 And with the same ladies and gentlemen, we are now moving on further towards the first keynote of today. The topic of this keynote is be your own cheerleader, how to overcome barriers for a successful career. And with a huge round of applause, please allow me to welcome Miss Shalini Chakravarti, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer from PhonePay. Can we have a huge round of applause for Miss Shalini Chakravarti to deliver our first keynote for the day. What are the operational goals of what are they doing to increase the women in the leadership roles, launch of a lot of programs, mentoring, sponsorships. We've been hearing all of that, all these, right? So I thought, you know, everyone's been hearing, everyone's been talking about it and we haven't really seen the needle move, right? We've been around working in this space for over a decade, but if you really look at the percentages in terms of the representation or anything else, I think we're still struggling, right? We had the first session and everybody spoke about it. So I thought, let's not talk about this today, you know, because we've been hearing all of us know about it. So it would be, you know, interesting for me to share my anecdotal story, you know, something that how I have been able to, you know, look at some of those challenges in my life and decisions that I took at some point, you know, in terms of moving forward and that helped me where I am today. So the session is all about my anecdotal story, you know, starting from the beginning. While I was thinking about and doing a self reflection, you know, two days back because I had to come and talk about it. And I thought, okay, what was the most important thing, you know, that really stood out in my life that, you know, really helped me grow and achieve, you know, a successful career today. And that was making some big bold moves. From a professional perspective, I am a chartered accountant, and I started my journey. It's a very natural progression, right, for anybody to move into a finance job. I also did that. I joined a corporate life, moved into finance. But as an individual, I'm a very, very different person. I like a lot of challenge in my life. And I found that kind of missing, you know, from that perspective. And then I thought, maybe it's not the right career for me. And that was a big bold move for me, because having qualified in that field. And when I reached out to a couple of people and seek advice, I don't know, it's not moving. Sorry. So everybody advice me, no, no, that's going to be disastrous for you, because you worked so hard to get there. And now you don't want to pursue that as a career. And I think I believe that was the best move that I did. And I moved into consulting. Of course, there's a story that I'll share how I moved there. And then I moved into compliance. So I've, you know, there were certain more other transitions that I made. I recall the interview that I had with the words largest retailer. And this was the head of the Indian operations was interviewing me for a leadership role. And she asked me a question. She said, you have not been compliance in your life before. Do you really think you are fit for this role? And my response was, of course, you know, because it's the retailer. So there were compliances, men food safety, product safety, health and safety. And I only knew about these things as a consumer. I didn't know what, you know, goes into get there, right from a retailer's perspective. And my response was that I read the JD man. And I think you were looking for a leader who could drive a team who could drive the program who could drive to be a differentiator for you in India, rather than somebody with the subject matter knowledge, right, I can hire those people. And I'm a quick learner, I can learn about that. But if you're really looking that somebody can drive it, then it's the right person. But if you're looking for somebody who's a subject matter expert, then definitely I am not interested either. And that was it. I got hired. So it is very, very important for you to understand that what you're looking for and make that, you know, that bold move in your life. That's very important. But this journey is not always easy, right? We spoke about many challenges. And it's, it is something, you know, something which is not very, very easy. And everybody faces a lot of barriers, challenges. This is my favorite. Okay. There are three M's in a woman's life, particularly marriage, maternity and mobility. So if you really look at, you know, in the first session, everybody spoke about these three M's. And nobody is very different. Again, you know, if you really look at it. I got married very early, got a first child very early, very young, and joined back after maternity. Unfortunately, there was only three months leave at that point in time. Work for 15 days, just could not manage it, you know, waking up the whole night, going and working through the day, and then coming back tired and not able to enjoy the motherhood, not able to focus on my work. And I thought, maybe I want to take a sabbatical for a year, you know. Again, consulted some people and everybody said that's it. Most of the women do that. Once they go on a maternity leave, they never come back. It's end of your professional journey. But I was very determined. I said, okay, I want to decide what is priority for me at this moment. And I wanted to enjoy the motherhood. I didn't want to struggle between job and my child. I took