What are the emerging trends?

Setting the tone of the event, IMD Professor Ginka Toegel and W.I.N. Founder Kristin Engvig presented an update on the context in which we are working and the trends ahead. Some of the highlights included that worldwide, women are the largest opportunity market, representing over $20 trillion in annual consumer spending and more than 80% of all consumer decisions are made by women. She also stated that the education and earning gaps are closing. All those changes are reflected in our language (e.g. ‘womenomics’ and ‘mompreneurs,’ etc.).

The two women also looked at how the changing business environment is impacting strategy making and how woman can prepare themselves for the opportunities ahead.

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Ginka also shed light on women as CEOs and their increasing presence on boards. “Companies are not acting out of some generalized notion of equality but because there is a strong business case for them to do so. There has been a great deal of research that suggests the value of having gender balanced management teams. In France, for example, companies that had more women in senior management positions performed better during the crisis,” she said.