“When I decided to create Only Women, I had definitely wanted it to be successful but I hadn’t dreamt of the milestones we would create in less than a year,” says former print and broadcast journalist Vidyottama Sharma while talking about Only Women, a community of senior women professionals that she created last year. She is its Founder and CEO.
Only Women is a collective of women thought leaders and a think tank with C-Suite executives, founders/ entrepreneurs and senior independent professionals as its members, who meet periodically to enhance their learning curve, deliberate on and take up issues related to women professionals, mentor younger leaders, strengthen bonding and support among women professionals, and create memorable shared experiences. It undertakes expert talk series, leadership series, roundtables, panel discussions, annual summits, job fairs for women, mentorship programs, sensitization and knowledge workshops, social causes and experiential events among other engagements as its initiatives. For mentoring young leaders, it has partnered with Vinayaka Mission’s Law School, Chennai. Its first beneficiary under its Helping Hands initiative is Mumbai Roti Bank.
Advisors of Only Women |
Only Women announced its Advisory Board this month. It comprises Apurva Purohit, Co-Founder, Aazol Ventures Pvt. Ltd., Independent Director on many boards and bestselling author; Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, 5F World, GTT Data Solutions Ltd. and Lighthouse Communities Foundation, Chairman, Honeywell Automation India and EPPS, Independent Board member on many boards, and Global Partner in Cornerstone Ventures and Arise Ventures and author, Vijayalaxmi Chhabra, former Director General of Doordarshan, one of the world’s largest public service broadcasters, Commonwealth Fellow and social media influencer; Rahat Beri, Founder and Managing Director, Blue Ocean IMC and Acryptoverse and a leading voice in crisis and image management, and Prameela Kalive, Global Chief Operating Officer, Mastek Ltd., Member, Executive Council, WILL (Women in Leadership Forum), former missile scientist with Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and India’s first woman COO of an IT company.
‘When I left my last corporate job, where I was instrumental in creating a pan- India business community, Thought Leaders of India and a DEI forum, India Diversity Forum, many senior CXOs wanted to know what I would do next. So once Only Women got incorporated, I wrote to a few of them about it,” says Vidyottama. “Dr. Frank-Jürgen Richter, Chairman of Horasis, a global think tank, and a former Director with World Economic Forum, congratulated me and immediately extended an invitation to take a delegation to Horasis India Meeting he was organising with a few government bodies in Athens, Greece in mid-September. We were not even a month old in legal age. Naturally, we were happy. All our delegation members were speakers on various panels. This participation in an international summit in less than four months of our formation gave an adrenalin shot to our collective morale at Only Women.”
Vidyottama, who has worked with national publications in English and Hindi, and television channels as a journalist, later launched content divisions in corporate houses and headed content at a few. She has been in the launch teams of newspapers, magazines, television channels, and business communities. She has also worked with a film company as its creative head.
“Bringing women across domains had been my dream since a few years as I feel it is not sufficient for women leaders to meet only in the conferences and meetings of their domains. They need to meet their peers from other spectrums too. There is a dire need for women to connect, more so, if they are at senior positions,” she says. “While interacting with senior women professionals of different countries, I realised women face nearly the same challenges all over the world. It is a myth that women in the US or in Europe do not face similar trials. Inclusivity, leaking pipeline of bright female professionals in their midcareer and women’s lack of access to informal networks are big challenges to their growth. On the other hand, the Boy’ club syndrome is thriving since decades. So, the first thing is: women must connect. They need more forums to meet women from other fields. They need to support other women. The rest will follow”. However, she emphasises, “We need male allies, as diversity, equity and inclusiveness is a team work.”
Vidyottama Sharma, Founder and CEO, Only Women |
Membership to Only Women is by invitation as it is selective about the professionals it takes on board as members. “We need positivity in the group. I am not keen on having belligerent and negative influencers in the community as I am painstakingly building a community where women empower women and are each other’s biggest cheerleaders,” she says.
Only Women has been approached by companies and collectives from across states and countries for collaboration. Now that it is consolidating its position well, it will enter into more collaborations, says its founder.
“We will be completing a year this month and the fact that our members are renewing their memberships, even from abroad, makes us realise that our members have much faith in the value we are delivering. We cannot let this faith diminish. We are committed to opening many thought leadership avenues for our members on national and international platforms, while fulfilling our promise of professional and personal development, networking and bonding, strengthening support to women professionals, mentoring young leaders and creating memorable shared experiences,” says Vidyottama. “We are happy and honoured that eminent luminaries from across domains have agreed to be on our Advisory Board. We are ready to create new milestones in women leadership and contribute towards career progression and inclusiveness in work stratospheres under their guidance.”
It plans to organize its annual summit later this year.
