Recently, our good friend, Anu Manocha of New Delhi-based Classic Network and Computers left me thinking. In her write up for our sister print publication 360Magazine, Manocha made a simplistic statement. “Till now it is considered that the Indian IT channel business is men-centric but within next two-three years, I am confident more and more females will enter into this field,” she wrote in her article, sharing her vision of channel development in India by 2010.
On second thoughts, I could not agree more that ‘woman-power’ is not as prominent in the IT channel network as it is in many other sectors and more so in other verticals of IT usage. But it would be incorrect to assume that women don’t have a significant role to play in channel distribution. There are only a few women like Manocha – around in the channel, but they have been continually shaping many entrepreneurs in their IT business achieve greater heights.
I am not referring to the likes of the highly articulate Neelam Dhawan or Manisha Sood or top HR and PR executives flooding the IT companies.
The efforts of Manocha and those of others like Sudha Jagdish, Apcom Computers, Chennai and Ashwini Gopal, Spandan, Bangalore should be appreciated as they have achieved success by striking the right balance between two different jobs managing the ever intriguing business of channels and also running the family efficiently.
As Manocha puts it, “I enjoy everything that I do in life, be it my work or my family responsibilities or even listening to some good classical music and old melodies. If you enjoy your routine, then seldom will you complain about it.”
Despite the optimism of Manocha, only a few women have really come forward to break the proverbial glass ceiling and make a foray into a strong male bastion the channels.
Simply put, predominantly, a man’s turf, the channel distribution is still not considered a “woman’s job”. But when I say this, I am making exceptions to some women who have done well in key executive positions either with vendors or distributors.
Taking a closer look at the situation, my interaction with channels reveals that the reason is more social than trouble at the work place. The problem the women in channel business would face is more family-related than the fear of any kind of embarrassment due to sexual discrimination. In India, especially the smaller towns, the familial pressure on women to give up a mobile career just steps up after marriage. The working mothers are faced with a major handicap in the form of absence of proper cr ches to look after the kids.
True, we can’t blow up this factor as a channel-related vice to a higher magnitude. Women are flooding all walks of life but if the women folk have stayed away from this, it is because the reseller business is still considered just a ‘dealership’ centric one and thus has a bad connotation for women.
I take you to yet another facet of women force getting into the channel network. There are a few women who have their induction into the business totally on unplanned reasons. I know of a few women who have ventured into this only by virtue of their marriages to computer dealers.
But all said and done, a first hand account suggests that sadly, women are not taken seriously here. This is also because a very low percentage of women are still working at higher management levels of many vendors and distributors. The debate could go on. But the truth of the matter is that the fall out rate of women from IT distribution is much higher than other fronts of IT business.
Looking at the reasons, I also found out a few discouraging factors that go against having women in channels. Generally, women are construed as being emotional who cannot meet hard realities of achieving the targets and making new business in the complex field of hardware sales. They are also construed as lacking the will to be mobile or working in late night shifts and thus providing a ready-made excuse for men to view them as the “weaker sex”. But it is also true that women in the channels have contributed their bit in shaping the business of reseller outlets they are associated with.
Therefore, there is credence in the optimism of the likes of Manocha that more and more women can come into channels front and also help make the channel distribution network more vibrant.