Today's working women take the road less travelled

 The sky is the limit for the growing tribe of woman entrepreneurs, who are stepping into areas where few have ventured before.

The Indus Entrepreneurs, world’s largest group of entrepreneurs, professionals and corporates, brought the daring group on a common platform, to share their enriching experiences during the TiECon 2012 annual conference here, which concluded last weekend.

Sunitha Krishnan, founder and general secretary of Prajwala, for instance, continues to work in the anti-trafficking sector, unmindful of the risks to her own life and that of her volunteers. Krishnan’s never-say-die spirit and her extraordinary work over decades has won global accolades.

Rekha Ranganathan, head of strategy at Philips Healthcare, is taking the initiative to offer medical equipment at more affordable prices to towns and villages and bring healthcare within the reach of all, according to a TiE statement.

University of Chicago entrepreneur Sachi Shenoy is engaged in making life-changing interventions for the extremely poor by providing budding entrepreneurs from that segment with business development support and financial resources to launch and scale their businesses.

Similarly, software professional turned social entrepreneur Sujata Sahu founded “17,000Ft Foundation” to improve the lives of locals in Ladakh’s remotest areas, by empowering them and also inspiring tourists to donate educational aids and teaching in remote schools.

Another key learning from women entrepreneurs was that women team members bought more stability, higher creativity, loyalty and sense of ownership.

These qualities scored over perceived lack of aggression and go-getter spirit for competitive roles.Despite the presence of some outstanding women managers in finance and technology, women entrepreneurs admitted their relative discomfort in dealing with technology and finance.

Aligning with mainstream as opposed to just staying within circles of women networks was also highlighted.

Sairee Chahal, founder, Fleximoms, exhorted women entrepreneurs to build scalable businesses and seek help from accelerators and industry bodies like TIE.