Women Achievers – Rikita Agrawal, Mehta Cad Cam Systems Pvt. Ltd.

You should begin to accept challenges, risks, and responsibility for your own life

Q. Could you tell us something about your professional achievements and career progression?

Oh, where do I even begin? It was a roller coaster ride, to put it mildly. After completing my postgraduate diploma management in business entrepreneurship from EDII, Ahmedabad, and coming from a business family, I was always confident that I would do something on my own after finishing my studies.

With the same goal of doing something on my own, I began my career by joining a company to learn how the real world operates. After almost a year of exposure, I took my first step toward working on my own by joining my family business’s plan for vertical integration and entering into the manufacturing of Wheat products. We (my sister and I) were always proud to say that, along with my brother, we were the only female entrepreneurs in this industry. But, as the saying goes, life has different plans than what you have planned for it and I had to left what I was doing and have to search for something new. This is when I joined Mehta Cad Cam Systems Private Limited.

Some People may think it’s strange to work in a completely different industry of engineering and machines after working in the food industry for about 5 years, but I’ve always been close to machines throughout my career, so it was never awkward for me. Ever since my college days I’ve always been fascinated by advertising and design. But I never imagined that I would take my curiosity to the point where I would pursue it as a career. Joining Mehta Cad Cam gave me the opportunity to build advertising concepts myself and I am glad I receive this opportunity.

I’m not sure if the world will consider this an achievement or a failure, but I am confident that what I have learned over the years as an employee, an owner, and again starting new has taught me things that I could not have learned otherwise, and that my parents and family have always supported me in whatever decisions I have made in my life.

Q. What are the attributes that helped you to reach where you are in your career?

I’ve always believed that doing things and failing is better than preferable to doing nothing and later regretting it. This, I believe, is the belief that has always pushed me to try new things and work hard to achieve my objectives. This trait caused me experience failure more often, but I have never regretted anything in my life because I have always tried whatever I wanted to do and will continue to do so.

Q. How far have you succeeded in challenging the stereotypes?

Stereotypes I’ll respond to this by assuming it’s about gender stereotypes. As I previously stated, my parents always believed in me and supported me in whatever I wanted to do in life. At times, I had to be stubborn in order to break the old stereotypes of what was specifically meant to be done by women and what was specifically meant to be done by men.

We were the first female entrepreneurs in my family. We were the only female entrepreneurs in our sector. We encountered more skeptical eyes than supportive ones at first, but people gradually began to accept and acknowledge our presence. I believe we were able to change the minds of many parents who had considered forbidding their daughters from doing what they wanted. I believe that being stubborn was the most important factor in breaking these stereotypes.

Q. How can women entrepreneurs broaden their horizons and become inspiring leaders of tomorrow?

As someone who has experience herself, I can tell you that there are many fields in which you want to start your career are dominated by men, and when we enter their space, we will always face resistance in various forms, but that resistance should never stop you. You must maintain your resolve until they begin to accept you. You should never be discouraged from starting a business, venture, or industry because you are the first or only one to do so. To become a leader, you must have big dreams, believe in yourself, and be determined. There is a chance you will fail, but failing is better than not trying at all right!

Women entrepreneurs are regarded as the backbone of society, and the government of India is also providing special benefits to female entrepreneurs in order to encourage them, so just believe in yourself and work on it.

Q. In both essential and digital functions, women suffered the repercussions of the economic and social effects of the pandemic. Your comments?

I am not sure about this but what I have hear from others I can say that there are both negative as well as positive impacts.

Socially speaking there are women who faced mental agony to both work and manage home as being in Indian society it is always consider handling or managing home is always her responsibility. In this pandemic scenario when everybody was forced to work from home they have to work their office along with the additional responsibility of family and kids who always expects extra as she is at home. Managing both home and office was somewhat torturous to them.

The positive side of this is that in some families, due to the pandemic, when everyone, including males, were trapped in the house, they realized how hard women had to work every day and began appreciating their efforts. I’ve even heard of some women who started their own businesses for the first time.

In terms of the economic impact of the pandemic, everyone suffered greatly. Many businesses have closed, and many people have lost their jobs. I’m not sure how this has harmed women in particular.

Q. What’s the message you want to send to young working women?

To begin, I believe that women should stop believing that they are incapable of doing certain things. There is nothing a woman is incapable of accomplishing.

Girls, you are solely responsible for where you are now and where you will be in the future. Most people will think I’m rude and incorrect, but this is the only way I believe we can succeed. We all face obstacles; some face them from the society in which we live, while others face them from within their own families, but this should not prevent us from dreaming big.

You should begin to accept challenges, risks, and responsibility for your own life and believe you are capable; we are capable of doing whatever we want; just trust yourself and do what is required to prove your trust is correct. We may fail, but we will never give up.