‘Accepting that gender biases exist is the first step towards women empowerment’ Says Jyotsna Uttamchandani, Executive Director, Syska Group
India has been presenting enormous examples of able women entrepreneurs. However, the numbers haven’t really been exceptional so far. While talking to Express Computer’s Gairika Mitra, Jyotsna Uttamchandani, Executive Director, Syska Group, shares some worthy tips. Edited excerpts:
What is the latest product that Syska is working on?
As I am currently handling the Syska Mobile Accessories division pan India – we are working on introducing innovative yet versatile devices. We recently introduced a night lamp with an inbuilt power bank of 4000 MAH, a wireless charging pad and an inbuilt speaker. The products have received a great response from users and we are now working towards developing more such innovative products that will blow our user’s mind.
Do you have plans to inculcate any form of technology in your business operations? If so, kindly elucidate.
This would take time to explain. However, in layman’s terms, I am currently building a software that would directly give me information of the stock that was sold by my sales team to retailers, the stock levels of my distributors and also enable me to conduct an auto-replenishment of the distributor from my system. Not only that, it would also calculate my sales, the price at which I sold a particular product along with the quantity vs how much was procured and do a live inventory management plus control. This will enable me to conduct employee tracking to ensure that my sales team is actually visiting retailers and being productive.
What are Syska’s plans of expansion in the near future, or say 5 years down the line?
As a customer-centric organization, our major plans would be to increase our customer outreach. From a Syska accessories business standpoint; I would love to see my brand become one of the top market shareholders for the accessories business. This vertical is extremely unorganized and becoming a key player in this segment would help us set standards across it. Not only that, we have grown in the last two years from 20 SKUs to 56 SKUs that are being billed in our distribution channel regularly. I would definitely like to keep working on customer insights and coming up with innovative, efficient, quality yet cost-effective products. I don’t wish to plan 5 years ahead, but in the next 2 years at least I’d like to make Syska a StoryBrand in the industry.
As a woman entrepreneur, do you think the journey is a little tougher as compared to men? Kindly enlighten us.
I wouldn’t refer to woman entrepreneurs per se – but in general women in leadership positions would find it a little more challenging. Accepting that gender biases exist is the first step towards women empowerment. However, with things changing, I’d not like to victimize our gender. We are far more powerful than society thinks we are, and changing their mindset will not be easy. Instead, I think we should work on changing our own mindset. Let’s not talk about it as gender equality anymore, however let’s look at it as gender equity. That’s what will actually allow us to step in and voice our opinions.
How would you ask your women peers to up their game in the field of entrepreneurship?
The key thing I’d like to stress upon is to not be afraid. Be assertive, support other women, mentor the younger generation and be open to criticism. Go out there, be yourself and be brave. We really are the strongest beings on this planet.
