PWN Global Newsletter Q1 2019
HAPPY NEW YEAR - HERE'S TO OPPORTUNITIES AND
PROGRESS IN THE DIGITAL ERA!
"The rise
of Artificial Intelligence (AI) could hurt women’s careers and widen
the gender gap". This main headline from last week’s World
Economic Forum (WEF) presents a challenging road ahead on our
mission to accelerate gender balanced leadership. Let’s collectively
change that paradigm. Let’s turn this rapidly evolving digital
society into an enabler of female leadership. At PWN we believe in the
opportunities for women in the digital economy.
Gender parity again was on the agenda in Davos
but perhaps less prominently than in previous years. We are happy that
our corporate partner Mercer took the lead and celebrated their 5th
anniversary of When
Women Thrive. While the latest Global Gender Gap report
from WEF might paint a disturbing picture of gender equality having
stalled, Pat Milligan, Head of the Multinational Client Group and When
Women Thrive at Mercer, claims this Fourth Industrial Revolution gives
women renewed opportunity. And we agree when she says diversity and
inclusion has moved from a tangential discussion confined to HR, or
Employee or Business Resource Groups, to an essential discussion among
business leaders defining and building their workforce for the
future.
Increasingly we are seeing that organizations are
putting gender diversity on the strategic agenda. It is also becoming
apparent that the digital economy provides potential to develop and
implement bespoke solutions. The shift to ‘bespoke’ is one that is
encouraging, as it takes us away from the rather naïve notion of a
‘one size fits all’ solution to gender inequality, and it shows
the real commitment of business leaders to get it right.
When done well, the results are remarkable.
Sodexo is well known for its enormous commitment to ‘getting it
right’. Their
latest insights show how bespoke the effort needs to be to reap
business potential. They have shown in their case management teams
need to have between 40 and 60% women, no more, no less. When they do
hit the right number, all metrics go up significantly. For instance:
8% higher operating margins, 9% higher client retention rates, 14%
higher employee satisfaction compared to those management teams that
are not gender balanced. These insights would not have been possible
without digital technology.
Digital therefore can be an enabler of gender
balanced leadership for business. If we are aware of, and aim to fix
the biases in Artificial Intelligence (AI) – as WEF cautions us:
with the significantly higher percentage of men in tech roles, there
is bias in programming – we can use data and digital tools to
improve recruitment, retention and talent management. And let’s not
forget how technology is also helping women themselves in having a
better work-life balance, allowing for more flexibility, more
effective time management and therefore higher productivity.
Female ambition and business culture are
increasingly becoming two sides of the same coin, and particularly
when we use digital technology to deliver on bespoke solutions. The
good news is that we see many men who want to play a part in
supporting women and gender balanced leadership in the digital era. At
WEF, it was JP Morgan’s chief, Jamie Dimon, who
stood up and addressed men’s reluctance to directly engage with
women. “If you are a leader, you cannot do that”, he said
passionately. At PWN we have a growing number of male leaders who
share this thinking. We will continue to sponsor this debate and we
look forward to engaging you in discussion and action!
Want to be part of this exciting journey? If you
haven’t done so alread: get in touch; join a
local city network; volunteer
and help us make a difference – you’ll have a great experience,
develop yourself and, very importantly, have a lot of fun!
Enjoy your read and make sure to share the
news.
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Sonya Richardson Co-President, PWN Global
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Rob Baker Co-President PWN Global
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Q1 2019 newsletter introduction note
authored by Sonya Richardson
PWN Gender
Balanced Leadership
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What do we
expect from a working woman? To become successful at work? To become
equally successful at home? Do you think that we expect a lot from
women? Read on to discover the thoughts of Funda... |
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PWN
Mentoring
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PWN Milan is
celebrating the 10th anniversary of its mentoring program in 2019,
with a book!
The book stems from the
willingness of the association to tell the story, the evolution and
the... |
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Since its
foundation, PWN Madrid has continuously developed its Group Mentoring
Program, which, in each edition, consolidates its success by achieving
the adhesion of a growing number of... |
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PWN
Geneva-Lausanne launched its mentoring program in 2017 with Karin
Harder, with a transition to co-leaders Natalie Wilkins and Chris
Nassivera in February 2018. With three mentoring
cohorts... |
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PWN
Entrepreneurship
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PWN Rome
recently hosted a round table event that featured a group of female
founders who shared their powerful stories with a view to supporting
would be entrepreneurs. |
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PWN City
Network News
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PWN Lagos, one
of our newest city networks has a sound selection of seasoned women
from different professional backgrounds. Sandra Momah, President of
PWN Lagos reports, "We are happy to announce... |
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Through their
newly launched Youth Program, PWN Lisbon aims to be the leading
network in Portugal for young women to find empowering, learning and
sharing experiences, and connections in the early... |
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After the
resounding success of PWN Paris visiting PWN Romania earlier in 2018,
the team decided to set up another visit to another member of the PWN
family, this time in Nice. |
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PWN Zagreb is
the first nonprofit organisation promoting gender equality included
among 65 other organisations that represent best Croatian
contributions to UN Global Goals of Sustainable... |
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PWN Corporate
Partner News
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We are
thrilled to announce that Lafargeholcim has once again renewed it
contract to be a corporate partner of PWN Global.
Lafargeholcim Middle East & Africa IT Service Center contribute
to... |
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Amazon
Operations partnered with PWN Global almost one year ago. The driver
for this partnership was Amazon's real desire to create better gender
balanced leadership in their operations functions. |
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Expert's
Corner
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Ina
Catrinescu: author, consultant, trainer, and founder of SHFT Happens
is hosting a webinar for us in May on the topic of Creative Problem
Solving. She kindly shared this great article with us... |
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Business
change expert, Francesca Valli, who has helped to transform
organisations such as Orange, Inmarsat and Reed Exhibitions, recently
hosted a PWN Webinar on the topic of 'Strategies and... |
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PWN Global
Parner, INSEAD has a great blog site that hosts thought pieces,
expert opinions and first-hand accounts on the topics of career
development and leadership, curated to guide users on... |
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Founder of
Hard Talk and former PWN Webinar presenter, Dawn Metcalfe shares her
advice on how to deal with a passive-agressive boss in her brillian
Dear Dawn column. If you've got that issue in... |
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PWN Member
Offers
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If you
haven’t ever visited Barcelona, then GSMA’s 4 Years from Now
(4YFN) might just be the perfect excuse to pop over and see what
you’ve been missing out on. Atomico ranks Barcelona as
the... |
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PWN Member
Spotlight
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Have you heard
of Shirley Thompson? This PWN Nice member is, literally, OARsome!
In December 2018, 60 year old
Irish born Shirley Thompson set off from the Canaries to row 3,000
nautical miles... |
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Book
Review
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If you like
Dawn Metcalfe's article (scroll up in the newsletter) - you may want
to consider reading her book that will help you discover the HardTalk
that has been holding you back. |
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Website
Review
News Round
Up
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