Voice of Experience: Pamela J. Craig, Chief Financial Officer, Accenture

PamCraigBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Pamela J. Craig, Chief Financial Officer at Accenture, the best piece of advice she has to offer is: “Just go for it.”

“It sounds so simple,” she said. “That was particularly the case with my job as CFO… it just came up. And, my husband and co-workers were supportive and gave me the confidence that made a very big difference. It’s easy to lack confidence. It’s harder to have it. Go for it and make it all it can be. This a big deal for me.”

She continued, “Be open to stretch roles and go out of your comfort zone. It’s easy to say, ‘I’m not sure I can do that.’ You should say, ‘I bet I can do that.’”

Moving Up and Giving Back

“I graduated [from Smith College] in 1979 with a liberal arts degree – and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. So I entered an MBA program at NYU in Accounting,” Craig began. “After a couple of years, I realized I didn’t want to be an auditor all my life. I switched to consulting.”

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up

Beth 005Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc.

Weak US employment data – non-farm payrolls unexpectedly fell by 95,000 last month – emphasized the fragile nature of the economic recovery in the US. Talk of currency wars resulted in high volatility in foreign exchange markets and protectionism as countries are trying to boost their exports at the expense of others. The dollar weakened against the yen – the most closely watched indicator of the week. The B of E, the ECB, and the Reserve Bank of Australia kept rates on hold – and the Bank of Japan lowered rates.

Economic Backdrop

  • Low demand in rich countries is prompting fears of a global currency war. The Bank of Japan intervened to hold down the yen in foreign exchange markets. Brazil doubled taxes on capital inflows to stop the real surging. India and Thailand warned that they too might act. Washington and Brussels identified undervalued currencies such as the renminbi as a prime cause of global macroeconomic imbalances. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, retorted that an unstable yuan put the global economy in peril. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, voiced his concern during IMF meetings in Washington at the weekend. Finance chiefs including U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the IMF should help formulate initiatives on how countries can promote their economies without damaging others.
  • In the US there was more speculation that the Federal Reserve would announce a further round of quantitative easing (QE) at the November 3 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, after Friday’s weak US employment report highlighted the fragile nature of the economic recovery. Non-farm payrolls unexpectedly fell by 95,000 last month – while private sector payrolls, seen by many people as a better gauge of the health of the labour market, rose by 64,000, against a rise of 93,000 in August and below expectations. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.6 per cent.
  • A survey by Citigroup published this week showed that 90 per cent of investors expect the Fed to announce a second asset purchase scheme on November 3. It showed that, on average, investors expect the central bank to increase its balance sheet by $535bn.

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Talkin’ About a Revolution in Female Charitable Giving

iStock_000014165660XSmallBy Esther Hanscom, Hanscom Consulting Inc.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give” – Winston Churchill

So reads the quote on the site, Women In Philanthropy, an organization for women transforming the
South Carolina Midlands community through active and collective philanthropic investment.

The group is in partnership with United Way of the Midlands and the Central Carolina Community Foundation. This is one of the many philanthropic groups solely supported by women across the United States.

With women commanding more than half of the U.S. wealth and on track to hold two-thirds of it by 2030, it appears that a seismic shift in the way philanthropic endeavors are doled out to various charities and foundations is underway. While the University of Tennessee Alliance of Women Philanthropists reports that men are more inclined to leave money to the arts and humanities, a majority of participants surveyed by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners identified education as one of the top three causes they support, followed by women-related groups and the arts. Other beneficiaries include health-related charities, religious organizations, youth-related groups, social and human services, local community service groups, political organizations, and environmental issues.

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Women on the Buy-Side: What Does Dodd-Frank Mean for the Capital Markets?

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startup-849804_640(1)Tuesday marked The Glass Hammer’s biggest “women on the buy-side” investment management event so far – due in no small part to the turbulence and uncertainty in the capital markets, driven by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Moderated by journalist Heidi Moore, our panelists discussed how Dodd-Frank will impact the investment management field – regarding transparency, compliance, consolidation, and more – and what those changes mean for individuals in the industry, and their companies.

