Courtesey of Pro Mujer
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
Last Thursday, the Financial Women’s Association of New York held an informational panel discussion on the state of microfinance in Latin America. The panel, moderated by Sheila Hooda, Senior Managing Director, TIAA-CREF, featured a broad spectrum of experts: Sandra Darville, Unit Chief, Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); Gary P. Kochubka, Senior Director, Standard & Poor’s (S&P); Rosario Perez, Chief Executive Officer, Pro Mujer; and Peter V. A. Shaw, Managing Director, FitchRatings.
One of the main takeaways of the event was that it’s difficult to discuss “microfinance in Latin America” because the market is so broad, with the industry taking on several stages of maturity across the region.
As Darville explained, in some areas of the region, the microfinance market is extremely developed (with over 30% penetration), while in other places, penetration is “less than 1%.”
Hooda summarized, “Microfinance originated in Latin America. A lot of institutions are very mature. Government regulation is mostly helpful…” Over the years, she explained, the industry has survived a lot of turmoil – whether hurricanes or political unrest – but, she said of the state of the industry in the past two years, “this is the first time the crisis is not [based in] Latin America – it originated in the US.”
Shaw said, “Broadly and structurally… microfinance as an industry has penetrated deeper in Latin America than in some of the other markets in which it is active today.” He explained that in the last ten years, the industry has undergone a cycle of development in which entities started largely as unregulated institutions, funded mostly by venture capital or philanthropic donations.
As the industry has grown, it has become more heavily regulated. “Non-banks transform into banks,” he explained. “Deposits are becoming more important to balance sheets.”
Voice of Experience: Agnès Hussherr, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Voices of ExperienceFor the last five years, Agnès Hussherr, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, has led the Women in PwC project in France. It’s part of a challenging and interesting role that has kept her at the company for over twenty years.
“I joined PwC twenty years ago just after graduation, aged 22, as an auditor, and was appointed partner at 33,” she says. “In the early days of my career, I worked on a variety of projects including non-audit work. Also, I had the opportunity to be on one job which widened my knowledge of the banking sector. This meant I didn’t become too specialised which might have limited my opportunities to become a partner.”
As a young partner, for six years Hussherr split her work 50/50 as a client partner and as a technical partner specialised in IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), which gave her a strong technical background and the opportunity to work within a worldwide global and virtual team. However, while the technical background has given her a good grounding, it is not the most critical part of her road to success. “Working long hours and being a technical expert are not the most important things,” she says. “The most important are relationships, both with clients and internally.”
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Technology Helps Work/Life Balance: It’s Official
Work-LifeWhat does your boss think about giving you gadgets for work? And what do you think about carrying around a smart phone or BlackBerry? While it might feel like technology means you are chained to the office – even when you aren’t actually there – new research shows that gadgets actually have a positive impact on happiness and work/life balance.
A new study from BCS, the UK’s Chartered Institute for IT, shows that access to information technology has a ‘statistically significant, positive impact on life satisfaction’. The report is based on an analysis of the World Values Survey, and contains responses from over 35,000 people around the world. The research, carried out by Trajectory Partnership, suggests that there is a personal and social benefit which results from access to technology, a result they call the ‘information dividend’ and you probably benefit from it.
“Put simply, people with IT access are more satisfied with life even when taking account of income,” says Michael Willmott, the social scientist who authored the report and co-founder of The Future Foundation. “Our analysis suggests that IT has an enabling and empowering role in people’s lives by increasing their sense of freedom and control, which has a positive impact on wellbeing or happiness.”
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The Athena Collaborative: Putting Women in the Investment Banking Pipeline
Mentors and Sponsors, News“The pipeline leaks start very, very early,” said Christina DelliSanti Miller, founder of the Athena Collaborative, an organization whose mission is to expand the population of women entering and thriving in quantitative careers. She explained that research shows “girls check out of math in 6th grade.” On the other hand, “Math and STEM careers are the most lucrative. Girls are socialized or self-selecting out before they realize what business is.”
