Women In Logistics And Supply Chain Management (WLSCM) Seminar At NITIE (Part 2/2)

Ms. Sonal Jain is the HR Director for Supply Chain and R&D at Johnson & Johnson. Through her talk she explained how J&J views diversity and inclusion; it’s about creating healthy work environments for people from different cultures, genders, and sexual orientations. Focused programs on mental health and paternity benefits are some of the key initiatives adopted by the organization which has been pushing for equal representations for women at all supply chain levels.

Few Highlights from her speech: “Diversity and inclusion are about belongingness and the ability to work with each other despite differences. D&I is not about only women – it is all about diversity of thoughts, thinking, believing and motivating yourself about what you believe in a certain domain. I encourage you to ask when you join the organization that how you can make it a part of D&I. One should also learn to work with diverse people from right now, not when you become a line manager or reach any higher post in organisations.”

Ms. Vinita Ferrao, Head for India Talent and Acquisition at Mondelez International.

Session 2: BEST PRACTICES

Ms. Vinita Ferrao is the Head of India Talent and Acquisition at Mondelez International. She shared the successful story of the Mondelez Sricity factory which has close to 50% of women employees and has taken up initiatives to train women in manufacturing and uses technology for creating gender-neutral workspaces in factories.

Few Highlights from her speech: “Initiatives and exercises in gender parity should move from classrooms and metros to rural areas where biases are strong. We should aim to “uncelebrate” special days for women and provide for more gender-neutral work environments where men and women are treated as equals. More men should participate in conversations on diversity in supply chain management.”

Ms. Aparna Vishwasrao, Associate Director of HR/Talent Development at MSD Pharmaceuticals

Session 2: BEST PRACTICES

Ms. Aparna Vishwasrao is the Associate Director of HR/Talent Development at MSD Pharmaceuticals. In her talk, she introduced the conscious D&I efforts taken up in recognition of talent, hiring, retention, and development at MSD in three areas of supply chain – distribution & logistics, procurement, and manufacturing. This has successfully enabled at least 95% retention of women for them.

Few Highlights from her speech: “We make conscious efforts to attract more women and retain them in the organization. Having male leaders take an interest in this is very important. Opportunities for flexibility are provided to women moving up the ladder, such as working on international roles while based in India. We also actively promote women entrepreneurs in our procurement team - at least 10 percent of our spend is given to women entrepreneurs, and that encourages them”

Ms. Dipali Prasad, DGM for Supply Chain Operations at Tata Motors CVBU

Session 2: BEST PRACTICES

Ms. Dipali is the DGM for Supply Chain Operations at Tata Motors CVBU where she heads the Trims Commodity. She shared the efforts taken by Tata Motors in attempting to drive more diversity in the automobile industry where representation by women is as low as 4%. Initiatives included conscious hiring, training for women in warehousing, mentoring programmes and partnerships with academia. She also touched upon the instances of where she has observed women being successful in manufacturing and supply chain operations.

Few Highlights from her speech: “Women are born negotiators and great at multi-tasking. These qualities come in handy when dealing with 24*7 operations of the production lines and different types of stakeholders. In a developing country such as India, we need to have more of such conversation on gender and diversity as supply chains are also changing every day and bring in new needs.”

The day concluded with Round table discussion over the two sessions:

Ms. Kanimozhi Subburaman, Regional Sourcing Leader at Mondelez International

Invited Discussant (ROUND TABLE):

Ms. Kanimozhi Subburaman is a 2010 alumna of NITIE, currently the Regional Sourcing Leader at Mondelez International and an invited discussant for the WLSCM round table discussions. She highlighted the accepting nature of companies in welcoming diversity but also how there is a paucity of women leaders in the SCM field.

Highlights: “We should look at how to use technology and involve women in factory locations. Gender neutral policies should be made to benefit both men and women and to break stereotypes in this field. We also need more talent available in the market to cope with the shortage of women in logistics and SCM. Industry-Institute partnerships can open up amazing opportunities.”