The 2010 DIANA International Research Conference will be held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, on August 3 and 4. The Conference will be linked to a special issue of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (ET&P) on the theme Extending Women’s Entrepreneurship Scholarship in New Directions.

Babson is a partner on the Diana Project. Named after the goddess of the hunt, the Diana Project is a multiyear and multi-university study of female business owners and business growth activities. Two of the five leading female scholars who have written the Diana Project are key members of the Babson community, Patricia Greene, Entrepreneurship professor and holder of the President’s Chair in Entrepreneurship, and Candida Brush, Entrepreneurship Division Chair and holder of the Paul T. Babson Chair in Entrepreneurship.

For more information on the DIANA Project and their upcoming research conference, check out this Babson press release.

There are a small group of people in the world who actually really love research and I admit that I am one of them.  But it’s not just about the research, it’s about research leading to and grounding action.

It’s been a great month for that type of research in the area of women’s entrepreneurship.  Just last week alone we had the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Leadership Academy , bringing together the women and men who have created educational programs around the world to advance economic development through women’s entrepreneurship.   This program has already reached 2,000 women.  It was a thrill to talk with so many people about all that we have learned from the research in this area and to see it translated into many languages, and perhaps even more importantly, translated into educational programs that are already producing jobs.

NAWBO also had their annual conference last week, and we kicked it off with a panel that used the research to review the past and explore the future, focusing on themes of growth, clout, and systems.   NAWBO is increasingly interested in building out their education and training programs, and need I say it, make sure they are based on research.

At the same time, The Center for Women’s Business Research had its board meeting last week and used it to further our planning for the expansion of our panel study — W-Biz Insight — to allow us to conduct rapid turnaround research on quite focused questions about women entrepreneurs and their businesses.

And finally, after many months of very careful planning, Astia’s We Own It Summit was a smashing success.  The planning for this one was tremendously fun because we intentionally based it on the research.  To quote Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia, “The conversations at this first We Own It Summit were based on a robust body of research, that if women were able to fully participate in high growth entrepreneurship – as they do in microenterprise and small business – we would see a significant and measurable benefit to the economy, innovation and society.” 

So why is research so fun?  Because it’s a conversation and these conversations lead to making a difference in people’s lives and their communities.  We’re building on what is now a very solid foundation of what we know about women entrepreneurs, and we’re pushing the boundaries to answer even more questions. 

And now, I need to go read the latest study from my dear friend, Olga  Pizarro Stiepovic, the Director of the Centro de Estudios Empresariales de la Mujer at Universidad del Desarrollo. Her study is the Rol de la Mujer en la gran empresa. Del programa Chileemprendedoras.  Again, here we go pushing those boundaries to think about women in bigger businesses.

Patricia G. Greene, PhD, MBA
F.W. Olin Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship, Babson College

In June, anthropologist and Babson Entrepreneurship Professor Lisa DiCarlo will lead twelve undergraduate students to Turkey in a course entitled “Social Responsibility Through Eco-Enterprises in Turkey.” Professor DiCarlo, a faculty member also affiliated with The Center for Women’s Leadership, will guide the group as they research and conduct field work in a workshop for Turkish women who have never earned money before. These women will learn to make consumer goods out of post-consumer and post-industrial waste. The students will take part in and observe the process whereby potential women entrepreneurs in Turkey are given the tools they need to create eco-enterprises embedded in social responsibility. View a short video on this Babson offshore course.

I’m traveling in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this week on an Eisenhower Fellowship. My fellowship focus is on entrepreneurship in the Middle East, particularly among women.  In Saudi Arabia, women’s participation in the workforce is very low – about 15% of women are employed – and rates of entrepreneurship are said to be much lower (there are not good statistics available here given the business registration process that has traditionally required a man to be listed as the owner and/or manager of the business). Anecdotally, many of the entrepreneurial ventures women start here are small scale work-from-home, sole proprietorship businesses. 

I was at Prince Sultan University’s College for Women to give a talk to students and faculty about Women’s Entrepreneurship from a global perspective, including:

• How women’s entrepreneurship is different from men’s in terms of the characteristics of business started and how the ventures are financed;
• Why women’s entrepreneurship is important for economic growth and job creation;
• How prevalent women’s entrepreneurship is;
• Best practices and ideas about how to increase rates of women’s entrepreneurship; and future challenges.

