Recently, I received an email from one of many women who attended a May Ascend development day, called Alison. In her thank you email was an interesting observation about her Tasmanian owned and operated private health cover.  Read More

The Catalyst Awards are coming up again, and if your organisation has implemented a women’s program and are getting results, don’t miss the chance to get recognised for the work you’ve done for equality.  Not only does facilitating more gender diversity create better business results, it also leads the trend to more appropriately employ, promote and retain female talent. Catalyst uses the tagline “changing workplaces, changing lives”. If your business is already onto this, you should get recognised for it. Read More

"The Director's Dilemma" is a monthly newsletter issued by Julie Garland McLellan, an expert governance adviser to boards and directors on the complex and challenging issues they face. Julie uses her experience and depth of knowledge in corporate governance to show boards with limited resources how to be more effective through practical governance innovation and know-how. Her ultimate objective is to empower directors to add value.
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In Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose (Wharton School Publishing), authors Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth and David Wolfe suggest that the best firms in today's marketplace are those that deliver emotional, experiential and social value to all their stakeholders, from customers and partners to investors and society. By emphasizing such principles as authenticity and empathy, the authors contend, companies gain "share of heart," not just share of wallet, and, in the long run, are able to gain competitive advantage over firms that are focused only on profits.

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Unique practices developed to enter the market will no longer suffice in China’s increasingly competitive environment, particularly if Chinese operations are held to lower performance standards. Instead, multinationals must lead with their strength: world-class processes honed over many years in established markets and adapted to Chinese realities.  Read More

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) has released a list of 99 organisations on its 2008 EOWA Employer of Choice for Women list.

With the introduction of six new prerequisites, including a minimum of 6 weeks paid maternity leave after 12 months of service; the ability for female managers to work part time; the percentage of female managers is the same or greater than 27% or the industry average, and a pay equity analysis has been undertaken and any gap identified is less than the industry average, the organisations on this list are working hard to fully utilise their female workforce. Read More