INSEAD, the leading international business school, today announced it will host a breakfast panel on how to engage organisations’ leadership during difficult economic times on 8 January 2010 in Paris. Hosted in partnership with Sodexo and the Centre for Work-Life Policy, panellists will identify how organisations can better support and motivate top talent to survive the current downturn and emerge stronger during the recovery.
Organised by the INSEAD Gender Diversity Initiative, the panel will feature Herminia Ibarra, the Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD; Michel Landel, CEO of Sodexo; and Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding President of The Centre of Work-Life Policy and author of the recently published book ‘Top Talent: How to Keep Performance Up When Business is Down.’
With organisations’ morale at all time lows, and loyalty and trust fleeting qualities among employees, the panellists will discuss strategies taken from the pages of Ms. Hewlett’s book to address how organisations can:
- Think locally and focus on team leaders;
- Give employees meaningful non-monetary rewards;
- Develop a fair restructuring process;
- Retain female leaders;
- Show that top leadership cares and;
- Recreate pride, purpose and direction in organisations
This unprecedented environment provides an opportunity for managers to re-engage and re-energise top talent to not only mitigate flight risk and foster camaraderie, but contribute to their business’ bottom lines,’ said Herminia Ibarra, Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. ‘Maximising the full potential of an organisation’s human capital will be the distinguishing factor between the haves and the have-nots.’
The INSEAD Gender Diversity Initiative was formed in 2008 to coordinate, support and celebrate the school’s many activities relating to women’s participation in business and business education. Its creation reaffirms the school’s commitment to harnessing the management potential of women from diverse cultures throughout the world. As part of its focus, the Centre has aided the school in setting a new landmark with the July ’10 MBA class having 31.5 percent of women represented in the programme.
About the Panellists
Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and founding President of the Centre for Work-Life Policy, where she chairs the ‘Hidden Brain Drain’ – a task force of 50 global companies committed to fully realising female and multicultural talent. She also heads the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She has authored several books, including ‘Off-Ramps and On-Ramps,’ which Amazon.com named as one of the10 best business books of 2007.
Michel Landel is the Chief Executive Officer of Sodexo. His career at Sodexo began 25 years ago when he joined as Chief Operating Manager of Eastern and North Africa, and then quickly moved through the ranks to eventually oversee the Group's North American operations. Under his leadership, Sodexo became a premier provider of Food and Facilities Management Services in North America, which currently generates 38 percent of the Group's consolidated revenues and employs more than 120,000 people. Michel has been the honoured recipient of many prestigious awards. Recognised as a champion of diversity, he received the CEO Leadership Award for Diversity Best Practices and the CEO Advocate of the Year by Asian Enterprise Magazine.
Herminia Ibarra is the Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Faculty Director of the INSEAD Leadership Initiative and a member of the INSEAD Board. Professor Ibarra is an expert on professional and leadership development. Her book ‘Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career’ (Harvard Business School Press, 2003) documents how people reinvent themselves at work. Her numerous articles on innovation, networking, career development, women's careers and professional identity have been published in leading academic journals and her research has also been profiled in top business publications globally.
