Pallavi

Director, Pal Associates, Mumbai

Pallavi, director of PAL ASSOCIATES, along with her counterpart director Pritam, has been playing key role to take the company from one level to another, since its establishment in 2006. Over the years, the company has diversified into a chain of companies—Pal Technologies, Pal Trading, Sinice Pal Digital—all together under the Pal Group.

First impression of the signage industry
“Just printing... Our images what we see on computer can print in a large format; that was very exciting for me about the signage printing industry in the first place. The signage industry was indeed a wide platform for growing business.”

Exciting reasons for coming into the industry
“Signage was so ingrained in my collective mind that most of the time I go about my daily activities it always kept whirling in my mind. Innovations in the industry inspired me to make decisions each day. In a general way, signs attract new customers and alert them their existence. Signage is defined to be a kind of visual graphic that is created to inform wide audience about a specific message.”

Some challenging tasks in the industry
“Life itself is a challenge. Yes, in business in the industry, we have some. Among them is about ‘getting business’ from right customers. In this, yet a big challenge is to make sure that you have good customers who know quality and value you deliver. Another huge challenge is how to integrate digital printing into an existing screen or offset printing industry. Still in India, most of our customers depend upon screen and offset printing. Here the challenge is to change customers’ mind from traditional printing to new digital (large-format) printing. Selection of substrate is yet another ‘challenge’ I like to mention. Different customers require different requirements, for this, we need patience and knowledge.”

View on the industry being man-dominated
“I like to say, some years back it was—the industry was man-dominated. Very less or I can say countable number of ladies involved in the business. The lack of women at the top of the creative tree is a problem, for creative industries. Now the picture has changed; women come up on the forefront; they are rather creative and have patience than men. And sometime they handle situation better than men.”

Role of women in the industry
They play an important role, everywhere, not only in this industry. As every one of us knows women can take diverse roles at homes or in every movement of life, we cannot specify one or some particular situations. I saw women make business grow successfully. The success comes with knowledge, trend updating, planning and marketing with women behind it.”

Success stories at work
“For this let me share what one of my customers says about my effort. Ronald D’Souza, MD, RD Enterprises – manufacture of custom-made trophies and awards and gift articles, says PAL ASSOCIATE UV printer is truly affordable yet effective and versatile; a real blessing in term of having this printer in-house and backed with the robust service support; it has proven very effective to their business.”

Industry in near future
“I wish the industry should have a fully environment-friendly future. We must go for more eco-friendly method of printing with positive impact on the environment by reducing much of the physical and chemical wastage prevalent in traditional printing. So, if cost-effectiveness, high quality, and reliability are important to us, let’s add one more benefit to our list of reasons to choose green digital printing—it’s an eco-friendly solution!”

Advice to women to join the industry
“Today, look at the other industries, women occupy 50 percent. But why not us! Women should join this industry like any other industry. Women always think about 100 percent success, 100 percent dedication to work, attitude of learning new things—all these attributes of women must add to the industry. Come women! Let’s reshape the industry using our creativity, management skills and future planning.”

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Hetal A Gandhi

Director, Macart Equipment, Pune

In 1999, after two years of her marriage to Atul Gandhi, Hetal A Gandhi joined Macart Equipment in the capacity of director, looking primarily after account and management. She is a post graduate in economics. Macart Equipment boasts its widely acclaimed and distributed PICO JET brand of digital wide-format printers and other machines.

First impression of the signage industry
“In the first place, the signage industry being a technology-oriented sector, I was wondering whether I would be fitted into it or not. However, other areas like management as well as creative domains impressed me a lot and such characteristics of the industry eventually dragged me into.”

Exciting reasons for coming into this industry
“Once my husband (Atul) was out of town, I mean out of India quite a long time, for about two months.

At that moment he told me it was right time for me to join business. It was quite exciting, I would say, to take charge of the company in his absence. After that I never looked back.”

Some challenging tasks in the industry
“When I first enter into the industry, there were little or no women seen around. Everywhere men, men, men… whether in the exhibitions or market, I was quite confusing where do I would adjust myself. Then gradually it has been changed.”

View on the industry being man-dominated
“Like many others, I can say yes the industry is still man-dominated. But there are prospects opening up for women too.”

Role of women in the industry
“It’s not about men vs women; but women can bring success in creative and out-of-box activities, rather than their man counterparts. Women can play major roles in these areas. They are also quite good in decision making, so women can join in office managements in the signage market. I can say, they (women) are not equal with men as of now, but the count is increasing.”

Success stories at work
“I would say when I first joined Macart, Atul being the technical person he took little role in accounting. So, I started taking full care of it with the introduction of our finance department. As on today, when it comes to accounting, we maintain weekly and monthly reports. In addition, nowadays I do look after our overall operation of distribution channels too.”

Industry in near future
“Speed is the future of the industry. What I observe nowadays is people in the industry are looking for faster and automated machines. Moreover, they are very much aware of eco-friendliness in technologies and materials. As government policies are also coming up, the future of the signage industry will be fully green and eco-friendly.”

Advice to women to join the industry
“As I mentioned earlier there is a vacuum for women in the creative arena of the industry. Every woman must aware of this. My idea is that they (women) must come to take the industry to a new level, filling the gaps still left open.”