In Conversation with Manjaree Chowdhary, Executive Director & General Counsel, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

ASHIMA OHRI: Ms Chowdhary, let me begin by asking the much talked-about question on diversity and inclusivity in organizations. What in your experience has been the best way to effectively map gender inclusivity and diversity gaps at workplaces?

MANJAREE CHOWDHARY: Ashima, inclusivity and diversity I think D&I as its popularly called, are not the same. They are very different. Diversity is more in India understood as gender diversity because we happen to be struggling with that, we have to come into inclusivity and diversity means diversity of all kinds. I think that is more about getting the right percentages and the right numbers. I think inclusiveness, is a very different concept where the environment and the ecosystem is geared to improve diversity and make it such an inclusive environment for diverse people to be able to contribute to their optimum levels, right. So, I think it has to be taken extremely seriously by organizations, it is becoming a very important aspect, just like climate change or sustainability is most organizations are looking at it. It needs to be addressed with the same focus as you would do a business initiative. I think it has to be addressed like a P&L, where you go about doing your benchmarking first, you go about understanding what the ecosystem around you looks like, where do you peg into the whole system, where do you see the drawbacks or what is keeping you away from achieving that kind of a standard on DNI and then look to very sustainable and very practical solutions to be able to plug those gaps they could be from an HR perspective. They could be certain policy changes that the company looks at certain things which had to be addressed, I believe at the board level and at the senior management level. These things are chopped driven and then they percolate down and then do very effective monitoring of them, and also measuring. Anything that you can measure is something you can improve. It's as simple as that. If you won’t measure it and it's just like a benefit that you think you are providing it will fall through the cracks. I think you have to address it completely to your point, as a business case and begin to work around it. And there I am sure like we gain success in all the business ventures we do I see no reason why this can't be a successful exercise. 

ASHIMA OHRI: Ms Chowdhary,  I remember speaking to you about the Centre of Excellence at Maruti-Suzuki. Could you please tell us more about the initiative and how are you leading the initiative in terms of ensuring women are well represented across the company?

MANJAREE CHOWDHARY: That's a particular initiative that we have taken up with the Government of Gujarat. We have invested in Indian manufacturing, the automotive manufacturing centre of excellence, where we are really encouraging women, young woman engineers, young women diploma holders, to come and where we give live training. We are in collaboration with the University in Australia who helps us with all of this and we ensure that people who get out of there are absorbed in the best of industries. And we do give a lot of impetus there. We have decided to really encourage it because we believe that those very same diverse candidates can move into the industry and they can also move into Maruti Suzuki, which is our own industry and like you must have recently seen the new MG Hector car. 33% of women were there on the shop floor who contributed to making it and then MG has decided to take that percentage up to 50, so I suppose the sky's the limit. Women can do possibly do everything they can set their minds to, they just need the right ecosystem and the right skill set. 

ASHIMA OHRI: What according to you is the one thing that needs to change in terms of the mindset of people around us? As India gears up for the 75th year of independence and as we march ahead into the next decade—-what is that one thing you'd like to change?

MANJAREE CHOWDHARY: I think we should begin to bring the change, like they say, charity begins at home. Start the change at most the basic unit which is the home. How you bring up your girl child, what kind of atmosphere do you create at home with a sense of freedom, with the sense of equality, with the sense of as much of entitlement as suppose a male child has the female child gets and there is no lack of opportunity or at least there is an equal opportunity provided to her. I have seen that quite often in many households, girls are made to study. They say that we've made a girl graduate etc. My question always is, but what is it going to do for her? I mean, she's literate, that's alright, but do you make your children and gear females towards economic independence. Because that brings in a sense of empowerment for her to be able to take certain decisions. That's very important. And also, more importantly than all of this, what kind of status and what kind of respect do you give to a female child at home? That depends on how's the mother treated at home and how are the daughters and sisters treated at home. What we see in the professional setup, Ashima, is only a reflection of what is in society. So, the socio-economic conditions, cultural mindsets, stereotypes, have to be addressed at the home level first because the very same people carry them into their workplace. There's no point because what happens is that if you create the right kind of policies in the workplace, and they are applied to people who have a very, very different socio-cultural upbringing and stereotype, it's very difficult to match the two, and there will always be that dichotomy and people looking to escape that. So, I think, to my point it should be addressed at the basic level. 

ASHIMA OHRI: In 2018, State Street Global Advisors announced that it would vote against all-male boards in the US, UK and Australia as of 2020. Now, how long before India can see an initiative or a statement like this one coming from people in power. 

MANJAREE CHOWDHARY: Well, this is a wonderful thought, and quite utopian, I really think it shouldn't come to a pass where you have to boycott certain things. It has to be a very organic way of building it up and I think that has a greater level of sustainability to it, but at times and people on the other side would argue with me to say that we do need these very stern stiff measures out there in order to bring about certain changes. But I think the Indian, the statutory sort of framework is giving more and more impetus to allowing a more level playing field to women.  Be it in the corporate world, be it in the government world It has always been there, even in your independent directors, the question is that the frameworks get made but the people who have to implement them and bring them on the need to take them a little more seriously. I think basic understanding is that stop looking at women as women, first look at them as professionals, they bring a certain value to the table, and that is what you need to address. Everybody whether a man or a woman in an organization. They pride themselves on being professionals, all working towards the same end and end goal. The manner of reaching there could be slightly different because the leadership styles women have and the leadership styles perhaps men have can be slightly different. But I think everybody's trying to achieve the same purpose and you can't just say that if there is a woman looking at it, perhaps she may not be able to or you kind of have become sceptical about the end result that she could achieve. So, I think it is about getting that mindset corrected. 

ASHIMA OHRI:  Any advice to the young brigade of in-house corporate counsel, particularly women?

MANJAREE CHOWDHARY: I think the biggest is, first Believe in yourself, do not let go of your confidence in yourself. I did hear, Ms Mody talk about picking up your passion, whatever it may be. Obviously, not everybody gets to do something in life which they're terribly passionate about but if you can pick that up and be self-confident that you would get there. There will always be obstacles, you have to be extremely perseverant, you cannot give up. And third, I think women should learn to make smart tradeoffs. I think that's very important considering the systems that they work with. It always pays off in the long run, and you can’t sort of fight all your battles but you have to pick them smartly.

ASHIMA OHRI: Thank you so much, Ms Chowdhary. That’s a wonderful thought! We should certainly pick our battles more wisely. Thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your valuable insights.

MANJAREE CHOWDHARY: Pleasure! Thank you so much! 

Note: This is an automatic transcription that has been lightly edited for a better reading experience. Some names and parts of the transcription may carry inadvertent errors that we are in the process of editing. Thank you for your understanding.