Bringing global opportunity to women-owned businesses worldwide.
When giving money, give to nonprofits that measure what matters to you. That’s advice from Mary Ellen Iskenderian (pictured), President and CEO, Women’s World Banking.
Watch video here: big think interview
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak, the prime minster of Malaysia, spoke at the Women in Leadership Forum in Abu Dhabi last month and presented data on female entrepreneurial activity. One of the questions she addressed:
“How do we transform businesses owned, or run by women, into top international companies and emerge as leaders in their respective industries?.”
Experts indicate the importance of networking while others say that obtaining managerial and technical skills along with accessing capital can also help fuel the growth of women-led companies.
Learn more here: Women Out to Bridge Gap – The National
Photo credit here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Visit: 77th Street
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Where are the foreign female entrepreneurs?
The article, “Why aren’t there more foreign female entrepreneurs?” by Priya Alagiri examines the reason why there is a shortage of foreign women entrepreneurs in the United States.
One reason stated is:
The foreign women I interviewed also said that they’ve found it difficult to succeed because the “silicon ceiling” inhibits them from obtaining funding from private investors. According to them, investors are mostly white American men who gravitate toward their own. Investors themselves have said, quite bluntly, that there does exist a bias against funding women, let alone immigrant women. One investor, for example, has said that “a ton of us decide not to invest, support, promote or work with women because of this whole ‘marriage / pregnancy’ hurdle that most women will face in their career.”
Read the entire article here.
Photo credit here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Always giving his best work to the world, Steve Jobs died October 5, 2011 (1955-2011). His death triggered a remembrance to reading a wonderful On Excellence column by Tom Peters in 1993 (I saved all of his hard copy columns back then that were published in the Chicago Tribune – this particular one can be found here online) and he said the following about Steve Jobs:
Photo: Steve Jobs courtesy Technorati
Take Steve Jobs, one of Fortune’s seven nasties. I’ve seen him, in his days at Apple, lose his cool on occasion. Not a particularly pretty sight.
Yet I was thoroughly taken aback by one of Jobs’ “excesses,” as chronicled by Fortune. A subordinate at Next Computer was showing Jobs shades of green for the company’s logo. More precisely, she produced some 37 shades of green before coming upon one that pleased the master. “Oh, come on,” the minion recalled thinking, “green is green.”
Oh no it isn’t!
Almost every step Jobs took at Apple (and Next) broke the mold; moreover, it defied industry tradition as set by the all-powerful, undisputed master of the universe (IBM). To say Jobs was fighting an uphill battle is to suggest that Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight across the Atlantic was “challenging.” Jobs was reviled and ridiculed. Yet he reinvented the computer world, in a way that makes Bill Gates’ more recent contributions at Microsoft seem meager by comparison.
How did Jobs do it? By worrying about which shade of green was “right.” He triumphed with the Apple II. Then the Macintosh. It was precisely his stratospheric standards (“insanely great” was a common Jobsism in days past) that allowed him and his enormously spirited teams to push past the existing frontier time and time again.
No sir. Green is not green. Not if you’re reinventing the planet. Which is not to applaud his tirades. But it is to suggest that for every disaffected Apple or Next employee burned by Jobs, there are probably 10 who by age 28 achieved Neil Armstrong-like lifetime highs at his side. Perhaps the bitterness of some stems from the subliminal realization they’ll never soar so high again. It’s a nightmare for a 28-year-old software designer, just as it is for 30-year-old Michael Jordan.
My two best bosses were my two toughest bosses. Neither was a screamer, although one came reasonably close. Both practiced psychological terrorism-though neither knew he was doing so.
Both set mercilessly high standards for themselves. And neither believed in barriers to achievement, including acts of God (which were seen simply as opportunities to demonstrate one’s mettle as never before).
We will miss Steve Jobs. But his legacy as the master creator will live on within each of us as we continue to give our best work to the world. May he rest in peace.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Dell™, along with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women and Endeavor, announced it will host the third annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) June 17-19, 2012, in New Delhi, India.
The three-day event will connect female founders, CEOs and leaders of high-growth businesses in the world’s top markets to share best practices and challenges, and to celebrate the impact women-owned businesses have on the global economy.
“For these entrepreneurs to compete in today’s global landscape, they need to expand their networks, access new sources of capital and explore how technology can help them innovate,” said Dell chief marketing officer Karen Quintos. “This is exactly the goal of The Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network, and we’re absolutely committed to empowering these women and their businesses to succeed and grow.”
Learn more here.
Women Powering Business | Dell
Photo courtesy Dell.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Our sister organization, The Global Small Business Blog, under its parent organization GlobeTrade.com, just published their latest monthly e-newsletter, “Borderbuster,” (Issue No. 116 – sign up here) and it is only fitting for this blog post to mention the quote that was featured under the Wind Behind Your Sail section:
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~Winston Churchill
That said, two years ago, Eunice Mwongera (pictured left) decided to grow her Hillside Green Growers and Exporters Company, a family-owned fruit and vegetable business. A graduate of Nairobi University and former finance officer at the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Ms. Mwongera, applied for the USDA Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology (Borlaug) Fellowship Program.
Within a year of completing her fellowship, Ms. Mwongera had successfully applied many of the business skills and concepts she learned. Not only had she succeeded in increasing export markets for Hillside Green from three to seven countries, but Mwongera also started her own poultry, rabbit, and fish farming operation. In addition, Mwongera modified her company’s strategic and export plans, aligned Hillside Green’s food safety standards with international industry standards, and adopted new technologies.
Learn more about Ms. Mwongera’s success story here and visit the Borlaug Fellowship Program here.
So back to Churchill’s quote above, yes, Mwongera is giving back after receiving U.S. training. We are delighted to know and we wish her continued success with her business expansion initiatives.
Related article:
Eunice Mwongera of Hillside Green Growers Is Featured in World Bank’s Quarterly Publication
Photo courtesy here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Dell is hosting the second annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) on June 5-7, 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Agenda here. Speakers here. The event expects to attract more than 100 fellow female business executives, business icons, experts and thought leaders.
Connect. Share best practices. Build business opportunities. Learn from one another. Recognize the global women entrepreneurial influence in business and technology. Join other female business leaders from around the globe as they celebrate the impact women-owned businesses have on today’s economy.
Topics covered:
· Doing business in Brazil;
· How the right technology strategy can promote business growth;
· Increasing customer and employee loyalty;
· Taking social media to social commerce;
· Scaling for growth;
· Talent management;
· Learning from Gen Y; and,
· The female consumer as a hot market segment for any industry.
Venue and travel information, go here.
This event is supported by Endeavor and Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Lorraine Hariton (pictured) has more than 25 years of experience in the information technology sector in Silicon Valley.
From 2003 to 2005, Hariton served as President and CEO of Apptera. She served as the CEO of Beatnik from 1999 to 2002. She also spent 15 years at IBM serving in a number of executive capacities. Hariton is Chairman Emeritus of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives. She has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from Stanford University.
Hariton is Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs, Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
The mission of the Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs (www.state.gov/e/eeb; EEB) is to promote economic security and prosperity in the United States and abroad.
Learn what Hariton’s goals are for women worldwide and the opportunities she hopes to afford them here.
Photo credit here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
