Connections
The Lioness Factor
Kellie A. McElhaney, 09-11-2008
I learned something from P. Diddy. Bobby Shriver and Bono were soliciting him to do pro-bono modeling for their PRODUCT(RED) campaign, a partnership among companies committed to fighting AIDS and other disease in Africa.
P. Diddy looked straight at them and said, “Shut up. I am sick of hearing you lions talk. This is doomed to failure with only lions running it. Do you know what lions do all day? They wake up, saunter to the biggest shade tree and lay right back down and take a nap. You know what lionesses do all day? They wake up, hunt, kill and gather the lion’s lunch and bring it back — all the while keeping their den and watching over lots of little cubs!”
It turns out P. Diddy was on to something. We all know the sobering facts on the state of women in business:
- Females make up 23-29 percent of MBA students, 60 percent of medical students and 50 percent of law students.
- One in three white women holding an MBA is not working vs. one in 20 white men.
- Women make up 30 percent of management in corporate America.
- Forty percent of female senior executives opt out. Yet, opportunities around women and business are plentiful:
- Women make 80 percent of consumer goods purchasing decisions.
- Women represent 60 percent of university graduates in Europe and North America.
- Companies with the most women in leadership financially outperform those with the fewest: 35 percent higher return on equity and 34 percent total return to shareholders. The easy, if antiquated, answer is women are leaving the corporate world to be soccer moms.
Yet, there are some interesting twists that perhaps render that statement too simplistic:
- Sixty percent of Net Impact professional members are women. NI is an organization committed to using the power of business to positively change the world.
- Between 1997 and 2004, women-owned businesses increased at twice the rate of all new businesses.
- Forty percent of female senior executives take career breaks due to lack of satisfaction, not because of family considerations.
- The majority of women who opt out end up volunteering longer hours than they worked.
Could corporate social responsibility (CSR) be a more realistic explanation? Perhaps women do not view mainstream corporate America as contributing much to society, and this explains part of the reason they opt out. Consider:
- Women are more likely than men to:
- Volunteer in their local communities.
- Invest their portfolios in companies screened for different criteria including labor and environmental practices and the hiring and promotion of women and minorities
- Purchase a product with a percentage of the profit earmarked for charitable donation.
- Participate in company-sponsored social programs.
- Women are less likely to act impulsively on brand loyalty, preferring to do research and weigh information before making purchases.
- Women are more likely than men to:
- Indicate it is important to ensure workers in and out of the U.S. are paid a living wage.
- Give corporations a poor rating for current CSR performance.
- Men are more likely to rate companies as excellent or good.
- Indicate it is important for companies to make relevant donations to charities and philanthropies.
Does your company have an effective CSR strategy linked to its core business objectives and competencies? If so, are you effectively communicating this to your female employees and asking them to get involved? If so, are you even more effectively telling your CSR story to lioness employees, suppliers, retailers and consumers in a way to achieve optimal business return?
Chances are you have CSR substance but little strategy. And more, you probably are not using this strategy to engage with the ever-powerful lioness population. You are missing an important business opportunity. «
