Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Chasing the Dream
Three achievers from traditionally male dominated sectors discuss about what it takes to build their dreams and catalyse change.
Ms Roshni Raju, Founder, MED-bites Pvt Ltd led the conversation with Ms Archana Kalpathi, Creative Producer/CEO, AGS Cinemas and Ms Rohini Manian, CEO, Global Adjustments.
Roshni Raju: We are privileged to say that the metaphoric glass ceiling extends beyond gender. It encompasses the multifaceted struggles, obstacles and barriers that individuals face, when striving for excellence in their professional journeys. Today, I hope to dive into some interesting stories by Rohini and Archana, who have defied conventional limitations by setting up their respective businesses and by challenging the status quo and redefining success. Rohini, you had a brief stint in Daimler before joining Global Adjustments; and Archana, you were offered roles in IBM, Google, and had a brief stint in turning around hotels before starting AGS cinemas. How was your journey? How did you get to where you are?
Archana Kalpathi: I come from a family business. My family was into the IT and IT services industry. I’m a computer science engineer and that’s what I studied. We sold our business to Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. My first project was in Ooty. It was the old Dasaprakash hotel. My dad said, “Why didn’t you go and turn it around and flip it?” That was given to me when I was 21. I was living in Ooty by myself. There was a lot of fun. I got to learn many aspects, because real estate, as Rohini would say, has a lot of nuances to it. There are government approvals and handling contractors and vendors. For hotels, you need to learn a whole new skill set. So that was my first project. We bought the hotel, renovated and then sold it.
Roshni Raju: After that, how did you enter into multiplexes and movies?
Archana Kalpathi: I like design. I like managing and running hospitality. I love movies. The old Royal Theatre came up for sale for four crores. I convinced my dad to invest in that. I told him we have only few multiplexes. Satyam had renovated and Inox had just opened. I thought it was a good idea to have a multiplex chain in Tamil Nadu. So that’s how the idea started.
Rohini Manian: Archana and I went to school together and it’s nice to reconvene over here. My story is a little similar. My family was in infrastructure. My grandfather started an infrastructure business. By the time I was ready to join the workforce, my father had sold our infrastructure business to one of the world’s largest players Eurabia. From there, he got into real estate. When I came back, I thought I needed to have a little bit of professionalism and work with an MNC. So I joined Daimler. I realized very soon that my passion was real estate. Now I always say my first love is real estate. That’s how I ended up joining the family business.
Roshni Raju: What change have you brought into your companies or to the industries that you’re in?
Rohini Manian: I’ve taken it global. We were always focused on India. Now we have a global market. We look at real estate, focussing on India, Dubai and the United Kingdom. That was a very big change for us. The second thing, we’ve incorporated technology and automated a lot of things and made the process more transparent for our customers.
Archana Kalpathi: I have been in this business for about 17 years now. It’s a long journey. The movie business was very fragmented when we started. There were multiple small players. Now, there are a few larger players in the multiplex space and the movie making business has transformed. We have corporatized it to a reasonable extent. In both our production houses, we don’t deal with cash. That is one of the biggest changes that we have made. We’ve also been working with the government to try and get industry status for the film space as well. It’s a long way to go but these are baby steps.
Roshni Manian: Today, technology and AI are impacting different industries. How are you adapting to that change?
Rohini Manian: Being a much younger person, the first thing that I had to do was to earn the respect of all the people who work for us. They worked for my mom and dad earlier and I had very big shoes to fill. I had to know my industry really well. You have to know twice as much, if you have to get other people’s respect. After I worked on that, I could value add to the team. I brought in the changes by automating things through software. I got a good company to come and develop our own app. Our customers have real time information. Everything is now much faster and smoother.
Archana Kalpathi: We have to be very current and relevant. Because in cinema, everything changes. AI and tech are very big things for us. 15 years back, even projection was not digital. It was analog. Now it’s all digital projection. The amount of VFX that is being done in films now is very high. Out of two hours and 40 minutes of a movie, 90 minutes is CG (Computer Graphics). The way films are being shot now has changed. It’s all green mat. We are in the process of rolling out artificial intelligence-based production studios, which is going to be the next big thing. The whole concept of making a set and shooting in the set will go. It’s all going to be virtual reality production.
