Danielle Todd
The hilarious and irrefutable writer Caitlin Moran suggests, in the brilliant and insightful way that only Caitlin can, that us women sometimes find ourselves feeling a bit weird, a bit confused and a bit lost in the world we’re presented with; this is a male shaped world, which is why, as women, we sometimes feel that we don’t fit. This is just as acutely felt in the business world. Our capabilities, our talent, our unique skills and qualities are often not used to their full potential or applied in a way that excels our careers or indeed fully benefits the companies in which we work. But this is not a mere observation or a notable point of interest, this concept should, and does, ring alarm bells, sirens and even one of those terrifying air horns that suggests a bombing is imminent. And imminent it is. From America to Asia, from finance to forensics, the fog of a tough economic climate is clearing, albeit slowly, with companies realising the business model we’ve clutched on to for so long is, quite frankly, defective.
Traditionally, our business culture has been composed of male voices engineering a structure that favours qualities typically displayed by men; self-confidence, competitiveness, aggression, and systematic thinking. A strict authoritative hierarchy, long hours, process driven approaches and networking in traditionally male arenas such as the pub and the golf course – does this sound familiar? We’ve been told that this is the world of business and as such is at odds with the typically female arena – the home; the place where we feel appreciated, valued, and recognise the importance of our emotional attachments.
It is these ‘soft’ skills, qualities and abilities that women typically possess and display. All these qualities and skills are required – but seldom recognised and credited – for success within the business world; the ability to communication, show empathy, demonstrate transparency and drive collaborative team-work. As the annual Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor findings state, ‘female leaders around the world bested their male counterparts in five out of seven metrics of effective leadership’. Leading by example, communicating in an open and transparent way, admitting mistakes, bringing out the best in others, handling controversial issues calmly and confidently – over half of respondents felt that women displayed these qualities over men. Rod Cartwright, director of Ketchum’s Global Corporate & Public Affairs Practice clarifies “It’s not about a value judgment on either gender, it’s simply saying what matters to the world now is systematically being displayed more by female leaders than male leaders”.
Belinda Parmar, explains, with razor-sharp clarity in her insightful book The Empathy Era, ‘Society is undergoing a deep-rooted paradigm shift towards a more human, humane and empathic approach to the way people interact … we are on the verge of an empathy era.’ I firmly believe the business revolution required to welcome the Empathy Era is underway. The most obvious metric, the monetary rewards, of redefining a new business culture are well documented. As communicated in the Davies report ‘Women on Boards’, companies with more women on their boards were found to outperform their rivals with a 42% higher return in sales, 66% higher return on invested capital and 53% higher return on equity. [1] From finance to motorcars, the benefits of building women into company structure and utilising their unique skill set, results in increased profit, brand equity and shareholder value. Why?
It is because of these ‘soft skills’ which are undervalued and ignored. The evidence speaks for itself. A report by McKinsey and Co, confirmed that “certain leadership behaviours typically adopted by women are critical to perform well in the post-crisis world.” [2] Gender diverse teams agree less readily, and are more likely to examine a problem from multiple aspects, hence avoiding the problem of ‘group-thinking’. In comparison to senior management that experiences homogeneity, “diverse groups are superior at complex problem-solving”
Yet, it is not simply in the C-suite where the benefits of increased female representation and the application of these skills are felt. Building teams around gender diversity, utilising a multitude of talents including communication skills, empathy and teamwork helps build a more empowered, more engaged, more productive and importantly a happier workforce. We are waking up to the fact that these are not soft skills, these are vital business assets we need to adapt, adopt and build into our business culture if we are to compete in this evolving economic environment.
Companies on all sides are realising the need to evolve their approach. The brands we represent, research and help build are beginning to experiment in tapping into this little understood resource; women. As Jane Bainbridge describes in her New Woman Consumer article in Marketing Magazine [3], the ‘empowered female’ is the biggest consumer trend affecting worldwide marketing plans. The brands that will be truly successful will be the ones who do not treat this as a trend, like dancing horses or singing cats, but build the perspectives, values and ideals of the female consumer into the core of their marketing plans. This consumer, who holds influence over 80% of purchasing decisions, places heavy emphasis on word of mouth and recommendation and heavily engages in social media and networking; emphasising her worth as consumer of brands and in the workplace. A multitude of global influential brands, such as Nike, Dove, Pantene and most recently Always are realising the benefits of empowering their consumer. Building campaigns that are relatable, empowering, and empathic and build an emotional connection with their consumer not only makes the consumer feel values and listened to, but ultimately drives profit for the brand as well.
As reported in the recent Opportunity Now Project 28-40 report [4], gender diversity needs to move from a ‘diversity initiative to a core business priority’. It is anchoring and embedding this new culture that will affect real change on our bottom line. Gender diversity, and removing all barriers to achieving it, is what makes us more productive, happier and profitable as a workforce and an industry. Looking at the UK alone, women make up 52% of the population, over 60% of the university graduates and nearly 70% of those entering market research. Rebuilding a company culture that addresses the needs of women, at its very heart, and fundamentally reconsiders how it operates allows us the freedom to build better stronger companies. We allow ourselves to shine a spotlight on what isn’t working; poor work-life balance, working hours, process driven cultures that foster unhappy staff, low productivity, high turnover and low profit. Then we can focus on building a better engaged, happier more productive and more diverse workforce that not only benefits men and women, but that ultimately propels our companies forward in progressive thinking, innovation and consequentially profit. The best world we can build for our industry is the one we, men and women, build together equally utilising all the skills, qualities and assets we have at our fingertips. This is the business revolution.
Danielle Todd is a Senior Research Executive at TNS UK
[1]Davies (2011) Women on Boards
[2]McKinsey & Co (2009) Catalyst, ‘The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation of Boards”
[3] Jane Bainbridge, New Women Consumer, Marketing Magazine, 2014,
[4] Project 28-40 Report, Opportunity Now
