Women In Business

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Women In Business
Deb Bass Omaha Chamber Academy 2.22.2006 www.bass-
inc.com
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Women In Business

• The time has come.
• Entering executive ranks
• Starting businesses at twice the rate as others
• Staying in business longer

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Why Are You Here Today?

• What do you want to learn?
• What is your greatest obstacle to success?
• How can you overcome this obstacle?

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The Information Age Moving To The Relationship Age

• What is it?
• What does it mean for the working American?
• How can you prepare yourself?
• How can you position your career?

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Current American Workforce Climate

• Vanishing company employee with increasing
  focus on employability
• Increasing popularity of contracts with option
  to hire
• Rapid technology changes
• MA, bankruptcies and downsizings
• While you the worker are in demand, your job is
  more insecure than ever.

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Vanishing Company Employee
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Understanding the Free Agent Rules

• Its as much a matter of mindset as mobility
• Form alliances
• Make your boss look good
• Fine tune your soft skills
• Vest fast dont get far from the revenue stream
• Keep competing
• U.S. News World Report Career Guide, 2001

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Future Survival Skills For The Relationship Age

• Ability to make decisions with insufficient
  information - info doubles q 100 days
• Ability to manage contradictory, equally valid
  solutions to problems
• Flexibility and the ability to thrive in change
  environments

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Future Survival Skills For The Relationship Age

• Listening skills connected to the ability to take
  action, neither is enough alone
• A view of the customer as the only point of
  action - personal touch paramount
• Risk takers who thrive in an OK to fail
  environment

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The Lost Art Of Listening
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Future Survival Skills For The Relationship Age

• Those who function well in diverse environments
• Understanding that education is lifelong and
  personal career development plans
• Can play well with others in the sandbox

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What Great Executives Do Differently

• Create cultures that embrace and adapt quickly to
  change
• Attract, hire and retain high performing
  employees
• Develop a pool of talented managers
• Stimulate employees innovation and creativity
• Getting the entire company to understand and
  execute the strategy
• Leadership IQ 2006

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Masculine Mgmt. Styles

• Transactional, competitive, impersonal, detached
• Leader style - master
• Structure is hierarchical
• Prefer control over a situation
• Information flow can be restricted
• Decision process is linear, rational, means to an
  end outcome based get it done
• Karen Ashcraft, Ph.D. Univ. of Utah

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Feminine Mgmt. Styles

• Interactional, cooperative, emotionally connected
• Leader style collectivist, colleague
• Structure is heterarchy team based
• Control derived from participation
• Open information flow
• Decision process is dynamic, empathetic, setting
  of standards, end is enough in itself
• Women establish and maintain relationships, seek
  to nurture

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Impact of Women in the Workplace

• What future survival skills do you possess?
• What strengths do women/you bring to the
  workplace?
• What are womens/your challenges?

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Grasp the Life Long Education Concept

• Write, then implement a career development plan
• Expand your horizons in the workplace
• Avoid positions that may pigeon hole your work
  experiences
• Share certifications and degree completions
• Keep your resume current and write several
  versions

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Build A Career Development Plan
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Times Are Changing

• More American women than men earn degrees
• Number of women receiving degrees has increased
  at a faster rate
• Over 50 of the workplace is female
• Women are starting businesses at a rate twice
  that of men
• Single American women live longer than their
  married counterparts??

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Intrapreneur vs. Entrepreneur

• Way of thinking and approaching a full time
  position
• American worker adopting free agent rules
• In recent years a paradigm has been created
  while you the worker are in demand, your job is
  more insecure than ever.

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Construct And Practice Your Vision

• Review the classified ads
• Work a plan
• Take your boss to lunch
• Send personal note cards
• Practice saying I want your job.
• Women In Business And Industry, Summer
  2002

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Focus on Your Employability

• Accept responsibility for your own
• career development
• Awareness of the job market employer or
  employee driven?
• Membership in professional groups and
  associations build a card file
• Involvement in networking opportunities
• Fine tune job search skills

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Shocking Realization Women Shop

• Women make or influence 85 of all consumer
  decisions in the US
• Women in executive management 5.1
• Is your competitive edge sitting right next to
  you?
• What do you have them doing?
• International Labor Organization, 1999

