We recently connected with Rita Kakati-Shah and have shared our conversation below.

Rita, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

As a British Assamese growing up in London, my parents had always instilled the message of embracing British culture, while never forgetting my heritage. To this day, everyone who knows me – or has even met me briefly, knows exactly that! I’m English, Assamese, and now American, having emigrated to the States 12 years ago. The work I do with Uma has confidence and owning your own narrative at its core, and that is solely due to my upbringing and formative parental values!

Rita, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started my career on the trading floor of an investment bank and after a decade in finance went on to lead business development globally in the CNS pharmaceutical industry. I settled in New York City after getting married, and started Uma after my children were born to empower confidence, communications and build leadership and resilience of women and minorities around the world. Uma is a strategic consultancy that works closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 4 (education), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8 (workplace), and SDG 17 (partnerships), to deliver strategy and programming for organizations, curriculum development for academic institutions, and coaching and mentoring to the thousands of youth, girls, and women we help around the world. I’ve lived and worked around the world, so bringing together other cultures, empathy and understanding in everything we do at Uma, is paramount. It’s extremely rewarding to be able to witness firsthand the impact of this work on the futures of those that we help.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

While the global pandemic of COVID-19 is associated primarily with adversities, it has impacted all of us in one way or another, bringing about a turning point in our own modus operandi. For example, we had to pivot almost overnight from an in-person training and consulting platform to developing new strategies and curricula for a remote and now hybrid client base. Reading the room, being mindful of changing goals, and being able to switch gears at a moment’s notice were key.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Nothing builds reputation better than being trustworthy and credible. Focusing on fine-tuning – and adjusting when needed along the way – our offerings, and getting feedback which later turned into testimonials, was key. The testimonials and publicity that naturally came our way after the word of mouth got out on the impact and tangible results our work demonstrated was essential in the process of building our reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beboldbeuma.com
• Instagram: @beboldbeuma and @ritakakatishah
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeBoldBeUma/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rita-kakati and https://www.linkedin.com/company/beboldbeuma
• Twitter: @beboldbeuma and @ritakakatishah
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/beboldbeuma