She was a first in the male bastion of investment bankers and one of India's biggest dealmakers.
Long before the expression 'dealmaker' became commonplace in India, Naina Lal Kidwai, 54, currently country head of HSBC, was one of the biggest dealmakers in the country. It goes without saying that she was also one of the first women to enter the formerly male bastion of investment banking and rise spectacularly. "When I embarked on this journey, I didn't think women would be where we are today. It is very gratifying," she says.
Her first job, decades ago, was with Price Waterhouse, now PricewaterhouseCoopers. An economics graduate and a chartered accountant, she was bluntly told during the job interview that the firm did not employ women. Yet it hired her.
The list of Kidwai's firsts is staggering: she was the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School, or HBS; the first woman to be hired by PriceWaterhouse in India; the first woman to lead a foreign bank in India. Kidwai says she had to work "very hard" to find her space among the men.
"I am very inspired by her," says Smita Nair, director of investment banking at HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), who has worked with her for six years. "I want to be like her."
Kidwai reveals she was the first woman in her family to work. "I come from a very conventional north Indian family," she says "But my parents had aspirations for their children, and because I didn't have a brother those aspirations were transferred to me and my sister." She studied for a Masters in Business Administration at a time when her friends were mostly getting married. She was the youngest member of the HBS class of 1982. "It was good to know I had cut it," she says. Was current Chairman and CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, a classmate? Indeed he was.
The years at Harvard, Kidwai says, altered her world view and greatly influenced her leadership style. Kidwai is charming, highly amiable, and possesses a lot of pizzazz. "The amazing thing about Naina is that everyone feels comfortable approaching her with any problem - personal or professional," says Ravi Menon, Managing Director and Head of Strategy at HSBC India.
"Her opinion is always honest and direct." Behind the genteel exterior, however, is a woman who has engineered some of the biggest deals in post-liberalised India. She arranged funding for infotech giants Infosys and Wipro; managed the initial public offerings, or IPOs, of Maruti Udyog and Bharti Tele-Ventures; was one of the key forces behind the Morgan Stanley-JM Financial joint venture and its subsequent turnaround, making it one of the top investment banks in India.
"I am proud of every deal," she says. "Doing deals is like having children. You enjoy them for what they are. The harder deals are more gratifying."
Despite her degrees and soaring career, Kidwai says she often faced tremendous pressure to give up. Her mother often asked her to quit once Kidwai herself became a mother. "You constantly have people telling you managing a home and a career is really difficult, are you sure you want to do this? People tell me this all the time."
But she persevered, inspired primarily by her father. "If I had stepped away, it would have reflected on all women," she says. "My whole experience was to show how to do it." There were no flexible working hours those days. Washrooms for women were usually located in a dark, dingy corner of the office. There were no laptops - reams of paper had to be carried home in bulky folders to work on at night.
Three decades of long hours, meetings at odd hours and constant travel have meant that Kidwai has missed attending important birthdays, anniversary celebrations, festivals and other important family moments. "My father was unwell but I kept delaying going to see him for three months," she says. "Two days before I was to see him, he passed away." Even now, Kidwai works out of two offices, one in Delhi and the other in Mumbai.
Apart from her father, Kidwai has drawn inspiration from "ordinary people who do extraordinary things". She remembers a subordinate during the 1993 riots, "Bombay was completely shut down," she says. "I went to work. But my executive assistant also came to work. She had to leave her three-year-old child with a neighbour. That was her work ethic."
After years of hectic deal-making and negotiations - during her 13 years at ANZ Grindlays, eight at Morgan Stanley and nearly a decade with HSBC so far - she is gearing up to do some pioneering work in water conservation and women's empowerment. She is also a non-executive director on the board of Nestlé, a member of the Audit Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, and on the governing board of the National Council for Applied Economic Research.
At 54, she says she feels as enthused as when she started. "I thought 54 was an age when you get old, dull and retire. But I am nowhere near retiring!"
Obama confronts jobs 'crisis' with $447 bln plan
U.S. President Barack Obama challenged Congress to enact a $447 billion package of tax cuts and new spending to revive a stalled job market but he faces an uphill fight with Republicans.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama designed his jobs plan and his message to Congress on Thursday with one goal in mind: to get it passed.
The president, looking stern and frequently pointing his finger for emphasis, used measured language and an impassioned tone as he repeatedly urged Republican and Democratic lawmakers to act "right away" to pass a $447 billion package made up largely of tax cuts for workers and businesses.
Obama, a Democrat, refrained from overt criticism of the other party but politics were as important as pragmatism in his speech.
Below is a look at his goals and messages:
1. SET THE TONE
Obama, who has leveled harsh criticism against lawmakers in recent weeks, tried to stay upbeat and positive.
He got applause for urging members of Congress to avoid the "political circus" of Washington and made a point of emphasizing common ground between Democrats and Republicans on jobs policies.
John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, seemed to return the favor, saying in a short statement after the speech that Obama's proposals merited consideration.
"We hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well," Boehner said.
Call that a first step toward getting something passed.
2. MAKE IT POLITICAL
Despite the tone, Obama's message was clearly political. In various ways, he told lawmakers to "pass this bill" some 17 times and then said he would take his message to every corner of the country.
Translation: This will be the president's rallying cry when he hits the campaign trail for the election in November 2012, which he will do more frequently as the Republican race to replace him heats up.
In an effort to make a political speech non-political, Obama noted that the election was still 14 months away -- too long for voters to wait for action on the economy.
3. OFFER SUBSTANCE TO BOTH SIDES
Obama hammered home the issue of bipartisanship in his speech and tried to offer initiatives palatable to both parties, like mortgage financing relief and help for small business.
He gave a nod to Republicans by promising to root out wasteful spending and do away with some regulations that are hard on business. He emphasized his proposals were "paid for" -- an effort to appeal to conservative lawmakers especially concerned about the U.S. deficit.
But the president also extended a hand to his own Democrats by saying he would not use the struggling economy as an excuse to roll back popular social programs.
Obama called on Americans to contact lawmakers and say they wanted action, a repeat of his successful strategy during this summer's rancorous debt ceiling debate to get voters to put pressure on their representatives to cut a deal.
"Tell Washington that doing nothing is not an option," Obama said. "Remind us that if we act as one nation and one people, we have it within our power to meet this challenge."
Whether or not voters agree with the substance of his proposals, the president tried to make it look like the American people were on his side.
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- Fidelity
The proposals also involve a single-cheque payment for the combined amount of the agreed investment and service fee or transaction cost, which could be capped at an amount between Rs 100-200 per transaction, an official said.
However, the distributors might be subjected to a stricter regulatory framework along with their new payment structure, so that investors are not misled by them, he added.
The panel, comprising SEBI's whole-time member Prashant Saran and representatives of the mutual fund industry and one investor association, was set up late last month and has had two meetings so far, the latest being on Friday last.
