Spotlight: Jain Women In Leadership
Bhuvni Shah, Diya Shah, Mishi Jain, Rihi Jain
“We all have a Wonder Woman inside of us — we just need to learn how to channel her.”
Growing up, it was rare to see South Asian women in power, especially in male-dominated industries. In the past decade, we’ve been fortunate enough to start witnessing not only South Asian women, but also women who grew up with Jain values, rise up to leadership positions in business, technology, and media.
We had the opportunity to interview two such women, Suchita Shah and Ashmi Sheth, to learn more about what drives their inner Wonder Woman as they make strides in business and politics, respectively. Read on to learn about their journeys to leadership, and how you, too, can channel their mindset on your path to leadership.
Suchita Shah
Suchita Shah is a Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and resides in Chicago, Illinois. In her youth, Suchita attended the Jain Society of Greater Detroit pathshala and led the Jain Organization of Youth at her local Sangh. She went on to become YJA Co-Chair (2002–2003). Suchita studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and got her MBA at Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. After working in engineering for a number of years, Suchita moved to the business world and is now primarily focused on the health care and biopharma sector.
What Jain Values have guided you along your path to success?
Firstly, I’ve always operated under the notion that hard work matters. As I think about my day-to-day job, Jainism taught me to have really high integrity in everything I do. A lot of people make fun of consultants because we tend to come in and make huge stretches to get to an answer. But I know I won’t be dishonest about anything in my professional experience. In fact, I run my teams in a way where we only put things on paper that we feel really comfortable putting our names behind, even if we have to go the extra yard for it.
Early in my BCG tenure, I was offered a case working with a hot dog company with someone who I loved working with. But why would I want to go understand how hot dogs are made and try to sell that to the world? I just didn’t feel like that was something I could hold my head behind with complete integrity. I actually said no to it for that reason. And I feel really good about not supporting companies that are doing things that don’t align with my mission and go against principles of non-violence.
As one of the approximately 15 female partners at the Chicago BCG Office, was it ever intimidating? Did you ever have to change your leadership style or the way you work?
You never need to change yourself. Being female does impact my job, but I see it as an opportunity. The two people I work with most closely are white males. More and more, our client base has shifted to many more women and people of color. What I bring to the table is that one level of my identity is aligned with a lot of the people in the room. 80% of my largest buyers are female. That’s not surprising to me — they come to me because they trust me.
As a senior leader, I focus a lot of my intention on driving diversity. I do not believe I’m successful if I don’t look at everything through the lens of racial and gender diversity and make sure that the work I do every day is to advance this cause. We are so far behind in the U.S., whether that’s in how apparent systematic racism is or how poor our gender diversity stats are in every major field. I try to give those that have a soft voice, a bigger voice in situations. If I was not doing that, I would not feel successful. That’s the purpose of what I do, and what shapes my leadership style every day.
Where do you find the courage to speak up when you are in a difficult situation?
As Indian kids were told by our parents to fit in. My dad used to tell me “Hey, you’re talking too much. You should be quieter.” Now I’m like, okay, yeah, I probably do talk too much, but I actually think it’s to an advantage. I’m not doing it to be self-serving, I’m doing it to help others. If a junior female is “mansplained” over, I very vocally say “That is what she said.” Everyone should know that she had that idea first. In general, I think I’ve always had the mentality that if you don’t stand up for yourself, no one will. And if you feel slighted, I think you have to seek the advice of people around whom you trust and try to conquer it head-on. Sometimes, I think women are more likely to just let it go and say, “Oh, I’m fine”. And at the end of the day, we can’t keep perpetuating some of that stuff. And honestly, the types of people that are the best to go to are people like me, senior women who will listen to you and understand the personalities you’re dealing with.
One piece of advice for your younger self, or for someone younger than you?
Listen to Suchita’s answer for this question by scanning the QR code here!