AI is also taking away a lot of jobs in our industry now. We used to have colourists and artists. Right now, there is a strike in the US where they are opposing a lot of companies from moving to AI and insisting on having people in the workforce. It is a challenge for us. But cinema has always been at the forefront of adapting, because audiences will catch on to it very quickly. We have to always do the latest.
Roshni Raju: It’s difficult to stay current without losing your current position. Gaining respect and trust, I would say, is part of the metaphoric glass ceiling. Do you have any anecdotes you can share with us of how you went through that experience?
Rohini Manian: When I decided to join global adjustments, I was very young. I had to give respect and listen to my team. I had to make them feel that I’m an ally and I really care about the amount of work and effort they put into our companies. They are the core and backbone of our company. That was something that I did. The second thing is, I worked twice as hard, so I got to know more. Once you know more, people respect you and it’s much easier and smoother to work together.
Archana Kalpathi: I was privileged, because I was lucky that my parents had enough money to invest in my idea. You also need to get a team to trust you. For that, you need to consistently show up every day, irrespective of whatever happens. Failures do happen. But I build trust by breaking things, then fixing it and then breaking it again. I continue to do so. That’s how you can end up finally breaking the glass ceiling.
Roshni Raju: Can you tell us one of the things that you broke and fixed?
Archana Kalpathi: When I built the first multiplex, I didn’t know I had to get 14 licenses from the government. I just thought I needed a building approval. I got the CMDA approval. When I went for a C form, I was told that I needed all the other approvals. I was 22 or 23 then. It took me a year and a half to go and sit with every officer and apologise to them. I told them I made a mistake and asked them how to fix it. My family had no idea about the business either. So, no one could come and fix it for me. You learn by making mistakes. You must have the courage to face it as well.
Rohini Manian: I tried to start various other businesses by being the investing or the silent partner. With three of my businesses, I just had to cut my losses and hence shut them down. I’m also lucky that I had the ability to do that. But it taught me a very important lesson on doing what you’re really good at. I have decided that anything I do will be allied to real estate.
Roshni Raju: One similar point that the three of us have is that we were all pretty young getting into business. I was 24. You both were around 21. The age definitely was not on our side when we were starting business. But starting early, I felt like half the battle was won, in any arena that I was in.
Archana Kalpathi: I’m super thick skinned. It doesn’t get to me at all. In AGS, we have a policy of dressing up in uniform: T-shirt and jeans. I’ll be at the box office or at a concession selling popcorn and some customers would have an issue and start screaming. I would go and tell them, “Can I help you?” They will say, “Please call the manager or someone senior.” I can’t tell them that I own the place. But honestly, that’s wonderful.
Rohini Manian: I used to go to a lot of international conferences on real estate and relocation. At 22, when I introduced myself as the CEO, people would be curious as to what this kid was trying to do.
Roshni Raju: How do you balance motherhood and professionalism?
Archana Kalpathi: I’m quite forgiving myself. I am blessed to have a very understanding spouse and that is half the battle won. He is not a very traditional spouse. He carries half the load. He’s a co-parent in every sense. I’m lucky for that. But it is tough. Sometimes, I would take my child with me to work. I believe that for women to be able to progress, you have to see your child as a part of you. I would never feel embarrassed to take him with me to my office or let him run around and do his own thing.
Rohini Manian: I went back to work when my daughter was nine days old. I never took time off, since then. I have a really supportive family. That was very helpful to me, especially because I’m a single parent. It was very important for me to have that support system. I’m still figuring out the mom guilt. But my daughter is also very understanding. I tell her that I have to go to work and that’s my responsibility like school is hers.
