Journey From Glamour to Glory-Shamina Khalid

The thirst for knowledge, the sheer confidence in her work, and the willpower to go against the traditional ways of the society and work have paved the way for a successful career in Ms. Samina Khalid’s life. Machine Maker is proud to showcase the story of this incredible woman who is doing her part in revolutionizing the manufacturing sector in a way which many believed, wouldn’t have been possible at all.

Samina studied BSc in Biotech from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College after which with her alma mater as the University of Pune did MBA in International Business. She started off her professional life as an intern in the marketing department of United Breweries group and later worked for Yash Raj Films for almost a year. However, away from the glitz of glamour world, she found her true calling in the manufacturing industry.
 
She started her career in the manufacturing industry with CNC Servicing and Solutions, a part of HAAS Automation, a global leader in machine manufacturing. To prepare for the interview she had nothing but only a landing page of the company. Nevertheless, her ambition and determination helped her bag the job. On the second day itself, she was introduced to the massive machines and was left baffled by the thought that she now had to market these.
 
The role called for starting everything from scratch and raising an entire marketing team. Something that seemed like a challenge for any fresher out there looked like an opportunity for Ms. Khalid. She used this opportunity to sharpen her skills and prepare the grounds for handling tasks that are even more challenging. Throughout this process, she was pleased to have extremely supportive colleagues and boss like Ashish Lala. According to Mr. Ashish Lala, “Samina is a very goal driven person. As modern career women, she is very much focused, whatever work was assigned to her she did it very well and gave it her best”.

Unlike any other industry, Ms. Khalid notes that people in the manufacturing industry are extremely supportive. They give their best when it comes to sharing of knowledge which in turn helped her a lot during her initial days, which she believes wouldn’t have been the case if it was any other industry.
 
During her career with the manufacturing industry, she worked with a number of departments within the marketing department, right from internal sales to sales dashboard. She made her presence felt in a traditionally male dominant sector of the industry. Being a woman she faced challenges during her career but with her sheer willpower, she overcame all the challenges to become what she is today, the marketing manager of UK based Renishaw’s Indian arm. Renishaw specializes in industrial metrology and spectroscopy and sells its products in the major markets around the world. With her career exposure abroad and in both US-based and UK based firms in India, she strongly believes that Renishaw is very systematic when it comes to work and is an ideal place to work in. Her career at Renishaw has been extremely fruitful for both the company and herself, her ability to analyze other types of industry and implement the same has been extremely rewarding for Renishaw.

The National Sales Manager of Renishaw India Mr. Sanjay Sangam has been very helpful to her, right from sharing his experience to keeping her updated about the industry he has played an instrumental role in making her career life a huge success. Mr. Sanjay noted, “Samina is a very professional woman, she knows what she is doing, she is a person who is very passionate about her job”. He further went on to say that Samina is a person who can be completely relied on; he says he can completely rely on her for organizing any events, exhibition and be sure that everything will be perfect.
 
Samina has set a benchmark for every professional in the manufacturing industry, both men, and women. She never shied away from taking up the challenging task, was available 24/7 whenever the work demanded, and sometimes even the non-availability of basic human needs didn’t stop her from going to various exhibitions for her company and taking up the work assigned to her. She does point out that whenever she had to be at an exhibition for her firm she would be there days in advance to the start, so as to help smooth arrangement. She also points out that there weren’t too many females out there prior and after the event, at first there weren’t any proper washrooms for a woman too, but now the time has changed the thought process has changed now, so has arrangement for women. But still, she points out that there is a lack of participation of woman’s in such event and there is a need for improvement in this area. 

There are several challenging incidents Samina went through during her career. There was a particular occasion while preparing for an exhibition at Delhi for CNC Automation. The truck carrying Haas Machine got broke down at Rudrapur, and the driver informed her the same about at 10 pm. She just herself got a replacement truck, went down herself, got it fixed, and came back at around 2.30am with the material so that the exhibition would take place without any hindrance, something that her boss doesn’t know up to date as she feels it’s a part of a work and needn’t be shared.
 
She also finds time away from her professional life, voicing and championing issues pertaining to the social life in our society. This year Samina and her friends under the banner of team Free Soul has been selected for Times Women’s Drive. Times Women’s Drive has supported the cause of women’s cancer with a dedicated team collaborating with various organizations and work for the betterment of cancer survivors.

There are a lot of challenges India faces in the manufacturing sector. She rightly pointed out that the biggest problem faced by the manufacturing sector today, specifically in India, isn’t the non-availability of technology or skilled manpower; it’s the reluctance of the industry to move away from the traditional methods of doing a task. The industry is just not ready or doesn’t find it necessary to find out new methods and ways for doing a task in a much more efficient and rewarding way.

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