There was a lively Q&A and discussion about the particular challenges in Saudi Arabia for women entrepreneurs, and how best to prepare women to assess and develop entrepreneurial ideas and acquire the skills needed to successfully manage and grow a business. There was also a good debate about what the University can do as part of its business curriculum to introduce the frameworks and skills needed to help women develop their own businesses.

Diane Mulcahy
Adjunct Lecturer in Entrepreneurship

For many of us, the words “social media” evoke feelings that run the gamut from exasperation to fear of getting lost in the swirl of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and losing touch with the real world as we know it. But, it is clear that social media is here to stay and needs to be a key element of any successful organization’s toolbox of tactics.

On Thursday, April 15, 2010, the Center for Women and Enterprise in partnership with Babson’s Center for Women’s Leadership hosted a panel with three successful women entrepreneurs (Jill Cartwright, President, Go Gaga; Heather K.  Margolis, President, Channel Maven Consulting; and, Kaarina Kvaavik, Chief Officer of ABLE Innovations) who de-mystified the world of social media through the lens of their experiences. The discussion was practical and enormously helpful in providing an inside look at how social media has significantly enhanced the growth of each of their three businesses.

There were so many great nuggets of information derived from this lively discussion. Here are some in no particular order.

·         It’s all about relationship and community building through online conversations. You need to hear what your targeted communities are saying so that you can craft a value proposition that will speak to them.

·         You can start slow. Just listen and collect information for several months on what folks are talking about in the realms of social media in your area of interest/business. Listen to the chatter!

·         Social media can be a great forum for your business’ research and design process. Float ideas out there, and find out what people think. Don’t worry about the competition picking up your ideas. More often than not, you end up partnering with them to everyone’s benefit.

·         Whatever you post on social media should add value to the reader’s experience. This will encourage them to come back to you for more. Once they have ‘recognized’ you or your business in the social media, they will be more apt to respond to traditional outreaches through e-mail.

·         Consider how you will allocate your resources and time (yours and your staff’s) for social media promotion. There are tools that can help you manage and optimize your time in the social media world.  Laterbro.com, hootsuite.com, and cotweent.com were among those mentioned.

·         Create a circular flow of communication through your use of social media that ultimately and always brings your clients back to your website.

·         You need to decide on your ‘framework’ or ‘brand’ in the social media outlets. Some social media are more relevant to certain aspects of your business development than others.  For example, Jill Cartwright uses Twitter as her business to business arm, giving her access to other CEOs in her field and awareness of product development. Facebook has been a better platform for Jill to connect with her customer base, her ‘fans’, parents who are interested in her products.

·         Twitter is great for ‘trial and error’ in the social media world. Whatever you put up there only lasts about 15 minutes, so you can test things out and not worry about it hanging out in cyberspace to haunt you.

·         There are analytical tools to help you determine the impact your social media networking is having on your business.

·         Social media compliments your marketing efforts. It creates an “echo.” It is NOT a silver bullet.

Submitted by: Cindy Lauer; Project Manager, Marketing Programs

The Boston Business Journal held its first annual Advancing Women event on March 12, 2010, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. It was both a celebration of how far women have come as business leaders and an informative discussion of developing strategies for the success of the next generation of women leaders in the workplace. The breakfast program featured a keynote from Myra Hart, a member of the Diana Group, a research team of five professors who collaborate in the investigation of the unique challenges and opportunities of female entrepreneurs. A panel of top local women executives, led by Susan Rittscher, President and CEO of the Center for Women and Enterprise, addressed the challenges they have faced as business leaders and how they overcame those obstacles. The Boston Business Journal honored Evelyn Murphy, President of the WAGE Project Inc., and Toni Wolfman, Executive in Residence, Women’s Leadership Institute at Bentley University, with their first ever Advancing Women Awards. Highlights of the speakers’ and panelists’ remarks were captured on video for all to hear.

This recent posting on NPR’s On the Media site, certainly resonated with many of us who think about and seek to influence the advancement of women in all areas, including, in this case, the media. They write:

target=”_blank”>ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote recently that NPR “needs to try harder to find more female sources and commentators.” She investigated NPR’s stats and found them pretty lopsided. We wondered … why so few women? So we asked blogger, professor and man Clay Shirky to posit his theory.”

We encourage you to check out these links and welcome your comments!

