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WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
LOULA LOI – ALAFOYIANNIS PRESIDENT
EURO – AMERICAN WOMEN’S COUNCIL “EAWC”
Dubai, March 7-8th 2007
BUILDING COMMUNITIES & DREAMS As WOMEN CHANGE THE WORLD
I am honored to be chosen by our friends in Dubai to be a speaker on this important occasion on the subject of Reaching for the Stars.
As sisters, we must back each other up and be ever supportive of one another. It is a pleasure to be a part of the United States delegation attending this forwarding thinking event of building the relationship between the United Arab Emirates, Greece, Cyprus, Europe, Asia and the United States.
Women’s history month marks our important achievements as we reach for the Stars, history is in the making right here and now by the very fact that in the Arab World there is a congregation of top notch women from all over the globe meeting freely here for these three days. It’s a unique experience for whoever is attending this assembly all joined in this positive movement towards the advancement of women worldwide.
Now in this gathering during Women’s history month. Please stop for a minute to consider the golden opportunities offered to women today. We are most grateful for this notable recognition and official backing helping us as much as possible to the betterment of our communities from small businesses up into women in director ships in major corporate boardrooms.
This new growing power enables us to help our sisters eliminate poverty worldwide as men and women team up as partners to upgrade the lives of all of our fellow citizens. In a tribute to the United Nations let me remind you that this is a major focal point for their 2015 millennium goals.
I am proud of women entrepreneurs worldwide who enhance their economies in so many ways. The majority of us direct the monies that pay for all our family expenses. Our daughters who in past times used to be trained for motherhood and family obligations and to excel in the Arts; music, painting and poetry, are now entering University specializing in engineering, accounting, finance, academia, science and medicine.
More and more of our sisters are in banking, managerial positions and high ranking positions as the presidency of countries such as currently Angela Merkel, President of Germany, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia and Ellen Johnson – Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Today’s keynote speaker Dr. Massoumeh Ebtekar, Former VP – Islamic Republic of Iran, Ms. Raja Al Gurg, President of Dubai Businesswomen Council.
Lets not forget Condoleeza Rice, First Woman US Secretary of State and the Epitomy of the win in the USA Secreatry of State, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelloci, Hilary Rodham Clinton, Former First Lady of USA, NY State US Senator and First Woman ever candidate for 2008 Presidency of the USA, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, the President of the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Gloria Starr Kins, The Guru of the UN Correspondence Association, PR & Protocol Director and Worldwide acclaimed in the business arena. Phyllis Hill Slater, co-founder of Black Women Enterprises, Terry Neese, President of WIPP Institute, Barbara Cassof, President of WIPP Organization, Edie Fraser, President of Business Women Network and Diversity Best Practices, Vicky Tzolis, Entrepreneur & Executive global treasurer/ Secretary of EAWC and Eleni Tanou, President Cyprus Federation of Business & Professional Women, Alicia Zizzo, Pianist & Musicologist.
Anna Psarouda Benaki, President of the Parliament of the Hellenic Republic, Elena Kountoura, Former Athlet, World’s Top Model and currently Member of the Hellenic Republic, Dora Bakoyiannis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina P. Panagopoulos, President of Panhellenic Athletics Women’s Association “Kallipateira”, National Ambassador for Sport, Tolerance and Fair Play to the council of Europe, Dr Fotini Pomoni, Associate Professor University of Athens, Executive Global Educational Director, Lila Chronopoulos – de Chaves, Executive Global Cultural Director, just to name a few. We are the future economy of the new world more and more of the new global world.
Now to give you some perhaps boring key statistics of the premice on my statement about the achievements overall of women.
Labor Force: 69 million women are labor force participants. Our labor is slowly moving up into senior executive posts and boards. At the same time women are taking transition time for raising children, selecting family-friendly companies for their career start ups.
Corporate Leadership: It is estimated that the number of female CEOs will triple by 2016 and still this is low. (based on study of the top 1,000 companies). The estimate is that the proportion of female CEOs will increase from the current level of about 1.7 percent to 6.2 percent in 2016.
Gender trends and work life: These are positive for leaders in this area and negative for those who are not building flexible programs and work life benefits as best proved by Working Mother Media. Tracking best companies for Working Mothers show significant differences for those driving leadership in this area.
Women Entrepreneurs are growing in numbers to more than 10 million. Women-owned minority businesses continue to grow in power everyday.
Women are re-inventing leadership by changing the way Greece and other countries are supporting women-owned business, how they look, spend and prosper. Women are impacting our countries and communities.
For example let’s take a look at Higher education.
Harvard University as of Feb. 2007 has named its first woman President, Drew Gilpin Faust. Prior to that there were 27 men who have held the President’s title for the past 371 years. One half of the eight Ivy League schools will now be headed by women. 14% of the major research Universities in the country is headed by women. The students of these Universities are well over 50% women. Similarly, salute with me those women in Higher Education in Europe overall.
