FICCI FLO's WINSPIRING 2020 exposes the Power of Women Entrepreneurs July 20th, 2013

Nostalgic sons, doting fathers, women themselves spoke about what it means to slog it out and make it as an entrepreneur.

FLO & YFLO Bombay Chapter, put forth a most engaging afternoon, called ‘Winspiring 2020’, with topics ranging from ‘failure proofing’ to ‘social media’ to ‘statistics on women entrepreneurs’ and of course poor numbers of women in Indian boardrooms.

And even though the topics were so serious, there was only laughter all around- ‘women discuss topics that men don’t’ and ‘let women help other women before expecting help from other men’ led to much unrestricted giggles amongst the 150 plus audience.

Vitthal Kamath, who is known to start every speech by giving respects to his mother, did just that. He spoke about ‘not selling out’ and listening to your customer.

Doting father, and one of India’s prominent Bankers Arun Duggal talked about how shocked he was when his daughter wanted to open a lounge that served wine…today called ‘the tasting room’, this is one of the most frequented restaurants in the city.

The elegant Neeta Lulla spoke about fashion looking very glamorous on the outside but being all hardwork behind the scenes. “Revivalism of Indian crafts and sensitivity to the social mileu of women are key to success in fashion”, she said.

Leena Mogre, who was also scheduled to speak showed tremendous grace by turning up, despite being unwell and having no voice to speak. She sat and mingled among the audience.

The day clearly belonged to a group of women from Dharavi, led by Vaishnavi, who pledged their mangalsutras to start a profitable business making savouriesd and one day hope to open their own restaurant.The event also saw the revival of ‘swayam’ and e-advisory service for aspiring women entrepreneurs, who could pose questions on Law, HR, Marketing, Finance and Stating up hiccups to FLO members. The e-interface will be personally monitored by FICCI-FLO Mumbai chapter and it will be an endeavour to answer as many queries as possible.

Gender diversity on corporate boards, because “women discuss topics that men don’t, and women form a majority of the customer base for any company” was discussed animatedly FLO Members – Abha Maryada & Nandini Vaidyanathan gave some fantastic insights into selfmotivation and use of social media to grow business. Motivational speaker Abha Maryada, Ivy League teacher Nandini Vaidyanathan, entrepreneurs Satya Vadlamani, Ujjwala Haware and corporate bigshots such as Usha Sangwan (ED, LIC India) and Parvathy Ramaswamy (Director of an MNC Bank) herself were present.

FLO Bombay Chapter is focusing on leveraging the intellectual and professional strengths of the FICCIFLO members to ensure better community service..