Great Companies: Can you commence by telling a little about your organisation?
Snekha Singaravelu: The Company Carmanor Advisory and Management Services Private Limited was started up after a long discussion with my elder sister, Sumirti, and she was continuously throwing away all sort of questions to find my pulse and my burning desire. We together attended lot of women programs and award functions to get the rage within us to start this up. Our organisation Carmanor got its name from Greek mythology meaning Harvest, and thus we decided us tagline too, Harvest the Best Solutions. We’re taking all little baby steps to make our organisation an all-woman office in future.
Great Companies: Women empowerment is one of the most sensitive topics in today's world, how do you manage to provide it the justice it needs in a country like India ?
Snekha Singaravelu: Yes! Very true, it’s one of the most sensitive topic and I have personally experienced how a woman gets treated when she wants to play a crucial role in an organisation. I attended a first interview way back in 2016 and I was interviewed by senior KMP of an organisation and as the interview started he asked me whether I know the importance of Board Meetings and its confidentiality. Being a Company Secretary I said yes I know, and he immediately said these exact words “Board Room is like a Bed Room” and that shocked me and I just wanted to leave that place. I ran coming out of that building after my interview and wanted to get back home.
I have the urge to hire women in a more strength in future than men in our organisation, because I want to make women feel that they’re safe and that they can effectively play their roles. I don’t blame men completely and I have equal experience of woman letting down another women equally. As I have experienced both, I want to create a friendly and fun-filled, pressure free environment for people who have the urge to succeed in their life and I am working towards that.
Great Companies: What are the wide range of services provided ?
Snekha Singaravelu: Carmanor is an integrative organization providing business, legal and financial advisory services to Indian and multi-national corporates and we strive to assist entrepreneurs and clients in fine tuning their business ideas, evaluate the execution strategies, and successfully win over the tide of legal complexities. We make our clients (A)cts legal by keeping their compliance records clean.
Our aim is to provide the complete chain of services to a corporate – from its creation as a legal entity, identifying the source of right capital, liaison with various government and quasi government bodies to ensure all the various legal compliances, building business model and strategy, accounting and auditing, setting up branches in India/abroad, providing RBI and FEMA related legal guidance, Mergers and acquisitions, disinvestment, demerger etc,
Great Companies: How do you motivate women to stand for themselves and what all organisations have you collaborated with?
Snekha Singaravelu: Our entity model is quite different and we haven’t set up any business space as of now. We aimed at collaborating and associating with various women services providers outside and have succeeded in that. We have supports from certain parts of Tamil Nadu, Bangalore, Mumbai and of course mainly in Chennai. We have hired few women who can work from their home to support us in documentations and we have absolute pressure free policies for the same. We set a comfortable deadlines and we could deliver our clients, the services too on time. This idea popped-up when one of my friends was telling me that she is looking for additional financial support by working from home and that’s the first association our Company made.
Woman are always self-motivated and the only thing that stops them is the fear that grows inside them and that needs to be smashed. I have given few career counselling to collages/schools located at outskirts of Chennai and I have received calls from female students that they want to enrol for professional courses and that they got inspired from me. They have enrolled too which made me happy.
I am in Chennai from 30th December 2014 and I have been here without a penny, walking for 5kms to 10kms as I wasn’t having money to afford a bus ticket, was unable to pay PG for 2-3 months. Though my mom is a teacher and my dad was an advocate, we belong to a normal struggling middle class family. My father’s earnings reduced drastically after his by-pass surgery and family was dependent on mother’s earnings. Now we have grown enough to settle by setting up a business in Chennai and I will be grateful for this throughout my life. It’s all because of the mental support that I received from my parents and other good soul whom I met and meeting in this journey that guided to be strong and independent.
This is what required for a woman to break the barrier and succeed and whenever I got to college/school for counselling, this is what I say to them. When I can, every women Can do this.
Great Companies: What do you plan to achieve 5 years down the line?
Snekha Singaravelu: During my internship years, it was quite difficult for me to foresee what was coming. I had set up simple goals which I know I could achieve. In the upcoming five years, I want to test myself. I have set up targets which can bring out the best of me. These objectives deal with making decisions that were tough but fruitful. In my initial years, I tried to play it safe which most people do. The five years I see ahead of me are full of responsibilities which need better decisiveness. I am sure the years will be mutually progressive for me and the organization.
Also, I have decided to keep a part from my earning to set up an NGO that would help fellow human who are struggling to survive and I realise more than earning and living a luxurious life, it is important to help others equally.
"Feminism isn't about making women stronger. Women are already strong, it's about changing the way the world perceives that strength." - G.D. Anderson
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