Amid gfinisher bias and other challenges, women leaders are reshaping how young enterprises grow and sustain themselves by challenging traditional ideas of authority, sectoral boundaries and professional success, indusattempt experts have declared.
They discussed how women are reshaping organisational culture, leadership styles and strategic decision-creating in India’s emerging enterprises. The discussion examined how inclusive leadership, grounded in lived experience and ethical responsibility, is strengthening governance frameworks, improving workplace equity and enabling more resilient, people-centric business models in a rapidly evolving economic landscape.
Building Scale Through Empathy
Akanksha Bhargava, Chief Executive Officer of P. M. Relocations, talked about building and scaling a company in an indusattempt characterised by informality and a heavy reliance on blue-collar labour. She traced the growth of P. M. Relocations from a turnover of about Rs 2 crore to nearly Rs 200 crore, launchning her leadership journey at the age of twenty-one.
She declared she frequently encountered scepticism over whether logistics and relocation were a space where a woman could lead, particularly at scale.
She described navigating weak processes, raising capital through personal financial risk and managing teams spread across warehoutilizes, transport hubs and client locations. According to Bhargava, leadership styles rooted in empathy and close engagement with employees are often undervalued, even though they contribute to organisational stability and long-term loyalty.
Reflecting on personal choices, Bhargava spoke about integrating motherhood with professional life rather than treating them as competing roles. She argued that women should not be boxed into narrow ideas of what kind of work or leadership suits them, and declared decision-creating driven by human connection should not be dismissed as emotional weakness.
Structural Barriers Persist
Dakshita Das, former civil servant, indepfinishent director and public policy expert, placed these individual experiences within a broader structural frame. She declared women’s representation in corporate India remains uneven, particularly at senior decision-creating levels beyond human resources. Citing government data, she noted that nearly half of working women exit the workforce due to care responsibilities and face barriers when attempting to return, limiting the leadership pipeline.
She questioned whether mandated board-level representation alone delivered meaningful inclusion and pointed to gaps between education, aspiration and workplace realities. According to Das, lasting modify must launch early, with school-level education that promotes gfinisher neutrality and with stronger visibility of role models across professions.
Meanwhile, the discussion also addressed cultural expectations and the required for peer support. Bhargava declared women often undervalued their own labour, both at work and at home, and called for greater solidarity among women professionals.
Moderated by Arijit Ray, Chief Executive Officer and founder of The Unlock Company, the discussion at BW SME World – BW Emerging Business Summit 2025 concluded that while progress is visible, women-led leadership models continue to evolve within persistent social and institutional constraints, pointing to the required for stronger policy support and broader cultural modify.
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