WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

•SHAHNAZ HUSAIN
•KIRAN MAZUMDAR SHAH
•EKTA KAPOOR
SHANAZ HUSSAIN
 founded Shanaz Hussain Herbals

Pioneered and popularized ayurvethic treatment for

beauty and health problems

Presence in 100 countries

Worth $ 100 million

Employs 4200 people and 650 salons in the world

History
Her father was Justice N.U. Beg

Schooling in Irish convent

Married at the age of 15 and had a child next year

When her husband was working in Iran, she developed interest in

cosmetology.

But aware of harmful effects of chemicals used

Interested towards ayurvedic treatment

Got training extensively in this field in London, Paris and Copenhagen

Returned to India in 1977.

Started a salon in Delhi with investment of Rs 35,000

Used customised ayurvedic products which became instant hit

Till then, ayurvedic products used only in homes

Taken ayurvedic cosmetics to international level

Represented the beauty congress, first time for India

First Asian to be represented in Galeries Lafayette in Paris

Products displayed in Harrods, London; Selfridges, London;

Bloomingdales, New York; Seiyu Chain in Japan.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Founder director of Biocon.

Pioneered biotechnology field in India

Leader in enzymes manufacture

Born and schooling in Bangalore

Could not get Medical College admission and hence joined Zoology

Encouraged by father to take of fermentation science as he was a brewer

Studied malting and brewing technology in Ballarat College in Melbourne

After study, helped her father in consulting for
breweries in India

Then headed for Scotland to take up a job but had a

chance meeting with Leslie Auchincloss, founder of
Biocon Biochemicals (Irish).

Started Biocon India in 1978 a Joint Venture with Irish

firm

Started it in her garage and then in 1980 company

bought 20 acres in Bangalore outskirts and moved
there
Faced various problems like funding as it is a new field

People were not interested to work under a women

entrepreneur

Being a woman without any business background, banks

shied away

Overcame all difficulties through dedication and hardwork

In 1999, Biocon Group formed by merging Biocon India,

Biochemizymes, Syngene,Biocon Quest, Helix and
Clinigene.
Clinigene was a family owned company with clinical
research as business

“Kiran Majumdar has the ability to see an opportunity

much ahead of others” - R.A.Mashelkar, Ex- CSIR head

Biocon was a small scale industry in 1978 and now $60

billion global biotherapeutics business leader with more
than 70 enzymes in the products list.

With more than 15 novel enzymes

Market leader in Pectinase enzyme

Customers: Glaxo Smithkline, Astra Zeneca etc

Flat organisation with easy approach to Kiran Majumdar

Customer service end employees focus major attributes of success

Was interested in women workforce; now the ratio is 1.5 to 4.

It set up a creche for women employees

Company with a l0w attrition rate

Wrote a book called “Ale and Arty” about brewing

Won “Padmashri Award”

Ekta Kapoor
Founder of Balaji telefilms

Serial women

A bunch of soaps to her credit

She was a poor student and not active during school days

Turning point came when Ketan Somayya, an NRI wanted to start a channel and
wanted software for it. He approched Ekta’s father who in turn given it to Ekta.

Ekta completed the work but the channel did not do well and sold to Zee TV

But Ekta felt her hard work should not go waste and started scouting for buyers.
Her father came to her rescue and funded her further projects.

BTL started by her father in 1994.

Mano ya na Mano, a first teleserial telecast in 1994

First major success with Hum Panch on Zee TV

IPO listed in 2000 for BTL to set up a studio in Mumbai

Her string of hits are Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahani
Ghar Ghar Ki

Her area spread apart from Hindi to some regional channels also
Her judging of Indian households is her greatest asset

She knew what would sell

She brought some changes like weekly soaps to daily soaps as she
felt time gap would lessen interest

Her melodramic, extended joint family related stories struck the

raw nerve of indian audience

She changed the concept of prime time slot also from 08:30 PM to
10:30 PM

She is a ruthless and autocratic manager and will not give leeway
in quality
She will even remove certain characters in soaps to control erring
actors

She had only contractual actors on the rolls and most of the
shooting would be done in-house, the BTL studio in Mumbai
( Cost control)

She catered to wide number of channels and did not stick to one
channel. Her other forte was combination of revenue generation
avenues like commissioned and sponsored serials (shrewd
business strategy)

Winner of “Rajiv Gandhi Award” and “Corporate Excellence

Award” from Bharat Petroleum; all when she was in late 20’s and
early 30’s.