Voice of Experience: Cleo Thompson, Head of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Gender Advisory Council

Cleo_Thompson_Oct_07_blog_.jpgby Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

With a background in IT and project management, it may surprise some that Cleo Thompson, the head of PwC’s Gender Advisory Council, is the company’s global go-to person for gender diversity. But her personal philosophy may explain it:

“Don’t pigeonhole yourself. Don’t think you are restricted by what you studied. If you are flexible, there are lots of ways to use your skills to make a sideways move, especially within a large organization like PwC.” She added, “I’ve never yet had a job in PwC that someone has done before –I’ve either applied for a newly-created role or I’ve convinced management to craft the position for me.” She advised that she prefers to “drag myself up and bring someone along with me – many of the people I have recruited and trained within PwC have been promoted and gone onto great things.”

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In Case You Missed It: Weekend Round-up

martin.jpgContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group

In case you were too busy enjoying your weekend to have kept up with the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has again been kind enough to gather some important market events from this past weekend (and week) so that you can start this week well informed:

Saturday, November 15th
Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Franco-Belgian bank Dexia agreed to sell its monoline insurer, Financial Security Assurance. The sale to Assured Guaranty, a Bermuda-based insurer, will see Dexia receive $361m in cash, plus 44.6m of shares in Assured Guaranty worth around $350m. The bank will book at net loss on the sale of €1.5bn.

Financial Institutions

  • Fund manager RAB Capital has abandoned plans to build a retail mutual fund business and is closing about a third of its funds to streamline its business. The changes come as a result of assets under management shrinking on the back of poor performance and clients withdrawing money. Assets under management peaked at $7.2bn in 2007 and are expected to be about $2bn at the year end.
  • Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is planning to cut about 3,000 jobs in its investment banking division. The bank has already cut 7,000 jobs in the investment banking division as a result of the integration of ABN Amro.
  • The administrators of Lehman Brothers European operations told a creditors’ meeting that they are unlikely to get all of their money back, and that returning the funds could take years. The administrators said that assets currently outweigh liabilities by around $17bn, however if asset values fall, or liabilities increase this could quickly disappear. Fees to administrators will also be a significant factor – they are currently accruing at £4m per week.

Credit

  • Freddie Mac, the mortgage financier that has been nationalised by the US government, has asked for a further lifeline of $13.8bn after suffering a $23.5bn quarterly loss. The loss was primarily due to large credit-related writedowns.

Other

  • At the G-20 Summit, the leaders of the nations agreed to take ‘whatever further actions are necessary’ to tackle the financial crisis and restore global growth at an emergency summit in Washington. The guiding principles to which they committed include strengthening transparency and accountability through requiring proper disclosure, improving oversight, promoting integrity in financial markets by preventing market manipulation and fraud, reinforcing international cooperation, and reforming international financial institutions.
  • Pakistani and IMF have agreed on a financial stabilization package for Pakistan worth $7.6 billion loan, $4 million of which will be delivered this year, with the rest to be disbursed during 2009.

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Being Female is a Pre-Existing Condition: The Health Insurance Disparity

healthinsurance.jpgby Zoe Cruz (New York City)

Despite earning fewer cents on each dollar men earn, we women pay more for many of our daily products and services, from haircuts to dry cleaning to socks. But, according to an article recently published in the New York Times, women are also paying another penalty – a significantly higher premium for the same insurance coverage than men.

In the individual insurance market, a woman who is of the same age and has the same occupation is, in some cases, being charged almost 50% more than her male counterpart who is of the same age and occupation. Why is this? Insurers claim that the higher premiums are necessary because women during childbearing years tend to avail themselves more of healthcare benefits. The insurance companies point to an increased cost to insure women not only for childbearing costs but also because women are more likely than men to get checkups, see doctors when they are sick, and actually take the medicine they are prescribed.

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How to Survive the Offsite Meeting

conference.jpgby Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

When news of AIG’s $440,000 executive retreat hit the press just days after the federal bailout, the corporate boondoggle became an endangered species. But corporations will still continue to schedule “working” offsite meetings for their top managers.

The offsite retreat is usually a mix of work and team building sessions. Companies plan these events to strengthen teams, build mission statements or hold strategic planning sessions.

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Carbon Footprints at the Corporate Level

carbonfootprint_1.jpgby Sima Matthes (New York City)

Exclusive of industry leadership, what do PepsiCo, Baxter Healthcare, SC Johnson & Sons and the Philadelphia Phillies have in common?

All of these companies have made a commitment to using renewable energy and carbon offsets to reduce at least part of their corporate carbon footprint, and all are partners in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders.

As previously reported by The Glass Hammer there is a growing—and essential—attention to the environmental impact of business activities within the corporate community. An increasing number of corporations are trading and purchasing carbon credits as a way to offset the greenhouse gasses produced by their routine operations.

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Closing the Gender Gap: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future

by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

By 2050, companies that have embraced a gender-blind workplace will be at the leading edge of innovation and profitability, according to a newly-released film by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Gender Advisory Council entitled “Closing the Gender Gap: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future“.

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The Continental Divide

worldmap.jpgby Pamela Weinsaft (New York City) Getting a plum expat assignment overseas is a sure sign you’re on your way to making it. Your company will likely give you an orientation to that new country – the “do’s” and “don’ts” to make sure that you fit right into your new, albeit temporary home. You immerse yourself in a different culture and possibly different language, noting all those things that are different and surprising things that are the same. But what happens when it comes time to return home? Read more

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Ask-A-Recruiter: Interview Performance Technique/ Substitution

istock_000005168521xsmall1.jpgContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart

With the tight market every interview seems to have higher stakes. I practice and then I invariably forget one of my key points during the interview. Or I get a question and can’t think of what I had prepared. How do I relax in these interviews?

Several years ago, I auditioned for a commercial. (For an actor, the audition is the job interview.) Although I’d never used the product, I needed to convey that the product was great. How did I do it? Whenever I needed to say the product name, I substituted my baby’s name in my mind, so I cracked a smile, my body relaxed, and I got a twinkle in my eye at just the right moment. Behold the power of substitution.

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Women Lawyers Still Struggling to the Top

iStock_000004428195XSmall_1_.jpgBy Heather Chapman (New York City)

Although nearly half of all law school graduates in the United States are women, women only make up 15% of the partners at law firms nationwide. To rectify this imbalance, bar associations and professional groups across the country have, in recent years, been implementing initiatives to challenge law firms to reorganize employment goals to allow for the advancement of women. Read more

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Men and Women In Teams: A Report by Lehman Brothers Center for Women in Business

team.jpgby Sima Matthes (New York City)

Balanced gender representation on teams means a proportionate increase in innovation, and a company’s commitment to work/life balance is the key to ensuring such balanced gender representation. So says a report entitled Innovative Potential: Men and Women in Teams by the Lehman Brothers Center for Women in Business. The report was based on the research of Professor Lynda Gratton, Dr Elisabeth Kelan, Andreas Voigt, Lamia Walker and Dr Hans-Joachim Wolfram.

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