Gender diversity benefits businesses

Concept artwork generated by Google Gemini (Imagen 3) to celebrate International Women's Day.

International Women's Day on March 8 is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to accelerate women's equality. 

New research* released for the day has shown that gender equality remains a key societal issue, with women’s rights under threat due to workplace inequalities and online abuse. The annual study, released by HeForShe, The United Nations Global Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality, and global marketing agency TEAM LEWIS, revealed that public awareness of gender inequality has increased, but geopolitical issues overshadow the issue:

- Over 75% believe companies still need to implement policies for women in the workplace.

- One third of women (32%) have reconsidered their employment due to their company’s in-office policy. Of those, 45% say the reason for reconsidering is inflexibility at work. 

- Only 17% of women received a pay rise in the last year, compared to 24% of men. 

- In leadership, women continue to be under-represented. The percentage of women in senior management roles declined to 53% this year, vs 56% in 2023 and 2024.

"Rights, equality and empowerment remain vital to global prosperity. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines. Equality is everyone’s responsibility. 2025 is the year for men and boys to stand alongside women and girls to help make change happen.” said Vesna Jaric, Global Head of HeForShe, UN Women.

The benefits of gender diversity were championed by industry observers.

Lim Hsin Yin, VP of Sales for ASEAN, Cohesity, has contributed to the community through mentoring initiatives, including as Chairwoman of the SGTech AI Skills and Training Committee and in industry councils. 

She observed: "International Women’s Day is a moment to celebrate the progress we’ve made in fostering gender diversity and to reflect on the work still ahead. With over 30 years in the tech industry, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of diverse perspectives." 

Stephanie Barnett, VP of Presales for the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ), Okta said: "On International Women’s Day, when I reflect on what it means to be a woman in tech I feel both inspired by how far things have come, and feel energised and compelled to do so much more. While progress has been made, sectors like presales, security, and identity still reveal a significant gender gap that has persisted for decades and will continue until we radically and aggressively change and solve for the biases that exist across education, recruitment and workforce inequity.

"Mentorship has had a transformative impact on my career. I’ve been fortunate to have mentors, both men and women, who have offered guidance that goes beyond advice, helping me navigate difficult situations and complex challenges. I feel deeply accountable to pay forward the privilege that I have had in having phenomenal cheerleaders sitting in my blind spots helping me course correct, deeply reflect and charge forward with perspective and support.

"Personally, I believe that fostering diversity in an organisation is not just a checkbox activity and it takes work, takes focus, takes commitment and it may lead to discomfort and potential change management that will be initially uncomfortable, but future and long term looking will significantly accelerate revenue and positive business business results."

Said Remus Lim, Senior VP, Asia Pacific & Japan, Cloudera:  "As we celebrate International Women’s Day, this year’s theme, #AccelerateAction, serves as a call to move beyond conversation and drive real, measurable progress. At Cloudera, we know that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) isn’t achieved in a single day—it’s a continuous effort that requires commitment, accountability, and the courage to challenge the status quo.

"Creating a truly inclusive workplace isn’t just about policies or programmes—it’s about recognising the talent, ambition, and potential that too often go unseen. Business leaders have a responsibility to not only open doors but to actively support and uplift those who may have been overlooked by traditional hiring and promotion practices."

"I’ve seen firsthand how potential-based hiring and mentorship can change careers—and lives. During the period when I was mentoring a colleague, I realised the importance of approaching issues from different angles when charting out new communication pathways between my mentee and other members of the leadership team. This allowed her to see her ideas to fruition while the organisation benefits from fresh perspectives across functions and levels," added Lim from Cloudera. 

"When we focus on who someone can become, rather than just what they’ve done in the past, we create pathways for talent that may not have had the same access or opportunities. When we do this, our teams grow stronger, our innovation becomes richer, and our workplaces become places where everyone has the chance to thrive."

