According to Silverstein and Sayre, a quiet economic and social revolution is taking place.  There is upheaval in the workplace, turmoil in the home, radical change in the marketplace, and a struggle for influence in government and society as a whole.  The revolution is all about women.  Women want more–more education, better ways to take care of themselves and their families, increased success in the workplace or as entrepreneurs, higher earnings and better ways to manage and leverage their accumulated wealth.

Some of the interesting data collected indicates that:

·         Worldwide, one billion women participate in the workforce.

·         The number of working women in the US has increased by 50 percent in the past twenty years, to 75 million

·         Working women in the US generate $4.3 trillion in earned income annually

·         Women account for 57 percent of the students of higher education in this country and 47 percent worldwide

·         Women worldwide make or influence at least 64 percent of all purchases in a wide variety of categories, and a much higher percentage in many of them

The quantitative data gathered and analyzed by the authors led them to believe that women will drive an incremental increase of up to $5 trillion in global earnings over the next few years.

While the gains that have been achieved are remarkable, they come with a price tag.  Very few women say they have enough time, money, help, or love in their lives.  Almost all women experience simple, chronic frustration with products and services.  They want to do business with companies that care, listen, and respond to their needs and desires.  They want to associate with brands that respect and honor a relationship with a female consumer.  They will compliment brands that deliver and will complain about brands that don’t.  Silverstein mentioned the 10/300 rule which is: if a woman loves something she will tell 10 people.  If she hates something she will tell 300 people.  Best to be on her good side!

For those of you who are interested in brand marketing or entrepreneurship, this is a recommended read.  And for those of you who are often asked by men “what do women want?”  You may find yourself responding in three words as thousands of women who were surveyed did; time, money and love.

In order to track the exciting changes as women move forward, please take a moment to complete the survey.

Submitted: Judi Reed, Assistant Director of The Center For Women’s Leadership, Babson College

My panelists were gifted and any one of them could have readily carried a 90 minute program on the strength of their individual knowledge and character.  Sometimes a panel of gifted individuals can be hard to manage.  In this case they were a cohesive team and our only challenge was to keep up with the audience’s long list of questions.  Our panelists were:

Kah Walla, is the Founder and Director of Strategies! (and the exclamation point is an important part of the name), a management consultancy firm in Cameroon.  Her work is divided into 40 percent in Cameroon, another 40 percent across the rest of Africa, and 20 percent international.  Along with her corporate work, Kah works with local governments to promote women’s entrepreneurship.  She was recently recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative for a project on women’s economic empowerment carried out with 500 market women in Cameroon.  Kah kicked off the panel with a compelling statement of the business case behind women’s entrepreneurship. 

Ayshen Zamanpur, or the Cashmere Lady as she is known in her home country of Turkey, is the Founder and CEO of Silk and Cashmere.  Ayshen’s business is built on a strong set of strategic partnership and alliances with Chinese manufacturers.  There are now 52 Silk and Cashmere stores in Turkey and abroad.  Twelve business school cases have been written and delivered about Ayshen and her business.  Ayshen started her segment of the panel with an overview of her entrepreneurial career that really helped set the stage, especially for the students in the audience.

Building an entrepreneurial career was also a theme of Marie-Christine Lombard, Group Managing Director of TNT Express, Europe’s largest express company.  Marie-Christine is also on TNT’s Board of Management.  She used a series of entrepreneurship examples to describe her journey through the financial industry in Lyon, Paris, and New York before joining Jet Services, which eventually became TNT Express France.  Marie-Christine was completely engaging in describing her approach to entrepreneurial competencies. 

Our room was completely packed with people actually sitting on windowsills and standing along the back of the room, and our audience participation came from entrepreneurial thinkers ranging from 23 to 81.  Questions for our panelists ranged from the issue of competencies, through hiring practices, mentoring relationships, and entrepreneurial timing.  As we’ve found in our Diana Project research, many of the issues have at least some universal relevance, despite differences in culturally based beliefs and behaviors, political approaches, and economic systems.  Probably the most universal aspect – the energy and enthusiasm of the young women getting ready to dive into entrepreneurship.  I can’t wait to see what they end up doing with their lives.

