IBM announced that it has collaborated with The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) and Catalyst India WRC to launch a cross-industry women’s leadership development program, ‘Tanmatra’ (means ‘potential’ in Sanskrit).
The program will leverage the best collective practical experience and research to prepare women for leadership in the Indian business community. The program will also create a common networking platform for high-potential women. Open to organisations across the country, it will train a batch of 30 high-potential women across industries with at least 12 or more years of industry experience across a span of 10 months.
In this collaborative program, IBM is the knowledge partner, aligning to the organization’s focus on advancement of women as essential to successful business. Catalyst India WRC is the research partner, offering its research experts as part of Tanmatra’s faculty. IIM-Bangalore is the education partner, bringing to life a suite of high quality, relevant leadership modules led by world class faculty, for the cohort. Tanmatra will be conducted at the IIM-Bangalore campus.
Dilpreet Singh, Vice President – HR, IBM India/South Asia, said, “IBM places great thrust on building women leaders today, who will help transform the business tomorrow. We have industry-leading and recognized in-house interventions that focus on attracting, developing and retaining women talent, globally and locally. We are delighted to be the knowledge partner on Tanmatra as it supports our vision toward building women leaders not just in a uni-dimensional context but in the larger canvas of multi-industry, enabling peer-to-peer learning mentorships and community give back.”
Highlighting the benefits of the program, Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan, Program Director, IIM-Bangalore, said, “Women currently represent less than a quarter of the labour force employed in organisations. We find that several individual and personal factors contribute to women not able to invest sufficiently for career advancement. Tanmatra is a one-of-a-kind developmental program for high-potential women that will enable them to gain exposure to business concepts, mentoring and networking opportunities with established leaders”
Commenting on the program, Deborah Gillis, President & CEO Catalyst, says that, “Catalyst, through its research and insights globally and regionally, is committed to providing knowledge and actionable tools that will enable India Inc. to accelerate positive change for women business leaders. Through Tanmatra we can communicate with working women, discuss the daily challenges they face and suggest effective strategies based on our extensive research. India Inc. is bound to benefit enormously from this strategic and culturally relevant initiative.”
Organisations today understand the importance of women leaders to their growth and success. Moreover, considerable research has consistently shown that advancing women to top management has direct impact on both the financial success of the organisation as well as on the nation’s economy.