By Heather Chapman (New York City)
Jennifer Flaa is a very busy woman. You might think that being the CEO of Vettana, a software quality assurance (SQA) company she founded twelve years ago, would be enough to keep her occupied. But, for this woman, it’s not. She has started a second company, teaches at the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center, and has written a book. Oh, and in her spare time Jennifer sings in a rock band she started a few years ago.
Despite the passion she has for technology—Jennifer was a Technology Management student at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC)—this field wasn’t Jennifer’s first love. That was music. Jennifer says she sang throughout high school in choirs and musicals, played three different instruments, and was her high school band’s drum major and conductor. Still, despite how much she lived for music, Jennifer says that she consciously did not focus on that when she went to college. “I consciously turned the music switch off when I went to college and started an engineering curriculum. I loved music but did not want to be a ‘starving artist’. ”
After graduating, Jennifer went on to work at NASA, writing and researching test cases for an experiment that was conducted via space shuttles. It was her experiences there at NASA that led Jennifer to eventually leave and move to the Bay Area, working for several startups. It wasn’t until after she burned out working for various startups, spending all her time and energy there—literally sleeping under her desk at times—that she went back to music. Jennifer took two years off from her professional career and spent her time singing with a local garage band, belting out blues tunes, and performing for six months in a local musical, where she played four different characters. But then, as Jennifer says, “she did it again,” starting Vettanna and “deep ended into work again, shutting off the music valve that majorly fed my soul.”
It took a divorce for Jennifer to actually stop and take a look at how she was living her, realizing only then that she wasn’t doing what really made her happy. “That’s when I started singing again and sought out a rock vocal coach that would help me develop a professional quality sound.” She also became the manager of a friend’s band, teaching herself about the music industry from the inside. She took the knowledge that she learned from that experience and started her own band, Urban Fiction, with her friend, Francois Didier Bouvet. Planning only on singing the songs that other artists had written, the suggestion by her coach to write her own songs took Jennifer completely by surprise. Hesitant at first, Jennifer disregarded his suggestion, but her coach didn’t stop there. “He told me to come back next week with not one but four songs…and I did. Of course they were crap. But we worked with them and he really taught me the [song-writing] craft. I write the melodies and lyrics and Didier Bouvet [her partner in the band] adds the groove and the awesome guitar!”
Jennifer says that she still struggles to find an acceptable balance in her life. “I work best in bursts and still ‘deep end’ into tasks, looking up and [realizing] it’s 4 a.m. and I’m still on a roll! It’s not a long-term strategy but it’s actually fun and rewarding to do from time to time. The truth is, the balancing is a process. I haven’t figured out yet if ‘having a balanced life’ means that the ‘balance’ happens each day or in a week, or in a month or over the year!”
Balancing act notwithstanding, Jennifer is always on top of her life and priorities by forming a clear vision of what she wants to accomplish. Then, she says, she “take[s] it and get geeky with it. I write a plan, map out what it will take to get from here to there, how long and what the tasks are along the way.” By prioritizing her tasks and taking things one-step at a time, Jennifer says, “by the end of the year I find I’ve accomplished quite a bit.”
Jennifer has found that since she’s again made music a priority in her life, she’s much happier. “The singing is my passion and I get so much juice, happiness, and energy from playing in that sandbox that it really feeds my soul and gives me energy for other things.”
Jennifer has a website, with links to her four different blogs, and she’s also on LinkedIn and Twitter, where she can be reached at any time.
In Case You Missed It: News Round-Up
NewsIn case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:
Mergers and Acquisition
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Businesswomen in India
Breaking the Glass CeilingFour Indian women are listed among the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women – two are in government, one is a self-made biotech powerhouse, and the other, Indra Nooyi, is the US-based CEO of Pepsico. Conspicuously missing are the women of India’s corporate sector.
In 1991, in an effort to combat widespread poverty, India undertook serious economic reforms, eschewing market controls and opening its economy to the world. The resulting multinational corporation mass entry into the market allowed women to enter and excel in non-traditional (i.e., not teaching or nursing), corporate professions and in banking and IT in particular.
While significant progress has been made for women in the Indian corporate world, there is a long way to go. According to a Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) source, only a handful of women sit on the boards of the 4,864 companies listed: currently only 4.9% of the 12,741 directors on the boards of these companies are women and, out of the top 100 companies listed on the BSE, only 34.7% of the directors are women.
As in most other countries, one reason for the comparatively low number of women at the top of corporations is the difficulty balancing work obligations with home obligations. In India, this is a particularly challenging issue as women are still primarily responsible for children and the home (including their in-law’s home life), whether or not they work outside the home.