Submitted by: Patti Greene, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Babson College

I recently had the opportunity to participate in the final round of an international business case competition in Hong Kong with three of my fellow peers from Babson. The IIBD Case Competition was a two part case competition with 30 universities from 11 countries competing to solve real-world business problems. In the first round competition, our team had one week in June 2009 to prepare a ten-page solution to a case on a Taiwanese real estate firm looking for a strategy to expand into other regions of Southeast Asia. We proposed a solution that would draw in recent college graduates to run branches in their respective countries, empowering them with the entrepreneurial spirit to take control. In a tough economy with fewer jobs, our proposed a solution would create new jobs. This solution won us the chance to participate in the final round competition in Hong Kong, along with four other teams from around the world, including Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Canada.

In the final round competition that took place during November 13, 2009 in Hong Kong, our team had six hours to prepare a solution to a case on an Australian retailer that was struggling to meet targets that were set to show the world of their social responsibility efforts. After six hours of preparation, we gave a 20 minute presentation and followed by 15 minutes of a question and answer session by a panel of judges from all around the world. Our proposed solution focused on empowering the employees to take initiatives to promote corporate social responsibility throughout the firm. Our team emphasized the importance of the management team providing the right encouragement to the employees to meet the company’s set targets. If the company’s employees are able to exhibit the right behavior, it will make a dramatic difference to the company’s image. Again, we wanted to deploy an entrepreneurial solution – the Babson way! We received very positive feedback around our solution, and I am happy to say we took third place at this competition.

This was a chance of a lifetime. It was an eye-opening experience for me to see how other schools from around the world solved business problems and presented them. Even though each of the five schools had the same case to work on, all of us came up with different solutions. It was really interesting to see how many paths could be taken to reach one common goal.

Overall, my team had a great experience. We got to meet amazing students and judges from around the world. We were able to represent Babson and show others how the entrepreneurship mindset can play a leading role in solving global business problems.

Submitted by: Ada Chen, Women’s Leadership Program Scholar at Babson

The group of women professionals who attended were from great organizations in telecommunication, insurance, bio-pharmaceutical, education, manufacturing, technology and currently have responsibilities in very diverse functional areas including marketing, operations, finance, investor relations, sales, IT systems, regulatory oversight and project management. But they all had two overarching things in common.  First, every single one of them enrolled because they care about being effective leaders.  They have a real passion for the work they are doing, plus the talent to execute and the desire and motivation to get out front and really make a difference.  Second, most of them really do have supportive bosses and colleagues, and many have strong external networks and good mentors.   So, what’s been slowing them down, stalling them out and causing them to gnash their teeth in frustration? 

The details vary from person to person and company to company, but during the course of our classroom and small consulting group discussions we tapped into several all-too-common themes.  Here are just two that we explored.

The strategy in some of even the most successful organizations is, at best, mysterious to anyone outside the C-Suite and, at worst, blah, blah, blah with no get-your-arms around it substance to guide folks on where to exert their considerable talents. In such turbulent economic times, it’s probably inevitable that corporate strategy will be fluid and flexible, and as a result it will be a challenge to stay on top of.  But if this translates into your best and brightest not knowing, not understanding and not being able to rally others and wisely deploy resource in aid of that strategy, ultimately you’ll have problems.

