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Welcome to Loyalty MagazineLoyalty Magazine reports on customer retention,loyalty schemes, rewards, affinity, CRM, call centre issues, direct and viral marketing, mobile and internet channels for both B2B and B2C enterprises. It covers all global markets and business sectors, including retail, financial services, travel and hotels, telecoms and electronic commerce. |
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Tuesday, 29 June 2010 09:22 |
 Why Women Mean Business
As the new UK coalition government settles into Downing Street, the question is frequently being asked “where are the women?
Apart from a couple of token appointments, our government is again dark suited and male, just like our boardrooms.
Women make up half the population, much of the sales market and a sizeable proportion of our talent pool. As consumers they are an essential part of the business mix, yet it is men in high places that make the decisions affecting women.
Glass ceilings
Governments say they are working hard at finding solutions to the persistent undervaluing of women’s skills, but there is little change. This is because the glass ceilings were made by men, and it is the male contingent that is keeping them there.
There are few women at the top in any organisation. According to the book Why Women Mean Business by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland, the US can claim that 15% of its board directors are women. Europe has less than 10% and Asia only about 2%. The number of women on executive committees, where operational decisions are taken, is even lower. The US is at 16%, but the European figure is just 4%, while Asia is in the starting blocks with 2%. The picture is altering very, very slowly.
Companies have tried to boost the number of women they recruit, retain and promote with ‘gender diversity” programmes. These have generally not achieved the desired result. As the Economist put it, “diversity programmes are as common as diversity on the board is rare. Many programmes send women off for assertiveness training or to join women’s networks, to try to teach them to behave more like men. In most companies, there is not yet anything that resembles an effective strategy.
Making gender diversity law
Some countries have taken a draconian approach to the problem. In Norway, where half the politicians are women, they decided early this century that the private sector should feminise its leadership in the way the government had. They agreed to a target of 40% women on the boards of all publicly quoted companies. If the target was not reached voluntarily, it would become law. This happened in 2005 and by 2009 it had passed its official quota.
The resistance of companies to bring women on to the board bears no relation to the ability of women to earn and produce. According to the Boston Consulting Group, “The average American woman will earn more money than the average man within 20 years. Women make up 57% of undergraduates and 59% of graduate students. …. As a result the balance of power at home has shifted and will shift further. We are seeing women ‘control’ and ‘direct’ family discretionary spend. ‘She’ decides when the family is going to eat out, when they will order the new kitchen or bath, go on vacation and buy a new car.”
Authors Wittenberg-Cox and Maitland are unsure of how women will finally make their appearance on the international stage, but they are clear that the three Ws, of Women, Weather and the Web are clearly changing our lives. They believe that the emergence of strong women in government, such as Angela Merkel in Germany will help the cause, but note that when criticized by the media, it resorts to comments about her hair and dress, which wouldn’t happen to a man, however badly he is doing.
They refer to an 18 month inquiry into the future of global business where the speeches by the all-male panel touched on the challenges facing the world – climate change, poverty and pandemics, economic and political upheaval, the clash of cultures and how business could help to address them.
The inquiry’s report called on companies to “redefine success”, “embed values” and “create better regulatory frameworks” that would allow them to meet their environmental and social responsibilities while generating wealth and providing improved goods and services.
The surprise was when Ulf Karlberg, a former senior executive at AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company and founding chair of the Amnesty International Business Group in Sweden, then took the podium as a member of the inquiry team, which comprised 17 men and two women.
To general surprise, be began by asking whether the outcome would have been different if the gender balance on the team had been the other way round, with women heavily outnumbering the men. “It would perhaps have been more brave,” he suggested, “more intuitive and more practical, with some very clear action plans.” He later suggested it would also have been a smarter team.
Waiting for change
There are some positive signs, say the authors, that change will come in terms of gender balance, but few companies have achieved any significant breakthroughs yet in terms of executive power.
The authors conclude that women really do mean business, and that their influence in the marketplace is growing and changing everything. The boardroom and the government are going to take a little longer though.
Why Women Mean Business, by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland is published by Wiley, price £17.99. This is the second edition of the book, which was first published in 2006. It has become one of Wiley’s top business books.
More information: www.whywomenmeanbusiness.com
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Countries in the EU are currently working on their responses to the complex policy proposals suggested for the handling and storage of personal data. The legislative changes currently underway are of critical importance to the loyalty sector. Jeremy Henderson-Ross, legal director and general counsel – EMEA for Aimia suggests companies should play an active part in the discussions.