A Volunteer’s Takeaway from the PWN Global Virtual Summit 2021
As a serial international business networker - pre-LinkedIn days for sure - and a long-time advocate for human rights, currently focused on diversity and gender balance, I recently returned to Ireland and was co-opted to support the PWN Global Summit by my occasional business collaborator, Emma Olohan, PWN Global’sl VP of Public Relations. IWD is an important calendar date for PWN, and this year we elevated our presence by creating a truly global celebration of international women. The event was designed, organised and delivered by all of the fabulous PWN volunteers from around the world and attracted over 1200 registrations. Together, we pulled together an excellent variety of powerful and thought-provoking speakers and here is a summary of my own ‘top takeaways’ from this very stimulating day.
First up was Mary Robinson, Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice, Chair of The Elders and a genuine hero of mine for that past decade. Robinson no longer uses the term ‘climate action’ and instead says Climate Justice and suggests that there are four key lessons we need to grasp from this covid era.
“1. Collective human behaviour actually matters, 2. Government matters, where women-led governments are doing well at the moment around the world, 3. Science matters, at present we are listening to our Health sector experts, and going forward we need to listen to our Climate Scientists and other scientists, and 4. Compassion matters, where we are seeing people caring about those who are worse off and also speaking up for those who are affected.”
A thought-provoking request followed, from Roberta Metsola, Vice President at the European Parliament asking that “we make the path a little bit easier for those who come after, just as those who came before did for us, then maybe one day the path will be equal for all of us!”
Long-term PWN Paris Advisory Board Member and CEO of Lefebvre Sarrut, Olivier Campenon was the next up and he led with “Transformation is a must and requires open minded Executives to be ready to innovate and test new management approaches while delivering results; this is my objective and I also believe that diversity can assist profitability.”
Cecilia Ronan, CEO, Citibank Europe Plc stated that her first mentor was her Father, who challenged her to do just as much as the boys in her family. She appears to have done this and more.
The inspiring Otilia Ciotau, Adviser to both MD & CFO of the World Bank (and one of the handful of women in the world to have conquered Everest) left me with three great thoughts:
- Life is a climb, so choose your mountain wisely and go do it because you can
- Fear comes before courage, so from within be stubborn enough to withstand pain and discomfort, then you will succeed in almost anything you do
- Do not hesitate to recount your successes to help motivate others.
The message from Marc Carena, CEO of McDonald´s in Russia was heart-felt and will have appealed to everyone in this global audience with a family “Be a parent who teaches your children to view all humans have the right to achieve and improve their situation”. He wrapped up with a very personal quote. “I want everyone's daughter's dream come true”.
“Culture shapes language, as much as language shapes our culture” was Jenifer Clausell-Tormos' opening remark. Founder & CEO of Develop Diverse, she continues “The way we write our job descriptions is actually discouraging people, with stereotyping still deeply ingrained in our society and workplaces due to the lack of genuine diversity and inclusion.” However, it is not all doom and gloom as Jenifer referenced some very strong case studies to illustrate positive change:
Case Study 1: Energy Business Renewable energy company focusing on people within its manufacturing division, six months after using ‘develop diverse’ software secured 15% increase In women hired for leadership positions.
Case study 2: Danske Bank One of the leading banks in the Nordic Countries, secured an 85% increase in the number of female qualified applicants for their STEM job positions (i.e. Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths).
Case study 3: Amazon, in an early project use of a ‘develop diverse’ programme, obtained 175% increase in the number of qualified women applying for STEM and Managerial positions.
Uplifting anecdotes that show what impressive steps are being made in the right direction!
Mircea Geoana, Deputy Secretary General , NATO HQ was very open and transparent with his statement that… “NATO believes there is no way they can ensure peace and security, fighting fragility in many nations around the world or be more successful and more resilient, unless they empower women in everything they do.”
My favourite takeaway of the day and a genuine ‘reality check’ came from Maggie Henriquez, PhD and President & CEO of Maison Krug Champagne, “A crisis is a message telling us the cycle is over. The key message is to understand it is the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. But you will not be able to jump into the new one if you wait to have all the information, so be courageous – let go of the past and start with the new.”
Cynthia Hutchinson, Vice President , Automation Alley of Rochester, MI, USA gave us another reality check “Life is a challenge when it is not engineered for you - the reinvention of the past year that we've all experienced has provided additional appreciation for doing things differently, and can open up more opportunities for those who have often been locked (or knocked) down.”
Prof. Francesca de Gino from Harvard Business School, author of business book Rebel Talents* states that “We need to shift our thinking about rebels who can create positive change as they are people who innovate and come up with creative ideas. They are people who do not sit with the status quo but push the boundaries to create something new and better.”
The session finished with, Congolese national, Alda Kule Dale and Strategy Consultant & Progress Techpreneur with Kearney was our final Speaker who stated that… “The World Economic Forum expects the share of global female workforce to increase by only 3% over the next 10 years and to take another 30 years to reach 50%. Given the imminent threats that machines pose to labour, we need a better acceleration here – but will we have the time to make it happen in time - perhaps this is one of the greatest questions our generation will need to solve?”
* Francesca’s 5-minute test to gauge your inner rebel is a revelation – have a go, here: https://www.rebeltalents.org/the-rebel-test
About the author:
Gerry Dawson, Dublin based volunteer for PWN Global and a Sports Tourism & Event Development Specialist. Connect with Gerry on LinkedIn.
Author: Gerry Dawson
Copy editor: Rebecca Fountain, The Marketing Fountain
Date: April 2021
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