“In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders”. This quote from Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, briefly surmises that the dawn is finally breaking out for women in the business world, in terms of acceptance of their leadership. The automotive industry is no exception to this. We see a number of women leading big time firms and production houses in India too, who are featured every month in this column.
This month we present you the quintessential sisters who have taken over the baton of leadership as fifth generation heads for the JMA Group, one of India’s oldest and leading automotive spareparts distribution houses.
The President for JMA today, Ms. Aditi Arora is hands on with all departments working at the company’s head office in Gurgoan, while simultaneously commanding the team across their network. Her younger sister, Ms. Aashna Arora, is the newest addition to the JMA management, taking care of accounts and related departments.
Asked on testing the waters in the male-dominated automotive aftermarket business, both Ms. Aditi and Ms. Aashna acknowledge their vital spirit in taking up the business of the legacy of their father and grandfather, especially when the younger generations stay away from this industry. “Young people see aftermarket business as a dirty job, with its complex trading channels, lack of office comfort, and slimming profit margins. We wanted to contest that rhetoric and take the unbeaten and challenging path to uphold our family legacy in the business”, they say.
After graduating from MBA, Ms. Aditi worked in a media company for some time before joining JMA in 2009. She has undergone extensive training for the first two years in the ground realities and policies of this industry, also visiting and spending time in various factories in Chennai and Madurai.
Later she was actively involved with the IT team in the implementation of ERP, which transformed the procedural and operational excellence of JMA. She also handles the entire HR department of the group, while directing group companies.
“Our offices and branches were absolutely men-oriented, I sparked a change by hiring women accountants and HR professionals some time ago. Now the departments are stronger than before, we even have a female manager at our Kochi branch. I also started the practice of celebrating each of our team member’s birthday at the Head Office, gifting sweets to everyone, and team members at distant branches get really excited to receive birthday greetings from the Head Office.”
“Similarly, we greet our team members on their work anniversary by sending a personal e-mail which delights them and brings a sense of belongingness to the JMA family. We have also started offering cash awards to our top three branches which are ‘cleanest’ every year to support our PM’s Swachh Bharat Program to build a culture of cleanliness across our 80 branches and 8 regional offices in the country”, claims Ms. Aditi. JMA’s strength of women workforce has grown over time.
Ms. Aditi also realizes that it may take some time for women to take up marketing and sales jobs in the auto aftermarket business. Her other mission so far is to rejuvenate JMA with younger people and professionals in every departments as second line of leadership, something that she sees as imperative to transform the industry to the changing times.
Ms. Aashna Arora, on the other hand, started her career in a reputed private sector bank before leaving for the UK to complete her Master’s degree in business management. She is currently playing a pivotal role in reforming the accounts and finance-related operations in the company.
“Wherever women involve, the discipline and the professional ambience improves. Be it attendance, punctuality in office, language and communication, office culture, cleanliness, etc., makes a big difference to working in our offices”, says Ms. Aditi. “Women may face multiple apprehensions and questions on their calibre to engender change, but once they prove the prowess, they are regarded high”, she adds.