The panel featured Gina M. Biondo, Tax Partner, Financial Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Christine Hurtsellers, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments, ING Investment Management; Donna M. Parisi, Partner and head of the Asset Management Group, Shearman & Sterling LLP; Marcy Engel, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Eton Park Capital Management, LP; and Holly H. Miller, Partner, Stone House Consulting, LLC.

Dodd-Frank’s Biggest Surprises

Moore opened the debate with a discussion of how the regulatory bill had evolved since reform was first being considered – and asked the panelists what Dodd-Frank’s biggest surprises were.

Engel replied, “The biggest surprise was the Volcker Rule saying that proprietary trading by banks should be prohibited.” Early on, she said, no one had thought that it was likely to be included. “The more banks lobbied against it,” she explained, “the harder the push back.”

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Next Generation Sustainability: WNSF’S Annual Summit

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Frances Hesselbein

Frances Hesselbein

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

On Tuesday, the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future held its 7th annual summit, entitled “Sustainability, We Get it… Now What?”

Ann Goodman, Ph.D., Executive Director of WNSF, said, “By now the term sustainability has entered the vernacular. Now that everybody gets sustainability, how can we use it to drive [business].

Kathy Robb, Head of Environmental Practice at Hunton & Williams and a WNSF board member, explained explained that WNSF was founded around the belief that “women in business want to bolster sustainability efforts in their companies.”

She continued, “Caring about the environment allows companies to attract and retain women employees, customers, stockholders, and stakeholders – and create a better world for everyone.”

Dr. Goodman introduced the program’s keynote speaker, Frances Hesselbein as a personal “she-ro.” Hesselbein, Chair, Leader to Leader Institute; Chair, Study of Leadership, West Point Military Academy; former CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA is someone who has accomplished much, including being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US’s highest civilian honor. Yet, in spite of her achievements, Goodman said, Hesselbein continues to be “generous, friendly, down to earth, straight forward, direct, [and] empathetic.”

Hesselbein opened her discussion on creating a sustainable society with a poem:

Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words.
Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions.
Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits.
Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character.
Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.
– Anonymous

“Today is all about destiny,” she began.

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Move over Time Management: Increasing Your Power, Effectiveness, and Fulfillment with Choice Management

iStock_000000698005XSmallContributed by Alison Miller, PhD & Peg Rowe, MS (Chicago, Tiara: Exceptional Women’s Coaching)

Life is busy. Perhaps that’s a huge understatement. For many, life is moving at a very fast pace and it has become a never ending to do list. You have careers and personal lives and no matter how much you do each day, it is often hard to feel like you are ever getting ahead. So how do you try to solve this problem? By better managing time.

You may attend time management seminars, buy time management calendar systems, or endlessly play with your outlook schedule in search of more time. But in truth, time is finite. There are only 24 hours in a day and 168 in a week. Time actually can’t be managed, as hard as we may try. Sure there are times when you get a lot done but you may feel as if you are on treadmill with no way to get off. You are moving fast but not feeling inspired or fulfilled by your accomplishments Bottom line, you may feel like you hardly have enough time to manage all of you roles and responsibilities let alone contemplate how you can be more fulfilled and inspired. Given this reality and how much is on your never ending, ever growing to-do list, what are your options? How you can stop trying to manage time? How can you find a way to be more powerful and effective in the face of everything you juggle and end the day with sense of fulfillment and purpose? You can begin managing your choices – instead of focusing on time.

Choice management is fundamentally about consciously choosing how you direct your energy, what actions you take in life, and what you agreements you make. At the heart of choice management is awareness of your values and what matters most in your life. It is about having a vision for your life and what you want it to look like. So instead of managing time, you start to manage the choices you make so they are in greater alignment with your vision and values. For example, if you are clear that you highly value family, then each night at dinner you have the opportunity to choose family. You can put your Blackberry away and allow yourself to be present and enjoy each and every person at the dinner table. At work, if you value collaboration, you can pick up the phone and have a conversation, rather than perpetuating an endless round of emails to resolve an issue.

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Ask-a-Career-Coach: How to Get Pulled to the Top

AnnDalyHighRes-2Contributed by executive coach Ann Daly, Ph.D.

HR pros have a saying: “You don’t push yourself to the top, you get pulled there.” Which begs the question: Whose hand is reaching out to give you a lift?

