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20-FIRST IN THE PRESS
WHY Women Mean Business Named a Business Book of the Year
Conference Board Review's top picks includes Wittenberg-Cox book
WHY Women Mean Business, by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland, was named a business book of the year by Conference Board Review, the quarterly magazine of The Conference Board, the world’s preeminent business membership and research organization.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is publishing the sequel, HOW Women Mean Business – A Step by Step Guide to Profiting from Gender Balanced Business. in April 2010.
Linda Tarr-Whelan, author and distinguished senior fellow at Demos, summarised why the book was picked among this year’s best business titles:
‘Why Women Mean Business by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland succinctly summarizes the smart business case for having more women in management and on boards: They represent half the talent and half the market, and they generate a better bottom line and better corporate governance. The authors’ “gender-bilingual” breaks the mold on “why can’t a woman be more like a man” and shows ways to achieve the advantages of balanced leadership with more women at the table as both equal and different partners with men. It’s the wave of the future.’
Other books selected for best of the year by the quarterly included “How We Decide” by Jonah Lehrer, “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, and “The Omnivore’s Delight,” Michael Pollen’s treatise on the food industry (which was published in 2006).
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox Named as Thought Leader in The Economist
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-first, was referred to in The Economist in its New Year’s 2010 edition as one of today’s most prominent exponents of the ‘new’ feminism, calling on companies to adapt their organisations to the modern reality of the female economy. The Schumpeter Column of December 30, 2009, said: ‘But some of today’s most influential feminists contend that women will never fulfil their potential if they play by men’s rules. According to Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland, two of the most prominent exponents of this position, it is not enough to smash the glass ceiling. You need to audit the entire building for “gender asbestos”- in other words, root out the inherent sexism built into corporate structures and processes.’
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox quoted in Businessweek
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO 0f 20-first, was quoted in an article on Women and the Knowledge-Work Trend, as saying “Are women the managers Drucker was waiting for?”. In January 2010, the Labor Dept. announced, females outnumbered males on U.S. payrolls. In 1995, Peter Drucker explained why.
Read the full article
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox Writes in WomenLegal Magazine
Writing in WomenLegal magazine, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-first.com, explored why it is so many partnerships, and especially law firms, try so hard and yet fail so spectacularly at building gender balance within their offices. (Full article)
HOW Women Mean Business - New Book by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox Soon To Be Published
In the book WHY Women Mean Business, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, and co-author Alison Maitland, set out the clear business case for gender balance. Today, there is a much greater understanding of the historic shift and economic opportunity afforded by the rise of women as the majority of talent and a majority of consumers influencing purchasing decisions. As most business leaders now realise, having gender balanced organisations leads to superior business performance. But how can companies make this shift? To answer this question, Wittenberg-Cox will be publishing her second book this April (Wiley), HOW Women Mean Business: A Step by Step Guide to Profiting from Gender Balanced Business. More…
20-first's New Core Metric Catches On
- Chris Thomas, a partner based in the Melbourne office of Egon Zehnder International, refers to Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO, 20-first, in his latest article, Boardroom bias an urban myth, published online for the Australian Financial Review.
- Referring to Wittenberg-Cox as “one of the leaders in world thinking” on the topic of gender balance, Thomas quotes her recent comments following the publication of 20-first’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey on the need for a new core metric to measure a company’s gender balance – the proportion of women on the Executive Committee.
- Thomas agrees with this view and goes on to say: “We need to go deeper into the gender issue in leadership if real progress is to be made.” He says that it is unrealistic to think that there are “hoardes of able female executives” who are being under-utilised. Instead, he says, “it is the historic inability to date” of corporations and professional firms to “facilitate the advancement” of women to senior levels.
- The website, Glass Hammer, has also published an article on 20-first’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey, in which the writer, Elizabeth Harrin, welcomes the arrival of the annual survey from 20-first, pointing to the new and critical measure of gender balance it reports on.