When talented, passionate people in organizations want to advance, one of the ways they should be able to chart their course is to take a look at the organizational chart—the structure.  What are the roles and responsibilities?  Who is currently in those roles?  What are the skills and experience required for each of those boxes? Another way your up-and-coming leaders figure out “what’s next” is to check out results; who is held accountable for results and who gets rewarded when things work out—or corrected when things go south?  When this invaluable talent pool looks at your organizational structure and pegs their next move up, what do they see?  A real “Hall of Fame”, populated with experts, can-do executors, role-models?  When they track how the policies and practices actually play out, is the story they take away one of clear runways for innovation, fairness, rewards for results, and support for correcting the course?

Make no mistake: absolutely any of the women in the session this last week (or any of the previous sessions) wanted—or even needed—a detailed, step-by-step, hold-their’s-hands roadmap for success. They are smart and savvy and ready and willing to take responsibility for their own leadership development, their own performance. But hear this: the leaders they admire, respect and want to emulate are those who chart clear courses that real people can follow, who remove barriers, who help their team navigate obstacles and who always celebrate achievement.

Submitted by: Jan Shubert, Director, The Center For Women’s Leadership

Ernst & Young released the second report in its “Groundbreakers” series today during the annual Strategic Growth Forum in Palm Springs, California. The report, titled Scaling up: why women-owned businesses can recharge the global economy, details how women entrepreneurs are critical drivers of economic growth and provides resources and insights for private sector, government and NGO leaders who are seeking to close the gender gap.

Worldwide, women own or operate 25-33% of all private businesses, according to the World Bank. Ernst & Young’s Scaling up report highlights key barriers to growth and unique characteristics of women-owned businesses, which historically do not reach the size and scale of businesses owned by men. The report notes several key barriers that must be overcome — including addressing issues of employment, opportunity, lack of role models and access to financing, among others.

In the US, for example, women are starting businesses at nearly twice the rate of men — if these women entrepreneurs started with the same capital as men, they would add 6 million jobs to the economy in 5 years, according to research from Babson College referenced in the report. The report also notes that, according to a new study by the Center for Women’s Business research, women create or maintain more than 23 million jobs, or 16 percent of all US employment.

Link to full press release>>>

Priya Haji is also a woman that I recommend connecting with. She started World of Good by Ebay which is a social entrepreneurship venture. The concept of this website is to connect artisans and consumers directly so that the artisans are fairly compensated for their hard work. All of the products on the website support the environment and/or these impoverished artisans.

The conference also organized 4 different “breakout sessions.” I attended panels that discussed conquering investment banking interview, private equity and hedge funds, and careers in investment banking. They provided a great opportunity to listen to Finance professionals. The panelists gave great advice as well as insight into their careers. During one of the sessions, I attended the career fair which was the perfect chance to follow up with the panel members about their discussions and network with them. These sessions are really what made the conference beneficial for me.

As you can see, the conference was a phenomenal experience. I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of the speakers and their discussion as well as the personal interaction at the breakout sessions.

Submitted by: Megan Cyr

Overall, I had a great time Jillian Dreyer echoed. I especially liked the two breakout sessions that I attended in the morning – Consulting 101 and Crackling the Case Interview. I am going for a second round interview for a New England consulting group on Friday so these were the most helpful.

I was really surprised by how many girls were there from different countries and universities.  They said girls came from over 100 countries. I was able to sit next to a girl from the University of Sydney which was awesome since I studied there in the fall.

I am really glad I went to the conference, and I definitely learned a lot.

Submitted by: Jillian Dreyer

Framing was the other concept with particular resonance. After requesting that the audience all close their eyes, she surveyed for optimists and pessimists. Her exercise asking a self-proclaimed optimist and pessimist to describe a presentation in which a senior executive walks out on a junior colleague’s presentation perfectly demonstrated the range of meanings we bring to events, colored by our own inherent tendencies to see the glass as half empty or half full. Even with the realization that we bring our own story to neutral events, she counseled that we could practice a more constructive way of dealing with problem situations so that we avoided the spiraling sense of despair that thwarts so many talented people, particularly women.

Read her book How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life, and if you can, go see her speak. Joanna Barsh is a treat.