Roshni Raju: How do you unwind? We said that there is no work-life balance. I definitely struggle drawing the line between bringing work home and making sure that my kid doesn’t realize that what happens at work stays at work and what happens at home stays at home. But do you have any sort of meditative activities or any unwinding things that clear your mind at the end of the day?
Rohini Manian: For me, it’s fitness. I really enjoy the one hour that I do- kickboxing or my workout or anything like that. It gives me that release. It gives me the space. Also, I love to spend time with my dogs. I have seven of them.
Archana Kalpathi: I hardly get much time and I think in my industry, you definitely need mental health. I read a lot. That is my way of unwinding. I just love to read. Now I end up reading a lot of scripts.
Insights from the Q&A Session
Q: You are part of the cinema industry. How do you encourage diversity and inclusion within your organization?
Archana Kalpathi: It is very difficult to achieve diversity because we are about 95% men in a film set. But what we are trying to actively do is at least get interns from various colleges to come and do internships in production departments. With cinemas, it is relatively easy, because it’s like any other hospitality business. With respect to making films, I am actively looking for young directors and young DOPs (Director of Photography), so the team will always have at least one or two women. We, as a company, insist that they take and we provide a very safe environment for them. It’s a responsibility for us because we travel across the world. We put them in situations where it can be unsafe. That’s an extra responsibility. But I think we need to do it, because I want to see this at 50% at some point.
Q: In navigating the fields of business and culture, what strategies have you found effective in promoting gender equality and breaking barriers?
Rohini Manian: In our office, I’m happy to say my entire leadership team is women. One of our core things is encouraging women. We have a foundation where we champion women. We are very keen on gender equality. When we are hiring, we have a full diversity policy, where we look at taking people onto our team, who have special abilities. We’ve been successful in doing that. It goes a little bit with our value system and culture.
Q: Can you share specific strategies or initiatives you have implemented to break the glass ceiling in the entertainment sector?
Archana Kalpathi: I don’t think I’ve yet broken that. I am taking small steps. Being a producer, I listen to stories and make sure that people actually watch it. If I can have at least 50% women on our production teams, then I may consider myself breaking that ceiling.
Q: How do you contribute to the empowerment of women in the healthcare sector?
Roshni Raju: I don’t quite provide jobs in the healthcare sector. Mine is more in the marketing space. I look for graphic designers, 3D artists and content creators who are females. I look for doctors, especially women, who are in the second phase of their life, where they’re balancing a family and are no longer able to practice and so they’re able to write. I do encourage women empowerment.
Q: How do you see the intersectionality of gender and cultural intelligence, playing a role in leadership?
Rohini Manian: We work with 89 nationalities. At any given point in time, we’ll have about 30 different nationalities of customers, of different genders and cultural intelligence. It’s all about having emotional intelligence. We’ve trained our team to respect and understand different people’s cultures, thoughts and opinions.
Q: How did you overcome challenges in the traditionally male dominated film industry to reach the position of CEO at AGS cinemas?
Archana Kalpathi: I think, with a lot of luck. I also think I didn’t give up on consistency, hard work and showing up every day.
Q: Did you face significant gender biases in your industry when you entered?
Archana Kalpathi: We can’t let it affect us. That is where being thick skinned helps. No one should be able to stop you from doing or achieving your dream, because you have one life, and you have one chance at what you want to do.
Q: As a founder of a content production company in the healthcare sector, what advice do you have for aspiring female entrepreneurs looking to break through in this industry?
Roshni Raju: Turn up every day, and be consistent with what you’re doing. When I started medical marketing seven years ago, it was a taboo, because ethically, you cannot market medicine. But today, people are moving around to the mindset of educating and propagating a message in medicine.
Q: How do you see the future of multiplexes in the era of OTTs?
Archana Kalpathi: The future is quite bright. There was a slump, right after Covid. But now people are back to the theatres. In fact, for producers, OTT is a big boon. For theatres, there was a small dip, but now they are getting the maximum amount of revenue for any cinema. I think OTT will probably find its own space, just like how satellite TV did at one point of time. Theatre is a social experience because you come on a date, with your friend or your family.
