Kristin Engvig, WIN Director and IMD Professor Ginka Toegel

March 16, 2011

Though International Women’s Day is celebrated but once a year, year-round both the achievements and progress of women are continuously changing the landscape of business.

Marking the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, IMD and WIN recently brought together more than 250 business leaders, academics and journalists to explore “The Competitive Edge” women are creating in business. See event photos on Flicker.

The event opened with a rousing and inspirational address from Liv Arnesen, the first woman to ski across the South Pole. Arnesen stressed the importance of taking one’s aspirations seriously, whether they are personal or professional. Her life serves as an example for the participants of how determination makes pursuing a dream possible regardless of obstacles.

Ginka Toegel, director of IMD’s Strategies for Leadership program presented an overview of current trends. Worldwide, women are the largest opportunity market, representing over $20 trillion in annual consumer spending and more than 80% of all consumer decisions are made by women. She also stated that the education and earning gaps are closing. All those changes are reflected in our language (e.g. ‘womenomics’ and ‘mompreneurs,’ etc.).

Toegel also shed light on women as CEOs and their increasing presence on boards. It used to be that the announcement of a female CEO led to a negative response from shareholders. Today, she says recent results show no difference in reaction to these appointments. Female CEOs, however, are perceived to be more risk averse than their male colleagues.

“Companies are not [acting] out of some generalized notion of equality but because there is a strong business case for them to do so. There has been a great deal of research that suggests the value of having gender balanced management teams. In France, for example, companies that had more women in senior management positions performed better during the crisis,” Toegel said.

Going from trends to practicality, event breakout sessions presented tips for business success. Suzanne de Janasz, IMD professor of leadership, organization development and negotiation emphasized the importance for communicating effectively. Women, she says, are more likely to avoid conflict and confrontation or address it indirectly, which becomes a problem when patterns are established.

“If someone treats you poorly -- say a boss who interrupts you while you are giving a presentation to a client and then proceeds to complete it -- and you don’t do anything about it, you give a message that it's OK, and give the person permission to continue this behaviour,” de Janasz said.

She noted the importance of forming assertive responses to such challenging situations by saying what you mean and meaning what you say. “Try framing your conversations to involve your perspective, your feelings and your wants regarding the situation. This depersonalizes the communication and gives the receiver the option to choose to change. Persuasion is done with another, and not to another.”

IMD Research Fellow Karsten Jonsen also spoke of the female leadership advantage. “There are over inflated claims of gender differences, while men are known to be more assertive and women more nurturing, this is neither the case for all men nor all women,” Jonsen said.

Jonsen cited research indicating the communal characteristics of women (relational, warm, friendly, caring) and the agentic characteristics of men (confident, skilfull, capable). If a true female leadership advantage exists, it presents itself in changing leadership models. As businesses move from a transactional one-way, goal-oriented leadership model towards a transformational model based on vision, inspiration, stimulation and coaching, the communal characteristics become more valued. Jonsen also presented three paradigms guiding gender management.

Other sessions explored new leadership in the new world of work, women on corporate boards, claim your authority and power as a leader, leadership presence, new ways of feeding the world and the power of personal branding for women leaders.

“A man who knows his worth is not afraid to ask to be recognized and compensated accordingly,” said Nadine B. Hack, Executive in Residence at IMD. “Senior executives who are women are in the best positions to claim for themselves the power an authority they merit. They mustn’t be ambiguous or even apologetic when asking for a promotion or a coveted assignment.”

Throughout the event, participants had the opportunity to hear from a variety of female guest speakers—from a lawyer turned New York Times blogger to the Founder of MERCY Malaysia, an NGO focusing on health and disaster reduction to the first woman to sit on the Nestlé Executive Board—whose inspirational stories and presentations covered topics such as career transitions, international moves, and the challenges and importance of the joint role of mother and professional.

Additionally, representatives from Shell, DuPont, PepsiCo and the Gender Equality Project shared how their companies are leading their respective industries in the establishment of diversity-minded cultures and the retention of female employees, a strategy that they insisted has an impact on the business bottom line.

Tweet about this event: #IMDwomenWIN

See the event agenda.

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