- In the article, Female Execs: The New Metric, Harrin writes: “There’s been a lot written about getting more women on to boards,” adding later: “but it’s rarely the case that having more women on boards means that lower down the organisation women are being promoted and supported in more senior management positions.” Then she writes: “Enter a new study – Womenomics 101. This survey, from the consultancy 20-first, looks at a different metric: women on the Executive Committee.”
20-first's WOMENOMICS 101 - FOCUS ON INDIA
Now, in a focus on India, 20-first has taken the top ten ET500 Companies and listed the ratio of men and women on their Executive Committees.More
20-first's WOMENOMICS 101 - FOCUS ON FRANCE
A recent article in Le Figaro Madame magazine (Saturday, 7 November 2009) celebrated fifteen French CEOs for their progressive stance on the issue of gender balance in their businesses.
They are indeed above-average firms in terms of gender balance. But then again, the national competition is not particularly tough.
We have listed eight of the companies, all well-known outside France. Most of them have at least one or two women on their Executive Committee. This is above average when you take into account the fact that almost 70% of top companies in Europe have no women at all on their senior executive teams, according to the 20-first WOMENOMICS 101 Survey (October 2009).
Eight of the 15 companies cited are listed below, with a profile of their Executive Committees – what 20-first considers to be the core metric of gender balance.
We’ll let the reader judge for him or herself. More
20-First CEO Wins Manpower Foundation Prize
CEO of 20-First, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and journalist Alison Maitland were presented with a special award by the Manpower Foundation on November 26th in recognition of the fresh approach and pragmatic solutions offered in their book, Why Women Mean Business. The prize, which is organized in partnership with HEC Paris, rewards original thinking on work, employment, and the economy. After the ceremony, the winners joined together to discuss ideas of social innovation, regulation and economic growth, in a debate entitled “what priorities must we build for the world of tomorrow?”
"Why Women Mean Business" Wins Manpower Foundation Award
Manpower President's blog lauds "complete, international and very clear" book by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
Le blog de Françoise Gri, président de Manpower France
Les prix de la Fondation Manpower pour l’Emploi
Posted: 26 Nov 2009 12:01 AM PST
Depuis des années, Manpower remet un Prix à un ouvrage offrant une réflexion novatrice sur les questions de travail, d’emploi, d’économie. Pour cette édition 2009, le Prix est placé sous la bannière de la Fondation Manpower pour l’Emploi, dont le premier Conseil d’administration s’est tenu il y a quelques semaines.
Ce soir, nous remettons deux prix : l’un à Matthieu Pigasse, Directeur général délégué de Lazard Frères, et Gilles Finchelstein, Directeur général de la Fondation Jean Jaurès, les deux co-auteurs de l’ouvrage « Le Monde d’après – Une crise sans précédent » ; l’autre à Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, PDG de 20-first et Alison Maitland, journaliste, co-auteures de « Womenomics – La croissance dépend aussi des femmes ».
Je reconnais au moins trois grands mérites au livre de Matthieu Pigasse et Gilles Finchelstein : le premier est sa clarté. Alors que le propos est complexe, cet essai permet de mieux comprendre la crise financière, sa rapidité et sa brutalité sans tomber dans la trivialité. Le second mérite est de ne jamais succomber au ressentiment ou à l’indignation morale et immédiate, qui permet bien souvent de se forger une bonne et belle conscience à peu de frais. La qualité de la réflexion autour d’idées pour « le monde d’après » constitue le troisième mérite : un monde et un modèle de développement plus humain, débarrassé de la dictature de l’urgence.
Et puis, les lecteurs de ce blog l’auront deviné, je suis particulièrement ravie qu’un Prix spécial aille à « Womenomics ». C’est manifestement le premier livre qui aborde la mixité sous l’angle économique – et non comme un enjeu féministe ou féminin. La aussi, l’analyse des auteures est à la fois complète, internationale…et très claire. Et au-delà des constats, elles souhaitent « favoriser l’émergence et contribuer à construire un nouveau type de leadership bilingue qui maximise les capacités des hommes et des femmes en reconnaissant les avantages concurrentiels de nos compétences et de nos natures complémentaires. »
Un programme riche et novateur, à suivre sur le blog de Avivah Wittenberg-Cox.