Verena Siow, President and MD, SAP Southeast Asia, shared that this year's theme for International Women’s Day, Accelerate Action, deeply resonated with her. "To me, this theme reinforces the notion that we must take urgent and proactive actions to drive gender equity and parity. It also aligns with one of my personal mantras: Accelerate to Innovate. Just as businesses must embrace bold, decisive action to drive meaningful innovation, we must do the same to advance gender equity," she said.

"Change is often perceived as a gradual process. But while it is true that change does not take place overnight, every little step we take in accelerating action unlocks new possibilities. In Southeast Asia, I’ve seen firsthand how equipping women with the right skills, access, and support can create extraordinary outcomes."

"Yet, barriers remain. Systemic biases still slow progress, from unequal access to leadership opportunities to deeply ingrained stereotypes. The World Economic Forum estimates that at the current pace, full gender parity will not be achieved for another 134 years — a timeline we cannot accept." 

"Innovation does not happen by waiting. It happens by taking action, challenging norms, and accelerating change. Just as we push the boundaries of technology, we must do the same for equity, opportunity, and leadership. The reality is clear: diversity drives better decisions, stronger businesses, and more resilient economies. The question is no longer “why” we need to act, but how much quicker we can make change happen," Siow concluded.

"The broader challenge of gender equality remains stark. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024, achieving full gender parity will take 134 years—roughly five generations—at the current pace of progress. We cannot afford to wait. Governments, businesses, academia, and industry bodies must work together to ensure gender equality is not just a long-term aspiration but an urgent economic and innovation priority," agreed Jess Ng, Country Head, Singapore and Brunei, Fortinet.   

Siow touched on mentorship and leadership as solutions. To truly accelerate progress, three actions are critical, she said:

- Sponsorship over mentorship. Women need not just mentorship but advocates—leaders who actively open doors, champion careers, and create opportunities.

- Equal access to leadership tracks. High-impact projects and decision-making roles must be accessible to women at all levels, ensuring a stronger pipeline for future leadership.

- A redefinition of leadership. Success is not just about traditional leadership traits like aggressiveness; it’s about diverse perspectives, emotional intelligence, and inclusivity. Organisations that embrace this perform better and retain top talent.

Explore

Download the HeForShe research at https://www.teamlewis.com/heforshe/ 

Hashtags: #IWD2025, #AccelerateAction 

*TEAM LEWIS Foundation surveyed the general population aged 18 and above across a balanced and diverse group of ages, races, and gender. A total of 5,003 respondents were polled across 10 countries, including the US, UK, UAE, Australia, China, France, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, and Spain. Localised translations were provided where necessary. Data was collected through an online survey consisting of 55 questions and fielded from February 5 to 14, 2025.

Stevie Awards for Women in Business are open to individuals and organisations worldwide

The Stevie Awards, organiser of premier business awards programmes, has issued a call for entries for the 2020 (17th annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business. All female entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organisations they run, worldwide, are eligible to be nominated.

Honouring organisations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognise outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honour the achievements of working women in more than 100 categories, including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Mentor or Coach of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Achievement in Equal Pay, Women Helping Women, Employee of the Year, Woman-Owned or -Run Company of the Year and Innovator of the Year.

New this year are COVID-19 response awards categories for individuals, organisations, as well as for marketing and public relations (PR). These categories do not have entry fees, but a US$55/entry late fee will apply for entries submitted after August 19.

COVID-19 response categories include:

- Frontline Medical Hero of the Year

- Education Hero of the Year

- Delivery Hero of the Year

- Public Service Hero of the Year

- Most Exemplary Employer

- Communications or PR Campaign of the Year

- COVID-19-related Information
 
The Marketing and PR Campaign of the Year categories have been greatly expanded for 2020. Startup of the Year categories do not have entry fees; neither do the categories for Government and Non-Profits.

The submission requirements for all categories have been revised and simplified for 2020. Instead of a 650-word essay as in previous years, submissions now require answers to a set of questions, or a video submission up to five minutes in length.

