Sima Ved is the founder and vp of
apparel group, with 75 brands, a thousand seven hundred and fifty
retail stores in 14 countries. In this interview we will hear
about her entrepreneurial journey, that
started at only 23 years old, about her
learning from this crisis, and we're also
gonna be talking about women leadership
which is a cause that is dear to her
heart.
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below, let's get to the interview.
So hello Sima, I am so happy to be hosting you at the Catalyst of Growth
As you know,
you are our first person, that we're
hosting in this interview series, and I
wanted a woman leader and I couldn't
have dreamt of a better person than you.
So thank you so much for saying yes.
Christine, thank you so much for the kind
words. Like I said I'm truly excited and
it's an absolute honor and privilege for
me, and as they say you never forget your
first one so thank you. I will
never forget you that's for sure!
So the way this conversation is going to rum; we will talk a little bit about
your journey, then we're gonna be
talking about the crisis,
the learning from the COVID-19 crisis that
turned the world upside down; and then
we're gonna end with the women
leadership or female leadership, because
I know this is something that is very
dear to your heart and I would love to
know more about it. Okay, let's
go
I fought to go to university and my dad was very clear; he said any time in life you
want to do something and you reason it
out with me, and if it makes sense, I'll
let you do it. So you know, I grew up
with that kind of mindset that you don't
just accept a no, you always 
fight for what you want to do in life
because if you're compelling enough,
it'll happen.
He chose to say ,fine you're married,
you're not supposed to be part of my
business, so I don't want you in it. So I
said fine, so I started something small
and my husband came along left his
family business, and started with me and
that's how we scaled. It was it was a lot
of hard work,
Initially, I think the driver was a bit
of anger towards my my father for not
agreeing to letting me be part of the
family business, and I was like that's
not fair. I think it was a bit of anger, a
bit of pride, trying to prove a point,
that okay fine you left me to
sink or swim and I'm gonna show you that
I can swim! Are you still angry at him?
He is too nice to be angry at. He is my idol so you know I don't think I could ever stay mad at him.
so I knew I knew why he was doing it and
I understood logically but of course
emotionally was a whole different story
but I don't think I would have lived up
to my potential the pressure to survive
and succeed that intense like fire in
the belly as they call it that okay no
I've got to get this right and if I
don't I'm gonna suffer kind of thing and
and also I think my dad did the world a
favor because you know today we employ
16,000 people and we're basically
feeding 16,000 families so I think you
did a well he did the world a favor as
well
that tastes of starting something seeing
it grow and then having it succeed and
then you know getting satisfaction I'm
setting an example I'm setting an
example for my two girls who you know
you need to see a strong mother to
understand that women can be a role
model in the family it's not always a
paternal thing and also for my son to
understand how he needs to respect his
wife or his daughter and he needs to
allow them to grow and experience
whatever they're meant to so to live up
to their potential
while I was furiously working I think I
wouldn't have survived had it not been
for my extended family whether it's my
parents whether it's my brother and his
family or whether it's even my in-laws
they all live here and they all help out
like if I ever need the kids to go
somewhere you know if there's a school
thing that I can't make it to my
father-in-law's actually been to my
daughter's sports day you know stuff
like that so they've always chipped in
always helped out so I think extended
family is phenomenal for success we've
recently come to the realization thanks
to kovat that no longer can marketing
marketing be classified into offline and
online I think that line is now gone
it's completely blurred it's now become
a case of if you are planning a career
in marketing or if even if you're hiring
a market here for your new business
you've got to hire someone who knows how
to do all of it they've got to be able
to do 360 whether it's offline press
days or doing online social media
they've got to be equipped to and well
enough informed through Facebook or
through Google or through any of the
other platforms so I just think you've
got to hire or be someone who's an
all-rounder so that's definitely one
major shift in marketing as a career
the biggest insight for me was that I
can't control everything that was one of
my biggest insights because I always
have plans at times you have to be fluid
you have to let go and just go with the
flow never waste a good crisis you know
