As challenging as the past one and a half year has been due to destruction by COVID-19 and financial hardships exacerbated by the global pandemic, it is undeniable that these unprecedented situations have brought about catalysing changes.
The world as it was undergoing an almost complete transition. Students had to get accustomed to online education, governments met virtually for policymaking, businesses even the Kirana stores – had to shift to easy-to-use online channels, and most importantly, remote work-from-home became a reality for entrepreneurs and employees worldwide.
The figures from last year show a worrying and sad reality as 26.6 percent of the female workforce moved out of the labour force, juxtaposed to the 13.4 percent of men. But women entrepreneurs have certainly used the technological shift to boost their business journey by overcoming the traditional barriers in remote working, operations management, hiring and networking.
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With accelerated adoption of digital platforms and an overall shift towards virtual interactions, one of the key benefits has been the creation of a level playing field for women in business and technology.
One such entrepreneur, who has grown into one of the most successful businesswomen in the digital marketing agency and online content space, is Ms. Zahara Kanchwalla.
Zahara Kanchwalla – Pioneering the idea of content-first
Zahara Kanchwalla is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Rite KnowledgeLabs, a content-first digital agency founded to address the need gap in specialised, thought leadership content. She is the company’s COO and is responsible for providing operational leadership and ensuring service delivery quality.
She works closely with clients across diverse digital stakeholder communications and thought-leadership programmes, anchoring relationships and ensuring the service delivery exceeds expectations right from the take-off to the finish.
Previous stints of Zahara Kanchwalla
Zahara Kanchwalla has over 17 years of industry experience. She has worked with several multinational and leading Indian organisations in business communications, content publishing, e-learning, IT and training.
Before co-founding Rite KnowledgeLabs, she held the Content and Publishing Head position at Ketchum Sampark and Riteverses. Previously, she worked at Tech Mahindra in marketing and communications and was responsible for overall content and knowledge management.
More content, less clutter: End-to-end, turnkey digital solutions
Zahara Kanchwalla led Rite KnowledgeLabs has content and the digital world at its core. Founded in 2015, Rite KnowledgeLabs is a content-first digital agency that primarily addresses the ‘need gap’ in specialised, thought-leadership content.
The agency is a confluence of content strategists, design thinkers and digital experts. It partners with some of the largest global and local corporations to build, protect and amplify their corporate and brand reputation through thought leadership digital assets.
Combining research-led content with usability-driven UI-UX design, development and digital execution, Rite KnowledgeLabs builds compelling stakeholder narratives for customers. The company website describes the Rite KnowledgeLabs team as “compelling corporate storytellers”, and rightly so. It conducts in-depth research, understands macro-economic trends and builds complementary narratives for businesses’ growth.
Zahara Kanchwalla success mantra – what can you learn?
There are many essential qualities, hard to learn practices and diligent abilities that go into making a successful entrepreneur. From Zahara Kanchwalla, aspiring entrepreneurs can learn numerous tenets to start and establish themselves in the industry.
According to her, boosting one’s professional network digitally is imperative in today’s world. Networking in pre-pandemic times meant physically attending events or staying back to socialising post the working hours. But today, with remote work setup, online teams and virtual businesses have become a norm, and give an excellent opportunity to benefit from virtual networking.
Kanchwallaalso puts much emphasis on setting boundaries between one’s professional and personal life. With professional and personal roles simultaneously happening out of the home, it can be overwhelmingly difficult to strike a balance between the two. However, with proper planning and boundaries, one can ensure that both aspects of their life run smoothly.
In a nutshell, the post-pandemic digital industry is ripe with opportunities; all you have to do is utilise your skills and resources with the best possible strategy and intelligent investments. Like Zahara Kanchwalla’ over five years old Rite KnowledgeLabs, with the right tools and skillset, you too can start on a path of growth and success in this rapidly digitising era.
