My Defining Moment of 2014

As the CEO of Savran, specialists in diversity consultancy and coaching, I have worked with individuals and organisations from many diverse groups. For example, I have coached a young Asian woman to set up her own business and she has managed to increase her income threefold; I have also provided relationship and life coaching to men and women and have supported clients in the process of life-changing decisions in both their career and personal lives.

Savran’s most notable achievement this year has been consulting with a Police force to improve

the recruitment, retention and career progression of their 3000 minority ethnic officers. All these ventures have helped bring about positive change for my clients, but this would not have been possible without the changes I made in my own life.

Success comes down to the goals and aspirations we set for ourselves, but quite often the thing that prevents us from meeting these goals are our own limiting beliefs, which are often self-imposed. Diverse groups sometimes experience obstacles through unconscious bias of others and may need extra support through networking, mentoring and coaching. These are issues as an Asian businesswoman, I have had to overcome myself and coach others to do the same. Ultimately, diverse groups increase the quality and creativity of decision-making and improve the quality of service and profits of any organisation.

Expanding my business means that I am busier than ever, but it’s important that my values, culture and family are not compromised. This year, we as a family started weekly meetings to openly discuss, in an understanding way, all aspects of life and to support each other in achieving our goals. We all contribute to documenting the values that we inherited from our parents and the ones that we want to live by in a family mission statement that hangs in our kitchen. This reminds us daily that as we grow and develop, we shouldn’t lose sight of our values and the legacy we want to leave behind.

The defining moment for me this past year was losing both my Mother and my Mother-in-law within the space of a few months.

My Mother became a widow at the young age of 36 and had raised my three siblings and I on her own. She instilled in all of us strong family values, a hard work ethic, the importance of education and giving back to family, friends and society. Most of all, she encouraged us to be ambitious and not let circumstance or our own self-doubts, limit us.

Seeing both of my Mothers leave this world was an incredibly difficult time, but it also brought about a desire within me to honor them. I did this through developing and expanding my business, and used both of my Mothers’ names, Savitri and Rani, to create Savran.

I wanted to put my wealth of experience of teaching, training, coaching and mentoring into a wider project of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As an Asian woman, I felt that minority groups such as women and ethnic minorities should be empowered and supported more to progress in the workplace and in business.

For further information on personal development, career coaching or diversity consultancy contact Rita Chowdhry on rita@savran.co.uk or call 07973 469298

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