As a renowned healthcare entrepreneur, how is the playing field for women entrepreneurs in this arena?
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Meena Ganesh
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Healthcare is an area that very much plays to the strength of women. It is a field that needs to combine business sense with compassion and understanding of people and the challenges they go through due to health issues. Whether you look at the Reddy ladies or Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, we see some really good success stories of women making it big in this space. This is a space which requires a lot of focus on use of technology and continuous execution with low tolerance for failure. Entrepreneurs who have the right mix of these skills can be successful in this space.
What are the unique challenges you faced as a woman entrepreneur?
The challenges I have faced at any point in time are more as an entrepreneur trying to build a business in a new field, scaling, resourcing, execution etc. I have not really come across specific challenges as a woman. This is probably because by the time I started my journey as an entrepreneur, I was well established as a successful professional. However, I do know that younger women have struggled to have themselves taken seriously by investors. They also struggle with their own assessment of their capabilities, and tend to take a bit of a back seat and tend to be less ambitious than they could be.
| Straight from the heart |
| Dream big, women can achieve as much as any man can. Take help from others, but make sure that you project yourself in the most positive light, without holding back or hiding behind others. |
What are your recommendations to improve healthcare delivery for women?
Women tend to put their health on the back-burner, focusing more on their family and career. Preventive checks that focus on the women and helping detect illnesses early on will help in ensuring that women are better cared for. Home healthcare can actually help in ensuring that women who do not wish to travel and attend to health needs, can be cared for at their homes. This helps in integrating care into their daily routine, and hence makes it a little more accessible for the women.
What would be on your wishlist for women professionals? It could be specific to your area of experience/work or general
I would have a couple of categories:
Table stakes or hygiene factors: Safety and security at work and outside; protection from harassment; being able to travel freely in a city without worries
Professional: Being treated equally, provided with the same opportunities
Environmental: More role models, mentoring and networking opportunities
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