“More than half the people going to college are women. In the securities industry, only 14% of people at the highest level are women,” she said. Shouldn’t these numbers be closer to parity?
Patching the Leaky Pipeline
Providing mentoring and internships to young women is one way the Athena Collaborative works to plug those pipeline leaks.
Miller, former Head of Diversity at Barclays and a social psychologist, has 20 years of experience working in diversity functions in big business – and the last 10 years in the financial services industry. She founded the organization after seeing not only a decrease in the number of women in the industry, but also the difficulties companies were facing in building diverse teams. She said, “We were competing for a small pool of women,” she said. “The higher up you go, there are less women.”
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Movers and Shakers: Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Global Online Sales, Google
Movers and Shakers“My job at Google is to represent the customer,” explained Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Global Online Sales at Google. And Johnson is enthusiastic about the ability for technology to improve business for her customers. “In terms of impact that grows a business, tech has the ability a lot of business sectors don’t.” In fact, Johnson recently penned a blog post announcing Google’s Economic Impact report for 2009 – revealing that the company “generated a total of $54 billion of economic activity for American businesses.”
Johnson energetically discussed the reasons she enjoys working in the technology field – the exhilarating rate of change, and the collaborative nature of her job. “What’s exciting about technology is that everything moves very fast. You have to watch the space constantly.”
She continued, “It’s exciting – and threatening. It’s going to look different in a few months.”
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Evolved Networking at the WIBF Awards in London
NetworkingWomen’s networks – are they still relevant in 2010? This has been a question posed of late by a number of commentators, who suggest that encouraging women to group together, network and share ideas and experiences is counterproductive to 21st century business life, creating silos and serving as a space for women to complain about the status quo.
Last week in London saw the Credit Suisse sponsored thirtieth birthday party and annual awards lunch of one of the UK’s oldest and most established women’s networking groups, Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF). Created by five women in 1980, and sponsored by the then Deputy Chairman of NatWest Bank, WIBF now has a membership of over 800 individuals and provides a forum for woman (and at the lunch, quite a few men) to meet, learn new skills, share experiences and best practices, make useful contacts and to fulfil their individual potential. In addition to the annual awards lunch, WIBF (also part of wider global network the International Alliance for Women) runs a regular programme of training and networking events with a focus on personal and professional development.
The WIBF awards began in 1997 and celebrates three women each year for their outstanding personal and professional achievements in the traditionally male financial services sector. And last week, the Dorchester hotel in central London played host to a roomful of around 250 WIBF members, all doing anything BUT complaining – in fact, the amount of networking and generous sharing of ideas and contacts would have put the membership of the average golf club to shame.
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The State of Microfinance in Latin America
NewsCourtesey of Pro Mujer
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
Last Thursday, the Financial Women’s Association of New York held an informational panel discussion on the state of microfinance in Latin America. The panel, moderated by Sheila Hooda, Senior Managing Director, TIAA-CREF, featured a broad spectrum of experts: Sandra Darville, Unit Chief, Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); Gary P. Kochubka, Senior Director, Standard & Poor’s (S&P); Rosario Perez, Chief Executive Officer, Pro Mujer; and Peter V. A. Shaw, Managing Director, FitchRatings.
One of the main takeaways of the event was that it’s difficult to discuss “microfinance in Latin America” because the market is so broad, with the industry taking on several stages of maturity across the region.
As Darville explained, in some areas of the region, the microfinance market is extremely developed (with over 30% penetration), while in other places, penetration is “less than 1%.”
Hooda summarized, “Microfinance originated in Latin America. A lot of institutions are very mature. Government regulation is mostly helpful…” Over the years, she explained, the industry has survived a lot of turmoil – whether hurricanes or political unrest – but, she said of the state of the industry in the past two years, “this is the first time the crisis is not [based in] Latin America – it originated in the US.”
Shaw said, “Broadly and structurally… microfinance as an industry has penetrated deeper in Latin America than in some of the other markets in which it is active today.” He explained that in the last ten years, the industry has undergone a cycle of development in which entities started largely as unregulated institutions, funded mostly by venture capital or philanthropic donations.