20-first's WOMENOMICS 101 Survey
20-first’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey, which tracked the percentage of women on the Executive Committee of the top global companies, was picked up by Human Resources Magazine, which is read by 17,000 HR directors in Europe. The New York Times also reported on the survey on October 27.
On The Tube
In October, the new paperback version of WHY WOMEN MEAN BUSINESS by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland is being advertised to busy London commuters on trains across the underground system.
Article by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland Published By Sky News
An article by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-first and Alison Maitland, both authors of WHY WOMEN MEAN BUSINESS, has been published by SKY NEWS. The article entitled, Women Mean Cash, So Adapt and Cash In, was published on October 14, 2009.
Why Women Mean Business - Top Business Book
Why Women Mean Business by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland has been listed with a select range of top selling business titles – called The Best of Jossey-Bass (an imprint of Wiley, the main publisher). Why Women Mean Business has recently been launched in paperback with important new updates.
Recent comments on Why Women Mean Business
CHERIE BLAIR
“A fascinating analysis.”
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
“An innovative and stimulating book”.
New Core Metric of Competitiveness: Gender Balance on Executive Committees
20-first’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey
Paris, France, October 6, 2009
SUMMARY
US companies lead the pack in terms of gender balance, according to a new report, “20-first’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey”. Using a new and more effective metric – the balance of men and women on the top executive team – the survey found that US firms have a firm lead on their rivals in Europe and Asia, though they have plenty of room for further improvement.
The Core Metric: The Executive Committee
Recent studies have drawn attention to the lack of gender balance on boards. Now, the consultancy 20-first has launched the WOMENOMICS 101 Survey to shine a light on the most senior executive teams in the top 101 companies in three key regions of the globe.
“This survey invites you to look deeper into companies, and to use metrics that distinguish those serious about gender balance from the rest. That’s what WOMENOMICS 101 proposes to do,” says Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-first, author, and publisher of the new annual survey.
Key Findings
- US Leads: The US is ahead in this survey, with 89% of companies having at least one woman on their Executive Committee. The American companies with the highest number of women on their executive boards are: Kraft Foods, WellPoint, Macy’s, Allstate, Pfizer, and Wells Fargo.
- Europe and Asia Lag: Both Europe and Asia have barely embarked on the gender journey. 82% of companies in Asia and 68% of companies in Europe have no women at all on their Executive Committees. Both regions are inching towards tokenism, with 21% of companies in Europe and 17% of companies in Asia having a single woman at this level, usually in a staff role.
- Women Promote Women: Only 12 companies out of 303 achieved a critical mass percentage of 30% women on their Executive Committees, which studies have shown is significant if companies want to create more effective leadership teams. They are all US-based and three of them are run by women CEOs – WellPoint, Kraft Foods, and Archer Daniels Midland.
- Lack of Women in Operational Roles: The majority of women promoted to the Executive Committees of the surveyed companies are in support roles (76% in the US). Companies that only manage to promote women into leadership through staff roles,” says Wittenberg-Cox, “demonstrate that they have not yet worked out how to gender balance their leadership development systems and their talent pipelines”, affecting their ability to understand the gender opportunities in their markets and among their customers.
CONTACT
For additional information on “20-first’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey” or to speak to Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, contact Morice Mendoza (e-mail: morice@20-first.com; mobile: +44 (0)7944 128298 or visit www.20-first.com.
ABOUT 20-FIRST
20-first works with organisations that seek to move from 20th century mindsets, management styles and marketing approaches into more progressive 21st century forms – and to stay first at the game. Thus our name. It underlies our purpose, and those of the clients we serve. 20-first works with progressive global companies around the world interested in responding to both halves of the market and optimizing both halves of the talent pool – the male and female halves.