The good news is that there are a handful of successful Indian businesswomen – women like Naina Lal Kidwai, Chief Executive Officer of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation India branches; Hewlett Packard’s Managing Director Neelam Dhawan; and Jayashree Vallal from Cisco Systems, among others. These are the women who are paving the way for a new generation of businesswomen, breaking free of traditional roles and cracking India’s corporate glass ceiling.
Opportunities for training and mentoring by these successful businesswomen will pave the way into the next decade, inspiring the next generation of young women. The role of women in top positions will continue to increase as their input and ideas are tapped to ensure the continued success of India’s economic future.
Passions: Singing in a Rock Band
PassionsJennifer Flaa is a very busy woman. You might think that being the CEO of Vettana, a software quality assurance (SQA) company she founded twelve years ago, would be enough to keep her occupied. But, for this woman, it’s not. She has started a second company, teaches at the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center, and has written a book. Oh, and in her spare time Jennifer sings in a rock band she started a few years ago.
Despite the passion she has for technology—Jennifer was a Technology Management student at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC)—this field wasn’t Jennifer’s first love. That was music. Jennifer says she sang throughout high school in choirs and musicals, played three different instruments, and was her high school band’s drum major and conductor. Still, despite how much she lived for music, Jennifer says that she consciously did not focus on that when she went to college. “I consciously turned the music switch off when I went to college and started an engineering curriculum. I loved music but did not want to be a ‘starving artist’. ”
After graduating, Jennifer went on to work at NASA, writing and researching test cases for an experiment that was conducted via space shuttles. It was her experiences there at NASA that led Jennifer to eventually leave and move to the Bay Area, working for several startups. It wasn’t until after she burned out working for various startups, spending all her time and energy there—literally sleeping under her desk at times—that she went back to music. Jennifer took two years off from her professional career and spent her time singing with a local garage band, belting out blues tunes, and performing for six months in a local musical, where she played four different characters. But then, as Jennifer says, “she did it again,” starting Vettanna and “deep ended into work again, shutting off the music valve that majorly fed my soul.”
It took a divorce for Jennifer to actually stop and take a look at how she was living her, realizing only then that she wasn’t doing what really made her happy. “That’s when I started singing again and sought out a rock vocal coach that would help me develop a professional quality sound.” She also became the manager of a friend’s band, teaching herself about the music industry from the inside. She took the knowledge that she learned from that experience and started her own band, Urban Fiction, with her friend, Francois Didier Bouvet. Planning only on singing the songs that other artists had written, the suggestion by her coach to write her own songs took Jennifer completely by surprise. Hesitant at first, Jennifer disregarded his suggestion, but her coach didn’t stop there. “He told me to come back next week with not one but four songs…and I did. Of course they were crap. But we worked with them and he really taught me the [song-writing] craft. I write the melodies and lyrics and Didier Bouvet [her partner in the band] adds the groove and the awesome guitar!”
Jennifer says that she still struggles to find an acceptable balance in her life. “I work best in bursts and still ‘deep end’ into tasks, looking up and [realizing] it’s 4 a.m. and I’m still on a roll! It’s not a long-term strategy but it’s actually fun and rewarding to do from time to time. The truth is, the balancing is a process. I haven’t figured out yet if ‘having a balanced life’ means that the ‘balance’ happens each day or in a week, or in a month or over the year!”
Balancing act notwithstanding, Jennifer is always on top of her life and priorities by forming a clear vision of what she wants to accomplish. Then, she says, she “take[s] it and get geeky with it. I write a plan, map out what it will take to get from here to there, how long and what the tasks are along the way.” By prioritizing her tasks and taking things one-step at a time, Jennifer says, “by the end of the year I find I’ve accomplished quite a bit.”
Jennifer has found that since she’s again made music a priority in her life, she’s much happier. “The singing is my passion and I get so much juice, happiness, and energy from playing in that sandbox that it really feeds my soul and gives me energy for other things.”
Jennifer has a website, with links to her four different blogs, and she’s also on LinkedIn and Twitter, where she can be reached at any time.
Women as Global Consumers WITI San Diego Regional Network Event
NewsWITI San Diego presents:
Women as Global Consumers – Women are driving new Consumer Trends, Business Models and Technologies in the Communications and Entertainment Industry
Globalization has changed the face of the world, making us all into global consumers and giving us access to instant information. This has deeply affected women’s lives. For several years now, instant communication between continents and the spread of free trade have paved the way for a rise of a global consumer culture. Women aged 18 and over accounted for over 110 million consumers in both the US and Western Europe in 2005.
Space is limited; we encourage pre-registration to guarantee admission.
Take me directly to the registration form.
