I love Desert Island Discs – I love hearing the stories of people’s success and recognition, love hearing their music choices, the book and the luxury item they would take with them. All reveal so much about a person’s character in such an enjoyable space of time. Last week I listened to Amanda Blanc, Group CEO of Aviva, one of just eight women at the top of a FTSE 100 company. Amidst some great music choices, she tells the story…
Sadly, I heard of the death of Jacqueline Gold this morning after seven years of treatment for breast cancer. In 1981 when Jacqueline first proposed making lingerie and sex toys more female friendly, she was taken aback by the reaction of one of the company’s all-male directors who claimed that women were not interested in sex. “Obviously it said a lot more about his sex life than it did about my idea,” she later said. Jacqueline’s story is included in…
International Women’s Day acts as a bold and loud reminder to celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness about discrimination and to drive gender parity. #Embrace Equity – is this year’s theme. When writing Wonder Women, Giles and I set out three objectives: To create awareness of and celebrate the women’s success To inspire others (both women and men) with the stories and thoughts of successful women and encourage the adoption of more ‘feminine’ aspects of thinking and doing To encourage all…
It’s London Fashion Week this week and I read with interest The Times article which heavily featured the Burberry brand – Jodie Comer was centre stage showcasing the debut collection by the British designer Daniel Lee with a confident and colourful reworking of the Burberry DNA. Backstage, Lee spoke of working with the brand’s archivist to dig out ‘fabrics from British mills from 100 years ago’. There were also lots of duck patterns and when Lee was asked why, he…
I’d like to share with you the highlights from (and a link to) the Harvard Business Review article on How Successful Women Sustain Career Momentum. When reading it and listening to the interviews, I was struck by the many parallels with the insights from our interviews for our Wonder Women in Marketing book. In the HBR interviews female leaders with varied backgrounds, interests, personalities and careers were asked to describe pivotal moments that helped them maintain career momentum. Analysing these…
This is a true story. It’s January 2023. The start of the New Year and the CEO steps up in a townhall meeting of 300 colleagues to set out the plans and inspire the team for the year ahead. The CEO introduces the Marketing Director, an experienced marketeer with an impressive track record. And he introduces her as: “My Marketing Gal” There is a deep intake of breath, but the room stays silent. The CEO has the utmost respect for…
Resilience definition: the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. I read with interest the McKinsey imperative for organisations to build resilience in these turbulent times. Leaders need to not just weather the storm but lift their company to the next frontier of resilience. Each crisis calls for ingenuity, grit, and determination. Businesses need new approaches: a perceptive response to current challenges; foresight to anticipate the next round of disruptions; and capability for adaptation. Leaders are now…
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on why men would benefit from greater gender equality. We all want to create a better world for men, women and future generations, so I’m sharing some thoughts and insights we had on writing the Wonder Women book and am heartened to see them reiterated (and backed up by robust data) in the final chapter of The Authority Gap by Ann Sieghart. It’s encouraging to see more women in leadership roles,…
I’m currently listening to a book called The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart. Thank you @Sally Bibb for recommending. I’m only a few chapters in and am (unsurprisingly) shocked by the examples of the authority gap. But what is so brilliant is that there are now numbers backed up by statistics and studies that confirm what we have all recognised anecdotally for years. It backs up so many examples of the gender inequality and authority gap issues @…
Now that the England Women have won the Euros, everyone is talking about the power and importance of women’s sport. I’ve already said lots in my previous two blogs/posts as I watched the group stages, quarter final, semi-final, and I could go on to say lots about winning the final (yes I was there!) but much of that has already been said. I would like to touch upon the role of brands and sponsorship. I wrote a blog in March…