Women with a Vision
Written by Sonali Dhandia; MGLUXM (Master in Luxury Brand Management) student. SP Jain School of Global Management – Batch 03.
We talk about breaking boundaries. During the Luxury Management Conversation Series we had on 29 November, we got a chance to meet and interact with six women who are stepping up the game for the entire industry and opening new horizons for you and me.
Two hours, countless stories and heaps of tips later, these ladies had managed to change our outlook towards products and implementing spoken concepts with utmost flare.
The Initiative
Vaniitha Jaiin is a wine connoisseur who has convinced the Marwari Jain inside her to look beyond taboos and support her conviction towards the subject. She feels that if one is passionate enough, it gets infectious and others just cannot ignore it. “The moment it struck me that this what I want to wake up for, there was no looking back from that day”, she said.
After having worked with beauty companies like L’Oréal and Kaya for nearly two decades, Kiran Singh is now following her passion for skincare at her own enterprise. As she says, Barunii is for the thinking Indian woman who puts good skin first, before everything else. After her graduation and campus placement, she ended up joining a male dominated Company. Even though she excelled there, it didn’t stop her relentless search for newer horizons. With tons of experience in retail, Kiran believes that store-sales is the only place you’ll know the consumer first hand. “That’s where you’ll get real time feedback”, she remarks.
Dr. Rutu Mody Kamdar holds a PhD in branding and consumer behaviour and over 16 years of experience in strategic consulting, planning, and brand management. Branding, for Rutu, is essentially the construction of the image of a brand in the mind of the consumer. “Brand is the mainstay of the organisation,” she says.
Prior to joining TARZ, Arusha Fernandes was associated with Confederation of Indian Industry CII as a “Manager – Human Resources”. She has also worked with organisations like Infomedia18 (Network18 Group Company) and Business Solutions (Formerly Market Solutions).
Arusha started out at an early age with a fearless approach to independence. She worked in sales at a perfumery for a while where she got hands-on insights into customer preferences and behaviours. Today, she vouches for the importance of starting at entry level and facing the customer one on one, as that is where one’s vision gets framed, she believes. “Counter sales people are the ones that make it or break it”, she says.
A career filled with challenging job roles and a never-back-down attitude got Majuda Ukani where she is today. “Luxury always needs a pull factor. The more people talk about your brand, the more luxurious it becomes”, she says.
About the Author: Sonali Dhandia
Sonali Dhandia is a student of Masters in Luxury Brand Management at SP Jain School of Global Management. A sixth generation Jeweller from Jaipur, she’s an entrepreneur establishing her Jewellery brand in the luxury accessories market. A fashion enthusiast and dessert lover, Sonali believes strongly in the healing energies of natural gemstones.
