While the rest of the world celebrated achievers from various professions, there was a woman who laid low and spent the day planning for the next big step in her business.
Redicka Subrammanian, CEO and Chief Strategist of Interackt Digital Communications, was finalising plans for a big product launch later in the year at San Francisco, when the entire planet celebrated International Women’s Day on Saturday.
Redicka, who was born and educated in Chennai, started the digital communications company in 2004, after realising the need for internal communication.
“I then worked in a company where I designed a portal for a bank. Once, when I went to the same bank asking them for a form to get a credit card, a representative there denied having such services. I was shocked as I had designed their website with a complete profile of its services. Later, the manager came and apologised saying the representative was new and didn’t know about the services,” recalled Redicka adding that the realisation for the need for internal and external communication was why she decided to start her own company.
Building a strong foundation in a decade’s time, she now constantly shuttles between the 12 offices set up across the globe, including the headquarters in Singapore. However, one might wonder how a Chennai woman, who has made it global, hasn’t been in the public eye. Redicka said that it was a conscious effort on her part to lie low and let her work speak for itself.
Of course it has. Her work won her many accolades – from the SICCI-DBS Singapore Indian Entrepreneur Awards to the Stevie Awards in New York.
The global recognition and appreciation, nevertheless, didn’t come easy. Redicka had to face two massive market crashes that at one point made her think about selling her company. “I was borrowing money to pay salaries to my employees. People encouraged me to sell my company, but I didn’t want to give up easily. I was sure I would come out of it,” she said, recalling the bad phase.
Though she survived the toughest of phases and proved her mettle, she did face her part of gender discrimination. Redicka recalled how people in Middle-East Asian countries kept looking at men around her and not at her when she spoke in business meetings. “I put my business partner in front during such situations,” she said.
From an arts degree from Queen Mary’s College, Chennai, and studying fine arts in Kalakshetra to setting up a business in Singapore and expanding across the earth to New York, Redicka has made her mark. But she humbly attributed her success to her former IAS officer father, who told her not to waste her creativity in the administrative services, and her husband, who was willing to give up his career for her to chase her dreams. She also spoke about her teenage daughter, who helped her move forward during tough times and her business partner, who believed in her potential.
“I always tell my people that life teaches you and time tests you. A woman should always have a burning desire, chase her dream, never give up and stay resilient,” she said
