Collaboration, Sustainable Performance, Business Driven
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The Second Annual Women in Business Conference will be held on
Thursday, 17 September, 2009
8.00am - 5.00pm
Peninsula Palace Hotel, Beijing - 半岛王府酒店
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Morning: Collaboration & Sustainable Performance
Collaboration happens when two or more people work together towards common goals. They do this by learning, sharing knowledge, and building consensus. Collaboration requires leadership, but more importantly, an egalitarian approach. People that work collaboratively obtain greater resources, recognition and rewards. This is especially valuable when competing for limited resources. Become Collaborative.
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. It’s the ability of a system to maintain processes, functions, and productivity into the future. Sustainable executive performance results in the long-term improvement of one’s professional position. It requires high personal performance without risking future burnout, fatigue or frustration. Work Sustainably.
Afternoon: Be Business Driven
We work in two worlds.
Job function is the realm of our professions, our skills, our insights, and our ideas. We must become experts in the microcosm of our job function. Industry is the environment in which we work. External forces impact our industy all day long. They shape our jobs and our companies. We must become experts in the macrocosm of our industry.
Study the environment. Know with the company mission. Create the strategy. Determine the requirements. Establish the goals. Be Business Driven.
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In 2009, the conference will again be a one day event – but the format will change a bit from last year. Instead of having a full day of plenary sessions, we’re going to use only the morning for this format..
The afternoon will be divided into two breakout periods. The first breakout period will be divided into four concurrent sessions by functional areas. Each will be an in-depth discussion (75 minutes) of relevant business issues for each of those job functions.
The second breakout period will also be divided into four concurrent sessions, but will be based on industry lines. Again, each will be an in depth discussion of the relevant issues for the industries in that session.
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| 8.00 - 8.30 |
Registration & Early Morning Networking with Coffee |
| 8.30 - 9.00 |
Empowering Women in China – One at a Time – Julia Broussard is the Country Programme Manager of UNIFEM in China, and will talk about the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and what it implies about how woman can best help each other move collaboratively and sustainably up all ladders - corporate, social, economic, life. Ms. Broussard will discuss not just the rationale for gender empowerment, but how "Team Women" can collectively make a difference to the lives and careers of all women in China and the global community.
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| 9.00 - 10.10 |
The Big Bounce – What Business Women in China Are Doing to End the Recession – So much negativity has been used over the past year when talking about the current downturn. To a large extent, pessimism is responsible for deepening the trough and lengthening the duration of the current cycle. We’re now moving past the analysis-paralysis phase into recovery. Positioning our companies for an imminent rebound is where we can add value right now.
In what ways are China’s business women proactively leveraging their organizations to survive the economic downturn? How are these innovative business leaders preparing their teams and readying their companies for the coming rebound?
The discussion leader will guide us through a dialogue based on personal case studies of the panel members themselves
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| 10.10 - 10.35 |
Networking Break |
| 10.35 - 11.35 |
Building Focused Networks – Less Work, More Results – Climbing the ladder, navigating the maze, and constructing a lattice are all ways of connecting and building support systems that benefit ourselves and our chosen network members. Women’s networks differ substantially from those that men put together. Growing one’s business or managing a career is more than just having the right product or service, knowing the corporate culture, or one’s area of expertise.
The rules of networks are changing. Women are bringing their own personal styles and strengths into the networks that they build – in some ways men fit in, but in many ways they are independent.
Industry’s best will speak openly and frankly on what it takes to build strategic networks with others who influence your career and ultimate business success.
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| 11.35 - 12.15 |
Sustainable Executive Performance – Work / Life Balancing Act Is the Essential Ingredient to a Fast Corporate Rise – The office pulls one way but the family another – both have demands that must be met – where do priorities go, what gets our time, our energy, our commitment?
The most successful female executives are those who combine work and personal life well. The question no longer is about how do we separate work and personal life issues, but how to integrate both into a holistic collaboration where neither one overrules the other.
Larger companies have a more difficult time accommodating the needs of individuals. But these same organizations have substantial numbers of highly productive women who have successfully created ways of combining professional and personal lives like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
The ability to both work and enjoy life is not a zero sum game where gains in one area are offset by losses in another. This session will finish in the “town-hall” format with a high degree of delegate participation.
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| 12.15 – 1.30 |
Lunch |
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Afternoon Breakout Sessions – The women’s community in China is made up of many smaller sub-communities based on different commonalities. While the morning sessions were meant to be of interest to all business women, the afternoon sessions will allow these women to meet up and exchange ideas in more targeted and defined groups.
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| 1.30 – 2.45 |
Functional Breakout Sessions |
| A |
Marcoms / PR & Advertising – What is currently happening in the area of CSR? Can we count on CSR to be the major component of an organization’s PR efforts? How should it fit in with other components of our overall strategy? How can we evaluate these programs? How can we ensure we’re getting the most value out of our CSR programs? What are other companies doing to ensure that they get the most exposure? What about our competitors – are there ways we can complement or counter activities our competitors are making? Besides environmentalism, what other CSR options exist so that we can stand out from the crowd?
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| B |
Human Resources & Strategy Development – Leveraging our workforce by building internal mentoring strategies ensures we internalize expertise. Mentor relationships motivate & engage our key assets, our staff. Building these “fuzzy” programs is essential for businesses determined to meet the leadership challenge pf the future. Transferring knowledge, experience and practical know-how must take place if business is to produce the results that demanding corporate expansion plans require.
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| C |
Finance / Legal / Administration & Management – In the past year, the CFO has evolved from the one who tracks and measures the results of the company. She has now become a strategic partner who decides where the best investment opportunities are, how they should be assessed, and how they are to be financed. Women now are more and more frequently not only the guardians of corporate assets, but the sponsors of strategic corporate investments.
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| D |
Production / Engineering & Supply Management – China’s export market hasn’t disappeared in the last 10 months, but it is evolving and assuming a new strategic direction. We think of outsourcing as software development and call center operations, but there are countless ways that companies in China are innovating. Companies are creating new businesses and industries for both the local and international markets. How has the development of this new “sector” changed the supply chain formula? How has the supply chain been impacted by the economic downturn?
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| 2.45 – 3.15 |
Networking Break |
| 3.15 – 4.30 |
Industry Breakout Sessions |
| E |
InfoTech – Hardware, Software, Telecoms & Internet – As information technology continues to impact the lives of us all, the smarter companies will figure out how to leverage and exploit existing gaps inside these industries. Where do these gaps exist, how will they develop, and what are the successful companies doing to seize opportunities that are emerging? What are the success stories women in these industries have created for themselves?
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| F |
Industrial - Energy, Transport, Chemicals & Manufacturing – The downturn became real just as the green revolution got underway. Companies have placed substantial bets on the emergence of new technologies, markets and completely new business lines. Many small companies have been established to help the economy reinvent itself. Now that world economics have shifted substantially, how are women shifting the strategies of their companies to salvage green investments made so far?
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| H |
Service Sector – Media, Finance, Consulting – Services are usually the first areas that get cut back when a downturn comes along. Successful companies are able to take advantage of structural imbalances when they arrive. Many businesses began during economic downturns because established organizations lacked the flexibility to be quick, creative and exploit markets and opportunities. How have women in the service sector been able to take advantage of these opportunities and shift the way their companies operate?
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| 4.30 |
Close |
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