When a woman turns entrepreneur at the young age of 25, she is putting herself in line to be labeled a rebel or arrogant or just plain foolish. Poornima Shenoy, today the president of the India Semiconductor Association (ISA), is none of these but an iron lady of the industry nevertheless.
Poornima Shenoy decided to turn entrepreneur way back in 1990 when she decided to get into recruitment of top management talent. She felt that there was a lacuna in that space and did not waste time in moving in. She teamed up with a friend Anuradha Parthasarathy and formed Nexus Consulting. Back in those days, people looked at them with suspicion. Here were two women in the services business (not many knew what it exactly meant then), looking absolutely young trying to go about looking for top management talent.
That meant a lot of hard work and Poornima and her friend started wearing sarees to look closer to 30 years of age. ?It was important for us then to look mature and experienced at work. Otherwise no one would take us seriously,? she says.
Wipro, which had 200 employees then (it has over 1 lakh of them now), was her first client and a pre-IPO Infosys too joined the list. She ran the firm for 10 years before selling it off to e4e in year 2000. ?It was a difficult decision but a practical one. We were not able to scale beyond a point,? she says.
She stayed with e4e for a year before joining Nasscom in 2003, before taking up a Chevening scholarship to the UK for three months. ?The UK stay had a big impact on me. I decided that I wanted to make difference with my life. A big part of me was largely influenced by civics, economics and social sciences and I knew one had to be associated with the government in some form to make a difference. So when I had the opportunity to become the president of ISA five years ago, I did not think twice.? ISA is the leading voice for the semiconductor-driven industry since 2005. It has around 130 members from India and outside and aims to establish India as the preferred global destination for semiconductor and solar photovoltaic companies. This includes chip design and embedded software companies, solar photovoltaics and the related ecosystem. ISA has played a key role in working with the government of India in the formation of the Indian Semiconductor Policy 2007.
?At ISA, I had the opportunity to work with the best in the business. All the four chairmen of ISA whom I have worked with are huge talents and it was a privilege to work with them. Now I have this opportunity to work with new chairman Bobby Mitra who is the managing director of Texas Instruments India. Bobby has already started to implement his ideas at ISA,? she says.
Poornima is today used to working amidst technology sharks while she herself is not a technology person. ?It is my business and marketing skills that are seeing me through. Of course I need to understand technology to make a business case out of it. Often I have to tell the technologists to cut out the jargon and acronyms.?
Her growing years were spent in Goa and she came to Bangalore in early 1980s to do her Bachelor?s degree in Arts in History, Economics and Political Science at Mount Carmel College. She followed up her degree with an MBA in marketing from TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) in Manipal. ?My family hoped that I would do engineering, but I had other plans.?
Poornima has the reputation of being a tough boss. ?It is difficult for me to tolerate incompetent people. I can give them a long rope, but sometimes some people are in the wrong jobs.
But I have only fired three people in my career.? She says money is not the motivation to work in an industry body but a passion to contribute to India?s economic well being. ?Industry bodies are not the best paymasters. But working with them gives me immense satisfaction.?
Poornima believes that India can make a big difference in electronics. ?Semiconductors cannot be divorced from electronic systems. Over the next few years, India will become a giant in this space,? she predicts. She does not think that being a woman in the industry has any specific advantage or disadvantage. ?I have not faced any discrimination. Hard work is the key. One may not have to do 18 hours every day, but it is important to put in the hard yards.?
But it?s not all work and no play for her. ?I am an avid art collector, with Adimoolam being my favourite artist.
I like to invest in abstracts and charcoals,? she reveals. ?Travel is another passion. It?s therapeutic to plan a vacation and I like to sit and do the planning all on my own.?