More women leaders – greater business value

The more women in leadership, the greater the added value for business. A new global joint study of Ernst & Young and the Peterson Institute for International Economics conducted among 22 000 companies in 91 countries worldwide shows. The figures were presented by Diana Nikolaeva, managing partner Transaction Advisory Services at Ernst & Young Bulgaria during the ongoing Global Women Leaders’ Forum in Sofia.

The presence of more women leaders in business can be a sign of greater professionalism. The results of the global survey show that an organization, which has at least 30% women leaders, increases significantly the opportunities for company development.

Increasing the number of women on middle and senior management positions creates additional value and benefits to businesses in general and the bigger a company is, the more they are, according to the data. Nearly one third of the surveyed companies, however, have no women on their boards or on lower managerial levels – 60% have no women on their boards, 50 % – no women in top managerial positions and less than 5% have women on CEO positions.

There are policies that are more promising than others according to gender equality, they focus on diversity in corporate management, the study established. Among them is the use of a quota principle. Moreover, the results from the survey confirm unconditionally that there is no ground to fear that the entry of women into leadership positions in the company will decrease the performance and productivity of businesses.

Institutions Management – the Challenge of the Century

Equality is related to diversity in all its forms, because retaining the status quo means stagnation. This was one of the key messages in the second panel of the ongoing Global Women Leaders’ Forum in Sofia, focusing on the role of women in business.

Despite the efforts of many men and women in recent decades, the change is not yet deep enough and perhaps one of the nuances that must be added to it is cultural diversity, one of the main panelists Baroness Beeban Kidron, a member of House of Lords of the British Parliament and lawyer on gender equality, said. “Very often men steal the ideas of women and say they are their own. This is very tiring! Just as the battle to fight for my right to be accepted as equal to men in the House of Lords”, she added from personal experience and observation. If we do not deal with the role of women in family, then her role on the labor market will not change. If attitudes are that the role of women and girls is limited to only taking care for the family, children and elderly family members, then even the idea of  development is permanently closed, she believes.

We need to educate young people through art and creativity, through the so-called cultural diplomacy. It can become the connection between differences – not only in gender, but in religion, it can become a platform for the raising and enforcing of common values such as peace, it can support the idea of diversity as a factor in equalizing opportunities and sustainable development Hedva Ser, artist, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador said.

Surprisingly, a sphere in which there is still serious misbalance in women’s empowerment is science, it became clear from the exposés of participants from academic circles. Give more power to women in academic life to implement productive changes in the achievement of equality, Gulsun Saglamer, Professor of Architecture, President of the Community of Mediterranean Universities and President of the European Women Rectors Association, said in her address.

The biggest challenge of the 21st century will be less the management of companies, but of institutions (by Peter Drucker) and therefore it is crucial to formulate the key knowledge and skills needed to manage them in order to integrate them more in school education, Yordanka Chobanova , adviser on European Affairs to the President of the Republic of Bulgaria said. The role and support of businesses in this respect is crucial, she added.

The leadership skills among women and men who respect women’s right to leadership must begin to form at school, it’s late to change people and their attitudes afterwards, said another major participant in the discussion, Darina Stoyanova, the CEO of Prestige – 96 AD and board member of the Council of Women in Business, established on the initiative of Manager magazine in 2012.

In this context a fundamental truth should not be ignored – that the personal development of each person is primarily his responsibility and not the main concern of mentoring, Julieta Serafimova, General Manager of Grand Hotel Sofia, director of the professional training center “Academy 5 stars” and a lecturer at New Bulgarian University, highlighted. Women have helped me in my career, so have men. Men have stood on my way, so have women. I’ve heard men saying “Julieta, you can do it!” and women, who said, “Julieta, you can do it better”, which I’ve taken as a criticism. Someone’s personal and professional development is mostly his/her responsibility, the role of the mentor is just helping with advice and tips rather than pushing to constantly move forward and upward”, said she.

Източник: Manager News