“People are the most important stakeholders in any business and therefore, shaping a culture that is merit-based and enhancing the sense of belonging becomes as critical as it can get. Unique perspectives valued at every level of the organization add a dimension to the culture that enables long-term growth. Empathetic and authentic leadership that offers equal opportunities encourages people to bring their whole selves to work everyday.”
ES. Please provide an overview of your role as Chief People Officer at Messe Muenchen India?
Suzaina Basheer. I’ve been leading the People and Culture function at Messe Muenchen India for about 3 years now. Here my role entails growing our team with talented professionals who are essentially also ideal fits culturally and reflect our values. As of last year, I also oversee Process Transformation and Admin, ensuring we are strengthening for scale and elevating our customer experience journey. I can say with some sense of satisfaction that we’ve come a long way as a cohesive team in a one-purpose direction with common values.
ES. As the Chief People Officer overseeing People and Culture at Messe Muenchen India, how do you prioritize gender equality and diversity initiatives within the company’s overall strategic vision?
Suzaina Basheer. At Messe Muenchen India, we are consciously shaping our culture with a values-first approach. This coupled with encouraging talent regardless of gender is an approach that has helped us build an inclusive workplace. Having said that, we are keenly aware that we are
operating in the trade fair industry which has a long legacy. It thereby has a larger share of male team members than female team members. With this awareness, we keep enhancing our workplace practices with a sharp focus, continuing to be an equal opportunities workplace.
ES. What role do you believe inclusive office environments play in fostering innovation, collaboration, and employee satisfaction within Messe Muenchen India?
Suzaina Basheer. Inclusion conceptually in itself resonates with embracing diverse perspectives. Thus, I believe steps in the direction of enabling an inclusive workplace fosters collaboration and innovation at a much deeper level than a culture wary of inclusion. In building an inclusive workplace, it is essential to design practices that make team members feel valued and respected. This leads to elevating the sense of belonging leading to higher people satisfaction.
ES. Messe Muenchen India has just set up its new office. Can you share the design philosophy and thought process behind your new office interiors?
Suzaina Basheer. We were very keen to build a workplace that echoes our purpose and reflects our values. We wanted
to put together a space that feels welcoming, warm, uncluttered, forward-looking, and fresh. Most importantly, we want it to be a recall of our values – Trust, Craftsmanship, Team Spirit, and Entrepreneurship – which are common behaviours that we strive to practice and reflect collectively.
Our workplace embodies safety and expresses trust, reflects fine craftsmanship, offers openness, offers multiple sections for people to come together in team spirit, ideate, and elevate, and offers seamless and uncluttered spaces for people so that they can dive deeper into their potential and own their plans.
Over the past few months, the cross-functional committee has worked tirelessly to ensure this design philosophy and thought process is executed on the ground. With positive feedback from our people, it appears that we’ve been able to build a workplace that our people love to come to. I’m elated to see that every area at our workplace forms a backdrop to capture great moments together!
A 3x larger workplace than our previous one, located in the heart of Mumbai, designed aesthetically – this showcases our commitment to people experience and our readiness to take leaps in scale.
ES. Share with us some of Messe Muenchen India’s initiatives to achieve gender equality as an employer in the exhibitions industry. What are some of your key milestones or achievements in this regard?
Suzaina Basheer. Inclusive hiring and growth opportunities have resulted in our female workforce growing to 36% with 25% in senior leadership and 29% in leadership positions. We regard this as a humble progress in being able to achieve gender equality within the trade fair industry.
The approach described which is values-first and talent-based that is used in crafting our hiring and succession strategies enables these milestones. Various workplace practices designed, for example, flexi-hours, remote working, business travel policies enabling security as a priority consideration, offering two-way communication platforms, and parental leaves for males and females has helped us achieve a balance. We continue to deliberate on more initiatives and strive to achieve more such milestones.
ES. How does Messe Muenchen India ensure that its organizational culture promotes equal opportunities for career growth and advancement, particularly for women professionals?
Suzaina Basheer. At Messe Muenchen India, we take our purpose and values very seriously, and this serves as a North Star when making all business decisions, particularly those related to organizational culture. Therefore, when it comes to providing equal opportunities for career growth, the organization’s focus is always on those team members who have demonstrated a values-first approach towards driving the business while living our purpose of enabling meaningful handshakes; unlocking business opportunities.
Apart from this, we ensure transparent, fair, and objective processes for the career growth of all team members through promotions, rewards, and incentives. These structures provide a level playing field for all teammates.
ES. In your experience, what are some effective strategies for encouraging greater participation of women in traditionally male-dominated areas of the exhibitions and events industry?
Suzaina Basheer. The trade fair industry is largely an outward-facing business where we are constantly interacting with customers or various stakeholders. Therefore, it is important that all our team members, including women, are seen and heard not only during our trade fairs and conferences but also within the organization’s decision-making structures.
It is crucial to have internal alignment that takes into consideration diverse perspectives and aspirations before arriving at business decisions.
ES. Looking ahead, what are your goals and priorities for further enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within Messe Muenchen India’s workforce and beyond?
Suzaina Basheer. Having established a gender-diverse workforce with adequate representation of women in seniormost positions, we are now looking forward to sharpening the skills and contributions of all team members towards achieving the company’s next growth milestone. Some of the initiatives in this regard are the setting up of the Centre of Excellence focused on transformations, L&D focus, and adopting the OKR methodology to enhance alignment and clarity across all team members and business functions. We look forward to continuing our efforts in fine-tuning our workplace practices, enhancing the sense of belonging amongst team members, and maintaining a values-first and talent-based approach to stay relevant.
