenged by the talent crunch: finding and keeping top talent. Organizations are hiring aggressively, and employees are jumping ship even more aggressively especially at the skilled/managerial level. Culturally, the importance of relationships cannot be emphasized enough, and “who you know” continues to be critical in getting close to the ladder, let alone moving up the ladder.

Although women continue to be bogged down with familial and societal stereotypes about their roles and abilities, the burgeoning middle class, intense consumerism and a thirst for upward mobility in urban India is opening doors for women. In rural India, a million plus women are functioning as grassroots leaders in the Panchayati Raj Institutions, and rural India has already been anointed as the unexplored and untapped market with unprecedented opportunities.  

The India story is no longer about whether this is a growth play, but more about maximizing and accelerating this growth by leveraging female talent. A unique window of opportunity beckons the key stakeholders and decision-makers—the majority of who are still male—to set in motion processes and programs that bring more women into the workforce and create an agile and inclusive workplace.   (more…)