ABOUT AVIVAH WITTENBERG-COX
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is CEO of 20-first. Based in Paris, she is a consultant, coach and co-author with Alison Maitland of WHY WOMEN MEAN BUSINESS: UNDERSTANDING THE EMERGENCE OF OUR NEXT ECONOMIC REVOLUTION (first published by Wiley in 2008; followed by a paperback version with updates, published in September 2009). She helps companies develop more inclusive leadership styles, promote more gender-balanced management teams and review processes and policies to better respond to women – both as employees and consumers.
Coverage in India for the book, Why Women Mean Business
Why Women Mean Business, paperback version, September 2009
getAbstract, a website that provides summaries of popular business books, is featuring Why Women Mean Business by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland.
The book also appeared in the main section of India’s second largest English language newspaper MINT. The newspaper, launched in collaboration with the Wall Street Journal, has a circulation of 120,000 in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
The book was also featured in the newspaper’s online publication, LiveMINT, which has an audience of 1.2 million people.
Why Women Mean Business has been fully updated and is being released in paperback this month. Further information.
BBC World News Programme - "A Woman’s Place is in the Boardroom"
The BBC series, THINKING BIG: A Woman’s Place is in the Boardroom, aired for the first time during September 12th-13th.
The new series which homed in on the big ideas of the 21st century looked at the recent Norwegian quota which compelled listed companies to increase the proportion of women on their boards.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-first, was one of the experts interviewed by the BBC.
Diverse and decisive, Financial Times
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox explains why gender balance is a strategic business issue, which (if implemented successfully), will have a signifcant impact on the bottom line. Writing in the Financial Times (June 22, 2009), Wittenberg-Cox highlights the importance of the CEO in driving the policy through.
For the full article: Diverse and decisive, Financial Times, June 9, 2009
BP's alternative energy chief to go, Financial Times
The website 20-first.com uncovered the news that Vivienne Cox, the head of BP’s alternative energy division was to retire at the end of June. The scoop appeared in the Financial Times on June 9, 2009, in which Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, publisher of 20-first.com, was quoted as saying that the, “female brain drain” at BP and Shell “threatens to deter women from entering the oil and gas sector”.
BP alternative energy director to go, Financial Times, June 9, 2009
Vivienne Cox to Leave BP, Financial Times
Following the news that Vivienne Cox, BP’s head of alternative energy, was to retire at the end of June 2009, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox was interviewed by Ed Crooks of the Financial Times on the significance of the move (in addition to other recent departures of women in senior positions in BP and Shell). Wittenberg-Cox, author and publisher of 20-first.com (the website that uncovered the news about Cox’s retirement) said:
“We find that while some companies respond to crisis by ‘innovating forwards’ and push women into new roles, others ‘hunker down backwards’ and focus on the core businesses and teams that made them successful… yesterday. This is not favourable to women or to innovation for the 21st century.” (Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, quoted in the Financial Times, June 9, 2009).
Why are the women leaving BP? By Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
In June 2009, Wittenberg-Cox wrote an article on the high number of senior women who had left BP, particularly since the arrival of Tony Hayward as CEO in 2007. This included the scoop that Vivenne Cox, BP’s head of alternative energy division was retiring (see above). The senior women who had left BP were to some extent supporters of the Beyond Petroleum (environmental) branding instigated by Lord Browne, former CEO, and which the company had shifted away from to some degree.
Stirring debate
Wittenberg-Cox’s article stirred a much needed debate on the issue of retaining senior women at BP. Nine comments were posted on her blog, mostly from current or former BP women.
One of them said: “It is a question of cutting costs, which we all understand and agree with. However, why do women have to be cut? Unfortunately, I was one of them at the end of 2007. Brilliant article, especially the reference to the end of Lord Browne’s era.”
