While clicking Lara Balsara's picture during Goa Fest in 2015 one of the photographer said, "She is so fragile". Well, she may look fragile but she is tough as a rock when it comes to leading the huge organisation, Madison World.
Lara Balsara Vajifdar is Executive Director, Madison World and has played a significant role in order to build brand Madison over last one decade. She did her Masters in Marketing from the UK and joined Madison as a trainee.
Under her leadership, she conceived Madison World the group name of which Madison Media is a part of. She designed the growth strategy for Madison and different areas for growth which were not present. Balsara has evaluated the group's venture outside India and initiated Madison World's entry into mobile and digital e-commerce divisions.
She has worked in Madison with her four-point strategy which consists of ideate, automate, digitise and harness people power. While growing up she was not sure what will she end up doing but she was sure enough that she will not become a doctor or engineer. Talking to her father about the Indian media, advertising, communications and brand industry got her enlightened which led her to join her dad's business.
Lara is known for her sharp knowledge on business issues and she is quite upfront with her comments on issues. She is an exceptional business leader with phenomenal respect for people and carries her team along with her.
Under her leadership Madison launched MATES, ( Madison Teamworks & entertainment Services) it is the branded entertainment entity of Madison World. So far her journey has been exciting in Madison but her aim is to take Madison to countless heights.
Lara Balsara was never pampered in the organisation and proved that daughters are equally capable of filling into their dad's shoes. Her father Sam Balsara gave her an appraisal rating of two out of five and now he personally feels very satisfying to have Lara worked with him and she had a tremendous influence on his work life.
She has always voiced her opinion for women leaders in the country and believes that a woman leader is no different from a male leader. She is also a firm believer that pay parity should be a norm in the industry and that there should be no room for gender bias.
Sam Balsara on Lara Balsara On this daughter day sharing his views about her daughters, Sam Balsara, father of Lara Balsara in a video campaign for Star Plus's said, ""I think as a father I was delighted that I have two daughters and there was never any disappointment of not having a son. So at least as far as I am concerned there was no sort of gender discrimination in my mind, in fact, it's the opposite that I think I preferred to have daughters. I don't know why is our country for wrong reason that it's much focus on having a son and disappointment if it's a daughter. But I am quite sure that with the passage of time this is going to go away."
She is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's famous line, 'Be the change you want to see in this world'. She follows it her day to day life, professionally and personally.
BW Reporters
The author is a journalist with BW Businessworld. He primarily covers Retail, Media & Entertainment and Travel & Tourism sectors
