It used to be that the business landscape was a man's world. Times have certainly changed! Today, women are wielding more and more power on both sides of the business transaction. First, let's look at some facts from the consumer side. In family purchases that involve two adults (a woman and a man), women make:
This brings us to the other side of the equation. Who is running and leading the companies that make the products women are buying for themselves and their families? Increasingly, it's women.
In 2012, 18 of the Fortune 500 companies will have women CEOs at the helm. While at first glance, 18 may not seem like a lot, but it's an all-time high and shows the steady pace of women leading the largest companies in the world.
Even more interesting is that we're now seeing women lead companies in industries that have been historically male dominated. For example, for the first time ever, IBM chose a woman CEO, Virginia "Ginni" Rometty. Hewlett-Packard, another technology company, named Meg Whitman as their CEO in September 2011. These are just two examples of global, male-dominated companies now run by women.
And this trend isn't just in the U.S. India, for example, has more women CEOs than the U.S. And over the past 30 years we've seen the number of women leaders in the Middle East, Africa, China, and Europe increase as well.
Now it's important to note that so far we've just been talking about CEO spots at major corporations. Add in the number of female CEOs at small and mid-sized companies, female upper level managers, and female entrepreneurs, and you can see that we're actually talking about a large number. And these are numbers you wouldn't have seen twenty years ago. So women are definitely making their mark and exerting their business power.
The New Hard Trends
Some people may say the rise of female leaders is surprising. I say it's 100 percent predictable. In my book, Flash Foresight, I make the point that in an uncertain world, you have to ask yourself, "What am I certain about?" Strategy based on uncertainty has high risk; strategy based on certainty has low risk. There are a number of certainties in today's world that make the rise of women obvious.
Most people and even scientists and researchers agree that women and men think differently in terms of relationships. Women are more adept at relationship building. If we have too many leaders in an organization who are men, we don't have a balance and we don't have the ability to grow relationships with a holistic approach. That's because men tend to be informers while women tend to be real communicators.
This is important and timely, because we're shifting from the information age to the communication age. Social media is all about communicating and engaging, and women have the upper hand here. So the shift in business from informing to communicating provides great opportunity for women leadership.
Obviously, it's not that men can't be system-thinkers. But over the years as men were in leadership positions -- not just the CEO level, but all lead managers -- they focused on "give me the job to do and I'll focus and get it done." That's certainly important, but sometimes that mindset works against you as things become more interconnected.
Everyone has heard of "silos" in companies. We have massive silos in all sorts of industries. The key is to break those silos down and get people communicating, collaborating, and working together. No job is just a technical job; every job is also a human job.
A Brighter Future
Granted, some people may say all these elements are generalizations, but there is truth in generalization. So while all these traits may not apply to every woman, if you look at the group as a whole, these things tend to be true.
So the bottom line is that diversity has always been an unbelievably powerful force in any company -- not just racial diversity, but male-female diversity too. All diversity gives you better solutions to challenges, allows you to solve problems faster, and enables you to see opportunities better. This is crucial, because over the next five years we're going to be transforming how we sell, market, educate, train, communicate, collaborate, innovate, and much more. Thanks to today's rapidly evolving technology, we're witnessing the biggest game-changing transformation that any of us have ever lived through. And we're going to need a variety of thinking, diversity, and people working together in a collaborative, communicative way to make a positive and productive transformation possible.
As we look to the future, we're going to see the number of female business leaders growing even higher because we need the balance. We need the creativity. We need men and women working and leading together in business and in government. So if you're a man reading this, support the women in your organization to reach new heights. And if you're a woman reading this, think about your career. Plot it out. Make it happen. We need you!
Follow Daniel Burrus on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DanielBurrus
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92 percent of the purchase decision on family vacations
91 percent of the purchase decision on home purchases
80 percent of the purchase decision on health care
60 percent of the purchase decision on family cars
51 percent of the purchase decision on consumer electronics"
Are there any efforts being made to "equalize" these disparities?
Maybe we can have an App to close the (Spending Your) Pay Gap?
If no one else will pay you more, then you need to reconsider your underlying premise.
B- In a marriage, spending of one's spouse it not elective. There are no legal means by which to stop them from spending more than 50% of the money.
C- The amount of dishes done in a relationship are also elective...doesn't stop feminists from trying to equalize it, does it?
D- And, of course, you still have yet to either apologize for your slanderous remarks or provide the proof to back them up.
And, of course, both of us know that you never will because doing so would be what an adult would do...not what an American feminist would do...
Forget it. She's gone a different route. Supposedly you and I are the same poster. Aside from that, I've been told that I cannot properly perceive everything I see, hear, and what people tell me. Protective argument shell in effect.
She can call me a misogynist all she likes.
The truth is that I think women are more equal than she does. I believe that they can be held to the same standards as men.
Her brand of feminism demands that she shield women from any hint of accountability and responsiblity. It also demands that they NEVER relinquish the power of the victim card.
It holds women back from TRUE and ACTUAL equality.
But, as you say...the "protective...shell" keeps them repeating the mantras and cliches and lashing out with cries of "sexism" and "misogyny" towards anyone who doesn't immediately parrot her feminist world view.
This modern feminism must be eliminated for egalitarianism to begin the final step towards genuine equality.
I've put forth the question many times...
Liberalism demands that you believe that all behavior regarding gender is learned....but it SIMULTANEOUSLY demands that you believe the TV/TS/TG community when they explain that their feelings of gender they they are born with are so strong they must change that gender.
IF the feminists are right (I know, they are not) then the TV/TS/TG community would NOT exist.
Those boys would be boys and those girls would be girls.
So...not only are they wrong...their beliefs are actually HOSTILE to the transgendered community.
As far as their fundamentalism...I recently wrote comparing the feminist movement to the TEA Party...on a thread where Marlo Thomas was not feminist ENOUGH for them.
It's reminiscent of the way Reagan is praised by the TEA Party crowd, but in truth...he's not radical enough for them anymore. They have grown so much more radical and intolerant of anyone who doesn't adhere to strict doctrine that Reagan would be shunned by them today.
Ahhh, so this explains why women initiate divorce 75% of the time....
I'm curious.
You've written nearly 6,000 comments for HP since April, 2011, (that's more than 600 postings PER MONTH, yet there is no record of any on your profile page. How is that possible - how does one keep their comments hidden?
Don't you have a real job? Or do you work for HP as some sort of secret commentator to keep the rabble like me in line?
Just wondering...