Why Diverse Teams Perform Better

According to Harvard Business Review, "diversity — both inherent (e.g., race, gender) and acquired (experience, cultural background) — is associated with business success."

Find out why.  Diverse Teams Feel Less Comfortable -- and That's Why They Perform Better

Follow Your Heart For Your Next (Ad)venture

Birchbox co-CEO Hayley Barna (pictured) decided to walk away from the influential beauty-subscription-box startup that she cofounded in 2010 (she remains on the company’s board).  Why? She says:

"I loved it, but it turned out the beauty industry is not my lifelong passion. It’s [exploring] innovative business models."

You never know where your next adventure will take you.  Follow your heart.

Read:  Birchbox Cofounder Hayley Barna On New Ventures, Glamping, and Her Filthy Fridge

13th Annual WPO Chicago Summit a HUGE Success

We were delighted to have the following speakers at our 13th Annual WPO Chicago Summit held on Thursday, September 8th and hosted by Foley & Lardner.

• Paul Leinwand, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory
• Sandy Marsico, Sandstorm Design
• Joanna Sobran and Karen Burneister, MXOtech

This year's theme was Create a Winning Business Strategy and all speakers knocked it out of the park on substance and delivery.

Thank you to all who participated and until next year's Summit, keep growing!

Photo credit:  ©Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

From Homelessness to Running a Multimillion Dollar Enterprise

For more than a year Arlan Hamilton (pictured) had been pursuing her dream of starting a venture capital fund focused on female, minority, and LGBT entrepreneurs. But she realized early on that it is tough to get a fund going when you don't have any money to invest.

For months, she'd been homeless, making ends meet in whatever away possible, when she finally got the oxygen she needed:

"I'm in," read the text from Susan Kimberlin, a tech veteran who made a name for herself at Salesforce and PayPal. Kimberlin was ready to bet on Hamilton to bring more diversity to tech--and her check was the lifeline Hamilton needed to get Backstage Capital up and running.

Read more:  How This Woman Went From Homelessness to Running a Multimillion-Dollar Capital Fund

More Women of Color Are Starting Businesses

It's time for all women to see themselves in a new light.  Consider the following:

For every 10 women-owned businesses launched since 2007, eight were started by women of color, according to the 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report. In the past nine years, there’s been a 137% increase in Latina-owned businesses, a larger rise than that among any other demographic group in the U.S., the report found. (3.5 million women-owned businesses were founded during that period, according to the report, compared to 1.6 million firms owned by men.)

Read more:  Why More Women of Color Than Ever Are Starting Their Own Businesses

Join Us: 13th Annual WPO Chicago Summit (9/8/16)

Reshaping the Contemporary Global Economy

The drive to produce more women-owned enterprises is not just to develop women from an economic perspective, but the bigger picture of reshaping the contemporary global economy. This is the case for South Africa.

“Women are underestimated powerhouses of an economy. This is not a fact that is relevant only to South Africa, but it is a global phenomenon. South Africa needs to not only build entrepreneurship, but to encourage and develop female business owners. 

WPO operates four vibrant chapters in South Africa managed by Anni Bodington (bottom) and Miranda Isaakidis (top).  We are well on the path of helping women business owners grow there.

Learn more:  Small Business Friday aims to produce more women-owned enterprises

Pathways to Success

According to Javier Palomarez, President and CEO of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, women are leading in corporate America, not only in title or position, but also through collaborative, purposeful actions that influence the state of women in America and around the world. When it comes to commerce, it’s clear that women are good for business.

Here's a look at a few (e.g., one is Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox, pictured) who are changing the landscape of corporate America for the better.

Read:  10 of the Most-Influential Women in Corporate America

How To Bring Your Best Selves to Work

If you haven't discovered HBR Press at Harvard Business, now's the time to take a moment to learn about their Insight Center, “Building Resilience."  They explore how you can bring your best selves to work and how you match the demands on your time with your ambitions to succeed.

Tin addition, they look at motivation, work-life balance, and knowing when you're approaching your burnout thresholds.  All good and important stuff.

Here's a sampling on some of the articles featured at "Building Resilience:"

1. 5 Ways to Boost Your Resilience at Work
2. Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure
3. Battling the Physical Symptoms of Stress

Innovative and Tenacious Women Entrepreneurs

In addition to WPO members the world over, there are other innovative and tenacious women entrepreneurs.  The producers of ABC’s hit business reality show Shark Tank hunted down 12 of them below who are under the age 30 who’ve pitched on the show. They all share a talent for finding niches of unmet needs and an unabated drive to succeed.

Take a look.  If they are not already WPO members, they will be, soon.

12 Of The Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs Under 30 from Shark Tank

Are You a Good Listener?

If I were to make a bet with you and ask whether you are a good listener with my bet placed on you not being a good listener, who would win?  That's not a trick question.

Most people when asked whether they are a good listener typically say "yes."

But, according to Harvard Business Review, here's how you really access whether you are a good listener.

Read more:  What Great Listeners Actually Do

Now, tell me, who would have won our bet :-)?

