20th June, 2022

Author: Preeti Sharma (Content Writer)

Sheetal Talati Mehta is a Mumbai-based entrepreneur who is inspiring many of us to turn our goals achievable. Though it is not an easy ladder to climb, Sheetal proved it with her hard work and caliber; we at The HULAHUL Times are pleased to feature her life journey, which will undoubtedly serve as an inspiration to those who desire to be entrepreneur. Sheetal often admits that she is a second generation entrepreneur from her family, which gives her credibility and network benefits. However, becoming an entrepreneur usually has its own set of unanticipated obstacles. Considering the ever-changing market dynamics, you never know what you'll come upon! Having said that, Sheetal's continual task has to take the business to a new level, establish new goals and motivate the employees to keep giving their best to the organization.

Pushpa Industries Limited, headquartered in Mumbai, manufactures heat transfer equipment. Sheetal Talati took over the family business after her father, Rohit Talati, died unexpectedly. Rohit Talati founded Pushpa Industries in 1987. According to Sheetal, Pushpa Industries is one of the major coil manufacturers in Maharashtra. It makes heating and cooling coils for air conditioners, AHUs, cooling systems and chiller devices and supplies them to well-known companies like as Blue Star, Voltas, Hitachi, Daikin, and LG. Pushpa Industries has garnered numerous recognitions in recent years and remains a market leader. Sheetal took over the company in 2007; it was all quite challenging being no one to guide her in understanding the structure. The employees were apprehensive about how she would manage the firm. Sheetal, on the other hand, was determined to make a difference and launched herself into learning. Some senior employees helped and encouraged her as she mastered the fundamentals, and her father's precise notes supported her on the job.

Sheetal believes “As a woman in the manufacturing industry, I had to overcome a lot of resistance and non - acceptance. Apart from conventional roles that were “meant” for women, society generally reluctant to embrace a woman in such roles. These people frequently fail to appreciate that if a woman can reach the pinnacle, she can accomplish and excel into everything. Every entrepreneur experiences ups and down, and I feel that social support is necessary during adverse situations. Seeking ongoing assistance from family and friends has allowed me thrive during difficult times. Leading to a shortage of knowledge and various technical faults, she was first unable to meet the high expectations of MNCs as a traditional corporation. Directing every aspect of the business, from current duties to performance target, is demanding in their own sense. However, trying to take care of those aspects where you lack domain expertise is the most difficult”. Sheetal is a natural innovator, businesswoman, and believe that any woman becomes a successful professional in every sector.

Sheetal, determined to turn situations around, made a decision to produce the best product in the established market by gathering first-hand expertise while managing the firm. After obtaining special permission from the management, Sheetal took a course to learn more about it, and began introducing new technologies and mechanics of manufacturing to assist in meeting market demands and keep up with trends. She registered in an air conditioning and refrigeration course at Father Agnel College, "all-boy’s college" in Mumbai. "This became critical for me to initially study about domain we already were, in order to comprehend every element of it, from production to sales and purchases to marketing." "I attend the college from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.in the morning and be back to the factory by 9.30 a.m.," Sheetal explained.

She also joined business training hosted by local HVAC industry associations in addition to the course. The course assisted in marketing company products. In two years, she was able to restore the organization to the extent at which her father originally left in. She eventually began establishing and exceeding annual goals. The comeback was significant because the company had lost approximately 80 of its more than 100 clients when they were informed of a young girl with no expertise of the industry. She described the incident as a tragedy because summer is peak time for the HVAC industry. Contacting clients to rebuild faith in prompt customer orders didn't seem to work. Pushpa Industries has now gained clients such as Carrier, Blue Star, Voltas, Chroma, and others, and has experienced annual growth of 15%. Furthermore, from a production of 55,000 coils per year in 2007, it has grown to a volume of 3.65 Lakh coils annually.

Sheetal is not frightened to peek behind her. She has learned from her failures and grown as a person. Being a woman in manufacturing has unique problems since there are so few of them. To stay up with technological advancements, continuous learning is required, which might be hard at times. At each stage, one must enlighten themselves. If you have a unique desire and the perseverance to create your dream true, many opportunities open up for anyone. Sheetal intends to expand her firm into the international market as well. She is also redesigning processes and systems to increase efficiency without compromising capacity and is optimistic that efforts by the government such as Make in India and MSME funding programmes will provide wings to women entrepreneurs in the manufacturing industry.

She believes in Anand Mahindra way of inspire people like her through social media. He is a people’s person and a constant learning machine – something which Sheetal try to emulate in her own life. Sheetal Talati has quickly realized her father's desire. Though she faces hardships in her everyday lives, these are not really the challenges she began with. Women, like Sheetal Talati, must initiate somewhere in order for significant change to be implemented. She got the SheMaker award in 2020, the Promising Female Entrepreneur award in 2021, and the SheMaker evangelist award in 2021.