a sabbatical for a year. And then, of course, it wasn't easy to get back. There were a lot of challenges. Being a very honest person, when I started to interviewing back, people asked me, why did you quit? And I said, I couldn't manage. And they said, okay, why do you think you will be able to manage now? So, of course, not going in there. There were some other people who did trust me and then I got back. But what I want to say is, it is your life. It is you who need to decide what is the priority for you. And if I really look back, does that one year made a huge difference to my life? I took a sabbatical. Did I lose on my career journey? No, I did not. In fact, rather, I'm very happy that I took that break. I was able to enjoy the motherhood. And I was able to continue on my professional journey. I have a lot of mentees who keep coming and even today they asked me the same question. And this is exactly what I advise them. You need to decide what your priority is. Nobody else decides for you. It's your decision. You need to take it. It's your life. In fact, you know, one of the mentees regarding mobility we were talking about, she came to me and she said she was very upset that day. She wanted to discuss that I've got and she was in Gurgaon and she got a very good opportunity in Mumbai. And she said, you know, I've got this offer in hand and this is like a dream job that I have. I want to go there and you know, but I think my family would not agree. My husband would not agree. I'm in laws at home. I'm in a joint family. So I said, okay, let's break the problem. Tell me what is the problem. Your husband is talking about is what is your if that in laws are talking about and let's try to look at it. She said I've not spoken to anyone. It was her own imagination. Because the way women are brought up, they're always seeking permission from somebody or the other for taking a step or a decision in their life. So this is very important. We don't have to seek permission. We have to take our own decision. And I told her I said, go and talk to your husband. Maybe he's very happy. Maybe he has a opportunity and he may want to move with you. And trust me, they moved, you know, after couple of months to Mumbai. So it is not about, you know, seeking permissions from people all the time. So this is very important. The life carries on right and challenges are always there from different facets of life. And it's a journey. You can't go alone. So you need help. Right. Can you move to the next piece? I don't think it's working. So you need help. And the help is, you know, a lot of time we are very, very shy about, you know, what if I'm going to ask for help, what is it that the people are going to be thinking about me. So this is very, very important. Never feel shy. Ask for help whenever it is needed. And having a mentor. It's an extremely important, you know, for you to grow in your professional career. I remember for my consulting days, I joined this consulting firm as a, you know, head of finance. It was a pretty consulting firm. It had a global presence. The India operations is what I joined as head of finance. I mean, you know, one of the practice heads came to me and he said, I know your background, I know your qualification. But you are not those typical accountant, you know, wearing those thick glasses, non smiling faces. You have a very different personality. And I believe you can be a very, very good consultant. And I was anyways not very happy with the job. I was looking for more challenging assignments. Of course, you have to put in a lot of effort to get some certifications to impress your clients. Right, because the profile goes in there, but I made that decision to move into consulting and he helped me there. He helped me a few years later as well, where he said, you've reached a certain height. Would you like to do something, you know, take a leap forward from here? Maybe you've got an accounting qualification, you want to do something on the leadership side, which would help you take to a leadership role. And I, you know, went up to did my, you know, course from NCR and that really helped me accelerate my journey. So having a mentor in life is very, very important. Can we move to the next slide please. But above the mentor is the sponsor. I met a friend, interestingly, two days or three days back and, you know, it was a Diwali lunch. We always find in a busy schedule, you know, some excuse to meet up and catch the full lunch. And she made a very beautiful statement, which I thought I'll share with all of you. She said, you know, everybody talks about sponsors. That's a old school of thought. What is a new school of thought strategically selecting the sponsor, who would be able to represent you when you're not present and help you grow. Anybody can be sponsored. I mean, in your function, outside, outside of the organization, but you have somebody within the organization who has a reach to the people where he or she can represent you will be the best thing. That's a strategic move. It's not just about having the sponsor. And I really liked it. And when I reflected back, I thought, yes, I mean, I wasn't strategic, be very honest with you guys. But, you know, this was again, the same consulting firm. I was leading one of the practices and the leader for India left the global leadership issued a mandate, and they said, you know, interviewing people and all of that and I was managing the entire operation in the internet. One of my sponsors who was part of the