As the industry has grown, it has become more heavily regulated. “Non-banks transform into banks,” he explained. “Deposits are becoming more important to balance sheets.”
Read more
Addressing the “Business Case” Against Diversity
Managing ChangeThe business case for diversity has become a popularly held belief and it’s something we’ve discussed at length here at The Glass Hammer. The reasoning behind it is very simple: When board directors and top level executives are too much alike, they think too much alike and in turn, look at both problems and solutions the same way. By contrast, having a diverse group of people in the upper ranks of a corporation leads to diversity of solutions, innovations, better governance, and the type of outside-of-the-box thinking so desperately needed in the corporate world. Many studies have also found that diversity increases sales revenue, customer numbers, and profitability. What’s not to love?
Unfortunately, there is a growing body of evidence that seems to suggest diversity does not deliver, at least in the short run. Many companies have reported little to no change in their performance. This is even true for Norway, where a 2002 law requiring 40 percent of all company board members to be women has – in some cases – been detrimental to companies forced to comply. A recent study by the University of Michigan has found that a drastic increase in women to Norway’s boardrooms has done very little to improve corporate performance or enhance the professional caliber of the country’s boards. Even more unsettling is the idea that making efforts to diversity corporate boards and executive suites is actually creating conflict and other unforeseen problems. Here’s our take on a few of the problems companies have run into while implementing diversity initiatives – and how to fix them!
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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up
NewsStocks were down at the end of last week. JPMorgan was fined for its failure to keep client money in separate accounts. The US Congress is set to impose conflict of interest rules on banks and push ahead with reform of the New York Federal Reserve.
Economic Backdrop
On commodity markets, Gold rebounded from its mid-week low, with August futures rising 0.6 percent to $1,217.70 an ounce, on demand for an alternative to the slumping euro, though the spot price was still down on the week.
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Voice of Experience: Sandra Urie, President and CEO of Cambridge Associates
Voices of Experience“Figure out what you really like to do. Don’t do things because other people expect you to do them. If finance is your passion, then absolutely jump in fully. (Go ahead and get that CFA and MBA because they give you true credibility from the start.) But it is most important to do what you love,” advised Sandra Urie, the President and CEO of Cambridge Associates.
For her part, Urie said, “I love mission-driven, non-profit institutions. These institutions don’t exist to make money; they exist to achieve a mission, but they need money to do it. I strive to help these organizations have greater financial stability so they can focus on advancing their missions. I think there is a great psychic reward to doing that.”
Growing Up Feminist
Urie was born and raised in Massachusetts, where, she says, she “grew up in the company of women as one of four sisters.” She explained, “My parents were the first feminists I knew. They really inspired us to understand that the only limitations we had were the ones we put on ourselves and that we shouldn’t allow the world to tell us what we could be or do. In the 1950s, not many parents were communicating that message. My three sisters and I grew up thinking the world was our oyster.”
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Three Steps for Making Even Better Decisions on the Job
Expert AnswersMaking the right decision is always a combination of head, heart, and gut; whether it’s choosing from a sumptuous dinner menu, hiring a skilled project manager, or agreeing to purchase a new office building.
Deciding is an art and craft that includes research and data. However, while most decision making models and processes are organized around assessing and understanding the issues at hand, it is also critical to include the subtle psychological aspects that can make decision making seem irrational, even impossible.
The key to quality decisions is listening to yourself as you trudge through all the logical reasons and move from no to yes to maybe, to no again to “okay, it’s a go.”
Pay attention to the behavior pattern that best suits your personality. This is the clue; gaining insight into your personal arsenal of how you choose will expand creative options and help you make better choices in the future. Are you the “lone wolf” who resists asking for too much input that would muddy the final outcome, the “politician” who has to get consensus before you give the final word, the “impulse addict” who needs a fast and furious decision to avoid anxiety, or the “avoider” who stays in the background pushing others to be the final voice so you can never be blamed if things go wrong?
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