Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Quotes

#1. When I started Biocon in 1978, the obstacles I needed to navigate were manifold - ranging from infrastructural hurdles to issues related to my credibility as a business woman. With no access to venture capital, money was scarce and high-cost, debt-based capital was all I had.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#2. I have never let gender get in my way. It has taken me over 30 years to get from a garage to the huge campus that we have today. And it's been a long journey.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#3. The brewing industry is a very, very male dominated industry. It's a male bastion.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#4. I have a great team who has helped me build Biocon, I was very fortunate to be able to share my vision with a group of people who really were as excited about challenges as I was.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#5. I hate the title of being called 'the richest woman in India,' but it's the recognition that this was the value that I had created as a woman entrepreneur, and that makes me very, very proud.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#6. An entrepreneur's life is always a continuous journey.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#7. My passion for innovation and my interest in the 'business of science' has seen Biocon commercialize many innovative platforms and products.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#8. I have never let gender get in my way.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#9. I've had many failures in terms of technological ... business ... and even research failures. I really believe that entrepreneurship is about being able to face failure, manage failure and succeed after failing.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#10. One of my objectives when I started Biocon was to make sure that I create a company for women scientists to pursue a vocation.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#11. My father was a brew master. He was the one who I was very close to, he influenced me in many many ways including my pursuing a career as a brew master.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#12. I faced a number of challenges whilst I built Biocon. Initially, I had credibility challenges where I couldn't get banks to fund me; I couldn't recruit people to work for a woman boss. Even in the businesses where I had to procure raw materials, they didn't want to deal with women.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#13. As you become more successful, the gender barrier disappears. The credibility challenges you have during your growing up years starts disappearing when you start demonstrating success.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#14. You have to build a culture of philanthropy. In a country like India, we need to be sensitive and caring about the poorer, more disadvantaged section of our country.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#15. As a traditionally risk-averse nation, India has rarely been at the forefront of innovation. Indian companies have mostly imitated others and became very good at it.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#16. My legacy is going to be in affordable health care. I am willing to invest in developing that model and the policies around it.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#17. I do serve on various boards and I'm very honest and frank, obviously. I am a very forthright person and I do, sort of, share my candid views on anything.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#18. Today anything can be done - we have the techniques

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#19. If you think about brewing, it is biotechnology. And I would say that I was a technologist at heart. So whether I ... fermented beer or whether I fermented enzymes, the base technology was the same.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#20. What really got me focused on cancer was when my best friend was diagnosed with breast cancer, and even though she was a well-to-do person, I found that her treatment costs were crippling.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#21. It was a chance encounter with a biotech entrepreneur from Ireland that got me started as an entrepreneur in India, because I partnered this Irish company in setting up India's first biotech company.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#22. I want to be remembered as someone who put India on the scientific map of the world in terms of large innovation. I want to be remembered for making a difference to global healthcare. And I want to be remembered as someone who did make a difference to social economic development in India.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#23. I guess I was very fortunate; I had a very very, lets put it this way, I had very wonderful upbringing and a childhood where my parents, of course, exposed us to many cultural aspects, not only of India but other parts of the world.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

#24. I am very concerned about the fact that India as a country does not have a national health system, and I am determined to try and influence the government to really build a national health system for the country.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw