Women in print: Things are getting better

After a short introduction by Iqbal Kherodawala, the session kicked off with short videos that gave an insight about one day in the life of each of the women and how they spent their day. The common factor was the ability to maintain the balance between a passion for their jobs and for their families and yet having the discipline to carve out some ‘me time’ amidst their busy day. This balance between discipline and passion emerged as a key factor for the success of these industry leaders within their respective organisations. 

Another key factor (besides being PrintWeek’s Women to Watch award winners) almost all the panellists said, was there were hardly any women in the business, especially the factory floor. 

In addition, the women highlighted the importance of listening. For Siddhi Shah, the CEO of Printstop India, who was an outsider in the industry said, “Listening to the people who were already part of the industry as well as to the customers that helped her understand what needed to be done. 

“We’ve managed to build an organisation that listens to each other, said Priyata Raghavan of Sai Packaging. “The DNA of dialogue is what we have been able to incorporate into the organisation which has helped the organisation to scale up. It enabled me to change the business in the eyes of our employees from a physical product to a customer experience.” 

The speakers concurred that there are many more women taking on work at every level in the printing and packaging industry even though the industry remains dominated by men. Tania Hansoti of S Kumar Multiproducts spoke about how she was looking at the market. She said, earlier it was a volume business and S Kumar moved to small quantities of 500 units, seven SKUs. She mentioned how it was abig challenge to change the mindset. This decision to shift from lakhs to a short-run business was backed by her father-in-law who was “very encouraging” when she entered the industry. 

Even so Tania Hansoti faced an uphill task of convincing a sceptical shop floor workers to accept small orders of printing 500-odd labels in the middle of a busy season where S Kumar traditionally printed orders in the thousands.

Yet, it is the 500-label client who is one of the top five clients for S Kumar today. This confidence to follow through and find an opportunity in a new untapped market in the face of resistance comes from her father-in law’s faith in her, Hansoti said.  

For Zeenia Patel of Jak Printers, her earlier attitude towards the family printing business was a list of ‘nevers’. She said, “I made it clear to my father, that I would never do sales, never be part of the production, and never engage with clients.” 

But as she took over the designing element of Jak’s business she was drawn in to set aside each one of these ‘nevers.’ And now, Patel said, she would not have it any other way.
Siddhi Shah said Print Stop was started with the aspiration of building a professionally run print operation for young customers who seek a wonderful and hassle-free print experience. “We were looking for a different idea, something that would challenge the status quo. We were clear that we wanted it to grow on our terms and we wanted it to be a profitable business,” Shah said. 

“In 2023 we realised that brick and mortar is not going to cut it for us. In Mumbai, we had two big challenges, sourcing print talent and retail prices. We were uncomfortable with the practice of kickbacks. The entire core team is from an engineering background so we jumped on the e-commerce bandwagon.”

She added, “We have seven strategic drivers at Print Stop which we track. The top three are – Listening to the customer, evolution; change is the only constant; and above all, team building.” 

As the subject shifted to being a woman in a male dominated industry, the consensus was that as long as you know your job, it does not matter if you are a man or woman. “It is about what you bring to the table, and how you are presenting it,” said Sanaa Vasi.

Speaking of ‘wow moments,’ Tania Hansoti said that she gets a lot of gratification from completing an order for pepper, ginger and turmeric in Shillong. She said, “She was shipping labels with quantities of 500-700. There was a 3-4 days time lag to get a response to a proof.” She said this is most gratifying to be able to create a solution for such a customer. She said, during her agency days, she would get an equal amount of adrenaline rush while watching an advertisement on which she had worked. Both sectors demand the same background work and a problem-solving approach, she pointed out.  

For Sanaa Vasi, work was what gave her a voice and earned her respect and trust among her peers in the industry. “That is my ‘wow moment’ and it transpires every day,” she said. 

Zeenia Patel of Jak spoke about the packaging for Bombay Sweet Shop which made the “mithai, a fun item once again”. She said, “We had a plan to create a small quantity but Jak ended up manufacturing 20,000 units.” She said, the innovation followed a common sense approach of one-two folds; and it redefined the packaging for Bombay Sweet Shop’s mithai. In addition, Patel mentioned, how she gets immense joy in creating effects in a book.
That’s creating techniques, pops ups and beautiful flap covers and jacket covers.”

The panel concluded with the agreement that the print and packaging industry needs superior storytellers who bring attention to the beauty and science that exists within the industry.