cool global BIZ

Opinion Piece in Seattle Times on Rise of Global Workplace Diversity and U.S. Competitiveness

 

HERE'S AN OPINION piece I wrote on visionary companies and executives exploring the new global workplace diversity. The essay ran today on the editorial pages of the Seattle Times, a multiple Pulitzer Prizer-winner and an industry leader in the digital news media. Seattle and Washington state, of course, are home to the corporate headquarters and facilities of Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Weyerhaeuser, Costco, Boeing (manufacturing facilities in Washington, corporate offices in Chicago), and other U.S. and global business leaders.

 

Credit Suisse: 2,400 Global Companies With Women Directors Outperform Rivals

 

BRAVO TO THE Credit Suisse Research Institute for a new, comprehensive study ("Gender Diversity and Corporate Performance") on the impact of women directors. Looking at 2,400 companies worldwide, Credit Suisse found that the stocks of companies with at least one woman on its board have outperformed companies with no women by 26% from 2005 to 2011.

Why? According to the report, a company with female board directors shows that the company has a wider talent pool, a better mix of leadership, and already is well-run and performing better.

Hundreds of business and academic studies over the years show mixed results over whether the "d" word -- diversity -- is good for business and the bottom line. But the sweeping Credit Suisse report seems to go beyond political correctness, corporate marketing, or the cautious findings of scholars. It appears to be a strong indicator that diverse leadership is starting to pay off for companies.

(Illustration, above) "Modern-woman illustration" by Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig (HikingArtist.com), under a Creative Commons license on flickr.

  

• Credit Suisse Research Institute, "Does Gender Diversity Improve Performance?"  by Mary Curtis, Investment Banking Securities.

 

BOOKS: Fusion Entrepreneurs: Cross-Cultural Execs & Companies Revolutionizing the Global Economy by Edward Iwata

 

Updated Sept. 2012:  Fusion Entrepreneurs: Cross-Cultural Execs & Companies Revolutionizing the Global Economy, a new e-book by award-winning American journalist Edward Iwata, can be found at Amazon's Kindle Store, Apple's iTunes and iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Diesel eBookStore, Kobo, Mark Coker's Smashwords, the Sony Reader Store, and other e-book retail and library channels.*  Fusion Entrepreneurs is distributed by Smashwords, an independent e-book distributor in Silicon Valley.  Thank you for reading and supporting all digital and traditional authors, bookstores, and publishers.  Readers keep our craft alive.  

 

(Cover art by Edel Rodriguez, an acclaimed Cuban American artist/illustrator whose work can be found in the Smithsonian Institution, private galleries, the New Yorker, Time magazine and the New York Times.)

 

* Note:  If you're new to e-books, ideally you'll need an e-reader device or tablet (an Amazon Kindle, a Barnes & Noble Nook, an Apple iPad, etc.) from your favorite e-book retailer. Or you can download free reading "apps" (small software applications) from the stores right into most laptops, desktop computers, and mobile devices.  This will let you read e-books bought from those stores.  Like anything else, this is only confusing the first time for non-techies.  After you get hooked, it's smooth as butter.

 

OECD: More Education, Entrepreneurship for Women Equals Stronger Economies

 

 

A new report by the Paris-based OECD reminds business leaders and policymakers that more educational and entrepreneurial opportunities for women will lead to more vibrant economies around the world. Video courtesy of the OECD. See: oecd.org/gender.

 

Brave New Startup World: Women Entrepreneurs on the Rise in Middle East

 

 

Female entrepreneurs at a recent startup conference talk about opportunities for women in the Middle East. Video courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.

A WAVE OF risk-taking female entrepreneurs in the Middle East are pitching and launching startups, contrary to popular stereotypes of Arab women, according to the Wall Street Journal. At a recent startup conference hosted by Oasis 500 in Jordan, 40% of the pitches were by women. In Saudi Arabia, women are "an untapped ocean of talent," Glowork.net executive Adbullah Alghadouni told the Journal. Also this week, the MENA Business Women's Network Forum will bring together female entrepreneurs in Dubai. "It would be ironic," Journal reporter Ben Rooney writes, "if a region that is castigated for its attitudes toward women actually turned out to be more welcoming of female entrepreneurs than those doing the castigating."

From Africa to Asia, Colors (Colours) are Changing the Global Beauty Industry

 

 

"The State of the Global Beauty Industry: Entering a New Chapter"  by Euromonitor International, via YouTube.  Irina Barbalova, Euromonitor's head of cosmetics research, recapping her presentation made at In-Cosmetics 2010 in Paris, France.

 

MISS UNIVERSE CONTESTANTS might look like Barbie dolls in different shades. But beyond glitzy pageants, the colors (colours) of beauty are slowly but surely changing global consumer culture and the beauty industry, according to SkinInc.com ("Skin Color of the United States" by Daphne Kasriel-Alexander) and a new book by Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones (Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry).

Venture Investor Urges Women Entrepreneurs to Rise Up: "It's Your Time"

 

IN THE HuffingtonPost recently, venture investor and JumpStart president and chief investment officer Lynn-Ann Gries urged more women entrepreneurs to rise up and launch high-growth startups. There are plenty of college-educated professional women -- but not nearly enough business leaders, female-owned companies and women pitching venture investors. Gries wrote: 

World Bank: Creating Global Opportunities for Women is Smart Economics

 

 

A World Bank video on economic inequality among women in the global economy. Video courtesy of WorldBank's channel on YouTube.

 

IT'S SMART ECONOMICS to create more business opportunities for women globally, says a recent World Bank report. In agriculture alone, equal access to resources for women farmers would boost output in developing countries by up to 4 percent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. World Bank chief economist Justin Yifu Lin said in a news release: ""Blocking women and girls from getting the skills and earnings to succeed in a globalized world is not only wrong, but also economically harmful." World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick added that the World Bank -- which has spent $65 billion over the past five years on women's business, health and education initiatives -- must "mainstream our gender work and find other ways to move the agenda forward to capture the full potential of half the world’s population."

 

• World Bank, "World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development."

 

CoolGlobalBiz, October 3, 2011

 

A New Era of Globalization, Cross-Border Business & Cultural Diversity

 

 

"Tower of Babel" by Peter Brueghel the Elder, from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license.
 

CoolGlobalBiz is an independent, non-partisan blog that explores the nexus and cross-border fusion of business and culture. Links to CoolGlobalBiz can be found on Guy Kawasaki's online news directory Alltop (economics or small business) and other sites. Every few generations, we're rocked by economic and cultural upheaval, from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Now we're at the cusp of another major epoch, an era of quickening change, innovation and global diversity. The seasons are turning, turning. This ain't your Daddy's economy. The world: curved or flat? No matter, the convergence of business and culture won't wane. For better and worse, the new world is here.

Founded by Edward Iwata, a California-based journalist, former USA Today business writer and author of Fusion Entrepreneurs: Cross-Cultural Execs & Companies Revolutionizing the Global Economy.

 

German Muslim Soccer Star Lira Bajramaj Rises From Refugee Past to Top of Her Sport

 

 

CNN interviews Fatmire "Lira" Bajramaj, a Muslim soccer star on Germany's women's team that is competing in the FIFA World Cup in Germany. Video courtesy of CNN, interview by Diana Magnay.
 


HERE'S TO SPORTS, the purest of meritocracies when it's free of scandal and politics. Despite man-made barriers, the finest athletes find ways to persevere. Many rise from the humblest origins, leaping past poverty, racism and cultural biases. Their talent and hard work is obvious, even to the untrained eye.