"We have great plans for expansion"- Shruti Jain, Co-founder and Director, OMTV

Shruti Jain, Co-founder and Director at OMTV talked about herself in the Women Power column on DQ Channels. 

The challenges of being a woman executive in a top role?

This is something which will always be there even if you are in the topmost position. Being in a start-up, it’s a very interesting ecosystem, you have to deal with everyone directly, like an office boy or a junior level role or an outside vendor, they all have different conditioning. The upbringing that Indians have till now has been very patriarchal, thankfully it's changing now and I see a lot of kids and youngsters who see women as their contemporaries and not someone down or inefficient.

Sometimes you have to be very firm with the decision which makes some of the Senior members a little offensive but later when proven right they come around. The initial resistance is always there ..thankfully in our organisation this number is very less and we make sure that equal opportunities and voices are heard. We have almost 50% women in the workforce and that makes a huge difference. Some casual sexism exists when you are dealing in finance and its something which is not a women's domain typically, so the other person might ask for joining another co-founder in a meeting which is finance-related, who they think would make a decision but as we go along when they see that I am handling it pretty decently then it’s an all smile situation.

I don’t see these instances/situations as something which is disturbing or alarming because you have to think in a solution-oriented manner…I have to do things which are in my control and not what others are thinking. The change will also not come immediately, it will come in due time it’s a long journey and I think we have also come a long way ahead. I guess till then people like me will have to be at it and more women need to share space and give opportunities to everyone and move ahead.

Educational Background

While I was always inclined to numbers and the credit for this goes to my father. He use to sit with pencil and paper and used to be anal about the “hisaab” till the last paise… he will erase his balance sheet if it was not matching and used to take the pain of doing it all over again when I used to see a satisfactory expression on his face I used to think why is it such a “big deal” but slowly I understood the value of it. It was a great education school for me and a life lesson of “being patient and being right”. Maybe that was the reason I scored 146 out of 150 in mathematics in my board exams in 10th. later I chose to take a bachelor of management studies as my graduation and then I completed my M.Com in finance.

This obsession grew further when my father encouraged me to study further as amongst 4 sisters I was the one who was interested in studies more rather than other activities. Then I cleared the CFA alpha level from ICFAI Hyderabad but after that marriage talks began and I discontinued studying further, but my love for numbers was always there.

stepping out to work and doing a job outside was never allowed in our orthodox Marwari families, it was always believed that a women steps out to work only when the male members don’t earn enough to support the family and u are poor, but for me, working was being independent and not because of lack of money. So I was determined to work even after marriage hence I chose a field where I could work from home if not allowed to step out.

I pursued a Diploma in Fashion and Jewellery Designs thinking I can be self-dependent even after marriage and can work from home or will have a small enterprise as this field doesn’t need an outdoor workspace attendance. After working in the media industry for a few years, I grew into having my own label called “Shvet Designer Wear”.

Family Background

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. I belong to a middle-class conservative Marwari Business family, have three sisters, father was a businessman in the textile industry and have produced 2 films also in the year 1990. First female child in the family who opted for post-graduation. I Have seen businesses grow and shut in my family all my life. Have a big extended family in Mumbai with cousins all over Mumbai from South Mumbai to Virar…

Working in the Male-dominated field of IT.  Does a Glass ceiling exist?

Well to some extent yes. I am not the right person here, although we are a media-tech company my forte lies in finance and execution and not hardcore coding and our organisation is more into content creation so don’t know about the details in it but yes have seen more men in this field than women.

Hobbies

Lately, my hobbies have changed from what they used to be … earlier I was more into drawing, reading, sketching and designing .. doing some indoor stuff…but now from the past 5-6 years, I have become more adventurous.. thanks to my husband who is more of an outdoor guy. I love adventure. it's funny because generally it’s the other way round, as in when you grow older you tend to do some indoor stuff but with me, I am the opposite .. don’t know where it came from but I love driving…long drives and cross country road trips are very common for both of us.. we are so passionate about road trips that when we went to the USA for our vacation we actually drove there for 25 days and covered the entire west coast. It was a left-hand drive and we literally used to argue about who is driving next..:) There is another weird hobby that I have got and that’s packing stuff. I am obsessed with my bag packing or some gift packing or When you have to adjust 20 kgs stuff in a 7kg bag, I take this as a challenge and manage to fit in… whenever someone is doing some packing I have this urge of helping them out and sometimes I become so aggressive if someone is not listening(mostly it is my husband) that I will redo-it from scratch and he takes a lot of advantages from me on this one…he will happily hand over his stuff for me to pack.. but office stuff or another other family things I love packing and make it perfect and convenient.

Future plans

Personally -With so many things I have seen in life, recently my father passed away in 2020 and one of my best friend the next year. I have stopped making any plans personally. I am taking life as it comes. I know I have done some good stuff and I am a god-fearing child, I love my family so “sab Kuch acha hi Hoga” so taking life as it comes is my mantra.

Professionally – I aim to make Sri Bahubali Media Pvt Ltd a success story, we have great plans for expansion and we passionately believe in the idea.  I am sure with the right kind of effort, we will make it happen and take this company to new heights. We have just closed our seed funding round and now looking for series funding for the next level of expansion. We are speaking to a lot of potential investors, let’s see when the next milestone is achieved.

High-Five:  

1. Your Fitness Mantra: walking and yoga

2. Your De-stressing Mantra: 3M’s i.e. Meditation Massage and Music

3. Where do you like to shop?: street shopping is what I enjoy, being a costume stylist have always got a limited budget, so smart street shopping was the need of the hour then and then I started enjoying street shopping because it gives u the liberty to mix n match and create a unique style in low budgets.

4. Your favourite holiday destination: Bhutan

5. Five things you cannot live without: TEA, driving, phone games, family and aloo paratha -amras combo.

Workday:

1. Morning activities: Luke warm water intake, Walk and yoga, breakfast and long phone scrolling spree in toilet J.

2. 1st half in office: Checking emails, follow-up on things from previous day-end activities, planning the day ahead.

3. Post Lunch: team meetings and some creative work.

4. How you spend your evenings: I enjoy watching web series/movies which are less time commitment else I will be reading novels on my phone. There are these Chinese stories which are available online. It takes me to a different world of romance and human relationships. I love them and have finished quite a lot of them actually. Then before sleeping I will write my diary with some affirmations and have a good night's sleep.

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