INSEAD has celebrated women in business with a day-long seminar at its Asia Campus in Singapore.
About eighty participants took part in the March 14th event, which was staged in tandem with International Women’s Day. Among those taking part were MBA participants and partners to alumni and business women, as well as members of organisations such as UNIFEM (the United Nations Development Fund for Women).
At the ‘Best of Management for Women’ event, which was designed to help women advance in their careers and have alternatives in the lives, INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship Patrick Turner provided participants with a practical guide to developing creative thinking skills.
Another session, hosted by INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship Phil Anderson, explored the possible avenue of entrepreneurship, while focusing on the ‘case study’ of former CNBC and CNN broadcaster May Lee, who has been trying to raise funding for a TV talk show aimed at Asian women.
The TV presenter-turned-entrepreneur told participants how she had managed to get vital backing from STAR TV for the proposed programme after speaking to ‘scores’ of investors, and that it was her only her passion for the project that got her through some “dark days” of isolation and loneliness.
“As women we tend to be a little bit more emotional about things and we get very attached to certain situations,” she told participants. “I really struggled between being a genteel female and trying to be the hard-core business woman which I had never been before.” “I will say though that the things I’ve learned over this year have been priceless. A lot of adversity, honestly.”
Her persistence paid off and the programme is due to be launched across Asia on STAR World in May. “Overall for me I wouldn’t trade any of this for the world – seriously. Now I don’t know if I would want to relive it but you know what I’ve gained up to now has been tremendous.”
In a popular session, Dr. Melanie Billings-Yun, Senior Partner of GLOBAL Resolutions, outlined negotiation skills and tactics that women should develop to negotiate effectively. Many women are reluctant to seem ‘pushy’ or ‘aggressive’, and this session was aimed at helping participants to overcome their fear of confrontation. At the same time, Billings-Yun cautioned that “negotiation is not a magic bullet … (it’s) about understanding and justifying your value.”
Founder of Aidha, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to providing financial education to migrant workers, and former INSEAD Professor of Accounting, Sarah Mavrinac explored alternatives to the traditional corporate career, with participants sharing their experiences in becoming entrepreneurs or setting up new social enterprises.
At the seminar, participants also got advice on writing CVs and preparing for interviews from Vanessa Sadler, an INSEAD career services consultant.
And judging by the positive feedback from participants, the ‘Best in Management for Women’ event was a success: they would like to see more sessions like these and on a more regular basis.
