Arundhati Bhattacharya: More women in boardrooms, mindset change needed

Press Trust of India

Mumbai: The representation of women in corporate boardrooms needs to be “far more”, and it will involve a change of mindsets, determined action and focus, Arundhati Bhattacharya, the top boss of Salesforce India and former Chairperson of SBI has said. Bhattacharya smashed the glass ceiling in 2013 when she became the first woman to lead State Bank of India (SBI) in the bank’s over 200-year history.

She retired from SBI in 2017 and went on to reinvent herself with a brand new career innings at the helm of cloud-based service provider Salesforce India in 2020, as Chairperson and CEO. Speaking with PTI, she said Indian businesses need to see digital transformation as a “must have” and not merely as something good to have.

Organisations that have inefficient processes, data residing in silos and manual processes, or skill gaps will fall behind, unless they adopt tech and digital, she advocated. Every single sector - be it healthcare, automotive or manufacturing presents an opportunity for Salesforce, she added.

In a free-wheeling chat that touched on various aspects close to her heart, including women’s issues, Bhattacharya said that a “broad brush approach” to getting women back to workplaces as normalcy resumes, may not work for all, and asserted that flexibility, understanding and empathy would be the key.

Her comments assume significance as there have been industry concerns that the end of work-from-home could push industry attrition among women workers in certain cases. It is pertinent to mention that earlier this month, India’s largest tech company TCS said attrition among its women employees has raced past the same for men, hinting that the end of work-from-home may have a role to play in it.

Bhattacharya also advocated for greater representation of women in corporate boardrooms. “Absolutely, there need to be far more women in corporate boardrooms. I think it is a question of changing mindsets,” she said.