I’m Thinking….
I just had the pleasure of introducing a session on Women in Healthcare: Reaching and Retaining Talent at Babson’s 7th Annual Forum on Healthcare and Life Sciences.  This happened to be the day that I also received the AAUW research report Why So Few: Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  The panel (organized by women MBA’s)  was lively, hands-on-helpful and reflective of the stories of struggle and success we hear so often. The AAUW report is a must-read, regardless of your profession.  It’s filled with invaluable data, perspectives and questions about how our world implicitly “genders” everything from academic disciplines to leisure pursuits and sends messages to our children about what’s preferable—and what’s possible.

The panel and the report came together on the same day and underscored the multiple, complex reasons that we still have so few women in so many occupations, particularly at the highest levels.  And the two also came together in reinforcing the value of making it clear to girls that there are options—and lots of them! 

But this got me thinking.  We tell our girls that they can be anything they want to be.  And we’re often encouraged to also tell them that it doesn’t matter what major or hobby or profession they choose; we just want them to do what makes them happy.

I’m not positive, but I’m thinking that this could actually be a huge mistake. 

I’m thinking that a stronger, more positive, more powerful message is that we want them to choose areas of study, internships, volunteer activities and yes, ultimately work, where they can learn and grow and make a real difference.  I’m thinking maybe we don’t want to “accidentally”  let girls off the hook on pursuing science, technology, engineering, mathematics — or boys off the hook on teaching or the arts with messages that “accidentally” reinforce gender stereotypes.    I’m thinking that when we say “You choose and there are no wrong answers” we’re abdicating the responsibility to help kids be curious and questioning and open minded.  I’m thinking that these messages permit girls and boys to choose what’s known and safe and comfortable in a world where survival (never mind success) is increasingly dependent on the embracing the unknown, and on the ability to fail spectacularly—and then do it again.

I don’t know, but I’m just thinking……

Submitted by: Jan Shubert, Director, Babson’s Center for Women’s Leadership

Women entrepreneurs make a significant contribution to the economy in the US and around the world. For more than two decades, the participation of women owning 50% of US businesses rose from about 26% of all US businesses (2.3 million) in 1980 to a 40% share (10.1 million).

These statistics reflect ONLY ownership, which includes women who inherit, buy, and start these businesses. While the growth in ownership is a significant factor and has risen over past decades, it is often reported that women are either starting or growing businesses at 2x the rate of men.  This is just not true.  No research shows this to be the case.  Studies of self-employment, rates of entrepreneurial start up, and venture growth all show that women are only equal or lag their male counterparts.

The media, and a variety of other organizations frequently state that women are starting businesses faster than men. I have studied women’s entrepreneurship since 1980 and recently authored the section on women entrepreneurs for the US Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Below are the highlights of the 2009 report:

• Women Rising: The rate of women’s start-up, referred to as TEA, shows a marked increase (6.1% to 7.5%) while the TEA for men shows a slight decrease (10.7% to 9.8%). However, even though  the rate of women’s start-up increased slightly, men are still starting businesses at a rate greater than women.
• Cash Crunch: Women start ventures with eight times less funding than their male counterparts. This is a major issue! Not only are women starting at a rate slower than men, they have less cash with which to start their ventures.
• Different Visions:  Men are more likely to start business-service businesses than consumer-oriented businesses (47% vs. 24%), while women are more likely to start a consumer-oriented rather than a service-oriented business (52% vs. 26%). This means that women are starting businesses in the sectors that have the lowest entry barriers and highest rate of failure.

The misuse of an incorrect statistic not only perpetuates a myth about the success of women, but also misses the actual challenges that women face in business start-up.  The bottom line–women have made significant progress, but there is still more progress to be made.

Submitted by:  Candida G. Brush, Professor of Entrepreneurship; Paul T. Babson Professor of Entrepreneurship Studies; Chairperson, Entrepreneurship Division at Babson College

Here are two recent resources about the on-going saga of women on boards.

First is a a really hair-raising, informative and provocative blog from Margaret Heffernan, author, consultant, and great thinker on women’s issues.   

The second is an upcoming opportunity for women to increase their knowledge and preparedness to serve on boards. The organization Women in the Boardroom hosts executive leadership events in 15 cities across the U.S. to assist women in accessing opportunities for board service. There will be a Women in the Boardroom event in Boston on September 13, 2010.

But the view from CWL?  Let’s tackle this problem at its root:  the companies who still don’t get it.  No matter how many qualified women there are to serve on boards (and there are legions!) or how much we work to help these women become more visible and viable, unless we register our disbelief and dismay on this, nothing much is going to change.  Let’s vote with our pocketbooks, with our investments, and with our strong voices! 

Submitted by:  Jan Shubert, Director, Babson’s Center for Women’s Leadership