[100 Emerging Women Leaders] This tech entrepreneur says women leaders should be data-oriented

During her five-year stint in Reliance Industries till 2018, Vijeta Soni found herself in a leadership role as the Vice President Technology and Innovation. “I was one of the youngest women leaders in the group,” she says. After that, the IIM alumna, confident about her experience and inspired by her journey, wanted to start her own venture. 

Soni wanted to introduce an innovative tech-based solution that would solve a common problem across industries. She realised that there is one thing common to all products in the market: a price tag. Determining the pricing is a practice followed across industries. 

She decided to leverage her interest in technology to solve pricing-related problems and began groundwork. Her co-founder, Anshu Jalora, a PhD in pricing and revenue management, soon joined her. 

In 2019, they founded dynamic pricing company Sciative Solutions, which offers AI-powered price optimisation solutions and assists businesses in appropriately pricing each product. 

Currently, its products are deployed in ecommerce, retail, travel, entertainment, and hospitality sectors across India and the United States.

Cutting through the biases

Drawing on her experiences, Soni acknowledges the existence of gender-based biases. “Over time, you realise these are social biases. These are embedded in the minds of people,” she says. 

She says her work, behaviour, and data orientation helped her a lot. “When you are in a meeting and realise that there are such biases, it is important to have a professional approach. Your behaviour, your questions, they start earning respect.”

Soni advises women leaders to be tech-driven and not pay heed to such prejudices.

“Be data-oriented because whichever business you are in, you have to deal with data, you have to know numbers, and see how your financial growth is happening,” she concludes.