If the names aren’t leaping from your lips, then it’s time to take action. You need to assess, plan, and implement a strategy that will build your cadre of helping hands. Here are two strategic options to get you going:

The first strategy, recommended by Catalyst (a nonprofit membership organization working to expand opportunities for women and business), takes a singular approach: find a sponsor. In “Be Somebody—Get Sponsored,” Catalyst president and CEO Ilene H. Lang explains that a sponsor is a mentor with a difference: she actively advocates for your advancement.

Sponsors stick with you—they don’t ditch you at your first promotion. They protect you from enemies. They push the right buttons. They understand the Unwritten Rules. And they ensure you’re visible. In short, they shape your career.

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Women in Charge: The Next Critical Step for Work/Life Progress

iStock_000005921236XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

This weekend saw the release of another study revealing the value of women in leadership roles. The study, by researchers at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Union College, showed that the inclusion of women in a group can increase its effectiveness in decision making.

The crux of the study – that more women equals better decision making – was a surprise to researchers, who said they did not set out to study gender, but rather what they have termed “collective intelligence.” The more collaborative a group was in the decision making process, the better its decisions turned out to be – a result of “social sensitivity,” or how well group members understood each others’ feelings.

According to the researchers, the women in the study showed higher levels of social sensitivity – and groups with more women tended to do perform better. The researchers even went to so far as to say that their study would have implications in the business world.

This is pretty convincing work. But what effect will one more study really have on increasing the tiny percentage of leadership positions held by women? So far, similar research hasn’t exactly caused a sea change in leadership diversity. What’s missing?

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Culture, Law, or Corporate Policy: What Change Comes First?

iStock_000004512689XSmallBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

Bringing gender parity in the office requires an effort across multiple facets of corporate life. There needs to be legislative efforts to ensure women can compete on a level playing field at the most basic level. There needs to be adequate corporate policies to promote an environment where women want to work and can be successful working. And finally there needs to be a cultural acceptance of the value that working women bring to the wider society.

All three are needed to bring gender parity into the office, and all three build upon one another. As individuals, it can be hard to work out how we can make a difference and in particular which of these three should take our focus first. The Glass Hammer spoke to 4 women to find out what they thought about these three elements, and where we should be start.

You can’t change corporate policy, so work around it

“We need all three of those things but ultimately it is up to women to master the art of negotiating to get what they want and need in corporate America,” says Lee E. Miller, a former Fortune 1000 head of HR and co-author, with her daughter Jessica, of A Woman’s Guide to Successful Negotiating. She believes that women need to realise that they can’t influence corporate policy as individuals. “The corporate culture is the corporate culture. Until they become a C-level executive there is precious little anyone can do. Trying to do so will likely result in some superficial changes to make it look like the issue is being addressed. Unless executives in the C-suite see the issue as a bottom line business issue nothing significant will happen.”

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up

Beth 005Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc.

While US investors focused on the prospects of more quantitative easing (QE2), in Europe attention remained fixed on sovereign debt concerns and fiscal austerity. Ireland was the centre of unwelcome attention, as credit rating agencies lowered their ratings of Irish banks and the potential cost of bailing out the banks rose to 50 billion Euro, which would increase the budget deficit to around 32% of GDP.

Economic Backdrop

  • Data released last week ranged from an upbeat survey of China’s manufacturing sector, to UK and eurozone factory activity slowing, with an unexpected drop in German retail sales during August. Nevertheless, consumer and business confidence rose in the euro area in September, with Germany leading the economic-sentiment indicator for the 16-member currency union close to a three-year high.
  • Americans were not as optimistic, as job and wage concerns drove the consumer-confidence index down. The US Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing composite index eased as expected to 54.4 in September from 56.3 in August.
  • The euro surged to a six-month high of $1.3767 last week as the prospects of further quantitative easing from central banks other than the European Central Bank lifted the single currency and allowed it to shrug off persistent concerns over the fiscal health of countries, such as Spain and Ireland, on the periphery of the eurozone. The euro also rose 2 per cent to a four-month peak of £0.8695 to the pound, as Adam Posen, a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee called for further quantitative easing to stimulate the UK economy.

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