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.”
Women in Tech: Building Confidence and Visibility
Industry Leaders, LeadershipFriday’s 85 Broads NYC Internet Week panel “Hot & Bothered: It’s Time To Change The Gender Ratio in New Media & Tech” tackled the myth that there just aren’t that many women in the tech space. Moderator Rachel Sklar, Editor-at-Large at Mediaite, explained that she meets a lot of female leaders in the tech space, but they just aren’t getting recognition.
Panelists included Esther Dyson, angel investor, tech industry pioneer, and journalist; Michelle Madhok, founder, SheFinds Media; Alexa Hirschfeld, co-founder, PaperlessPost; and Joanna Stern, contributing editor, Engadget.
Sklar said she decided to put the panel together after reading New York Magazine’s recent piece “Tweet Tweet Boom Boom: How Tech Startups Like Foursquare and Meetup Are Trying to Overthrow Old Media and Build a Better New York,” Sklar said, “The ratio in the New York Magazine piece – 53 people and 6 female – didn’t reflect my experience, socially, in this space.”
Read more
Why Female Stars Succeed in New Jobs
Office PoliticsAccording to a recent study, when changing jobs, women are more likely to continue to shine than men. Harvard Business School professors compiled data on 1,052 star Wall Street research analysts (defined by their Institutional Investor rankings) in the United States from 1988 to 1996. They found that a significant number of stars show a decline in performance in their new jobs and were likely to leave their new firms within five years. However, the decline in performance was found mostly in men.
The research showed that women who switched firms were able to maintain their star status, unlike their male counterparts. Talented women who switch firms tend to maintain their stardom, and their new employer’s share price holds steady. The implication of the study is that firms seeking to hire a top performer cannot accurately value the likely return on their investment based purely on that individual’s accomplishments in another organization.
Power of Relationships
Women, who made up 18% of the analysts in the study, were more likely than men to have built their success on relationships with clients and companies they covered. High-performing female analysts are boundary spanners—they tend to forge relationships with people outside their work environment and are connected to disparate groups of people. The network of support may contribute significantly to an individual’s ability to maintain top performance.
Read more
In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up
NewsGlobal equities rebounded this week. Santander purchased Bank of America’s stake in its Mexican operations, seizing back full control of the business. BP may suspend its dividend to fund the cleanup of the Gulf oil spill. EU finance ministers backed Estonia’s bid to become the 17th member of the eurozone.
Economic Backdrop
Read more
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.”
Read more
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.”
Read more
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.”
Read more
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.”
Read more
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.
Read more
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!
Read more