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Entering Executive Ranks

• Research companies with executive training
  programs
• Salary parity
• Network with other women executives
• Identify a coach or mentor

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The Ground Rules

• You are who you say you are
• One prize doesnt fit all
• Work isnt a sorority
• Youre always a mother, wife, daughter or
  mistress
• Gail Evans, Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman

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Six Things Men Can Do But Women Cant

• They can cry you cant
• They can fidget you cant
• They can yell you cant
• They can have bad manners you cant
• They can be ugly you cant
• They can have sex you cant
• Gail Evans, Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman

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Pretend Its A Game

• Be identified as a leader and a thinker
• Accept responsibility
• Visionary with a little v
• Listen and then do your homework
• Act independently, make decisions

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Personal Financial Security

• Three to six months living expenses liquidity
• Up front educational expenses
• Thorough understanding of current benefit package
  and the impact of transitioning
• Less than half (47) participate in pension plan

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Personal Financial Security
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Small Group Exercise

• What is your life plan (education, career goals,
  financial, family)?
• Describe your advisory council/cabinet?
• Who can act as your mentor?
• Who can you mentor?

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Women as Capitalists?!?!

• Number of WOBs increased over 89 in the last
  decade
• Account for 6.2 million US businesses
• Employ 9.2 million people
• Contributing 1.15 trillion in sales to the US
  economy
• Constitute a rising share of college post
  graduate degrees
• Census Bureau

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Leadership In Building A Business

• Know your strengths, understand your weaknesses
• Be persistent and committed to your customers
• Look to make yourself different from the others
• Deliver on your promises

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Increase in WOBs???

• Mostly for positive reasons
• Frustration with work environments
• Desire for greater challenges
• Increased flexibility
• womanowned.com

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New Generation of WOBs

• More managerial experience
• More education
• Comparable revenues to male owned
• More growth oriented
• Financially strong and credit worthy

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WOB Management Style

• Less hierarchical
• More risk tolerant when investing for their
  business
• Emphasize relationship building
• More time with decision making
• Seek additional information
• Ask for consultation from others

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Workforce of WOB

• Shows more gender equity
• 52 women, 48 men
• Compared to 38 women and 62 men for male owned

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WOB Industry Diversity

• Services and retail largest share
• Construction, manufacturing and transportation
  largest recent increases
• Omahas Top 25 Listings

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Other Facts About WOBs

• More likely to offer flex time, tuition
  reimbursement, profit sharing
• Active and generous philanthropists
• Active volunteers
• Serve in leadership positions for non-profits

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WOB Key Business Concerns

• Business management issues
• Maintaining profits
• Finding good employees
• Managing cash flow
• External unknowns economy, technology,
  governmental laws, rising benefit costs

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WOB Needs For Business Development

• Access to capital
• Access to education/training
• Access to networks and markets
• Taken seriously

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WOBs Technology

• Equally likely to use the internet for business
  61 to 55
• Fifty per cent have web sites
• More likely to use e-commerce to buy than to sell
• More likely to use the internet for personal
  purchases

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Real Life Entrepreneurs

• Either opportunists or visionaries
• Openness to innovation
• Dogged persistence
• Always moving, observing, evaluating
• Excellent at building relationships and
  insatiable networkers
• Masters at building alliances partnerships
• U. S. News World Report Career Guide, 2002

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Do Your Homework

• They do the homework. They find out the facts.
• They figure out how to get something done.
• They work on the nitty-gritty details of
  execution.
• They cover all bases and consider all options.
  But most of all, they think.

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The Glass Ceiling

• Men arent the enemy
• Sometimes the first step is convincing yourself
• Endless Opportunities for you to explore and
  enjoy!!

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Website References

• Association of Womens Business Centers
  www.womensbusinesscenters.org
• Business and Professional Women\USA
  www.bpwusa.org
• Business Womens Network www.bwni.com
• Center for Womens Business Research
  www.womensbusinessresearch.org
• SBA www.women-21.gov
• Workplace Trends www.hermangroup.com

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Questions and Discussion

• Bass Associates, Inc., a HunTel Company
• 2027 Dodge St. Suite 500
• Omaha, NE 68102
• Voice 402-346-1505
• Fax [phone]
• E-Mailinfo_at_bass-inc.com
• HTTP www.bass-inc.com