Women’s Special: Nishi Vora, Fashion Accessories India – Building a successful empire

08 March 2021: Fashion Accessories India was established in 1998. The company manufactures trims for apparel, name metal accessories such as shanks and rivets along with labels and patches on different materials such as faux leather, jacron paper, fabric and heat transfer labels. Nishi Vora has completed her M.Sc in Marketing & Strategy from Warwick Business School, UK. Reading and travelling are her spare time activities. Over to Nishi:

Since the time I was a young girl, I always wanted to join the family business. Every summer, my brother and I would visit the office to spend time with my grandfather and father, while they were working. Invariably, we picked up things over the years and started forming our plans of how we wanted the business to grow. So, working in the family business is me realising my dreams of building a successful empire.

I started working in the industry about 7 years ago when most of our clients were from the unorganised sector. I guess some of them would find it awkward to talk to me as they weren’t used to women being in this field. That has changed over time. Secondly, for me, the priority was always to build partnerships in the organized sector. To a large extent, there were a lot of women working in corporate houses, so it was much easier there.

I think that the greater challenge was getting acceptance from our staff, they have seen me grow up. However, that is about being a man or a woman. It’s about earning their respect, getting their buy-in to any changes you want to make and most importantly, making them comfortable about working with you. Women have been in leadership roles for years now and I only see that increasing.

Rajat Vora, says, “I believe that having a son or daughter does not determine their success. Success depends on how well parents groom their children and the hard work, intelligence the children put in for their growth. Definitely the campaign put in will yield results as more and more parents realize that woman can be as good as man given the right grooming and education . We are seeing women heading many organizations and exceptionally well. Girls can definitely be groomed to take control of business irrespective of whether one has a son or not.”