Lockheed Martin aims to expand its presence in India with a focus on female entrepreneurship. Lockheed Martin is a US-based global aerospace and defence company. “We have put aside several million dollars to support any innovative idea that could change the world, many of them coming from women individuals and teams,” Deputy Executive Vice President Lorraine M Martin said. “About 400 ideas have taken root and about $900 million in revenue from these innovative entrepreneurs so far.”

Martin, with 30 years of experience at the company and four and a half year in the US Air Force, said the company was going to focus on women-led companies to invest in, in their search for tech startups.
“We have been very involved in some of the investments to help new ideas, innovative strategies that individuals or teams might have to help invest in them,” Martin said. “We have been supporting them for the last 11 years through India Innovation Growth Program (IIGP) where we offer $2 million a year of resources and mentoring to startups through competition, wherein we had partnered with the Government of India, Department of Science and Technology and most recently with the Tata Trust, doubling our resources.”

In collaboration with Tata Group in India, the company is currently working on aerospace and defence in two different ventures. Lockheed Martin is looking to expand into manufacturing in the country where they currently already assemble parts of the C130 cargo aircraft and helicopter cabins of the S92 in Hyderabad, before sending them to the US. This would differ from their current system of
making them in the US and exporting them to Hyderabad for assembly.

Martin said promoting subjects such as Math, Engineering, Science and Technology would further support women in joining the technology based workforce. The company’s recent partnerships with Tata Trusts and the Indian government to provide seed funding was also a form of support for Indian female entrepreneurs, according to Martin. “We (at Lockheed Martin) would like to have half the workforce as women, which is what our population is,” Martin said. “All the studies have shown that diverse workplaces are more productive. Studies show that companies with women in senior leadership perform better.”

(Picture courtesy: Vista.today)