Empowering women in family businesses discussed

The Indian School of Business (ISB) Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise organised a roundtable discussion on “Women in Family Business : Empowering and enabling women to unlock their leadership potential” on Monday.  Dean Madan Pillutla welcomed the eminent scholars, industry experts and other participants and emphasised the importance of the topic.
The roundtable discussion also provided a collaborative platform for attendees to engage with industry leaders, fostering a vibrant exchange of ideas and experiences.
The key highlights that emerged from the roundtable were gender equity is not a choice. It is inevitable, gender-inclusive families are a prerequisite for gender equity, gender-neutral sharing of responsibilities, role models and champions are important and equal opportunities in skilling and mentorship. Sougata Ray, Professor and Executive Director, Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise, Indian School of Business, said,  “In the realm of family enterprise, empowering women isn’t just a commitment to equity, it’s an investment to foster resilience and ensure the sustainability of the business and family legacy. It has to be a team effort, women must demand change and men must champion it. May the spirit of collaboration and complementarity triumph.”
Prominent family business leaders and experts Pratima Kirloskar, Vanitha Datla, Srividya Reddy, Rishabh Shroff, Aarti Gupta, Priti Rathi Gupta, Sujatha Cecilia, Kavil Ramachandran, Sougata Ray and Nupur Pavan Bang discussed diverse topics, ranging from multigenerational experiences of women, factors enabling or hindering the active involvement of women in family businesses, gender-inclusive family dynamics and effective women leadership in the family business context.