CHETNA MEHRA
Carol Stephenson is one of the few women B-school deans around the globe. She has been the dean of the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada since 2003. Not just the academia, she happens to be one among the few most successful women in business as well with more than 30 years of experience in marketing, operations, strategic planning and financial management. Stephenson has not only been on Canada’s telecommunications Hall of Fame, but on the board of General Motors too, twice (as director and board member). A renowned spokesperson on leadership dynamics and women in leadership positions, Stephenson was designated as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women by YWCA in 2004. She also served as a Member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology for two years.
As an Ivey dean Stephenson has been involved in continuously evolving an integrated and robust approach for the curriculum. She was recently in India to sign a MoU with IIM Bangalore under which both the B-Schools will work together to come up with cases based on Indian businesses. The partnership is also expected to go beyond cases and will also include faculty exchange, PhD student exchanges and collaborative research. The second largest producer of cases after Harvard Business school, Richard Ivey already has a case-based partnership with Hyderabad’s Indian School of Business under which both the B-Schools will publish 100 cases in the next three years. Stephenson shares Ivey’s India plans with BW Online’s Chetna Mehra and speaks about women in management and leadership roles. Excerpts.
How can we bring in more women into business, entrepreneurship and at leadership positions in the organisations?
Probably business education is a good place to start. We work very hard at Richard Ivey to try and encourage women to invest in business education for themselves because it does make a difference in their careers. So, we are open to recruiting the fresh female faculty and students who just graduated and or are working in business. Essentially the discussion is not about the programme and what it’s like to be an Ivey student, it’s more about the plight to be a women in business – the challenges that one handles and how to maintain that work-home balance.
As business leaders we have done a tremendous job of teaching how important business is to the world and how you can make a difference. Often at a very young age, young girls more often think ‘I don’t know, I don’t want to be in business, I want to be a doctor. I want to make something that will make a difference in the world’. And you can make a difference in the world of business because if you are successful in business than the economy is stronger and the quality of life is better for everyone. We sometimes tend to create a picture of businesses as just about making money and the bottom line is about making difference in the world and economy. Our B-School helps women grow their businesses and go to the next level. We have done some executive education which has helped female entrepreneurs to make a quantum shift. There is a great future of woman entrepreneurs.
You have also been a successful business women yourself. What kind of qualities do you think a woman can bring into an organisation and how important is having a woman at the management level in a company?
Women are collaborative. They are juggling whole lot of balls at the same time. They are quite willing to ask questions, they are willing to listen. They are quite willing to leaving the apprehensions, thinking about let’s get the job done. I think these are important skills in business world which are quite complex. Those who could motivate people, bring best in the people that can collaborate and can form partnership. And in India, women have done quite well with women CEOs in banking, FMCG industry, etc.
And companies too have a role to play. Some kind of flexible arrangements can be made for a woman. I recall, when I was a CEO I was trying very hard to never have a conference call at 8:00 a.m., which is when you are taking your kids to a day-care or other things. So, being sensitive about such issues is also important.
So, at times there are some preconceived ideas about what women will or will not do. But I think now, people are getting sensitive to all these issues now and lot of work is being done on diversity.
The companies have also realised now that they cannot afford to not look at the 50 per cent of the talent and that’s the recipe for success. If you are not looking at the 50 per cent of the population to get the best people you are probably not going to achieve the goal.
According to a study, women feel they have difficulty in getting their point heard in a B-school?
Business schools are also helping the women to overcome the barriers that have been identified. I think faculty members also have a role to play. While discussing a case study they make sure to call on you if you haven’t said anything in last one hour or so. And I wouldn’t say that our female students are laid back in terms of participation.
How do you think gender specific leadership can help?
At Ivey we address these issues, we talk openly about them. The women in management club talk about their experience with their students. These things can be overcome with open communication. Teaching diversity in the classroom, making males aware of the situation, sensitising them in the classroom discussion can help.
What kind of common issues women entrepreneurs generally face across the globe?
I think these are more or less the same kind of issues that male entrepreneurs face. In the case of women though sometimes the risk might be a little different. Some of the best women entrepreneurs I have talked to are really not big risk takers. What they do is they figure out how much risk that can be taken without losing the company. So, they may end-up mortgaging their house or something but generally they can’t afford to take big risks because there aren’t any big resources behind them.
http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2010_06_26_There_Is_A_Great_Future_For_Woman_Entrepreneurs.html