All registrations must be received by Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Board’s Eye View: African-American Women on Fortune 500 Corporate Boards
Movers and Shakersby Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)
As we reported last week, there are still significant barriers to African-American women rising in Corporate America’s ranks. Women of color—like many women—suffer from a lack of strong or existing strategic networks and work/life balance demands. Additionally, they are hampered by a lack of opportunity—the Catalyst Census of Women on Boards of December 2008 showed that the number of women in general and women of color in particular remained stagnant—and by inaccurate perceptions of African-American women’s capabilities.
Of the 471 companies surveyed, nearly one-fifth had at least one African-American woman on the board. Of the 15.2 percent of directorships held by women at Fortune 500 companies, only 3.2 percent are held by women of color.
If the truth expressed in past Catalyst studies—that the more women on corporate boards, the more likely there will be women in upper management of the organization—holds true for other under-represented groups, the following extraordinary African American women who sit on corporate boards will, by their presence and accomplishments, help create a climate conducive to including other women of color in the C-suite.
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Breaking The Glass Ceiling in Florida
Breaking the Glass CeilingNew data from Florida supports a disturbing trend. The number of women in top corporate jobs and on boards of directors in Florida’s top public companies has dwindled over the past few years according to the 2008 Census by Women Executive Leadership. The census studies gender diversity in the executive suite and boardroom. It was conducted by WEL (Women Executive Leadership), a Florida-based organization that advocates, educates, and connects women, in conjunction with The University of Miami School of Business Administration. WEL last conducted the survey in 2006.
According to the report, the number of board seats held by women in the top 150 Florida companies was flat compared to 2007 but slightly down compared to 2006. Last year and in 2007, women held 7.4 percent of board positions compared to 8.7 percent in 2006. That means men hold more than 92 percent of the board seats in the top 150 Florida public companies. The number of female executives rose slightly from 5.4 percent in 2006 to 7.0 percent in 2008. When comparing census data from 2004, the changes are even more dramatic. In 2004 women held 67 executive positions at Florida top public companies but in 2008 they only held 49.
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GQ for Women Leaders
NewsIn a two day leadership programme you will discover the confidence to enhance your GQ™, or Gender Intelligence (download some GQ™ tips here), study the six distinguishing characteristics of female leaders, and be able to:
• Manage multiple priorities and balance different roles
• Manage conflict and politics
• Build instant rapport and trust with anyone
• Learn about Gender Intelligence in the workplace
• Learn the key to maximising performance and enjoying sustainable success
• Turn fear into power
• Learn the essence of leadership: self leadership and authenticity
Business benefits are tangible, immediate and long lasting. Previous delegates report increased motivation leading to inspired, confident leadership. For help making a business case to obtain budget to attend this seminar click here
Email us now or call our event management team on 0870 8031434 to reserve your place, and download the booking form from here (Word format, 330k).
Managing Information Technology In Tough Economic Times
NewsWITI New Jersey
Regional Network Event:
Managing Information Technology In Tough Economic Times
Please join ADP as our Chief Information Officer, Michael L. Capone, discusses “Managing IT in Tough Economic Times”. Mr. Capone will also address other relevant topics such as Green IT and IT Security.
Zena Brand, Senior Vice President for Product Strategy at ADP, will lead a discussion on Service Oriented Architecture and ADP’s Product Strategy.
Don’t miss this exciting program. Save the Date and Register today!!!
Space is limited; we encourage pre-registration to guarantee admission.
Take me directly to the registration form.
Got Your GQ?
Expert AnswersAccording to the Society for Human Resource Management, 74 percent of companies have diversity programs in place. That’s a good start, but it sidesteps perhaps the most striking diversity component in the workplace: the personality differences between men and women. This is where we need Gender Intelligence, or GQ™ .
For every person in the workforce, man or woman, one of the following situations is familiar (if not frequent):
These examples are not meant to be biased against men. Rather, they’re just specific examples of the scenarios many female executives encounter on a daily basis. Either knowingly or unknowingly, both men and women fall into specific patterns and stereotypes in professional settings. When this occurs, the results are damaging for everyone involved, particularly for organizations that are denied potential returns from rounded, balanced teamwork.
This is exactly why we need to improve our GQ™ . Gender Intelligence is the ability to respond with finesse and savvy to gender generated issues. And here’s a shocker: many corporations are not ready to hear that men and women have different communication styles that can seriously impact their ability to work effectively together.
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Ask-A-Recruiter: Handling Performance Reviews
Ask A RecruiterSome companies have regularly scheduled reviews, but some don’t. Furthermore, in this chaotic market, even regular reviews might get pushed off. With the downsizing and restructuring in today’s market, your job may have changed significantly. You may have more responsibility or completely different tasks added to your plate. So you want a review to make sure you’re on track to meet your goals (and to confirm what these goals are in this ever-changing market). It is important to use these reviews to your advantage – as a chance to make adjustments in your approach, identify blind spots and figure out how you can contribute value-added to others.
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