The final entry deadline is August 19, 2020, and late entries will be accepted through to September 16 with payment of a late fee. Winners will be announced on September 29, and the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie winners will be celebrated at a virtual awards ceremony on December 9.

The 2020 Stevie Awards for Women in Business will be judged by more than 200 professionals around the world. Nominees will have access to all the judges’ comments and suggestions about their nominations.
 
The 2019 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organisations around the globe. Winners in the Asia Pacific Middle East region included, among others:

- Alia Koudsi, Key Account Certified International Specialist, DHL Express, United Arab Emirates

- Siti Choiriana, Consumer Service Director, Telekom Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia

- Oanh Phuong, Regional Head of Customer Support, HP, Asia-Pacific and Japan

- Seda Kalyoncu, Senior VP of Corporate Communications, Turkish Airlines, Istanbul, Turkey

- Law on Earth, Brisbane, Australia

- Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, Singapore

Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programmes, including the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, The International Business Awards, the Middle East Stevie Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 nominations each year from organisations in more than 70 nations.

Details:

Get the entry kit

Singapore ranks third in APAC for fostering women entrepreneurs' growth

Source: Dell. Post-it notes show challenges facing women
in the workplace.

• Singapore is the third top-ranked city in the Asia Pacific region, behind Sydney and Melbourne in Australia for Dell's annual Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index.

• Since 2017, all 50 cities studied have improved on the majority of their indicators year-over-year. Cities in the Asia Pacific region are improving alongside all other cities globally, recording the biggest improvement in the Talent pillar.

• The Index serves as a diagnostic tool to advise policy-makers on how to better support women in business.

At the 10th annual Dell Women Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) Summit in Singapore, Dell announced findings from the 2019 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index, ranking 50 global cities on their ability to foster growth for women entrepreneurs.

Source: Dell. Infographic showing the Dell Global WE Cities rankings for 2019.

Rankings for Asia Pacific and Middle East cities include:

12. Sydney
13. Melbourne
21. Singapore
23. Hong Kong
26. Taipei, Taiwan
34. Tokyo
37. Dubai, UAE
38. Beijing, mainland China
41. Seoul, Korea
43. Bangalore, India
44. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
47. Shanghai, mainland China
48. Istanbul, Turkey
49. Jakarta, Indonesia
50. Delhi, India

All 50 cities have made progress since 2017, Dell noted. However, some cities made bigger strides than others.

“The 2019 Dell WE Cities report is unique from other bodies of research in that it not only ranks 50 global cities on their ability to foster women entrepreneurs, it shows how the cities have improved from their 2017 benchmark,” commented Karen Campbell, Consulting Associate Director, IHS Markit.

“This year we can see some patterns emerging. Ranked cities have collectively made the most improvement in the Capital and Culture pillars, which shows the importance of measuring not just the operating environment but also enabling environment for women entrepreneurs. This data-driven approach shows where women entrepreneurs still face barriers in scaling their business.”

Highlights include:

• Out of a total of 100 possible points, the No. 1-ranked San Francisco Bay Area in the US only scored 63.7. Dell says that this means there is still much work to do to level the field for women – and validates the need for this kind of research and outreach to policymakers to move the needle for female founders.

• Lack of funding, high cost of living, low representation of women in leadership roles and the lack of government-led policies that support women entrepreneurs were among the barriers globally.

• Thirty out of 50 cities improved on more than half of their indicators. The most-improved cities represent nearly every region, which indicates how broad-based the improvements have been around the world.

“When more women work, economies grow. Technology is helping to drive this progress as a genderneutral enabler, and helps create a level playing field,” said Amit Midha, President of Asia Pacific & Japan, Global Digital Cities at Dell Technologies.

“Whilst all cities in the Index have improved, the crucial factor is the consistency of this improvement across the different factors that impact women entrepreneurs’ success. The WE Cities Index helps Dell Technologies get closer to our customers and understand the landscape in each city so we are better able to help women entrepreneurs scale their businesses.”