What is happening with the women in the oil and gas industry? By Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
PRESS RELEASES
October 6, 2009 – New Core Metric of Competitiveness – 20-first’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey
June 11, 2009 – Why Did So Many Senior Women Leave BP?
May 21, 2009 – Banks Must Have More Women at the Top to Avoid Another Crisis
April 29, 2009 – Women Become the Majority of Workers
March 11, 2009 – The Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution
January 12, 2009 – New Global Web Portal Focuses on Economic Power of Women
SELECTED GLOBAL PRESS COVERAGE
EUROPE
Wake Up to Womenomics
by Evelyne Sevin, Egon Zehnder International, March 13, 2008
The authors try to offer a new perspective, taking men’s views into consideration through extensive interviews. They move the debate on when they say that “[womenomics] is a business issue and not solely a women issue”, or when detailing the limitations of diversity management by explaining the differences between gender and diversity. The point is that women are both different and equal and to this end they call for “bilingualism” at work – women and men bring different qualities to work, but of equal value to the company.
The greatest neglected resource in business by columnist Richard Donkin, February 28, 2008
“Women have become probably the greatest neglected resource in business, both in their market potential as consumers and in their productive potential as employees… It is a fundamental weakness of business models that were designed for a male-dominated world… Asthe book suggests, we need a revolution in thinking.”
“La Femme Qui a l’Oreille des Hommes,” ELLE Belgique, by Aurélie Koch, March 2008
A 3-page, in-depth profile of Avivah Wittenberg-Cox (in French)
Interview by Sylvie Johnsson : Le livre de l’économie. Womenomics: La croissance dépend aussi des femmes” April 24, 2008 (in French)
“La croissance dépend aussi des femmes… Et les promouvoir, c’est l’intérêt des entreprises. D’abord parce qu’elles représentent une réserve de talents. Ensuite parce que ce sont elles qui prennent la majorité des décisions d’achat.”
AMERICA
Book Review, May, 2008
“Companies that understand women will be better led and closer to their customers. The first third of the book presents a formidable array of research and case studies to support that thesis. Even if you are familiar with the field, their review makes lively reading, including as it does an observation by a senior French executive that mixing the sexes makes “les femmes moins chiantes et les hommes moins cons” (women less bitchy and men less dumb). But what’s especially valuable is the authors’ analysis of where companies go wrong in managing women…“
Book Review, April 4, 2008
“Why and how to improve women’s place in business leadership are the themes of “Why Women Mean Business.” The authors – Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, a consultant and founder of the European Professional Women’s Network, and Alison Maitland, a business journalist – cite research from a variety of sources to bolster their double-barreled conclusion: “Women are a huge talent and a huge market space,” and discovering and exploiting the latter “will probably depend – at least in part – on being able appropriately to manage and promote the former.”
How to sell to women, March 30, 2009
Report on Small Business spoke to the authors at their recent Canadian book launch in Toronto to explain why many current approaches to gender have not worked and why business needs a new perspective.
The podcast of the interview (14 mn) can be download at: Download Podcast
ASIA
EMIRATES
“Ignore ‘womenomics’ and be doomed” by Insead Knowledge on Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Business leaders ignore gender issues at their peril. That is the view of CEO of gender consultancy 20-First and Insead alumna Avivah Wittenberg-Cox. In a new book, Why Women Mean Business, Wittenberg-Cox and her co-author Alison Maitland say organisations that become savvy about “womenomics” will win in the war for the best talent and leadership and the war for customers.
SINGAPORE
“It’s all the men’s fault: Lehman Brothers should have been run as Lehman Brothers and Sisters”, by Christie Loh, Deputy Business Editor, March 7, 2009
That the world is now suffering from a partly testosterone-fuelled economic malaise is a view held by Mrs Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, a Paris-based management consultant and author — with much emerging research to boot.
“This crisis began as a financial crisis in a section of a sector that is particularly male-dominated,” she told Weekend Xtra during a phone interview.