Businesses Owned by African-American Women Are Soaring

The number of businesses owned by African-American women in the United States has been soaring, according to a new government report.

In fact, the number of such [referencing several different business owners in the San Jose, CA area] businesses in the United States has more than tripled since 1977 to 1.9 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2012 Survey of Business Owners, released last December. Of those, about 12,000 are in the Bay Area counties of Santa Clara, Alameda and San Francisco. Few other groups of minority women are starting businesses at a faster clip, according to the report, which is updated every five years.

Black female entrepreneurs are determined to fill a neglected niche and choosing to invest in themselves.

Learn more:  Black women take lead in starting new businesses

WPO Has Been Leaning In Together Forever

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, after encouraging working women everywhere to lean in, now wants you to lean in together.

Sheryl and her LeanIn.Org nonprofit's newest campaign, Together Women Can, is dedicated to women helping other women in the workplace.

Note:  The Women Presidents' Organization has been helping women business owners lean in, work together, and grow businesses for more than a decade.

Read more:  Sheryl Sandberg's new message to women:  'Lean In Together'

Screenshot courtesy:  LeanIn.org's Together Women Can

Women Make Significant Contributions in Our World

Women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men during the past 20 years.

Forecasts indicate that by 2018, there will be more than 9.72 million new small business jobs created and women are expected to create more than half of them. This is a remarkable increase since 2010, when women-owned businesses created only 16 percent of U.S. jobs.

Our friend and colleague, Dr. Sharon Hadary (pictured), former executive director of the Center for Women's Business Research, said that successful women business owners tend to share some characteristics that set them apart.

To find out what those characteristics are, visit:  Women business owners:  What sets them apart?

What Fathers Teach Us

Does father know best?  I'd like to think so.  In honor of fathers celebrating Father's Day, we feature nine things CEOs and business leaders learned from dads.

Read more:  Nine Business Leaders Share the Best Lessons They Received From Their Fathers

My own father taught me to always be myself and to stand up for myself, which would teach people how to treat me.

What did you learn from your father?

Dr. Marsha Firestone Helps You Get to the Next Level in Business

How do you reinvent yourself?  Keep your team motivated?  Get to the next level with your business?  Dr. Marsha Firestone, founder and President of the Women Presidents' Organization has your back.

Dr. Firestone [as we know her] is a visionary who works tirelessly to bring together the best minds to inspire the members. She is very passionate about the quality of the organization and what it delivers.

Read:  Women Entrepreneurs Find Their Place Thanks to Dr. Marsha Firestone

How Safe Is Your Business?

Is there a straight line to success?  According to Harry Red, not quite. He says:

Just like on the Titanic, look out the window and you will spot icebergs, dead ahead. Tough problems which can deplete your time, energy and capital.

What do you struggle with?  See if it falls into these three buckets:

1. Hiring the right team.
2. Picking the right priorities.
3. Serving the right customers.

Find out how to tackle some of these challenges here:  How Safe Is Your Small Business From These 3 Icebergs?

Philly Is Open to Women Business Owners

According to a new report published by Small Business Trends, Philadelphia is a top city for women entrepreneurs. Small Business Trends finds Philadelphia among the top cities for women entrepreneurs.

There are about 40,906 women-owned companies in Philadelphia, according to the report, primarily in health care, construction, technology and staffing services.

Learn more:  Philly is a top city for women entrepreneurs:  Small Business Trends Report  Are you based in Philly?  Consider WPO membership, for we have a chapter in Philadelphia.

A Q&A with Christina Ochs, President of Corporation for Interest Rate Management

Our very own WPO Chicago member Christina Ochs (pictured), President of Corporation for Interest Rate Management (CIRM), a Chicago-based advisory company, is interviewed by Real Estate Finance and Investment (REFI).

Ochs gives some excellent insight into the advisory company’s business of working with real estate developers and corporate borrowers to mitigate interest rate risk since 1981 and explains how it functions as an extension of its clients’ treasurer or chief financial officer functions. 

Read:  Q&A:  Christina Ochs, Corporation for Interest Rate Management (requires free trial registration)

Do You Assign More Tasks to More Competent Employees?

According to The Atlantic's, "Being a Go-Getter Is No Fun," people do, in fact, assign more tasks to those they perceived as more competent.

In a survey, participants read statements about a fictional employee “Sam[Sally]”—different groups read different statements about Sam[Sally] indicating how much self-control he[she] had (self-control was used as a proxy for competence). When Sam[Sally] was presented as someone with great self-control, participants expected much more of Sam’s[Sally's] performance at his[her] manufacturing job. In a separate experiment, undergrads were asked to delegate essays for proofreading to other students with varying levels of self-control. Unsurprisingly those with more self-control ended up with more work assigned to them.

Read more:  Being a go-Getter Is No Fun -- The Atlantic

The lesson to learn from this article?  If someone is doing more than his or her fair share, compensate him or her for it. If not, he or she may ultimately leave and seek recognition elsewhere.