The Art of Possibility: Women in European Business – Deutsche Bank Conference 2009
by Jane Carruthers (London)
On Tuesday, May 12th, the Deutsche Bank Women in European Business Conference 2009 was held at the Barbican in the City of London. 2,000 women had succeeded in getting onto the guest list for the conference; it was oversubscribed to a point where even the waiting list had a waiting list. The center was packed with smart, sassy, serious achiever females of every professional persuasion and a decent sprinkling of menfolk.
When Deutsche Bank puts on a show, it doesn’t hold back: as hundreds of women converged on the center for pre-conference refreshments the reception area was adorned with the artist Tess Barnes’s portraits of 50 prominent ‘Women of Substance’. These included such luminaries as Baroness Patricia Scotland, the UK’s Attorney General; June Sarpong, TV presenter and journalist and Dame Julie Mellor, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and previously chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission.
A specially-bound book of the portraits and accompanying biographies was given to all attending, proceeds of which go to support The Haven Breast Cancer charity. So we’re lucky enough to hear interesting people, be given a fascinating freebie – AND a charity benefits. Ticks all my boxes. No wonder the event was nearly 200% oversubscribed.
Also portrayed in the Tess Barnes collection was the astonishingly courageous Caroline Hamilton, who, after a welcome speech by Deutsche Bank’s Dr. Josef Ackermann, gave us some ‘fly-on-the-wall’ experiences of her all-women expeditions to the North and South Poles. (I should point out that there are no flies on the wall in either pole, with temperatures reaching below -40°.)
Large screens showed the bitterly icy conditions, frostbite and arctic hazards they faced, and each one had two thousand of us agape with admiration. While many of us would prefer our challenges to be on warmer turf, Caroline Hamilton embodied the truth that ‘if you want it badly enough, you can achieve it.” Inspirational – and stirring – stuff.
Not content with putting most extreme explorers to shame, Caroline is also the Managing Director and founding shareholder of Icebreaker Management, which delivers extensive tax and wealth management expertise to over 700 clients. She is also actively planning a further polar expedition. (And, for a moment there, I was sorely tempted to sign up. For a fleeting moment.)
Although Caroline’s Polar talk was a tough act to follow, discussion mediator and UK television journalist Kirsty Wark did a stellar job of asking pertinent (and when required, beautifully pointed) questions of Caroline and the rest of the panel, the next member introduced being Preethi Nair, an entrepreneurial author who divided herself into sundry alter egos, working out of her back bedroom to promote her writing abilities. Preethi now has a three-book deal with HarperCollins, has won the Asian Woman of Achievement award for her endeavours and is also, apparently, working on a musical. Yes, she left us all breathless, too.
Marilyn Spearing, Global head of Trade Finance and Cash Management Corporates at Deutsche Bank and clearly a business heavy-hitter with charm and grace, completed the female line-up.
Liam Kane, Chief Executive of the East London Business Alliance and David Tyler, Chairman of Logica plc, bravely injected some masculine viewpoints into the discussion, which ranged from the difficulties of parachuting women into board positions (hotly debated with a lively interject from Caroline Hamilton on male skill-set rigidity being a root cause of women’s failure to reach high positions) to the fear of failure that pervades women’s progress in the professions.
How do you follow that? Many conferences tend to fizzle a bit at this point, and you’re ushered out of the auditorium to have a glass of warm white wine and indulge in some lacklustre ‘working the room’ networking. Not at the Deutsche Do. We stayed in our seats and waited for the star turn.
On next: principal speaker Benjamin Zander*, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a regular guest conductor around the world. According to the biography in Deutsche Bank’s handout, Zander not only discoursed on leadership at the Davos World Economic Forum, he’s one of the most sought-after speakers in the world.
Although he might be in global demand as a motivational speaker, “What can an orchestra conductor tell me about my career?” was a question many of us had asked ourselves (in a good-natured sort of way) before he bounded up onto the stage, all flying eyebrows and wayward hair, with all the élan of a seven-year-old about to raid a sweet shop. We waited with interest.
Zander proceeded to knock much dogmatic and received thinking firmly on its head, with forays into a Chopin nocturne for a musical counterpoint. It was extraordinarily effective. Eccentric, amusing, passionate and always thoughtful, Zander doesn’t so much think outside the box as refuse to admit there is a box. He challenged us in many ways, even asking us to question why it was that we chose to sit where we did: “Why don’t you go straight to the front row in a theatre/auditorium? They’re the best seats in the house. You get to see, hear and experience the very best. But oddly, people are programmed to go to the back. I watched one woman head straight for the front row, and suddenly veer away. She thought she didn’t belong there. So we head for the back row, where we can gossip, criticise, or go to sleep. Not where we hear the music. Be a front row person if you want to avoid the negatives at the back.”
“That whisper in your ear: ‘Don’t do it. If you do it you fail. If you do it you look a fool.’ Ignore it,” he said. “If you fail, CELEBRATE! You learned! The Whisper In Your Ear is the Downward Spiral. You will achieve only if you radiate possibility.” Judging by the reaction of the 2,000 women present, he demolished several shibboleths at the same time as giving much to take home and think about. Engaging a huge audience in a vast auditorium is clearly something he relishes.
Following the conclusion of the speeches, a networking reception was held, with the ensuing conversations considerably enlivened by the debates and speeches that had gone before. “A big success”, “Inspirational”, “Wow Factor: Warp Speed” were some of the opinions I canvassed immediately afterwards.
Was the eighth Deutsche Bank Women in European Business Conference 2009 worth the trip to London? Was it any different to the usual? Yes and Yes. I very much hope to attend again next year.
Zander and his wife, Rosamund Zander (who sadly could not be present) have co-authored a book, “The Art of Possibility”, which has been translated into 15 languages.
