Shilputsi in the News
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Led by providence : The Financial Express – February 10, 2001

Pratibha Sheth was all set to become a doctor. But illness and fate combined to make her one of the best-known HRD consultants in India today

I am young at heart.” Says Pratibha Sheth , refusing point-blank to divulage her age. But meet this 50-something managing director of Shilputsi Consultants and you’ll come away assured of the authenticity of her claim. As a leading consultant of human resource development. Ms. Sheth is a well-known name in corporate circles.

Beginning her career as a professional social worker. Ms. Sheth worked extensively in the field of family planning and on problems related to urbanization and immigrant communities.

In 1970, when she moved to Mumbai with her husband, Tarun Sheth, who was then working with Hindustan Lever, she realized that the corporate world offered her skills immense scope . She began as a freelance consultant, offering training programmers in personality development. Communications, motivation and leadership.

By 1978, Ms. Sheth was already making a name for herself. That was when she decided to set up Shilputsi Consultants. Shilputsi is named after three daughters, Shilpa, Purvi, Atsi, and she explains its meaning as something that has the creativity of Shilpa, the sculpture , the uniqueness of the Raag Purvi and the fragrance of the flower, Atsi.

In the 22 years since Shilputsi was set up, Ms. Sheth has served as consultant to various companies, both Indian and muttinational, advising them on organization structures, organizational development, human resource development, designing and implementing systems of performance appraisal, job evaluation, role analysis, remuneration, training and recruitment.

“We cater to clients across industries, ranging from software to footware, “says Purvi Shet, who has joined her mother in Shilputsi and is involed in recruiting and training. Shilputsi’s impressive client list include names such as the Tata group, the RPG group, the Dhabol Power Corporation, Total, the Microland group, Pillsbury, Reckitt & Coleman, Glaxo, Gujarat Ambuja, ICICI, Johnson & Johnson, the Aditya Birla group and the Times of India group.

Ms. Sheth agrees that MNC’s are greatly responsible for bringing professionalism into human resource management in India., but she firmly believes that HRD runs in Indian blood. “The philanthropism of the Tatas and the Birlas prove that Indian companies have managed HR without attaching a formal tag to it,” she explains.

Other than training and counseling, Shilputsi is also well known for recruiting senior as well as middle and junior level management staff. From drafting job specifications and advertisements to conducting interviews and reference checks, Shilputsi provides the entire gamut of services.

Her chosen career path has paid Ms. Sheth great dividends, and not necessarily only of the monetary kind. She remembers fondly how about three years ago, just before Aditya Birla passed away, he had personally thanked her for getting him the right candidate to fill certain senior positions in his group.

“Gender bias does exist even today, though in small measures,” says Ms. Sheth, She describes how once, during a consulting assignment, she overheard a genera manager asking his HRD manager why he had brought in a woman to do the job. Even today, she says, because her husband has been working with her for 12 years, she has to assert continuously to others that Shilputsi is her baby, not her husband’s and that it was always she who held the consultancy firm’s reins.

Ms. Sheth says she was lucky in that even in the early 1960s, she did not find it tough to pursue her career. This was partly because she belongs to a progressive Gujarati family. Both her elder sisters were doctors and she desperately wanted to follow in their footsteps. However, providence had something else in store for her. She fell ill and could not pursue her studies in medicine. Instead, she graduated with a Master’s in Social Work in 1960 from Baroda. MBAs were not in existence then, she remembers with wry smile. “Coming from a liberal family and being extremely ambitious and career minded, I faced non of the intra personal conflicts most women undergo,” she says.

Unconditional family support and a good measure of self-confidence have combined to make Ms. Sheth the dynamic figure she is today, courted and feted by illustrious institutes. Ms Sheth has been a visiting faculty member for the Master’s in Management studies programme at institutes such as the Jamnalal Bajaj institute, the SP Jain institute, the Sydenham institute of Managemt, the Chetana institute of Management, ICFAI and the Soumaiya institute of Management.

“Understanding the culture of an organisation and full confidentially are our forte.” Says Ms Sheth. For MNCs wishing to set up shop in India. Ms. Sheth offers a range of services like briefing on history, culture and business environment, on conditions pertaining to infrastructure, food, housing, and medical facilities, and opportunity for spouses and children.

Post-liberalisation , when multinational consultancies poured into India Shilputsi had many offers to merge its services with the biggies, but Ms. Sheth refused them all, preferring to retain her identity. “ Big money does not lure me as much as job satisfaction.” She says, explaning her wish to remain her independence. You can’t blame her really. When you’re enjoying the best of both words, who’d want to change the status quo?