To get more women into tech we need to improve the talent pipeline: Deepali Naair, CMO, IBM India

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on women in the workplace. While it may lead to an increase in female participation in the workforce over the long run, remote working has also led many women to consider leaving the workforce as they continue to bear the disproportionate burden of housework than men.

As part of its special coverage on Women's Day, Moneycontrol spoke to Deepali Naair, Chief Marketing Officer, IBM India & SouthAsia, for her insights on diversity at the workplace, remote working and initiatives that will help nurture a strong pipeline of women technology leaders.

Also Read: Nita Ambani launches 'Her Circle' digital platform to empower women

Edited excerpts:

COVID-19 has led to the accelerated adoption of technology. Could you tell us from IBM’s perspective, how conversations have with clients changed?

When COVID hit us, and when we were talking to leaders, what came through was that the companies that were ahead in technology adoption had an advantage and did a little better than the others. Others who were behind felt very strongly that they were behind it, therefore, had a huge focus on how we can become technologically advanced. Now, the word technologically-advanced sounds very simple, but it isn't.

For some, it is about digital transformation and creating customer experiences. So that is one form of technological advancement. The second form of technological advancement is productivity enhancement. It was about the optimization of systems. The third shift that we have seen was the movement to cloud, which some companies felt was not necessity earlier. But COVID-19 and remote working has made everybody sit up and realize that the move to the cloud needs to be thought through, and faster. These enterprises have seen solutions and examples of companies who've been on the cloud and being ahead of the curve and agile. So that speed aspect has come in.

COVID-19 has also enabled remote working on a massive scale. How do you see that evolving? Do you see more women coming into the workforce as a result of it?

I think that this will pave the way for women in the future. As for the future, the model will evolve. So for example, I was talking to some really senior bankers, and one of them said that if somebody, if it is, was possible to run a bank sitting at home, we would have said no. But now we know that it could be done.

Similarly, I think, the impact of this (remote working model) is going be felt over the decades.

If you require an empathetic leadership style, then I think women will tend to do better

- Deepali Naair

And I think that this one will have a huge impact. And because it is about work from home, therefore I feel it will have an impact on women.

According to the Harvard Business Review report, women were better leaders during a crisis. Can you share your comments on that?

Women have proven themselves to be great leaders in time such as this. What has become new parlance or required leadership style, is that people are saying that you need to have what is called empathetic leadership, right? If you were to look at those dimensions, you will find that women leaders will probably score better.

But having said that, I'm sensitive to the fact that different organizations may be going through different phases in their own lives. You know, some organization is doing merger and acquisition phase and others are building from scratch, and some organization just wants, you know, they're already huge, and they just want to manage it better. So different leadership styles are required at different stages. But if you require an empathetic leadership style, then I think women will tend to do better.

But why do you think there are so few women in leadership in technology?

Once you enter a technology organization, I think it's a level playing field for men and women. If women do well, they grow. The problems and issues that exist for them in a tech firm, exists everywhere else. In Indian society, we don't have a good infrastructure for taking care of our children, and therefore women have to take a break. This is true for a financial services firm and for technology companies.

But I think the problem is at the pipeline level. The problem is whether enough girls are getting STEM education at high school and 12 standard levels. This may have changed now. But because of the impact, it will take some time to get filled. Also, I still don't know whether we have made enough difference as a country, in small towns and villages levels.

From IBM point of view, what are the initiatives you have taken to address the gender gap?

I think there is a sensitisation that when it comes to hiring at, at a starting level or at senior levels. But the issue is the pipeline. There are only that many women in tech, and you will find far more of them at IBM.

Also to promote STEM at the school level, as a part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, we are partnering with many state governments, where we run STEM programs especially in a girls school and also co-education schools.