Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Trivia

• Being a lover of art and arty things, her office is adorned with artifacts and paintings by Yusuf Arakkal and various other artistes reflect her feelings. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has been a trustee of the Karnataka Chitra Kala Parishat as well.
• In her effort to preserve the character of Bangalore, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has been proactively involved in various city improvement plans like the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF).
• She was termed India's Biotech Queen by The Economist and Fortune, and India's mother of invention by New York Times.
• Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is also an art collector.
• She is a civic activist, especially with respect to municipal administration in Bangalore.
• In 1978, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw joined as a Trainee Manager with Biocon Biochemicals Limited in Ireland.
• She started her professional career as trainee brewer in Carlton & United Beverages in 1974.
• In 2004, she became India’s richest woman.
• Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Ltd.
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is an Indian entrepreneur.

Quotes

• "They've never faced the glass ceiling and I can tell you that I have great male managers as well! I have a lot of confidence in both men and women and don't have a gender bias in dealing with them. Yes, I do realise that women in our country do suffer from some kind of a handicap because of societal pressures and perception problems but a the end of the day I feel that every woman must have it in her to succeed, to achieve and get on top of all these things."
• "I have women at senior management levels; the head of my quality assurance is a woman and so is the HR chief and one of my production units is headed by a woman too. They are all such competent, self-assured, non-nonsense women; and are doing fantastically well."
• "Not really. I concede that women do have a little more sensitivity, but that doesn't really help because a lot of men too have a great amount of sensitivity. So I don't subscribe to that. I feel what is really important is that you must command the respect of your people. That's what makes the difference. I've managed to get together a team of like-minded people who have a great deal of mutual respect and gender has never played a part."
• "I've also proved to them that I have no labour problems and I would say my relationship with my employees is fantastic. We have a great team and a camaraderie that you don't see in most companies."
• "Around 1976-77 and that is the time when instead of resigning myself to my gloomy fate, I said to myself I am going to prove these guys wrong. In fact I was about to get a job in the UK and I got this opportunity of starting this company (Biocon India). I've never looked back and there are no regrets. I think today I can look back and say I've certainly proved that I am not a risk prone investment. I've proved this to all my investors and given them very good returns. I think I have the capabil
• "Oh yes, I qualified to be a brew master but I couldn't get a job as a brew master, the simple reason being that they wouldn't accept me for all these very reasons. They felt that how will a woman deal with labour problems or a breakdown at the factory and come at odd hours in the night. How will she deal with trouble shooting problems."
• "I guess bankers tend to perceive women entrepreneurs as being not that capable, competent or business savvy compared to men. Maybe they are perceived to be less risk taking and less capable of problem solving than men. These are all perception problems and women have to understand that they are at a disadvantage in terms of a perception problem. But we have to use it to our advantage and prove to others that is actually not so."
• "One of the things that women must realise is that everyone faces hurdles and I believe that if you are really serious about running an enterprise or a business, nothing is going to be easy; nothing come on a platter. And I think it's the same for any entrepreneur trying to set up a business. If you believe you have hurdles because you are a woman I don't think you'll make much progress. Let's remember even men face the same kind of hurdles."