AUTHOR: Rita Kakati-Shah
Rita Kakati-Shah navigates the reader through the complexities of diversity, inclusivity and related topics in THE GODDESS OF GO-GETTING, drawing upon her extensive experience in the corporate world and in life.
Rita Kakati-Shah navigates the reader through the complexities of diversity, inclusivity, and related topics in THE GODDESS OF GO-GETTING, drawing upon her extensive experience in the corporate world and in life. The author immediately contextualizes her role from the outset, providing an overview of her background and current role. This establishes Kakati-Shah as a credible source of advice and information, as someone who has experienced and dealt with the range of issues she covers in her book. From being a young child, the author describes a sense of being ‘different’, a girl enjoying more boyish pastimes; later, she experiences the struggles of being an ‘outsider’, firstly as an ambitious female of color in the U.K. and then as a female in male-dominated work environments.
Inspired by the fighting spirit of her immigrant parents, the author refuses to fall prey to victimhood. Resilience is her ally as she ascends the career ladder, occupying high-flying – and predominantly male – roles on the equities trading floor of Goldman Sachs and then in the CNS drug development industry. It is perhaps the four-year career break to concentrate on motherhood that triggers Kakati-Shah’s deepening interest in highlighting greater understanding of diversity – which she defines as ‘being invited to the party’ – issues, having witnessed at first-hand the unconscious (or even conscious) bias toward mothers trying to re-enter the workforce. From this, her company was born: Uma. Uma is so-named after the Hindu goddess of strength, courage, and confidence. This suggests that the author’s business (and, by implication, this book) is primarily aimed at women, but a full reading makes clear that Kakati-Shah’s purpose is to advocate for any minority or marginalized group and to open the eyes of business leaders to the untapped potential at their disposal. Through Uma, she advises C-suite leaders and helps them make their organizations ‘more diverse’. The content of THE GODDESS OF GO-GETTING is a deep dive into this very subject and provides a multi-faceted examination of its complexities.
One of the strengths of this book is that a number of myths about diversity are debunked. Kakati-Shah treats the subject as the multi-layered issue that it is. As an example, she points out one of the paradoxes, explaining that some diversity practices can actually segregate and divide, rather than unite, as when policy rationale is based on ‘[r]everse discrimination’. She raises recognition that prejudice does not just refer to race, gender, ethnicity, etc., but encompasses the whole gamut of groups or individuals who feel ‘hidden in the margins’ – such as working mothers. Consequently, quota-filling is not something the writer appears to support. Rather, she seems to advocate the power of emotional intelligence and empathy in people management, which allows talent from all quarters to be acknowledged and rewarded. And while Kakati-Shah speaks of the progress being made (that so many leaders seek her guidance is testament to that), she is also realistic, reminding us that mindsets are often slow to evolve and may not keep apace with practical measures being taken. Strengthening the content of this book is the litany of supporting evidence in the form of hard evidence, quoted sources, and anecdotal detail. Even better, it is written in clear and cogent prose, making the reader’s job easy.
IR Verdict: THE GODDESS OF GO-GETTING is a thought-provoking, useful and authentic handbook for all involved in the corporate world, covering themes that are highly topical and set to remain so for the foreseeable future.
The review above is re-published here by kind permission of @IndieReader, which first published it at https://indiereader.com/book_review/the-goddess-of-go-getting/