so I think if you're not going to make
shifts and changes during a crisis when
are you gonna make it we have an
e-commerce website that saved us because
retail operations were closed so had we
not had our e-commerce website we'd be
in a completely different scenario right
now
something about us being women kind of
makes them think that we're not a
hundred percent capable for me just
surrounding myself with women who remind
me over and over and over again that
we've all got this I I love it it's like
if I can add a bit of that to Sisterhood
flavor in the world
why not so I just think a woman adds a
completely different flavor perspective
you know she just changes the way work
feels so that's why I feel I keep
telling my guys as well but if you run
brand teams and you don't have a woman
on board it's your loss completely your
loss use this time to actually increase
your own education in there are so many
courses online that are available from
amazing Institute's that would normally
charge you an arm and a leg to do them
so I think if you can make you know if
you can kind of increase your own
qualifications by studying or doing
these courses online I think that will
help later even if you're setting up a
new business second main critical thing
I want to tell all the women out there
is for God's sake do not get into a gilt
pattern I feel as women we are so prone
to and susceptible to guilt it is
remarkable like I see my husband and he
has a complete nonsensical approach to
I've got to do this this and this and
this and in the process if I miss a
child's birthday so be it oh my god as
mothers we die it's like not how can I
not be you know baked fresh cakes for
bake sale at school it's okay just buy
them it's fine
is it okay to leave everyone to their to
their own devices for about an hour and
take a long
yeah yes so you know Patrick choose make
your priorities and stick by them if at
this point it's important to be with
your baby be with your baby if it if
after a year it's important to do
something for yourself to feel
productive by go ahead if you decide
that you don't want to go back to work
after having children and you want to
stay at all fine embrace that but at
that moment enjoy the NAM enjoy wherever
you are and just embrace it because not
embracing who we are as we go along my
different phases is what leads to major
issues emotionally physically and and
and mentally so make sure if you are
gonna partner with someone whether it's
your husband or whether you have a
partner or you hire someone make sure
they have the the rest of the skills
needed to run an efficient business so I
think accepting realities about
ourselves is is also very important
I really want you to be happy okay my
first goal is that you should be happy
in life but at the same time I want to
tell you this is the tiger mom coming in
I said on the scene that God's given you
a certain amount of potential so you
cannot just not live up to God's
potential so it's not mine it's not my
pressures I'm just saying that you know
who God's given you a certain amount of
potential by giving you either access to
resources or even your own Intel
intelligence or intellectual capability
so I've now kind of left the ball in
their Court saying that I'm I'm really
happy to support you to be happy
but at the same time I I think it's
really important to live up to God's
potential so to us immersing our kids
early on into hard work teaching them
the value of a good strong work ethic I
think these are the two key things that
we really want to imprint or instill in
them and I think the earlier that
happens the easier it will be for them
to transition into a sort of a
productive life my way has made me happy
I want my kids to feel that surge of
adrenaline rush when when they achieve
something and succeed at something but I
don't want it to become the measurement
of how happy they are as people you're
right because now happiness comes from
so many so many different parts of our
life and sticking to only one part of
their life we might be missing out on
other parts as well and this is maybe
what covered the thought a lot of a lot
of people when we were stuck at home
sima thank you so much for this
insightful discussion thank you I'm sure
a lot of people enjoyed your
conversation and if you're watching this
video and you learn something you were
inspired by something don't forget to
drop comments so that seemed I would
know what parts you like the most
my insta handler it's at the SEMA vidcom
which is I'm gonna put I'm gonna put
your contacts and your Instagram account
video description so make sure that
people can reach out in case in case
they want to thank you so much thank you
on behalf of every single person that
will be listening and I'm sure I'll see
you very soon hopefully in person and
not only on I love what you're doing
with this whole series and good luck to
you and I hope it does come out really
really well since it's your first one so
thank you so much for having me thank
you thank you so much
