Why tune the talent?

So why go through the whole spiel? Why not let natural development and evolution take its own pace and speed

Why not let things be, the way things have always been? Well...

SNAPSHOT!

  • Today there are more female millionaires between the age of 18 and 44 than male.
  • Women is responsible for 40% of the world’s GDP!
  • Women make 80% of consumer goods purchasing decisions in the United States!
  • Women start 70% of new business start-ups in Canada!
  • Goldman Sachs established a fund named WOMEN 30 that pinpoint businesses selling to women!
  • Women have outperformed the average stock exchange over the past decade!

THE TALENTMASS

  • 60% of European and American university graduates are women.
  • Europe could realize 13% growth in GDP just by reducing the gender gap.
  • Companies with more women in top management will outperform those with fewer.
  • 75% of the 8 million jobs created in the EU since 2000 have been filled by women.
  • Since 2007, 51% of managers and professional staffs in the US are women

According to an OECD study it is predicted that by 2020 women will constitute

  • 68% of all gradutates in Denmark,
  • 70% in Italy,
  • 72% in the United Kingdom and
  • 76% in Sweden

THE MARKET

Furthermore women constitute a growing proportion of the market. Which market? Any market!

It is predicted that the eurozone could increase GDP by 13%, the United States 9% and Japan a whopping 16% by tapping into the market shares that are not yet opened up!

With women's increasing levels of education, a surge and increase in earnings and professional credentials are not only likely, but a recorded fact!

THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Two organizations have delivered the first studies suggesting a link between gender balance and performance, Catalyst, the US research organisation and McKinsey & Company. Taking very different approaches to the data, they both came up with very similar results: having more women in leadership is correlated with stronger financial returns.

More gender-balanced boards tended to pay more attention to audit and risk oversight and control

  • They are more often considering the needs of more categories of stakeholders, thereby examining wider ranges of management and organizational performances.
  • 94% of boards with three or more women (compared to 58% of all-male boards) insist on conflict-of-interest guidelines
  • 72% of boards with two or more women conduct formal board performance evaluations while only 49% of all-male boards do
Companies Ignore Women: The Largest Market Opportunity in the World
Harvard Business Review article highlights how selling to women could be so much better
  • We’ve said it the last 10 years, but it is nice to have a publication like Harvard Business Review echo it: Women are the big market of the future, and companies are doing such a good job of blowing it you would think they were doing it on purpose.
  • The HBR article "The Female Economy" by Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre, both of Boston Consulting Group, reports how "women represent the largest market opportunity in the world".
  • How big a market? More than twice the size of China and India combined, the authors calculate (based on current GDP; obviously the countries between them have a third of the world’s women — and total population).
  • The authors say, "In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined — more than twice as big, in fact."
  • In clearer terms, the article says women worldwide control about $20 trillion in consumer spending each year, a figure that may grow as much as 40% in the next five years. Women earn $13 trillion a year, a number that should grow at a similar pace by 2015.
  • In only one of nine major economies the HBR report covered did women not control the majority of consumer spending: China, where they are responsible for $300 million worth of the $600 million in national private outlays. In the US, women decide $4.3 trillion of the $5.9 trillion consumers spend each year.
  • So surely every company should be turning its sights on women, but we know better. "Most companies have much to learn about selling to women," the authors explain. Sheer ignorance is often the reason companies shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly.
  • Marketing is routinely focused on men, paying little mind to meeting women’s needs. Companies often patronize women in advertising, promoting stereotypes, and focus on features that appeal more to men even for products whose purchase is overwhelming made by women.
  • The future is bright for companies that figure out how to avoid such mistakes… and for those who don’t, the bad times are not going to go away. "A focus on women as a target market—instead of on any geographical market—will up a company’s odds of success when the recovery begins," the authors say. "Understanding and meeting women’s needs will be essential to re-building the economy; therein lies the key to breakout growth, loyalty, and market share."
  • First off, companies must provide tailored goods and services to women. Marketers need to keep in mind that women are usually overburdened (from three-quarters, in Japan, to less than a quarter, in India, of men don’t help with household chores, women say), and so they are "especially responsive to products and services that can help them better control their lives and balance their priorities."
  • Knowing whom you're targeting and what she looks for in the marketplace can be a tremendous source of advantage, the authors point out.
Source: The Economist, Catalyst, McKinsey & Company, DR, Aftenposten, The HBR article "The Female Economy" by Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre, both of Boston Consulting Group, reports how "women represent the largest market opportunity in the world", women-omics.