Her inspiring spirit of never saying no to a challenge has earned Sarawakian entrepreneur Dr Lalitha Kuttikrishnan Nair the Social Impact Award 2022 from a global organisation, Women in Management (WIM).

The presentation ceremony was held in Dubai on June 18 this year, which also highlighted her being the only Malaysian to be recognised by the WIM this year.

“Dr Lalitha is a ‘multi-talented serial entrepreneur’ from Sarawak who never says no to a challenge and is driven to create optimum and effective impact on the industry and communities that she engages.

“The adversities faced during the pandemic did not slow down her efforts, in that she’s the only Malaysian awarded the Social Impact Award from the WIM Top 50 Global Conference,” the statement said.

The inaugural global awards programme conducted by the WIM was themed ‘Resilience and Reinvention’, and it highlighted individuals who excelled in their chosen fields and exemplifies the best attributes.

Dr Lalitha was handpicked amongst over 300 applications received worldwide.

Boasting many academic accolades as well as possessing extensive experience in many industries, from education to tourism and even fashion design, Dr Lalitha has inspired and motivated many women within her organisation – empowering and lifting them up, especially those from the urban poor B40 communities, and also having trained more than 15,000 students and trainees throughout her over two decades in the industry.

“She aspires to spread maximum impact to all communities throughout Sarawak through her entrepreneurship endeavours, and hopes to inspire other strong ladies to follow within her footsteps as well.

“With the ever-rising economic growth in East Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah) in the past decade and in current times, the need for professional skilled workforce has increased proportionally alongside industry needs.

“Industries such as plantation, palm oil mills or refineries, automotive, electrical, air-conditioning repair and maintenance, tailoring and tourism, have summoned upon a much greater demand for professional skilled workforce.

“Hence, Dr Lalitha has taken the tasks and the responsibilities to ensure that these goals would be met and achieved,” the statement said.

Since 1999, Dr Lalitha has been running professional certificate programmes together with vocational and skills-training programmes for underprivileged school-leavers, with students coming from various ethnic groups like the Dayak, the Malay, the Melanau and the Orang Ulu.

Her programmes are accredited by the Ministry of Human Resources.

In addition, she has been conducting Graduate Reskilling Scheme (GRS) and Industrial Skills Enhancement Programme (INSEP) for unemployed graduates under the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF).

Under the HRDF Corp, she has also conducted programmes for the B40 group such as fashion design or tailoring for single mothers and housewives.

For the young graduates, she has conducted videography programmes (on freelance videography) during the Covid-19 pandemic under Gig Economy and National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).

This was done under her company, Harina Skills Training Centre, wholly owned by Amogha Maju Sdn Bhd.

“Being a woman entrepreneur, high-achieving career-woman, a loving wife to her husband, and a loving mother to three children – two of whom are doctors, and one is an entrepreneur-turned-artist, as well as a strong advocate of women’s rights and empowerment, her accolades and achievements are beyond ordinary measures.

“Not only did she path the ways for skills-training and changed the industry in Sarawak forever, she still remains humble (with her doctorate, no less) and pushes to create maximum societal impact and attains a strong spirituality in all her works,” the statement said.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, she had helped empower many tailors in running a programme where they sewed personal protective equipment (PPE) clothing for the frontliners. This basically gave opportunities to the women who had no income to come and make a small living out of the project.

Dr Lalitha started her journey of excellence when she realised that her job stagnation as a lab technician in 1995 was the burning factor. It pushed her to challenge herself, whilst handling the children alone as her husband, a retired army captain who was working as a palm oil estate manager, was barely able to come home.

She then took up her law degree. Although unable to practice law officially when she moved to Sarawak with her husband and family, she still went against all odds to work three jobs in lecturing, while helping her husband run his business.

Soon after, she took over as the executive director of Amogha Group of Companies in 1999.

“In 2016, she battled cancer and survived, continuing to thrive in all her businesses and endeavours.

“She is a firm believer of the ‘Law of Attraction’, and her favourite quote is ‘Input equals output’ – she sees no excuse to expect unexpected output if the right input is being put in,” the statement said.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by CHURCHILL EDWARD

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]