No. CCXLXI; March 7, 2017
THIS ISSUE’S HIGHLIGHTS:
I. WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS AT 2017 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN
II. CASE FOR DIVERSE AD TEAMS MADE AT GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN
III. LESSONS FROM UBER
IV. WOMEN WORKING AT OLDER AGES
I. WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS AT 2017 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN
Women leaders in business and government from countries including China, France, Kazakhstan, Spain, Vietnam and dozens of others are preparing to descend on Tokyo for the 2017 Global Summit of Women from May 11-13. One of the highlights of the three-day Summit is a special luncheon session, “Women Entrepreneurs: New Businesses from ‘Old’ Needs” featuring women leading enterprises in four different countries.
Panelists include Sheila Marcelo, Founder and CEO of Care.com, the world’s largest online destination for finding and managing family care. Born in the Philippines, Marcelo started the business as a college student in the U.S. after she had difficulty finding care for her two young sons and ill father. After raising more than $100 million in venture capital from investors, the company went public in 2014 and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Joining Marcelo on the panel is Charlotte Whitmore, Founder of AnalyticsPros, who after beginning her career in non-profit medical volunteering, started and grew a digital consultancy advising global brands. Another panelist, Melissa Yang is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Tujia.com, China’s largest vacation rental website, with a market value over $1 billion. Yang succeeded in making Tujia.com the “AirBnB of China” by making changes to the AirBnB model to fit the Chinese market.
Also joining the panel is Silvana Coche, CEO of Gravity Pro Consulting, who brings 20 years of software engineering experience to her consultancy advising Fortune 500 companies. From Japan, Maiko Kuroda, President and Co-CEO of Toyoko Inn, is invited to speak about how she turned around the Toyoko Inn hotel chain of 250 hotels around the world.
“This panel epitomizes the Global Summit of Women,” says Summit President Irene Natividad. “Women from around the world telling their stories of how they succeeded as entrepreneurs by being innovative and sharing tips and strategies that the attendees can bring back to their countries and companies.”
For more information on the Global Summit of Women and to see who else will be participating, visit www.globewomen.org/globalsummit.
II. CASE FOR DIVERSE AD TEAMS MADE AT GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN
Senior executives leading corporate diversity initiatives at multinational companies gathered at the TimeWarner Conference Center in New York on Feb. 23-24 for the Global Summit of Women’s annual Colloquium on Global Diversity. One of the event’s featured panels “Beyond ‘Mad Men’: Moving Towards Diversity in Advertising” focused on companies taking proactive steps to reach a diverse group of customers by insisting on diverse creative teams of advertising agencies pitching to them.
General Mills is one such company requiring the advertising agencies in their supply chain to present their ideas with diverse teams. The company made headlines when they announced that they only wanted to engage with ad agencies who would have a team of at least 50% women and 20% minorities. To hear General Mills’ Chief Creative Officer Michael Fanuele explain why they made this requirement, click on the video below.
Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, is also working to encourage advertising agencies, which are largely run by white males, to understand the importance of having diverse teams make the pitch to companies. In addition to working to increase the number of women who serve as creative directors, Hill offers advice in the video below to those working in corporations.
To see photos and more from the Global Summit of Women’s Colloquium on Global Diversity, visit www.globewomen.org/globaldiversity.
III. LESSONS FROM UBER
Following a blog post by a former female Uber engineer describing a sexist, chaotic and aggressive corporate culture at the company, the spotlight is again on the potential reputational risk companies face in the social-media driven world. A company’s culture has always been featured in any stories about the company’s success or failures, but human resource experts say the role of social media and increasing interest from investors in corporate culture have driven the topic to the forefront. As risks grow, some experts are saying that how a company treats its employees should be factored into its valuation.
In addition, expectations by employees and consumers have also shifted. Over the past decade, companies began cultivating their “employment brand” – the image in the minds of potential recruits of what it’s like to work at the company. Companies are now using their Human Resource policies to influence what their corporate brand looks like. Protecting their reputation and potentially their valuation from future fallout over any negative exposes of their corporate culture may be one reason why some companies are rolling out new HR policies, such as extended family leave, and giving these policies a PR push traditionally reserved for new products. (Washington Post, “Why a Toxic Workplace is Now a Much Bigger Liability for Companies,” February 24, 2017)
IV. WOMEN WORKING AT OLDER AGES
The arc of women’s working lives is changing – and starting to look much more like men’s careers, according to two new analyses of census, earnings, and retirement data. While women are now more likely to work at every point in their lives compared to previous generations, the biggest difference is that women have become significantly more likely to work into their 60s and 70s, and they report that they do it because they enjoy it. (“More Women in Their 60s and 70s are Having Way Too Much Fun to Retire,” New York Times, Feb 11, 2017)
In the U.S., nearly 30 percent of women 65 to 69 are working, up from 15% in the late 1980s, and 18% of women age 70 to 74 continue to work, according to research by two Harvard economists. While for some women the decision to keep working was unexpected and unwelcome as the result of a life-change such as a divorce, or pension or real estate losses, these longer careers are more common among women with higher education and savings who find fulfillment in their jobs, though not solely. (Goldin, Claudia and Katz, Lawrence F., “Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations,” September 2016)
The 2017 Global Summit of Women in Tokyo, Japan on May 11-13 will examine the working lives of older women in a session on “Social Entrepreneurship and the Silver Economy.”
For more information on the 2017 Global Summit of Women, including Summit Registration, Hotel Information, Summit Program, and Travel to Tokyo, please visit www.globewomen.org/globalsummit.
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2017 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN
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MAY 11-13, 2017
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