Unfiltered, No Fairy Godmother: The Journey Of Successful Businesswomen Sits On Hardships, Resilience

Time after time, it has been a testimony for the majority of successful women all over the globe that their success wasn't served on a silver platter, did not have the pinch of fairy dust or a makeover from a fairy godmother. When Diya Kapur Misra started her career 24 years ago, she had not predicted she would be an influence to many young women, but here she is being a coach, advisor, and inspiration, an example of how with hardship, determination and resilience you could bring a change.

Or when, Crisy A Vvasan, a computer engineer by profession, decided to return to her roots in India from the USA, to start a beauty and personal care brand, she had a mission too. Crisy with her beliefs and conviction wanted to bring healthy and beneficial ingredients to women all over.

On this International Women's Day, 2024, let us see what the journey of successful businesswomen looks like!

Diya Kapur Misra is a leadership impact advisor & coach, and a diversity & inclusion champion:

When interviewed, Diya shared that when she took her first job 24 years ago in India's largest FMCG firm, Hindustan Unilever, her experiences as the only woman in the factory in greenfield locations like Yavatmal and Silvassa were interesting but also challenging. She said, "Coming from a big city, this was quite a transition for me, but both, the management traineeship and the factory stints were phenomenal experiences and became the bedrock of my professional career and personal growth journey.

Through her career, Misra too had her ups and downs. Falling in love and marrying a professional from the same company, Misra boldly decided to move on from HUL. She made a firm decision that this was what she wanted, rather than settling for a long distance marriage or a suboptimal career built on adjustment projects and postings! As she shared, "It was my first realization that, fortunately, or unfortunately, often it's the women who need to make choices like this more than the men. I then moved on and joined Hewitt, the HR consulting firm, which is today called Aon. I spent about seven and a half years with them."

On her journey with Aon, she said, "When I joined them, I was employee number 4 in the consulting practice. And by the time I left the company, there were more than 4,000 people. So in seven and a half years, it was quite a scale-up. I grew with the business and I grew the business. And it was, again, a professionally phenomenal experience. I then took my first maternity break. I had my first daughter, who is now 16 years old. As a very ambitious career woman, I thought that in three months of maternity leave, I would be back at work. But life often has different things in store."

With motherhood, Misra experienced the next turning point in her life and career. She said, "I realized in about two and a half months that I just couldn't bear to leave my baby and go back to work full-time. So I ended up extending my maternity break and took two years off. And then when I got back to my job, I did not want to go back into a travel heavy consulting job with a small infant. Consulting was also going through a slump, so it seemed like a good time to go back into a business role."

At that stage, Misra joined Cadbury's, and spent the next couple of years with another great organization. But that was probably one of the toughest phases of her life.

She said, "Going back post-maternity and dealing with all that comes as a part and parcel of that was really hard. The need to prove myself again professionally, and the guilt of leaving my daughter for long hours made life very tough. I realized after a couple of years that I was really missing consulting because I love the variety of experiences that consulting offers. So joined Korn Ferry as a partner in the leadership consulting practice - to set up the leadership consulting team and business in Bombay. "The next few years that I spent at KF were in many ways, I think the highlight of my career. I was a slightly more experienced mother by then, so I was handling that better too. I had a phenomenal team, and together we did some really amazing work. We built a great portfolio of clients on whom we made a significant impact, and we established a very strong and robust business. Then I took my second maternity break. When I had my second daughter, I suddenly almost dropped off the face of the Earth because she was a premature baby," she said.

Misra did not give up. Fortified with rock like support from her husband, family and friends she handled the most challenging phase of her life with resilience, determination, hope and the deep love of being a mother. She shared, "But it was a very difficult phase personally, and therefore the professional piece took a back seat for a while. I came back to work after that for a brief period to Korn Ferry, and then decided to branch out on my own and start working for myself. And that is when about seven and a half years back, I set up my own proprietorship firm in the leadership advisory and coaching space. And that's what I continue to do since then. So that's my journey, professional and personal in a nutshell, she said.

Reflecting back on the past, Misra said, "it certainly took a tremendous amount of resilience. I think the easiest thing to do would have been to quit at various points. But I think my desire to prove that I could survive it and I could come out stronger and on top, was a very strong thread. And in the process I discovered that I had great resilience."

Now, Diya has twenty-four years of rich and diverse consulting, coaching and business HR experience with Unilever, Hewitt, Cadbury/ Kraft Foods, Korn Ferry and as an entrepreneur. She has impacted over 2500 leaders from 46+ organisations.

Diya's unique mix of experience enables her to effectively get under the skin of the businesses she works with and to create deep impact. Her clients say that she brings the understanding and commitment of an insider, coupled with the objectivity, perspective and courage to ask difficult questions of an outsider!

Diya pays it forward strongly by coaching women leaders, actively championing and working on DEI, and sitting on the advisory board of two social organisations. She is also an active volunteer in her daughters' school, a travel and yoga enthusiast, and sings and writes actively.

Crisy A Vvasan, a computer engineer by profession:

Crisy A Vvasan who worked in the US for several years, found her true calling in India. Upon returning to her roots in India, she founded a beauty and personal care brand called "TVAM" (pronounced त्वम). Her belief and conviction was that nature has a lot of healthy and beneficial ingredients that ayurvedic science had formulated centuries ago and should be brought to the awareness of Indians and the world. This came about after she benefited from Ayurvedic treatment. Thereafter, began her quest to come up with products and develop the entire range of Hair, Face and Body care products using natural ingredients and with approved ayurvedic formulations - but in contemporary "textures" that are all new to the Indian market.

In her interview with GoodReturns.In, Crisy says, "International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 every year. I think it is important for several reasons. One is that it acknowledges and achieves really; it celebrates the social and economic culture and political achievements of women worldwide, highlighting their contribution to society. Also, it raises awareness of gender equality and the importance of accelerating and progressing towards achieving it."

Since the first start of business, Crisy added, "there have been a couple of challenges, like finding suitable talent and training them. Also, we have customer acceptance of premium organic products, like, for example, organic soap at Rs 300 back then, which was a very high price according to the regular soaps, so they said, Why should I pay the Rs 300 for soap? It is like double. Our job is to educate them on what organic means, as well as the ingredients and essential oils we use."

To support the women entrepreneurs in this cosmetic and personal care sector, Crisy advises that one consider some implementation schemes, like, for example, access to finance, providing easy access through schemes like low-interest loans, venture capital funds, and business grants for the women entrepreneurs in this sector. Women are also promoting their brands and initiatives to gain visibility and market share.

She explains that there are some steps in the digitalization of processes. The digital process makes it transparent and easy to access for women enterprising. Provided this implication, the government can create a more easy environment for the personal care sector.

On young women, Crisy said, "Youngsters are experiencing very fast and dynamic changes; they should be able to adapt. They can be adaptable if they are consistently learning knowledge and skills, and they should have patience. With patience, they can rise."

These businesswomen are a great example of how to be successful and still fulfil the duties of their womanhood, their household, and their family. They are not just a boon to the world of business but also to their personal lives. On this women's day, we ought to take motivation from them!

Women's Day is celebrated every year on March 8. It emphasizes the roles and rights of women and touches upon issues like gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.