The Association of Women in Business (AWIB) is a Think Tank in India which mentors and enables women entrepreneurs to overcome the many barriers of entrepreneurship, namely:
- Access to Networks; 2. Ability to Scale Up; 3. Access to Finance. Having adopted its methodology from UT Austin where two of its Board Members worked with Texas Global in the past, the non-profit has collaboration as its core principle. It also provides a market access platform to women entrepreneurs to sell their eco-friendly and organic products online on www.kakul.market so that sustainability conscious customers can purchase from them conveniently.
“Contrary to the popular belief that entrepreneurs struggle to capture the biggest market share from their competitors, here are the amazing stories of Women in East India who collaborate to bring value to their communities and specialise in supporting each other. Growing stronger on the pillars of resilience, empathy and appreciation, these women entrepreneurs have turned the Covid pandemic “from a crisis into an opportunity”. Connecting together by way of zoom sessions, live webinars with mentors from across the globe, not only did almost 50% of women entrepreneurs’ businesses survived, atleast 30% of them collaborated to develop better products for improved market traction and resource sharing. Most importantly – they did not let their businesses die but scaled up during the pandemic.” Says Divya Rajput (she/her), current President of Association of Women in Business.
The AWIB, since its inception in 2018 started to build capacity of women entrepreneurs, both among start-ups with tech adoption and traditional entrepreneurship domains. It partnered with leading incubators and entrepreneurship organisations in India and South East Asia to conduct bootcamps, design thinking workshops, state-wide roundtables in North-East and East Indian states, to provide a mentoring platform for women entrepreneurs who would need business coaching. The programs are funded by the US Consulate Kolkata under the Academy of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) program and Aroh Foundation.
The Association of Women in Business (AWIB) is a member-based organisation, so providing benefits to its members is at its very core. What makes the AWIB truly sustainable is that the members drive its many activities themselves: such as philanthropic activities for cancer care, crowdfunding to support women scale-up their businesses, managing operations of its marketplace and outreach events. AWIB is also working on several CSR projects with corporate to assess market linkage and livelihood opportunities. “We are not merely mentoring women leaders; we are mentoring both men and women who can make space for fellow women to lead”, says Gayatri Subramaniam (she/her), Executive Director AWIB.
AWIB is also a member of the UN Global Compact and is striving towards achieving at-least 7 of UN SDGs 2030 to make the World a better place for future generations. Recently, AWIB has launched its State Councils in Assam and Meghalaya and will soon create collaboration platforms for women entrepreneurs in Nagaland, Manipur, Bihar and Jharkhand.
So, in case the World is not geared up yet, here is the most exciting news! The next era of businesses is going to be led by women in businesses, who might quit the traditional management styles but embrace collaboration, emotional intelligence and merit. They will not be fearful of making decisions based on their financial and technology know-how, ability to analyse data and higher risk appetite. There is a spark already in the East, starting with Bihar and Jharkhand, now spreading to other Indian states and in the sub-continent.
- Authored by Dr Divya Rajput, President AWIB.
Email: divya@wibglobal.org
