Monday 23 April 2018

Lavanya Khemka : Carving Her Niche


“Believe in yourself” is the key mantra Lavanya Khemka lives by. It is this belief and confidence in her capabilities that has helped her achieve success in a male dominated business.

Lavanya is at the helm of Eagle Business Group of Companies – a company that manufactures construction materials. However, what makes Lavanya a great example for other Women from Family Business  is being able to carve a niche in this industry that too in a timespan of only 3 years.

Having done her graduation in Psychology, she started her career with an internship of 6 months at Ernst & Young. During her college days she saw her father handling the business single headedly. He was a self-made man who had worked hard to make Eagle Business Group an established brand. It is her’s father’s perseverance, hard work and dedication that inspired Lavanya to become part of her family business. In fact, she believes that her father is her guiding force, mentor and the prime reason that she has been able to take her business to greater heights. She attributes her success to the confidence and support she has received from her family. Her parents - Mr Sushil Khemka and Mrs Chanda Khemka and her elder sister Khushboo Bansal have been a major influence and a driving force in this special journey of hers. They were the ones to support her and push her to achieve excellence in tough times.

A very interesting event that Lavanya shared was that how she ended up taking a 1 year GFMB course from S.P. Jain. Lavanya was a good student and was considering pursuing Management. She had made it through to IIM Indore for a regular MBA course. Her father suggested to her that since she wanted to be a part of her family business it would be better that she would consider a course that would help her lead their business. That is where she came across 1 year GFMB course at S.P.Jain. This proved to be an eye opener for her. It allowed her to become more aware about the financial aspects of her business. She also met like-minded people from similar family business background. Also, she applied all the concepts she learned during her course to her business and take it forward.

With a guiding hand from her father and practical knowledge she gained during GFMB, Lavanya introduced new age marketing methods into this traditional business. This was one of the most challenging phases of her journey as their business didn’t have any digital presence. Lavanya, took up this challenge and started with a small step of creating a website. Then she employed digital marketing tools to ensure that their business dominated the search results online. Lavanya successfully implemented the digital strategy for her business. Currently most of the clients are being acquired through the enquiries they receive through their website. In fact, Lavanya’s first major client L&T had reached out to them through their website and also because they were among the top results when they were searching for companies in their industry. L&T coming on board was a key moment in her entrepreneurial journey which gave her lot of confidence that she could take her business to the next level. She has also taken steps to ensure her employees are happy by introducing benefits like insurance for them. She has never hesitated to ask questions, gain more knowledge and learn about the nuances about the business. She is a firm believer in doing things without any delays and taking ownership of results without any excuses. From trying to find her feet in business to being the go to person for client interactions and negotiations, Lavanya’s personal and professional transformation has been path breaking.

Lavanya, it has been a privilege to connect with you and know about your success story. I am sure it will inspire other women entrepreneurs out there to follow their dreams and shatter any preconceived notions that society has. Also a huge shout-out to her family especially her father for supporting her in this beautiful journey of hers.

More power to you Lavanya. Best wishes for all your future endeavours. Keep rocking.  

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