Ashmi Sheth
Ashmi Sheth is a candidate for New York Congress (NY-10) and is currently campaigning for her upcoming election on June 28. Ashmi graduated in 2014 from the University of Maryland and has worked in climate finance and public policy. She later attended Columbia University to pursue her Master’s in Public Administration and then regulated big banks at the Federal Reserve. An advocate for equal economic opportunity for all, Ashmi has previously sat on boards to represent women and South Asian rights.
What Jain Values have guided you along your path to success?
Satya (truth) and Ahimsa (non-violence) are the core values for my personal path to success. Public policy should be written by the public. I had a clear vision, to ask thousands of people who are most impacted by certain policy changes to write the policy with us. A person with a disability is writing about expanding employment opportunities and disability rights. A compost scientist is teaching us about waste management. The Lenape Center is centering our policy for indigenous people. When people work directly with policymakers, it builds trust and accountability on both sides. It also actively expands who participates in government which means more people will care, engage, and vote consistently. We must expect our representatives to hold this responsibility to represent new voices and our team worked hard to set this tone from the start to build a new kind of politics.
“New politics” is centered on non-violence. A clear example is providing resources to immigrant women, especially those who have experienced violence or suppression, to assert and stand up for themselves. Whether it’s having your own bank account or learning digital literacy, the government prioritizing funding for this community is a meaningful change. Non-violent politics means not fundraising from special interest groups but instead, but really running for our community without ego and with full intention to serve people. People over profits.
If success means having the strength to forge your own path, that strength stems from my family story. My parents had financial hardship when they first moved here from India. Our struggles have created a sense of resourcefulness, grit, and humility — and gave me my voice to speak out for our rights.
What obstacles have you faced throughout your career and how have you overcome them?
As a community, we do not have as strong a voice and defined identity in the United States. People in our community are not as active in politics and the industries that surround it. I previously made tough decisions to take significant pay cuts and risks to work in public policy on the ground. These have been some of the best life decisions I made, centered on a long-term goal of public service and not driven by money.
Not many working class people have quit their jobs at 28 and given up income to run for Congress. As a candidate, the first step was to reach out to everyone I knew. For most of us, we don’t have as much accumulated social capital. As I made a list of about 3,500 people, it reminded me of the many years of consistent networking. Over the course of my career, I have put myself out there and reached out to thousands of people to build my own social capital — be it through 20+ internships and fellowships, attending and setting up conferences, taking on leadership — whatever it was, the goal was to build long-run professional relationships and networks.
I was in many situations where I was the only woman, the only person of color, or the youngest one in the room, but still asserted myself when talking about equal opportunity, climate activism, or gender justice. An obstacle early in my career was making sure that our community has an equal say in the conversation and that we can carve out our own space, no matter what the seniority level/”American” experiences others have.
How would you encourage other people to overcome feelings of self-doubt and speak up, even when they are feeling Imposter Syndrome?
I experience anxiety just like anyone else. I had to debate the incumbent that I am running against. He’s been in office for 16 terms and is 75. I may not have the same amount of years on me but our community’s lived experience is extremely valuable. Creating a sense of urgency in ourselves with the work that we do is key in getting over that Imposter Syndrome. In Jainism and even in Hinduism, we shouldn’t be looking at a material gain in the work thatwe do. That’s not what drives humans, and in fact, is what causes feelings of insecurity. If we really want to achieve peace for ourselves, we should consider the work we do as an act of service. When we care about our community’s interest and public welfare, people might actually actively participate in politics. The key is to step away from this material society that we know humans have created and step into a society with a greater sense of purpose.
One way I can do this in my role as a candidate is to call about 300 to 500 people a day and knock on doors. So yesterday, for example, I walked 50 stories, and I knocked on over 500 doors. That is what is expected. Our constituency has 760,000 people, which we just recently redistricted. 27% of our constituency in the district is Asian American, which is huge. To get over Imposter Syndrome you have to push yourself to do the work — no matter how that first door knock or phone call may feel. The more we do it, the more we find how much people resonate with the message that we have.
One piece of advice for your younger self, or for someone younger than you?
Listen to Ashmi’s answer for this question by scanning the QR code here!
