Leadership
Not Just Statistics: Meet the women power behind Page Industries’ success
While female representation on the factory floor is exceptionally high, bringing more women into executive and supervisory roles presents a different challenge, one that Page Industries approaches with clear principles.
The heartbeat of Page Industries does not begin in a corporate boardroom; it thrums across the meticulously organised factory floors scattered through India’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. Here, amid the steady hum of machinery, roughly 22,000 individuals drive the engine of one of the country’s premier consumer enterprises. Crucially, eight out of ten of this workforce are women. In manufacturing facilities, that figure surges to an extraordinary 90 per cent.
For Benjamin Felix Rajkumar, Chief People Officer at Page Industries, these percentages are far more than a corporate badge of honour. They represent a fundamental shift in how business excellence and human potential intersect. "Numbers are one thing," Felix reflects, "but what really stays with you are the individual stories. Over the last year, I have had the chance to visit all our facilities, and one of the things that strikes you immediately is the energy that the women bring to the workplace."
What begins as an operational imperative in garment manufacturing—a sector where fine motor skills, dexterity, and meticulous precision are non-negotiable—transforms into a story of socio-economic elevation. For thousands of women, employment at Page Industries is the primary financial anchor for their families, turning daily labour into higher standards of living, better healthcare, and quality education for their children.
Precision on the floor, strategy in the boardroom
Page Industries, the exclusive licensee of Jockey International for the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of the Jockey brand in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Maldives, Bhutan, and UAE, is not merely a retail vendor; it operates as a comprehensive category player. Its footprint spans the entire value chain, from initial concept and product design through to high-scale manufacturing, distribution, and multi-channel retail across general trade, exclusive brand outlets, and digital marketplaces.
Because the enterprise spans such diverse operations, diversity itself serves distinct, strategic purposes across the organisation:
- Manufacturing Operations: The high concentration of women is grounded in operational efficiency. Precision needlework and craft require exceptional dexterity, where female workers consistently set industry standards.
- Product Development & Corporate Strategy: Diversity shifts from tactile skill to strategic alignment. Designing for a vast, multi-generational, and multi-gender consumer base demands internal teams that mirror the external market.
- Customer-Facing & Leadership Roles: Building women-led teams in product creation and customer engagement helps the brand stay relevant by capturing subtle nuances in consumer preferences.
"If the teams designing products are not reflective of those consumers, we risk losing relevance," Felix points out. "In our consumer-facing functions, particularly those focused on women's products, we are consciously building more women-led teams because they are often better positioned to understand and engage with our customers."
The industrial mechanics of focus and culture
Walk onto a Page Industries production line, and you will witness a distinct rhythm. A brief window of social connection marks the start of shifts, followed by intense, undivided concentration. Some of these production lines operate as self-managed teams, delivering efficiency metrics that rank alongside global benchmarks.
This level of performance stems from a profound sense of responsibility. Many employees manage demanding domestic realities long before their work shift starts—waking before dawn, preparing meals, managing household affairs, and travelling significant distances.
Contrary to old assumptions, shift-based work structures have proven to be an asset for this workforce rather than an obstacle. A morning or evening shift offers structured predictability, enabling women to balance caregiving duties with gainful employment far more effectively than traditional, rigid hours allow, explains Felix.
This demographic balance also shapes the broader cultural climate. Drawing from his previous tenure at organisations like Titan, Felix notes that mixed-gender and female-dominated work environments systematically foster greater discipline, accountability, and mutual respect. The presence of women subtly elevates workplace decorum, raising the professional baseline for everyone.
Merit over Mandates: Redefining diversity in leadership
While female representation on the factory floor is exceptionally high, bringing more women into executive and supervisory roles presents a different challenge, one that Page Industries approaches with clear principles.
Felix expresses a strong aversion to performative diversity tactics, such as restricting hiring pools exclusively to "diversity candidates" or altering performance criteria to meet numerical targets.
"Women want to be recognised for their capability and merit," Felix emphasises. "The goal should be to remove barriers and create equitable conditions, not to compromise standards.
Moving from peer to supervisor is not a simple change. We invest significant time helping individuals prepare for that transition rather than simply promoting them and hoping they succeed."
By identifying high-potential associates early, the company provides structured mentorship and leadership training well in advance of open positions, ensuring that when women step into leadership, they do so with authority and established credibility.
The micro-interventions that fuel retention
Long-term employee retention rarely depends on grand corporate declarations; it is built on micro-interventions that address everyday human realities. Page Industries focuses on practical measures designed to remove subtle workplace friction points.
Nutritional Foundation
Leadership observed early that female workers often prioritised their families' nutritional needs over their own, bringing inadequate meals to work. In response, the company built a vast canteen infrastructure across its 17 manufacturing facilities, ensuring every employee receives at least one complete, wholesome meal each day.
Sanitation and Infrastructure
Expanding female representation in field sales and regional distributor networks began with basic audit logistics: verifying that distributor offices and field hubs had clean, safe, and accessible washroom facilities.
Humanised Absence Management
Instead of penalising attendance fluctuations with automated systems, Page Industries deploys dedicated welfare officers. When an employee faces attendance challenges, welfare officers step in to understand the underlying causes—whether related to childcare, health, or domestic strain—and offer tailored flexibility.
Addressing these practical details yields exceptional long-term loyalty. Once employees navigate the initial adjustment period, many remain with the company for years, and frequently decades, tells Felix.
Equality vs Equity: The true level playing field
A central theme of Felix’s philosophy is the crucial distinction between equality and equity. Treating every employee identically does not automatically create fairness, because workers navigate fundamentally different life realities.
Women frequently carry societal expectations surrounding maternity, eldercare, and household management that men rarely encounter to the same degree. Equity means keeping operational and leadership standards uniformly high, while building support structures that account for these systemic realities.
When an organisation removes structural friction without lowering the baseline of competence, diversity flourishes organically rather than through forced compliance.
Beyond gender dynamics, Felix emphasises that enterprise relevance depends on generational diversity. As consumer demographics shift toward younger cohorts, product development and brand strategies must evolve in lockstep.
Page Industries addresses this by deliberately embedding younger professionals within corporate and design teams. When launching collections targeted at younger demographics, relying solely on legacy perspectives risks tone-deaf execution. Generational inclusion ensures that products, marketing channels, and retail experiences resonate authentically with modern buyers.
Human capital in the age of augmentation
As modern manufacturing integrates advanced digital technologies, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence, Page Industries maintains a distinctly human-centric strategy.
Rather than viewing AI as a mechanism for headcount reduction or labour replacement, the organisation approaches advanced technology much like a collaborative robot, or "cobot," on the factory floor.
- Automation of Routine Tasks: Eliminating repetitive administrative tasks to free up employee capacity.
- Enhanced Decision-Making: Providing data-driven insights that help staff solve complex operational issues faster.
- Augmentation over Substitution: Positioning AI as a supportive tool that elevates worker capability rather than eliminating roles.
"We are not approaching AI primarily as a tool for reducing headcount," Felix clarifies. "Instead, we see it as a technology that can help people perform better and become more effective in their roles."
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