And visit the CWL web site for information on other great upcoming events free and open to the public.

Submitted by: Julia dePeyster, Assistant Director, The Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson

First- we celebrated the new research study released by the Center about the impact of women business owners on the economy.  The research was sponsored by WalMart and for the first time, used a sophisticated and rigorous econometric forecasting tool, Implan.  The research was conducted by two high profile economists, Dr. Hassan Pordeli and Mr. Peter Wynkoop, who have used this methodology frequently in the past.  This study was based on a random geographic sample of women business owners and quantified the economic impact of women business owners.  The forecasting model showed that women created  $11.8 million jobs and are responsible for more than $1.2 trillion in sales.  This is very good news!

Second-the SMU forum for minority female entrepreneurs held in September was a smashing success! More than 120 women attended the Accelerating Growth Forum to discuss how to overcome their biggest challenges to business growth.   Participants gained insights into strategies and had the opportunity to network.

Finally, we had a great discussion about how the Center will use social media to expand and disseminate our research and connect women business owners around the country.  Lena West  of  Xyno Media led our discussion. A continuing success is the Center’s w-bizinsight panel where women business owners have the opportunity to share their opinions, successes and thoughts on current issues through this on-line survey.

After this exciting two day meeting, I am convinced that the opportunities for women business owners are better than ever!

Submitted by: Candida Brush, Chair, Entrepreneurship Division, Babson College and Vice-Chair, Research, Center for Women’s Business Research

Submitted by: Julia dePeyster, Assistant Director, The Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson

The research carefully notes that “these perceptions are not supported by research on actual leadership behavior, which finds that gender is not (the italics are mine) a reliable predictor of how a person will lead.” But we all know that perception is reality, or at the very least, is likely to shape important outcomes.

But wait, there is really good news from another quarter!  [2]  Two professors at Insead, the premier business school in Europe, reported it in a January 2009 article in Harvard Business Review called “Women & the Vision Thing.”  Based on a database of 360-degree assessments for thousands of executive education participants (they call this the Global Executive Leadership Inventory), they found that “female leaders received higher ratings than male leaders in most dimensions of leadership.”

Let us just stop and savor this for a moment.  This means that their bosses, their subordinates and their peers – both men and women — rated the women higher than the men on dimensions that included: 

·         Empowering

·         Energizing

·         Designing & aligning

·         Rewarding & feedback

·         Team-building

·         Outside orientation

·         Global mindset

·         Tenacity

·         Emotional intelligence

And there is only the tiniest bit of negative news in their research: on only one dimension and only by one set of observers were women  rated lower than men!  Stop again and savor.  Now proceed.  While the bosses and subordinates (male and female) of these people scored women as higher than men on their envisioning capabilities, the male peers of these people viewed men as slightly higher than women.  This, of course, seems predictable as competitive posturing, right? 

So, my friends, take heart.  The news is indeed good. Finally, your talents are being seen through the miasma of prejudice and stereotypes. But let us keep in mind that, as the authors of the study caution, “this envisioning dimension is, for most observers, a must-have capability.” 

I recently shared this research with women who have participated in Babson’s very own Executive Education program on Women’s Leadership that we call “Moving from Managing to Leading.” I wrapped up by encapsulating the collective wisdom from my several colleagues who teach in the program: to move from managing to leading, (this is, to be seen as a visionary leader), one needs to

• Articulate opportunities and threats in the environment.
• Articulate strategic direction through this environment.
• Acknowledge and explain how you will manage the risks to get the rewards of this strategy.
• Be decisive (and resilient: expect some to be wrong and let go of those like your male colleagues do – learning is ‘trial and ERROR,’ remember)
• Inspire all your constituents
• Deliver results
• Articulate the linkage among all the above and claim credit for what you do

Take heart and have fun with this. 

Submitted by: Anne Donnellon, Associate Professor and Faculty Director for Babson’s Fast Track MBA Program