Storming the shop floor: The Lila Poonawalla story

manufacturing sector continuing to be a male fortress. Of the top 100 manufacturing companies in India today, only a handful are headed by women who reached those heights without the leverage of a family name.Born to a Sindhi Amil family in Hyderabad (Sindh) in 1944, Lila Thadani’s steel was forged in the harsh kiln of partition.

Arriving in India as a fatherless refugee at age three, she grew up in difficult conditions in Pune, supported by a papad-selling and tiffin packer mother who was the sole breadwinner. This early displacement stripped away any sense of entitlement, replacing it with what is often called a refugee’s hunger, that survivalist drive she shared with other self-made titans of that era, from Raunaq Singh to the Munjals.When she applied for a job at Vulcan Laval (later Alfa Laval) in 1967, she was told the company did not even have facilities for women.

Her response was typical: she did not demand a bathroom but just asked for a desk, promising she would not let biology interfere with the business of engineering.The Swiss company took a bet on her resilience. One time, she was moved to maintenance and asked to look after the gardens.

That year, Alfa Laval won the best garden prize in Pune. As for those bathrooms, she soon placed liquid soap in the men's bathrooms while inspecting them with the union members.When she took charge of the company, she was hit by a union strike.

The Swiss owners said they didn't mind shutting shop. Poonawalla negotiated a five-year agreement by asking the union leader to sit in the manager's chair and see how many demands he could then afford.Not one to blend into the background, she possessed a formidable presence in her crisp, elegant saris, matched with high-collared