Cepham Inc: Championing Gender Equity as a Founding WIN Gold Sponsor
Women In Nutraceuticals is proud to have Cepham Inc as a Founding Gold Sponsor, demonstrating its commitment to advancing gender equity in the nutraceutical industry. Under the leadership of Dr. Anand Swaroop, Founder and President of Cepham, the company has actively integrated diversity and inclusion initiatives that not only empower women but also drive business success.
In this exclusive interview, Dr. Swaroop shares his insights on gender equality, Cepham’s commitment to supporting women in the nutraceutical industry, and the strategic and ethical significance of partnering with WIN.
What inspired you to become involved in promoting gender equality and supporting Women In Nutraceuticals?
The experience of observing two different realities formed my dedication to gender equality. During my childhood in India in the 1970s and '80s, I observed women working hard to maintain family life while developing professional careers. The Hindu tradition honored many powerful goddesses while the societal structure remained dominated by men. This paradox stayed with me.
My foray into the nutraceutical industry and the establishment of my company revealed a striking similarity. Women represent 65% of the workforce in our global supply chain, which includes farming and post-harvest processing, and they make most health decisions for their families. However, the industry's leadership and innovation sectors lacked significant representation from women.
The real trigger for my active involvement came from realizing gender equity should be approached as a strategic business practice rather than a simple charity. Supply chain partners began to notice when I presented them with complex data showing the profitability benefits of gender-balanced workplaces. No ethical persuasion had the same impact as the Excel spreadsheets.
Watching my daughter enter the workforce as a neuroscientist makes me reflect on the future we are creating together. When these women question our involvement, I want to tell them that we actively participated in changing the status quo. Supporting WIN means creating an industry transformation that serves every stakeholder while maintaining ethical standards. The information demonstrates effectiveness, while my personal experience shows its necessity, and my moral compass requires this action.
How does your company benefit from supporting gender equality initiatives, both in terms of culture and business outcomes?
Cepham’s gender equality initiatives generate multiple layers of value, boosting both financial performance and organizational resilience.
Business outcomes
Supply chain excellence – Our core operations benefit from investing in advancement because women make up 65% of our farmers and post-harvest processors. Providing women with training programs, resources, and leadership positions leads to better product quality and more dependable supply chain operations.
Innovation pipeline – The majority of end-users in our industry are women who decide on family health products. Including women in product development and leadership positions enables us to better understand and serve our market needs. Our female-led initiatives consistently yield market-responsive results.
Talent retention – Establishing real progression opportunities for women enables organizations to lower employee replacement expenses while preserving institutional knowledge. Our research demonstrates that departments with equally represented male and female leadership report both improved staff contentment and reduced staff turnover.
Cultural benefits
Enhanced decision-making – Diverse teams bring varied perspectives to problem-solving. Mixed-gender teams demonstrate their ability to develop innovative solutions when faced with complex supply chain or formulation challenges.
Stronger industry relationships – Our dedication to gender equity has reinforced our partnerships with suppliers and customers who hold similar values. Our focus on gender equity has allowed us to partner with organizations that emphasize sustainability and fairness in business operations.
Future-ready organization – An equitable corporate culture enables us to recruit leading talent from younger generations who value workplace diversity and ethical business operations. Our position in the talent market remains strong for the future.
Real-world impact
The structured mentoring and advancement programs for women in our supply chain resulted in a 35% boost in product consistency and a 15% decrease in supply delays. Our company's operational efficiency and profitability depend directly on these performance metrics.
Our dedication to gender equity serves as more than just a social responsibility target because it creates strategic advantages that strengthen our business resilience and drive innovation and profit growth. Our operational performance demonstrates that businesses with advanced gender equity practices surpass industry competitors, and our company's growth trajectory mirrors this trend.
How do you engage and encourage male employees within your organization to actively participate in gender diversity initiatives?
In our industry, women control most supplement purchasing and supply chain operations, but leadership positions remain predominantly male. We need to make this change happen, and here’s how we engage men in the process:
Make it real
Start by sharing actual stories. We invited Dr. Kiran from R&D to discuss her development process for the bestselling fenugreek extract product line. Rakesh demonstrated his procurement team's success through their strategy of engaging more with women-led teams who processed crops after harvest.
Keep it practical
Men want to support gender equality but struggle with knowing what actions to take. The first step to engaging them should be offering precise actions such as:
Take action to support female colleagues by speaking up when they are interrupted during meetings.
Recognize women's contributions by saying, "She came up with that idea."
Recommend qualified women for high-visibility projects.
Ensure team meals and after-work events include everyone.
Show the business impact
Nothing speaks louder than results. Here are some real numbers:
Research at Cepham shows teams with gender balance reach their targets 25% faster than less diverse teams.
Products created with female participation deliver a 45% higher customer satisfaction rate.
Our business interactions show that organizations with diverse leadership teams outperform their competitors.
Create natural opportunities
We implemented natural interaction opportunities instead of requiring mandatory sensitivity training:
Mixed-gender product development teams.
Mentoring relationships that operate bidirectionally, allowing male leaders to learn from female colleagues.
Innovation challenges that require diverse teams.
Address the awkward stuff
Many men worry about saying something inappropriate or being perceived as part of the problem. We establish environments where people can freely ask questions and learn without fear. Making mistakes during efforts to improve is acceptable.
Make it part of daily work
The focus should be on transforming our everyday work practices, not just implementing special initiatives:
Who's getting the challenging assignments?
Whose voices are we hearing in meetings?
Who's getting credit for successes?
Lead by example
Senior leadership must actively walk the talk by:
Sponsoring female talent.
Sharing parental leave stories.
Being open about learning and mistakes.
The supplement industry is changing fast. Organizations that correctly implement these practices will achieve a significant competitive advantage. Those that don’t? They will fall behind.
Learn more about Cepham HERE.