Now let’s take a look at the Board of Directors in the United States. In America, there is a strong correlation between shareholder return and a higher proportion of women executives. Just one study in the Economist reported that research for America, Britain and Scandinavia shows that we should all take the example of Norway which earlier this year mandated that 40% of the public companies’ board members must be female. Sweden’s Social Democratic Party seeks 25% female representation in boardrooms. Research shows that more women on Boards add value to the bottom line. With three or more women on the Board, a company is more likely to experience positive effects and good governance. Women’s contributions help Boards fulfill responsibilities to their multiple stakeholders and help create boardroom dynamics in which boardroom members male and female work together collaborating in unison.
In the USA women held about 13% of board seats at S&P 500 firms and 10% at S&P 1500 firms, according to the Minorities hold just 8.8% of 7,500 board seats at S&P 1500 companies. Those women and minorities that do hold seats tend to be independents, coming from outside the companies’ ranks. Some 86% of female directors and 82% of minority directors are independent, compared with 70% overall. Investor Responsibility Research Center in Washington, D. C.
There are estimated 10.6 million privately held companies in the USA. 50% or more are women owned firms. According to CWBR, women now own 10.6 million firms – nearly half of the held businesses in the country. 6.6% of US businesses with more than 1 million in annual sales are owned by women.
An important and powerful and growing group in America is Hispanic.28% of Hispanic firms more than half a million are owned and operated by these Latinos. The number of businesses owned by these ladies has increased at a rate of 64% over the past 7 years. This is 6 times that for US businesses and double the growth rate of total Hispanic-owned businesses. According to the Business Journal of Phoenix, women-owned small businesses group by 30% up to 2004 compared to 10% growth of all firms of the same period.
Now let’s go to a new subject, global women. Slightly more than half of the population in the world these women are 42% of the world force.
Researchers found that in 200 global companies women directors held 10.4% of the board seats. In the United Kingdom women represent 12.5% of the seats of these boards. European firms ranked in - between the USA and Asians. Italy was at 1.8%, Germany at 10.3%, France at 7.2% and Bravo - Norway they required 40% of all directors must be women.
Women in eastern Germany have created one third of the new enterprises, providing 1 million new jobs and contributing $15 billion annually to the gross national product since 1990.
Between 1996-2001, the number of Canadian female entrepreneurs increased by 8.0%. It is estimated that women consist of around 27% of self-employed people in the UK. Moreover, only 12-14% of businesses are majority owned by women, compared to the 28% in the USA.
Let’s go over 10 important thrusts and aspects oddly enough or starting with the letter P.
A favorite element of mine is Passion. If you don’t love your profession it is not easy to succeed.
Planning. The roadmap you need for the direction you are going to. Build your program and strategize the course needed to achieve success.
Performance. Work hard. Go for the Gold. Perform beyond expectations. Do well but remember mistakes can happen and are OK. We learn from our failures. Show progress and measure each step all the way to a successful conclusion.
Production. Like your work. Produce with the excitement and thought of the win for where you want to go. Learn to work as a team with your business associates. Produce more than required. Go the extra mile. Offer the best product or service possible. And in your reach-out for the Stars remember business is competitive.
Positive. Positive style means eradicate negativity. Surround yourself with friends who can give you positive sources and input. When you visualize success, success happens. Of course it’s not a matter of an overnight miracle; however a positive mental attitude is the elixir of a fantastic and successful business life.
Presentation. Have a state of the art presentation in what you showcase.
Persuasion. Don’t underestimate the power of persuasion. Believe in what you say which will give you a natural ease for your sell.
Partner. Build positive relationships that lead to partnerships internally and externally. You need teamwork. People make it happen.
Persistence. Be persistent. You must have perseverance.
Power. Show that you have the commanding presence to make things happen. Celebrate the successes with your whole team. The win is a sharing experience. Know that everything may not be perfect, but we have much to be grateful for.
Speaking from my own experience and offering global businesswomen’s advice for decision makers and women professionals, for writing your global business plans, we recommend dealing with top reputable financial firms and harnessing the best global consultants and research firms available.
Speaking of high level networking our non-profit EAWC foundation holds major events with sponsors and attendees underwriting as participants for a nominal fee. This allows us to donate for study programmes of benefit to our new generation. We would be having an interesting Forum on June 14th to the 17th at Nicosia, Cyprus and the 18th to the 20th in Athens, Greece. The venue of the first part of the Forum will take place at Hilton Park Nicosia hotel where you will find one of the most magnificent welcoming Spa facilities of the island and the hospitality is second to none. Both forums are concentrating on woman power with men and women flying in from all over the world.
I have brought with me all the information you might want for these rewarding woman power events, for Nicosia and Athens. One of EAWC’s coalition partners, a participating speaker and co-organizer of both Forums, is Barbara Kasoff, Founder and President of WIPP. (Women Impacting Public Policy) is also here to answer any questions.
Thank you all for being so kind and welcoming to me. And may I say a very special thank you to Mr. Ali Al Kamali who so kindly invited me and tell him: Don’t forget that your next big event is in Nicosia and Athens at EAWC’s Forum as a guest of honour.
Looking forward to welcoming you in the next two events.
Loula Loi Alafoyiannis.
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MY commitment to United Arab Emirates, Greece, Cyprus, Europe, Asia and the United States as we build networks
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