8/31/2019 Management
Concepts
CIA-III
Group Members
Introduction
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur. She is the chairperson of Biocon
Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bangalore, India and the chairperson of Indian
Institute of Management, Bangalore. In 2014, she was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal for her
contributions to the progress of science and chemistry. She is on the Financial Times’ top 50
women in business list and she was listed as the 85th most powerful woman in the world by
Forbes. She again featured on the list - the most powerful women in the world - in 2016 and
2017 at 77th and 71st positions respectively.
Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw is recognized as a thought leader who has made her country proud by
building a globally recognized biopharmaceutical enterprise that is committed to innovation and
affordability in delivering best-in-class therapeutics to patients across the globe.
History
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was born on 23rd March 1953 in Bangalore, India. She completed her
initial schooling from Bishop’s Cotton Girl’s High School in 1968. She had aspired to be a
doctor instead she ended up doing her BSc in Zoology with Honors Two years later she
completed her post-graduate studies from Melbourne University qualifying as a master brewer.
Kiran began her career working as a trainee brewer at Carlton & United Beverages. After
working there for four years she took up another job at Biocon Biochemicals Limited which was
based in Ireland. Later that year she founded Biocon in India. She started it with an initial capital
of only 10,000 rupees. It was not easy doing business due to the lack of funds. Most of the banks
she turned to for loans were hesitant because biotechnology was not a familiar concept in India at
that time and another reason was her gender. A female entrepreneur was another unusual idea for
Indians and one bringing in a completely new field was even stranger. She even had difficulty
hiring people to work for her.
She was not discouraged from this lack of support. Instead, she worked hard with whatever she
had and built a company that is now recognized as one of the leading firms of the company.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw became the richest woman in India after Biocon getting an IPO in 2004.
Because of her strong determination, she steered her company towards growth and success. She
helped Biocon to achieve global recognition. In 2007, Biocon was ranked by as one of the
leading biotech companies worldwide and the 7th biggest biotechnology employer in the world.
She is responsible for Biocon’s innovative abilities, worldwide reliability and global scale in
marketing and manufacturing activities. Kiran founded the Biocon Foundation which is a
philanthropic organization carrying out environmental and health programs to help the weak
parts of the society. She also established a cancer care center in Bangalore in 2007.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has received many honors and awards for her entrepreneurial
achievements such as the prestigious Nikkei Asia Prize for Regional Growth and Express
Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit Award for Dynamic Entrepreneur in 2009. In 2004, she was
deemed as the ‘Businesswoman of the Year’ by the Economic Times. She received the ‘Veuve
Clicquot Initiative for Economic Development for Asia and Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the
Year Award for Life Sciences & Healthcare in 2002. Some of her other awards include the
‘Corporate Leadership Award’, honorary doctorates from Ballarat University, University of
Abertay, University of Glasgow, Dundee and Heriot-Watt University. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
ranks on number 80 on Forbes list of 100 most powerful women.
Leadership Style of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is a transformation leader. She had a Vision of her own and she is
an individualized type. She never follows what others do or never cares about what others
think.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw inspires her team with a shares vision of the future.
Divides the responsibilities amongst their team.
Focused more on Research and Development and innovative strategy to produce new
products.
Transformational Leadership
In Biocon, both transactional and transformational leadership has been seen.
The transactional leaders (or managers) ensure that routine work is done reliably, while the
transformational leaders look after initiatives that add value.
High regulating and low nurturing have seen as the key factor of her behavior, she always
defines the role of the group members telling them what task to do and how and when and where
to do them. She is the master of her field so she has developed her trade like that.
Five Leadership traits of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
1. Dedicated- One of the leading businesswomen in India, Kiran Mazumdar did not reach
where she is today without her dedication towards her work, her zeal and her vigorous
attitude to achieve heights. She started her career not in the field of science but as a brewer
and she took precedence in both the areas.
2. Always ready to fight criticism- It is her ability to fight back criticism that kept her from
going down and she kept growing. She wanted to be a master brewer in India, but nobody
hired her saying it is a “man’s job”. This did not deter her from moving on and forward,
taking a plunge into starting her own business in biotech and then excelling in it.
3. Overcoming entrepreneurial barriers- “She had a difficult time
finding a workplace and convincing people to join her organization. Mazumdar Shaw was
however determined to overcome all entrepreneurial barriers and make her venture a huge
success,” according to an article by the Economic Times. This shows her hunger for
discovering new avenues to channelize talent. It is a major factor in her zest for success.
4. Risk-taking ability- She possesses courage and a dare-to-take-risk attitude which showed
when she took it as a challenge to show the male fraternity who did not offer her a job as a
brew master only because she was a woman. She proved that women can also manage an
entire business without taking any help from them.
5. Hard-working- Started Biocon in the garage of her house with a humble investment of
Rs.10000, now it is a huge entity in the biotech world. All this wouldn’t have happened if
Kiran Mazumdar did not work incessantly towards growth. There is also a kind of
exclusivity that shows in her work as she rightfully puts it, “In our Enterprise ‘The
difference lies in our DNA’ and we all believe in it. We don’t imitate other companies but
have charted our own business destiny,” says Mazumdar Shaw.
