What Does It Take for a Woman to Build a Successful Business? | Naari Narrative with C.K. Sharma

Can Business Really Understand How Women Build Businesses? For Episode 3 of NAARI Narrative, I sit down with someone I've watched navigate business for almost my entire life — my father, Mr. C.K. Sharma. With around 45 years of experience in business, he has watched industries change, consumers change and the way businesses are built change. But this conversation looks at something very specific: Women who started with very little — and went on to build some of the most recognised businesses in India. From Falguni Nayar building Nykaa after decades in investment banking, to Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw starting Biocon in 1978 when biotechnology was still an emerging field in India, women have built businesses across beauty, biotechnology, finance, consumer products, technology and more. So what did they see that others didn't? What were they short of when they started? Capital? Access? Networks? Experience? Credibility? Or simply the opportunity to be taken seriously? And what happens when a woman who starts with less eventually builds a business that becomes difficult to ignore? In this episode, we talk about: • How women go from being consumers to becoming business owners • What women founders are often short of when they begin • Why access to capital and networks can matter as much as the idea itself • Falguni Nayar and the making of Nykaa • Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and building Biocon in a male-dominated industry • Women-led businesses in beauty, technology, fintech, healthcare and consumer brands • What separates a good product from a powerful business • How women identify problems that existing businesses sometimes overlook • Whether women have to work harder to establish credibility • Why some women build businesses around problems they personally experienced • What successful women founders did differently • Whether women need to become more comfortable with money, P&L, investment and ownership • And what the next generation of women entrepreneurs needs to understand before building a business But there is another question at the heart of this conversation: If women have historically had less access to capital, networks and decision-making spaces, how many great businesses might never have been built simply because the woman with the idea never got the opportunity? For me, this conversation is particularly personal. Because this isn't just a conversation with a businessman. It's a conversation with my father. I've watched him build businesses for decades, and today I wanted to ask him to look at business through a different lens: Not just as a businessman. But as someone observing the rise of women as entrepreneurs, owners, leaders and decision-makers. So let's talk about the women who didn't just enter the market. They built their own space in it. Welcome to NAARI Narrative. No fixing. No judging. Just honest conversations about women, business, ambition, money and the choices that shape our lives. 🎙️ Guest: Mr. C.K. Sharma 🎧 Podcast: NAARI Narrative 📍 India-rooted conversations on women, work, business & life #NaariNarrative #CKSharma #WomenEntrepreneurs #WomenInBusiness #WomenLedBusinesses #WomenFounders #IndianWomen #WomenInLeadership #Entrepreneurship #BusinessWomen #WomenAndBusiness #IndianEntrepreneurs