Bangalore: IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) hosted the third edition of its Women’s Accounting Leadership Series for accounting and finance professionals in the Middle East and India. Hosted in Bangalore on 17 April 2019, the conference was supported by Amazon and The University of Manchester. The series aimed at encouraging women professionals in finance and accounting to break the ‘glass ceiling’ in business leadership, and reiterated that women make competitive leaders for businesses and decision-making roles.
The Series brought together female professionals in finance and accounting to discuss the challenges and issues in their careers to reach decision-making roles within their organizations. Top Indian women in the business and finance sector participated in the conference to share their experience and insights on accounting leadership.
Ginger White, CMA, CSCA and IMA Chair, 2018-2019 and the fifth woman to hold IMA’s most senior volunteer role; Sangeeta Shankaran Sumesh, Executive Director & CFO, Dun & Bradstreet Technologies & Data Services; Shalini Puchalapalli, Category Director at Amazon India; Sandhya Sriram, VP Finance, Wipro; Saraswathy Srikanth, Controller, Mphasis; Niranjana, Head Finance, L&T; Shalini Koshy, Senior Diversity Program Leader, Amazon and Latha Sharma, Associate Director Finance, Accenture, represented women leaders from their respective fields at the event.
The day-long event kick-started with a welcome note and introduction by Urmila Mitra, Founder & Director, Finishing Touches Image Consulting, followed by a talk about the importance of servant leadership in businesses by Ginger White. Sangeeta Shankaran Sumesh shared her ideas on delivering quality performance in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world. Speaking next, Shalini Puchalapalli spoke about ‘The Power of saying No’. The session was followed by a panel discussion on the ‘Journey to the C-suite’, where Sandhya Sriram, Saraswathy Srikanth, Niranjana, Shalini Koshy, Latha Sharma and Ginger White discussed their journey to the C-suite.
“While the women’s labor force participation in India has been declining, India has become one of the first developing countries to mandate listed companies to have at least one woman director on the board, helping organizations realize the value of gender diversity in the boardroom,” said Hanadi Khalife, Director, MEA and India Operations at IMA. “Globally, women are able to take leadership roles across different sectors but there remain challenges across a number of areas,” she added.
“Management accountants are involved in strategy, financial planning, and analysis which are all drivers of business performance. We want to help our women members reach their full potential by providing a forum for research, practice development, education, knowledge sharing, and advocacy,” said Ginger White.
“With improved access to education, changing social norms, and technological innovation, women have considerably improved their skill sets, pursuing careers at prominent businesses and reaching management levels. They are ambitiously competing for jobs in the private sector but also starting up their own companies and becoming business owners themselves,” Khalife added.
In recent times, the number of women on boards in India has increased to 12.4 percent, equivalent to 140 directors. This puts India closer to the global average, which stands at roughly 15 percent. In India, women comprised of 3.2 percent of the board chairs in 2016, while women CEOs accounted for 6.6 percent, according to Deloitte’s Women in the boardroom report.
