Bindu Mittal is the Director of Operations at Anutone Acoustics Ltd. one of the leading technology companies in architectural acoustics and industrial noise management solutions for walls and ceilings. She made sure all her employees, irrespective of gender, were rewarded, based on their talents and skillset. She is seen as one who walked against the norm and set a benchmark in gender equity way back in the late 90s when the disparity between men and women was prevalent.
In the late 90s, when digitalization was a far cry and manual record-keeping was the only practice in company operations, Bindu Mittal joined manufacturing, implementing programmes that would ease the day-to-day work of her workers. As probably customary with any trailblazer, she met with resistance from the same workers, only to be accepted and acknowledged immensely later on. Bindu Mittal, Director Operations of Anutone Acoustics Limited laid the stepping stone of gender equity in her organization by implementing the same work and same pay policy for both genders, years before the concept became a practice.
Bindu was born in a small town near Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Due to her father’s transferable job, the family had to move from one place to another and she had to study in different parts of the country, culminating in a B Tech degree in Electronics from Nagpur. After getting married in 1993, she moved to Bangalore. It was in the year 1998, Bindu started her journey with Anutone Acoustics, a company started by her husband. Anutone specializes in manufacturing acoustic panels for walls and ceilings to control echoes in commercial and government places like schools, hospitals, auditoriums, conference rooms, and theatres. The company currently has two manufacturing units located in Whitefield and Narsapur, both in Bangalore, India.
Embracing Equity: Building Digital Infrastructure
When Bindu joined Anutone as Manager – MIS, the company had only one manufacturing unit in Whitefield and operations were managed entirely manually with the help of record books. It was then that she decided to ensure that she would alter the way the business was run and set out to modify the management and information systems by creating a computer programme that could input data and analyze quality, raw material usage, and production metrics.
However, her decision was not welcomed initially. “There was resistance from the managers and workers about it, partly because the change was coming from a woman and also because human by nature is prone to resist any change,” recalls Bindu Mittal. She further added, “Slowly they realized that it was helping them in their work in a better way by increasing their productivity and efficiency while saving on time.”
An Engineer Who Never Stopped Learning
Since the beginning, Bindu made sure that she gained significant knowledge of the entire manufacturing processes and shop floor activities in her organization Anutone. “When I joined, I knew I had to understand every process to asses them better. So, instead of sitting at the desk and collecting all the data, I used to visit our unit, observe operations, talk with the operators to have a firsthand experience and knowledge of things,” she says.
Even though she was academically an Electronics engineer, part of her engineering course involved learning about machines. So she considers that learning manufacturing was relatively easy. “Being an engineer, it was easier for me to get a grasp of the processes and technicalities even though it was in manufacturing.” There were some hurdles, she admits, which she overcame by judiciously consulting with her team members who were well-versed in that particular area. Setting her target on achieving professional excellence, she rose from strength to strength from an MIS operator to Operations Manager and finally to Director of Operations today.
Bindu Mittal has always believed in leading her people while setting an example herself. “There was a time when we were completing our first export order ever which was to go to the Philippines. The task required the entire team to work day and night shifts as well as overtime, to meet the deadline. So, I worked alongside my team and made them realize I am one of them, demonstrating to them how to overcome any challenges that arose,” she proudly recalls. “In any field, you should make yourself accepted first by your action and ideas,” adds Bindu Mittal.
“Instead of ordering workers around, I instead endeavour to work closely with them and allow them to arrive at solutions on their own”, shared Mrs Mittal. Bindu does this to ensure scope for growth while, still, remaining in a friendly, protected working environment.
Setting the Tone of Gender Equity
Bindu took remarkable strides in bringing women up front and breaking the widely accepted norms and practices. In the late 90s, there was a disparity in wages for men and women even in the same type of job. In what was an unconventional move back then, Anutone decided to pay all employees regardless of gender, according to their capability and skill set.
“It was hard to understand why government maintained such disparity even though women making their mark equally in their field,” she rues. However, she believes, that equal pay for women even at that time was the reason many women joined the organization who has grown in their career and potential with the company. Encouraging women to work on the shop floor has been a priority for the company, as she believes that women bring a level of discipline and commitment to the workplace that is often unmatched by men. In Anutone, there are almost 30% of women workers on the shop floor today.
Overall, she feels she has been quite successful in making sure to recognize employees’ hard work, irrespective of gender, and make them feel like the workplace is their second home. The company provides facilities such as service awards to its employees, both men and women. “I have both men and women working with us for almost 20 years and over. Some employees have received the ’20 Years Award’, ’25 Years’ Award’ etc.,” she says. Citing this example, she also opines that while there is a general drift of the workforce, women in particular, towards financially more lucrative sectors like IT, manufacturing can offer more stability to a woman’s career, much against the general notion.
“Now with the government’s initiatives such as Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India, the manufacturing sector is not only reviving but thriving. This augurs well for the manufacturing sector, and for all those who are passionate about manufacturing, be it a man or woman,” Bindu signs off.
