Fortune India MPW: 'Women leaders tend to perform better than male counterparts'

A group of panelists at Fortune India’s Most Powerful Women Awards agreed that women entrepreneurs are better leaders than their male counterparts.

Vivek Gambhir, CEO, boAt Lifestyle says, "Women leaders tend to perform better than men leaders. There is data, especially in the post-covid world, that women leaders are better at handling crises." Gambhir however feels that while the country is witnessing an explosion of business, having diversity across segments, especially in investments and finances still remains an issue that needs to be addressed.

“A lot of initiatives are there but to really put focus we need a national mission on women ownership. There is also a significant change required in the investment community,” Gambhir says.

Ghazal Alagh, co-founder and chief innovation officer, Mamaearth feels that entrepreneurship has the capability to experience more, fail forward, and move forward faster.

“As you keep growing rather than focusing on the bigger milestones, if you set up milestones and with every milestone achieved you have the capability to experience more, fail forward, and move forward faster. And that I think it's not the cost of failure but it is the right way to learn how to run the business. So that even if that idea is not working, you are able to get to a stage where you have not invested too much capital,” Alagh says.

Anjali Bansal, Founding Partner, Avaana Climate Fund Board, Member ONDC, Member, Niti Aayog Evolution Review Committee feels that Entrepreneurship is tremendously empowering and it has a huge opportunity to create an impact. "Entrepreneurship is tremendously empowering. It has so much responsibility. At the same time, it has a huge opportunity to create an impact. In a market like India, entrepreneurship is a responsibility to build very successful commercially-scaled businesses," says Bansal.

India currently has 85,000 startups in the world, and of that 18% have women in the position of founders and co-founders. The entrepreneurial explosion is taking place across the country with women leaders founding and leading their businesses, often breaking new frontiers in the industry.

Regarding what is fueling this boom, Divya Gokulnath, co-founder, Byju’s says that the entrepreneurial explosion is happening because it is the age of digital entrepreneurs. "Literally, we can start from anywhere we want. Today anywhere, with the right mindset we can start a business. So this boom which is happening is the reason for the entrepreneurial explosion. And the entrepreneurial explosion is possible, inclusive, and diverse because it can also start from home but not necessarily from the workplace," she says.

Devika Bhagat, founder Adventurist Spirits says that entrepreneurship allows room for teamwork.

"The biggest learning has been not to do everything on my own, to be a team leader, to delegate responsibilities, and to let go," Bhagat says