HOW Women Mean Business - New Book by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox Soon To Be Published - Building Gender Balanced Business

Until now, no book has offered companies a clear, pragmatic guide for creating more gender balanced approaches to business. While women have become the majority of university graduates (60%) and the majority of consumer goods purchasing decision-makers (80%) in countries around the globe, companies have struggled to adapt their policies and management to new, 21st century realities. A wealth of publications have described the problem, How Women Mean Business is the first book to focus on solutions.

Why Women Mean Business (2008) broke new ground with a compelling, fact-based illustration of why women represent a huge, global economic opportunity for business. It presented all the evidence proving that balance leads to more innovation and better bottom line performance. Leaders have now understood why it is important, but are still struggling with how to make it happen.

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Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of the leading gender consultancy, 20-first, and a world authority on leadership, gender and business, points the way in four simple steps, providing guidance on how to bring about real change:

AUDIT: Business leaders eager to effect change often rush too far ahead too quickly. It is very important to ensure first that there is a good understanding of where a company is coming from on this issue, what has been accomplished, and what lessons are to be learned to date, both internally and externally. So, the first part of the book covers the Audit Phase, incorporating three chapters on understanding the issue internally and externally.

AWARENESS: The second phase concerns Awareness, ensuring that senior managers understand why gender balance matters. This section is about leaders deciding what the business case for gender balance really is in relation to the company’s broader strategic goals. Then it means learning the language of women as well as men, leading to gender bilingualism. It ends with the framing of an action plan, which has a chapter of its own.

ALIGN: Once the leadership is convinced and convincing on the issue, companies are ready to adapt the systemic underpinnings of their organisations by identifying and rooting out subconscious obstacles leading to a more gender balanced meritocracy. The Alignment Phase is about changing the company’s DNA by embedding new processes and systems in training, talent, and marketing.

SUSTAIN: Finally, companies need to use clear and effective measures, reward structures, and communications approaches to maintain the change process. This is covered in the last section called Sustain.