Every day we are amazed at the resilience of women-led businesses: Archana Vohra, FB

On Woman’s Day, Archana Vohra, Director – Global Business Group (Scaled) and Small and Medium Businesses, Facebook India talks to E4M on what it takes to be a woman leader with a tech giant and most how Facebook is empowering many more woman leaders across the country through their platform, creating opportunities for them.

Excerpts-

1) What are the women-led initiatives that highlight Facebook’s commitment to India and its socio-economic progress?

India is in the midst of a dramatic socio-economic transformation and we’re committed to enabling small businesses and women-led businesses across the country to grow and thrive. Trends from across our apps revealed that in 2020, women created twice as many fundraisers on Facebook as men did, and made twice as many donations, with 64% of total funds raised coming from women. Women have also led the way in growing communities and rallying resources, creating 2.7 times more COVID-19-related groups than men with four times more members. Despite the setbacks related to COVID-19, women continue to fuel entrepreneurship. 20% of Instagram Business profiles created since November 2020 have the words ‘female/women owned’.

 Our #SheMeansBusiness Initiative created in 2016 is a long-term commitment to support women’s economic empowerment by imparting training in digital skills and providing avenues to deepen and expand their business connections and networks. It completes five years this year, and has impacted women across India through partnerships with organisations like SEWA, Common Services Centre (CSC) Academy, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, among others. Parvesh, from a small village in Haryana called Bajghera is part of our SheMeansBusiness program. She began working with Indha, a small homegrown organization of apparel, accessories, and home furnishings to supplement her income. Despite not having studied past the 8 th standard, Parvesh along with five other women from her village managed to scale up their brand Indha solely by leveraging the power of digital. A Facebook Page has taken Indha from receiving 10 orders each month, to now thousands. Today, 300 women have been skilled under the brand that now curates products for consumers across India and abroad.

In 2020, together with the CSC Academy, we up-skilled 2.5 lakh rural entrepreneurs on digital tools related to digital marketing and online safety across 25,594 villages in 12 states. At least 70% of the people trained were first-time internet users. The average income of women village level entrepreneurs increased by ~20% on a quarterly basis. 

2) How women-led small businesses have pivoted online by leaning on the Facebook Family of Apps in order to reach their customers during the lockdown? Have you noticed a spike in users in the category?

According to the Future of Business survey by Facebook, OECD, and the World Bank that spoke to small businesses owners from May to October, a third of small businesses on Facebook India also said that the proportion of sales they made digitally had increased compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey shows that 51% of SMBs on Facebook India said that at least a quarter of their sales are now made digitally - in just six months of the survey, this number had gone up by 10%. This is considerable if you consider that there are more than 60 million small businesses in India. 

 In another study done by Deloitte for Facebook, it was revealed that women business leaders showed a greater degree of flexibility in their business models in response to COVID-19. In fact, female business leaders were more likely to make more than 50 per cent of their sales through digital channels.

Every day we are amazed at the resilience of women-led businesses to not just grow but also have a deep impact on their communities. Take the example of Kanika Gupta Shori, co-founder and chief operating officer of the real estate platform, Square Yards, who just like many other women found it challenging to juggle her role as an entrepreneur and a mother during the pandemic. That real estate is a male-dominated industry hasn’t made things easier. Yet, Square Yards has grown during the pandemic using the power of digital. Facebook and Instagram, for instance, have helped Square Yards with strong leads and a 3x increase in revenue amidst difficult market conditions.

3) Can you give us some examples of women-led SMBs from Tier II and III towns that Facebook has helped grow?

The pandemic has proved to be a tipping point for small businesses from small towns. Every day we see inspiring examples of how access to technology can be an equalizer in creating economic opportunities and play a critical role in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. Okhai, led by Kirti Poonia, is an organization dedicated to creating livelihood opportunities for Indian artisans by enabling them to sell handmade women’s apparel. It was founded with the objective of creating earning opportunities for rural women from the Okhamandal region of Gujarat. It’s a business that is for women and by women. During the lockdown, they saw that many artisan communities and organizations similar to them were facing piles of dead stock due to cancelled orders and events. Okhai already had an online retail set-up, and they saw an opportunity to support the artisan communities in this crisis. During COVID, Okhai has transformed into a marketplace with 35 non-Okhai collectives and many other artisans retailing through them. They are using Facebook and Instagram approximately 3 times more than they were pre-COVID. Their revenue has grown strongly year-on-year, and Okhai has gone from supporting less than 2500 artisans pre-COVID to more than 20,000 artisans now.

Ada Designer Chikan Studio with two stores in Lucknow’s Hazratganj is owned and run by mother-daughter duo Rhea and Vartika Punjabi. When people were not visiting their store, they turned to IGTV for showcasing fresh collections to customers who wished to shop from home without having to step out and moved to Messenger for Business that helps their customer support team stay connected with their customers directly. 

4) Unfortunately the common psychology is that we associate tech with men -- you are showing the way ahead by being a leader in a tech giant. How does it feel to be a woman leader in the tech world?

My professional journey is closely tied to that of the Internet in India. I started working in the world of tech and the internet in the late 90s when I was just starting out. In my more than two decades as part of this industry, I’ve seen things change dramatically, especially in the last decade. The tech industry is now brimming with distinct teams and specializations. I don’t think one needs to necessarily be in a leadership position to inspire change. Women at every stage of their career, and even outside of their professional lives, are playing a pivotal role in paving the way for others. Every day we see women breaking stereotypes, taking the leap of faith, and trying something that was not associated with women earlier. This culture of social and economic change is being led by women from all walks of life and has helped inspire change within the tech industry as well. 

5) Help us with some tips and tricks for women who want to make it big in the tech industry?

I think half the battle is won when we stop considering certain fields as being more suited to a certain gender. The tech industry requires passion, hard work, and resilience, as any other field does. Once we emerge out of that mindset, the path to success is that much easier.

Nurturing relationships and finding yourself a good mentor, man or woman, can help with timely guidance, support, and insights. Lastly, invest your time in choosing employers that believe and protect women’s workforce gains, provide equal benefits and foster a diverse and inclusive environment at the workplace.