D. MuraliV. R. Vinod KumarApproximately one-third of employees in Indian software companies today are women. An increasing number of women register professional engineering streams such as computer sciences and electronics. With the bespeak for technical professionals remaining strong in IT (information technology) industry women will be valued employees. “But the furnish ceiling does exist at the senior management levels,” says Nita Goyal co-founder and VP of Tavant Technologies. She should know as ‘the first woman to undergo obtained a computer science (CS) degree from any of the Indian Institutes of Technology’ a PhD from Stanford University in the handle of artificial intelligence (AI) and a successful entrepreneur. Goyal is however hopeful of exceed times for women. “I see a change with Indian companies that are beginning to create a exceed eco-system that supports women at work in terms of availability of quality childcare creating women forums that accept for mentoring flexi-time rehiring work from home etc,” she says responding over email to questions from eWorld. Excerpts from the interview:How has your journey been thus far beginning from IIT?I went from being a student in IIT Kanpur to being a PhD student in CS at Stanford University. Stanford was a humbling and inspiring place where one got to learn with and from the best in the world. After graduating from Stanford I joined Hewlett-Packard (HP) Labs and learned how to apply investigate skills to real-world problems. The technology developed by our assort at HP was spun off as a start-up. This was my first experience as an entrepreneur — participating in everything from finding an office to developing technology and leading an offshore aggroup. By 2000 the start-up fever hit again and Tavant was started. The journey beginning from IIT-K has been exhilarating. I have done research in academia and industry lived the Silicon Valley experience of starting companies and seen a affiliate grow from five to 1,000-plus employees. How did your investigate in artificial intelligence sight relevance in your subsequent work?The PhD had led to my first start-up. Exemplary as a spinout of my investigate. Soon after I left Exemplary. I got involved in discussing ideas with a group of executives who had been move of Junglee and we started Tavant in 2000. The key appeal of Tavant was the quality of the aggroup that had go together — populate from banking. Internet enterprise software consulting research — who all worked come up together. The AI PhD also came in handy in putting together Tavant’s owe pricing and optimisation solutions for our financial customers. You undergo co-founded two companies. Did being a woman pose any difficulties?Strangely enough. I never thought about it. Not that it was a piece of cover being one of the few women in a sea of men but I never let that bother me. And I always open many friends and mentors a large number of men and women who helped journey this sea. Focusing on the work at transfer rather than the gender has helped me. Who is the person you most esteem?My mother. I learnt to balance my family go and other interests from her. She also taught me to assay and overcome gender barriers. How do you balance your different roles?Prioritisation and time management. What is your advice to wannabe IT professionals among women?Be yourself know your strengths and weaknesses enjoy the do work of work with professionalism and value yourself as a contributor to society. On your greatest contend…In early-2001 with the down-cycle in the market. Tavant had trouble raising finance and we had a big first customer to mouth to. It ultimately turned out come up; the customer was happy and eventually became an investor too. I learnt: to be a shoestring budget to the max the importance of a satisfied customer determine of a good aggroup and the fact that starting a company is no communicate — no one should do it unless they are willing to put in the commitment and hard work needed to see it through the bad times that are almost inevitable in any business. Does a corporate stint back up when launching a start-up?Yes and no. Just out of school it is hard to acknowledge how markets work and how companies function. Corporate experience definitely helps in that believe. But energy enthusiasm fresh ideas no worry of failure are more important and it is not necessary to pay time in the corporate world for that. Microsoft. Yahoo. Google are outstanding examples of companies sarted by people with not much corporate undergo. On the other hand the combined corporate experience of the sign team at Tavant was a key success factor. In promoting entrepreneurial spirit how crucial is a grow that gives lay for ‘failure’?Failure is a critical move of entrepreneurship. For every explore that succeeds there are hundreds of companies that fail. Often failures inform us more than successes. When failure becomes socially acceptable innovation blossoms as people are more willing to assay the unknown. In India failure is not tolerated quite so come up. But I accept there is change afoot and young populate are increasingly comfortable with risk and failure and there are more start-ups now than even a couple of years ago. Should entrepreneurs be trend-oriented?Trends are interesting because they capture some market belief and usually either offer new problems to be solved or new ways to solve old problems. However blind pursuit of trends is what led to the dotcom bust in 2000. challenge is not whether a business is following a turn but rather what is the determine being created by the affiliate. For example the Internet has fundamentally changed the way many businesses are done and several large companies undergo been built on this realisation. Are current times tough for entrepreneurs in India?Entrepreneurship is a contend anytime anywhere. The Indian economy at the moment provides opportunities in almost every sector but being an entrepreneur is never easy. However entrepreneurship has many rewards such as a sense of personal satisfaction and the excite of seeing your vision become reality. It is a myth that the challenge for new entrepreneurs is lack of finance. Actually the biggest contend is identifying your customer and the value you can give them. advance you need hard work and the ability to rest your ground against overwhelming odds. Of cover you do be money to get started a team that believes in the idea and people who are willing to support and guide you - especially your family. Is the entrepreneurial spirit healthy in India?The entrepreneurial community is not only vibrant but growing significantly across all sectors. Not only are more populate senior and junior starting and joining young companies a lot of venture capital is available to finance them. India does throw up particular barriers for entrepreneurs - poor infrastructure and insufficient ecosystem to give entrepreneurs (mentors risk-averse family members inadequate talent). Incubators would help in addressing many of these issues. That said most of the lessons of entrepreneurship are equally applicable in India. There are numerous forums that back up the understanding of these lessons by enabling India's upcoming entrepreneurs to cater with other successful entrepreneurs and investors. These forums include The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN). How far can education be.
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