More Sensitive

The Roddick Phenomenon

The Glass Ceiling Syndrome

Text B

She’s the boss

Business has traditionally been and to a certain extent still is “a boy’s game”. Less than 6 per cent of executive management positions in America and European companies are held by women, and of the Fortune 500 only four have a female CEO.

Yet in Britain one in three new businesses are started up by women, and according to John Naisbitt and Patricia Auburdene, authors of “Megatrends”, since 1980 the number of self-employed women has increased twice as fast as the number of self-employed men.

Is it just a case of women whose career progress has been blocked by their male colleagues – the so-called “glass ceiling syndrome”- being forced to set up their own businesses? Or do women share specific management qualities which somehow serve them better in self-employment? As many as forty per cent of start-ups fold within their first two years, but the failure rate of those run by women is substantially lower than that. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that though male bosses tend to be reluctant to promote women, male bank managers seem only too happy to finance their businesses.

Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop Empire, is the perfect example of the female entrepreneur, with her company growing from zero to $470 million in its first fifteen years. Perhaps the secret of her success was caution. Rather than push ahead with the purchasing of new shops, Roddick got herself into franchising – the cheapest way to expand a business while keeping overheads down. Caution, forward planning and tight budgeting seem to be more female characteristics than male. They are also the blueprint for success when launching a new company. The recent Internet boom allowed women like Martha Lane Fox to set up the massively successful web travel agency lastminute.com. In cyberspace nobody cares what sex you are.

When women join an existing company, it’s a different story. Less ruthlessly individualistic in their approach to business, women are more sensitive to the feelings of the group or team in which they work. They are generally more cooperative than competitive, less assertive, and less prepared to lead from the front. Though they usually manage their time better than men and may seem even work harder, they are much less likely than their male counterparts to take risks. And, above all, it is risk-taking that makes corporate high fliers. As one male director put it: “I’m not paid to make the right decisions. I’m just paid to make decisions.”

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27