Women at Work

SlideShare – Many of us have heard about SlideShare and are even using it for businesses, content strategies to share the presentations. This amazing concept has undoubtedly captured many businesses further influencing them to use it as a marketing tool to promote attractive, creative and useful presentations. Lesser do we know about the driving force behind this wonderful concept that took its inception which later emerged to be a popular slide hosting service. The creator of the entire concept of SlideShare is Ms. Rashmi Sinha who is an Indian-American businesswoman and CEO of San Francisco-based technology company SlideShare. SlideShare is an online community that allows users to upload and share PowerPoint presentations, documents, and infographics.

Rashmi Sinha, who is a designer, researcher, and entrepreneur, was born in Lucknow, India. She grew up in India and done her M.A. in Psychology and B.A. from Allahabad University. She has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuropsychology from Brown University in 1998 and researched search engines & recommender systems at UC Berkeley. After moving to UC Berkeley for a PostDoc, it was then she realized her passion for web and switched her focus to human-computer interaction. She believed that good software comes from a true collaboration between developers and designers. Her love for one has what persuaded her to build products and she co-founded Uzanto, a user experience consulting company and worked on projects for companies like eBay, Blue Shield, AAA etc.

Her first foray into products was with MindCanvas (a game-like software for customer research) released in November 2005. MindCanvas is a rich online survey platform for designers and a remote research tool that uses Game-like Elicitation Methods (GEMs) to gather insights into customer’s thoughts and feelings. It was developed by Uzanto Consulting under the leadership of Sinha and has been used by companies like Microsoft, CitiBank, Expedia, and Yahoo. With the successful launch of MindCanvas, her appetite for products was whetted and the outcome was SlideShare as her next venture.

Founded in 2006 by Rashmi Sinha, SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. The website was the brainchild of Sinha’s husband and co-founder Jonathan Boutelle, which is responsible for partnerships and product strategy. It also provides users the ability to rate, comment on, and share the uploaded content. The platform covers topics such leadership, technology, education, marketing, design, entertainment, data analytics, economy and finance, engineering, environment, food, health and medicine, real estate, recruiting and HR, retail, social media, travel, and more.

The website which was originally meant to be used for businesses to share slides among employees more easily has later expanded to become a host of a large number of slides that are uploaded merely to entertain. Since its launch in 2006, the company witnessed more than 9 million presentations being uploaded to SlideShare, helping professionals across the globe connect through content. This female-founded startup was later acquired by LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with 161 million members worldwide, for $119 million in May 2012. SlideShare which is often described as the “YouTube for slideshows," has let people store and share presentations as well as documents, PDFs, videos and webinars since 2006.

Her contributions and innovations in the field of technology have earned her name amongst the one of the World’s Top 10 Women Influencers in Web 2.0 by FastCompany, in 2008. Later in 2012, Fortune named her No. 8 on its Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs list. Continuing to inspire many, In January 2015, Sinha was listed as one of 20 “Most Influential" Global Indian women in The Economic Times, India’s leading business publication.

Rashmi Sinha, who is an active blogger, writes about social software and entrepreneurship at her blog; Rashmisinha.com. She also shares her thoughts about people, technology and running a company. She keeps motivating and influencing people across the world through her writings in the blogs. Many, indeed, have been inspired by her talks on search interfaces and recommender systems, designing great websites and marketing and social media. Rashmi Sinha has broken the glass ceiling in the realm of technology by heading in the race with the male counterparts. Sinha who was trained as a scientist got interested in designing technology and has started multiple companies. She also serves as a Venture Advisor at 500 Startups.

In a country like India, where sons are treated superior to daughters and having a son is treated more of a privilege and a daughter a liability, women have now turned out to be the showstoppers. Breaking through the glass ceiling, and leaving their marks of victory, women soar high today taking India to a next level by recording the maximum number of female pilots in the world.

While a recent Economic survey revealed the pitiful state of the nation where the great love and preference for sons has created 21 million unwanted girls, the above news has come as a solace to the entire nation and a celebration worth being noticed. This indeed is and should be an eye-opener for the families who anticipate having male children over girls.

For all those who still do not believe the fact, the statement was made by Jayant Sinha, Minister for Civil Aviation, who recently revealed that India currently has the maximum number of women pilots in the world. He also hailed women pilots in the country for their achievements. “India is the country with the maximum number of women pilots in the world, be it in Air India or Indian Air Force. This is a testimony of the contribution made by women to the aviation sector and also by the country to their careers”, told Sinha.

Women are reaching new heights and conquering major positions equivalent to their male counterparts in every sector. It’s evident that male domination still prevails in every field and taking up the challenge, women are moving in the forefront competing with men in the race. Undoubtedly, undeniably, the Indian government has been pushing hard for women empowerment in all diverse fields through various flagship programmes like “Save Girl Child”.

In a country which still remains obsessed about sons and often questions the credibility of women by preferring girls to take up jobs or careers into humanities, the girl child now gives a befitting reply to all those naysayers as she outshines men in the most-dominated field of aviation. While there have been many efforts made to empower women and make them self-reliant, constant support is needed from the family, society and their counterparts to enable them to succeed in any profession they take up.

It’s International Women’s Day today and I can’t resist myself from congratulating and celebrating the women power who were a big source of inspiration to not just women but the entire human race. Their success mantra had always been simple – “Rise and Shine”. While women have started building their territory of success in every diverse field irrespective of age, education, background, finances, and location, they deserve the acknowledgment worth being celebrated. Today being their day, there wouldn’t be a better time than this to greet and laud those wonderful women who achieved the milestones setting a benchmark for the male community and an inspiration to all the women. Wishing all the women a Happy International Women’s Day. Here are few motivational quotes from the successful ladies hoping these would inspire, encourage and motivate all those who read it.

* “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

* “I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.” Ginni Rometty, CEO, IBM

* “Run to the fire; don’t hide from it.” Meg Whitman, CEO, and President, HP

* “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.” Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo

* At the end of the day, both men and women who become CEOs have showed tenacity and hard work to succeed in their careers. It takes not just skills but also extreme dedication and commitment. And regardless of gender, CEOs are measured by the same criteria – the growth and success of the business. Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube

* “Do not be afraid to make decisions. Do not be afraid to make mistakes.” Carly Fiorina, Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard

* “There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success… but if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going… you’ll know that it was you and the people who love you that put you there.” Taylor Swift, Award-Winning Musician

* “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.” Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx

* “If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.” Melinda Gates, Co-Founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

* “We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes — understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” Arianna Huffington, Editor-in-chief of Huffington Post

* “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” Margaret Thatcher, Former UK Prime Minister

* “Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow you.” Oprah Winfrey,

* “I had two options. One was to remain silent and never to speak and then to be killed by the terrorists. The second option was to speak up for my rights and then die. And I chose the second one.” Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

* “The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.” Michelle Obama

* “You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right.” Aung San Suu Kyi