Beena Handa, Vice President Human Resource Management, Claris Lifesciences

An IIM-A alumnus and now Vice President of Human Resource Management at Claris Lifesciences, Beena Handa has made all her dreams come true…

This is a story of an ordinary girl born into a Gujarati middle class family but rising high to fulfill her dreams. It was at the age of 11, when her father expired, that Beena Handa decided to do something big in life. "My father always believed in the importance of education and encouraged my brother, sister and me to do well in studies," she says.

Intrigued by the world of business, Handa decided to do her Bachelors in Economics. Eventually, she joined Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad to do her MBA. "The two years I spent at IIMA have made a lot of difference in my thinking about any situation, people and the world at large," she says.

It was in 1974 when Handa stepped into her first job and joined an Indo-American pharmaceutical company at Ahmedabad as Personnel Executive. From the very beginning of her career Handa traded with exceptions. Her very first job spotted her with challenges to achieve the best. "It was a test of my HR skills as I had many 'firsts' to face--the first MBA, the first lady executive, the first to get a good starting salary and the first to establish systems and procedures in personnel function and take it beyond time-office and industrial relations," recalls Handa.

While Handa stood up by all challenges and proved her skills through her performance, it was in this organisation where she met Sushil Handa as a colleague and got married to him in 1977.

Stretching beyond

As per the gender dictates, women have lot more responsibilities and accountability towards home than men. Women have an intrinsic ability of multitasking. Post marriage, while her husband started his journey as an ambitious entrepreneur, Handa balanced her feet in two boats-family and work. Even with her attention divided two ways, Handa opted to be a freelancer, while her children were young. "I explored the field of consultancy, academics and also got associated with a few organisations focusing on public interest and development. I also taught at IIMA-my alma mater-for seven years," says Handa.

However, Handa feels that in a social set up like ours, family support is very important for any woman to stretch beyond the traditional role, especially after marriage. "Managing work, home and children is a difficult task. Unless there is enough division and delegation of work, one aspect takes a lead at the cost of the other," says Handa.

It is important that women get out of the thinking where they believe that doing everything themselves for the family is the only expression of love and affection. It actually does not work that way. According to Handa, women generally have an attitude which says, "Let me do it, it is faster than teaching how to do it to someone else". They need to get out of this attitude to rise in life. However, Handa feels that now there is an overall shift in thinking in urban society, but there is still a long way to go for it to percolate deeper.

In retrospect

As the saying goes, "Where there is a will, there is a way", Handa re-entered the corporate world once her two sons grew up. Later, she shifted to join her husband and contributed in building businesses by focusing through human resource.

In retrospect, Handa feels that the work she has done is a philosophical tribute to several people in life. "As an HR person, the satisfaction has always come from the small/big changes I have observed in people, right from a serious face to a friendly smile, or from pointing a finger to the circumstances while answering 'Why not?' to a change of direction of finger towards self. This in a way is paying tribute to all the people-right from my family members to my school principal and educationist Shree Zinabhai Desai, teachers, professors at St Xavier's College and IIMA, my first boss and many others who have contributed in changing me from an introverted child to a responsible individual," says Handa. She feels utmost joy to have contributed and witnessed the growth of business and people at Claris.

All about driving self

Handa is happy to be born as a woman and enjoys life to the fullest. The divide amongst man and woman is prevalent, and hence, it is bound to be there in the beginning of any relationship, but the faster one rises at a 'personal' level and develop faith in each other's capabilities, easier it becomes to work with each other. "I learnt this quite early while doing my MBA, as there were only 12 girls in the batch of about 115. I believe stretching oneself beyond normal is always a matter of opportunities available and self-drive, in general," opines Handa.