On March 9, KvinnoKapital together with Storebrand Asset Management had the privilege to arrange a lunch meeting to talk about “Top Tips for Business Success”. Thank you all for coming, so great to see close to 50 women from the industry gathered, despite Corona worries and turbulent markets.
Firstly, Anna Jönsson from Storebrand welcomed us all and gave some background on Storebrand’s work and engagement with Kvinnokapital.
Further, Claudia Stanghellini, Chairwoman of KvinnoKapital, gave an update on the network and its purpose. She summarised activities in 2019 and upcoming activities in the next few months, like an event with Julia Axelsson, founder of Kvinnokapital, on China and new lunch groups being formed in April. Claudia then introduced our guest speaker for the day, Barbara Stewart
Barbara Stewart, CFA, is a Canadian researcher, writer and speaker focusing on women and finance, who has a long-lasting relation with KvinnoKapital and regularly finds her way to the Nordics.
Barbara is considered one of the world’s leading researchers on women and finance. During the 2009 financial crisis, she was frustrated by the media depictions of women as powerless creatures lacking knowledge and confidence. Barbara mentioned a book that actually changed her life: “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, written in 1937. Hill interviewed at that time successful people who had become millionaires – all men. This book inspired Barbara to find successful women around the world, and to set the record straight, she researched, wrote and published an annual series of Rich Thinking® white papers, launched every year on International Women’s’ Day. This year she released her tenth edition of her Rich Thinking series, Top Tips for Business Success
The report tells stories based on numerous interviews with successful women across the world. This year, during her talk, Barbara gave us ample inspiring examples of these women’s top tips and summarise the five recurring themes:
Top Tip #1: Be a lifelong learner
Top Tip #2: Speak up
Top Tip #3: Form deep relationships
Top Tip #4: Always remember your why
Top Tip #5: Follow your inner voice
In conclusion, these tips might seem almost evident but it’s when you hear and read the actual stories behind them that they really become inspiring, so very happy for Barbara talking the time to share them with us.
Barbara ended her presentation with an open invitation to keep the conversations going both in the network but also with her, on LinkedIn, on twitter or through her web page, barbarastewart.ca where you can also access All Rich Thinking studies.
After a coffee break, there was a panel discussion on the Top Tips theme under the guidance of moderator Kim Lindberg from the Kvinnokapital Board.
Following several late cancellations due to travel bans and illness, Barbara kindly agreed to sit on the panel together with Sandra Di Rocco – Dean of the Faculty of Science and Director of the Department of Mathematics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Sandra was the first female Professor at the Department of Mathematics at KTH. When briefly sharing her background and experiences in academic world globally, Sandra concluded that the Nordic countries are among the worst when it comes to diversity, which came as a surprise to the audience. At KTH, the level of women attending is still only about 30% and few of them continue with research at higher level in the academic environment. Sandra mentioned initiatives to work closer with the financing industry, and maybe that can boost more women to continue in the male dominated technical and mathematics academia.
The panellists then discussed it they have had any significant people influencing their careers and, looking back, what they would have done differently, before ending with a good career advice:
Top Tip #from the panel: Concentrate on your added value!
It can your personality, expertise or skills but keep your focus on what you bring to the party.
A warm thank you to Barbara, Sandra for participating and to Anna at Storebrand for arranging this lovely lunch.