global leadership proposed that she's already doing a fantastic job. She's already managing for the last six months. We haven't really, you know, people management, client management doing the business, everything that we've been looking for is happening. Why not we consider her promoting to that level? Why are we even looking outside? It'll be another year delay because we'll take six months to hire and six months for the person to settle. That sponsor really helped me reach that position. I probably wouldn't have otherwise. Right. And, you know, just to touch on the personal board of directors. Have you ever thought about who is your personal board of directors, people you can fall back on for any kind of advice. Again, these are all very strategic decisions that one needs to take with respect to, okay, this is my person. This is the advice or guidance that I need to I can call this person at any point in time. So do an exercise of mapping your personal board of directors and what kind of advice that can you reach out to. Can we move to the next piece. Link to all of this is again, the networking, right from and everybody talks about networking. Okay, you should meet more people you should have more people in your network, but I would say these are all very, very strategic decisions. One makes in life. I have a theory and I'm sure there are many theories in the world. If you, you know, Google search, there'll be many theories on networking that will be available. But I have my own theory of networking and I categorize my network into four categories, different categories, one that would push me to do a lot more things in my existing role. Second, that would push me to do a lot of out of the box things, you know, something beyond my existing responsibilities. Third, that would care for me or teach me how to care for others. And the fourth is people who would help me any, you know, kind of a teaching guidance, you know, no more knowledge sharing kind of a thing. Most likely, we network with people who we have a same kind of a mindset, right? Maybe if I'm a person who cares more, I'll have a lot more people who care more. I may not have anybody who's going to push me to deliver beyond my responsibilities. So I would request all of you to actually do this exercise. Look at who's your network and where do they really fall. You can have your own categories based on your job roles and industries. You can define, you know, what you need to define in a different manner altogether or you can choose a network that I just shared with you. And then look at, are you lopsided on one side? I know everybody wants to be remembered as a person who really takes care of the team. But is it all what you want to be remembered as? I think we want to be remembered not just as a person who wants to take care, but also a person who can take on any challenge, right? That is a much better position to be in. So it's a very important aspect. And this is what I do with respect to my network. I make sure there is a good balance between the four of them so that I can have a very holistic and a very balanced as I'm doing. Can we have the next slide? I'm not going to take, I know the time is running very fast, but just a couple of more things. One, I think all of you or most of us would have read the Lean in Book, right by Sheryl Sandberg, which got published in 2030. And the book actually refers to one of the surveys that was conducted internally in Hewlett Packard. And that was about confidence levels in terms of applying for a job. Okay. So the survey results were that a man would apply for a job, even if he meets 60% of the qualifying criteria based on the job description, and a woman would only apply if it is 100%. Okay, so that really talks about that we want to be 100% confident. That doesn't mean that men are not confident. Now, I just wanted to share with respect to that study, you can all see it on the screen, a survey that was conducted by Harvard Business School. And they said, okay, we look at 16 parameters and they are all on the screen. We look at 16 parameters and evaluate men and women and these are all for leadership roles. And out of 16, there were 15 categories where women outperformed men with a very huge difference, you can see that. And there was only one category where women did not outperform men slightly behind because they didn't have the exposure, which was strategy. Because there are not many women in that field and hence they were a little behind men. So if you now look at the survey results and the study by Harvard, this is somewhere around 10 years old study. If you compare the two, what stops us applying for a job even if we meet a 60% criteria. A lot of time we talk about there's not a lot of women, you know, at the top, but is it us who's stopping us to be there? It's a question that I want to leave you with because you need to think about it and start to, you know, start behaving very, very differently the way that you've been doing before. Right. So can we have the next slide. Those were some thoughts I thought I'll share, you know, from my own story, some any thoughts that may help you in terms of rethinking some of the decisions that you need to make in your life. And I think this is a picture I thought everyone can resonate with a super woman, right, always running to do things at home and office and managing so many different responsibilities. But the only thing that I would really say is be bold, be daring and be different. Thank you everyone.