"We’re very excited about what’s been accomplished and what’s on the table," commented Midha at a media briefing. "Ten years ago, it wasn’t possible. Technology is a great new frontier and we are only at the end of the beginning."

Midha said that the size of a company is not as much of an advantage compared to speed and innovation, calling it "a great time to be a startup and a technology business". "We are solving problems that haven’t been solved before. Startups have a better playing field than ever before," he noted.

He highlighted e-commerce provider Zilingo's story as disruptive. "It's female founded, 50% of the board are female, we’re seeing a lot of green shoots come out, that’s fantastic," he said. "There's never been a better time to be a female founder."

In Asia Pacific (APAC), cities are improving as facilitators of growing businesses for women entrepreneurs alongside all other cities globally. The research suggests that APAC can add a collective annual US$4.5 trillion by 2025 – adding significant growth to growth – if women’s equality is addressed. Similarly, disruptive technologies also have great potential to push the region ahead as many markets are not faced with legacy infrastructure issues.

Four APAC cities are in the top 10 of most-improved for value of funds awarded to businesses with at least 25% women executives. In general, a regional challenge remains in the availability of funding – with contributing factors including lack of policy, and a lack of awareness that funding specifically for women-owned/led businesses is needed.

The research notes that public discussion on women’s issues is slow compared to the rest of the world, and the impact of those discussions emerged with less force. There are some exceptions. Much attention has been on the public discussion of women’s rights in India, owing in part to the power of social media in the country, and in Japan, high-profile women have spoken out against discriminatory working practices.

Regional highlights include:

• More cities in APAC moved down in rankings, than stayed the same or moved up.

• Cities in the APAC region scored the highest improvement in the Talent pillar. The region also improved significantly in the Technology pillar and was the top-improved region for that pillar.

• The median WE Cities score for the APAC region improved by a score of 0.7, compared to 3 in Europe and 0.9 in North America.

• APAC cities mainly fell behind in the pillars for Culture and Markets.

• Globally, Tokyo, Japan ranks second in improvements for women as a percentage of students at top universities, and first for the number of globally top-ranked universities. Tokyo also ranks most improved in number of  globally-recognised, successful women business leaders.

• Globally, Melbourne ranks second-most improved for percentage of the population with a tertiary education, and most improved for both percentage of women with a tertiary education and percentage of the labour force employed in IT.

• APAC is the second-lowest region in terms of board members who are women.

Singapore

Singapore ranks in the top half of the Index and is ahead of other cities in the region, behind only Sydney and Melbourne. The country ranks 2nd in improvements for an economic growth rate forecast of city, region or country over the next five years. While Singapore ranked No. 8 in 2017, and No. 21 in 2019, its decline in rank is not because the city has done poorly, but rather that the competition has made more progress.

Talent and Technology are Singapore’s strongest pillars. Singapore moved from 17th to 11th place in 2019 for Talent and moving from 10th to 6th place in Technology. Singapore’s Talent pillar benefitted from increasing its top school and business school rankings. It also increased its pool of professionals needed to help scale businesses.

Singapore ranks No. 47 globally for Markets as it was hampered by a high cost of living and suffered from a lack of accelerators and relatively few female board members. The 20 by 2020: Gender Diversity on Singapore Boards report was launched in 2018, highlighting that as of June 2017, the overall representation of female directors on boards listed on SGX crossed into the double digits for the first time in history. The report also noted that immedia te action on gender diversity on boards is imperative for Singapore to maintain its positioning as a leading global financial centre in Asia.

For the Capital pillar, Singapore ranked No. 25 globally as venture capital funding to female entrepreneurs increased, but this is still relatively light to other cities. Singaporean women also saw less crowdfunding, fewer female founders and a slight decline in high net worth individuals.

At the No. 28 spot globally on Culture alone, Singapore’s Culture score was relatively low due to fewer female role models or leaders amongst other factors. This said, Singapore is nevertheless more advanced than majority of its neighbours in the region in actively addressing gender parity issues.

“Singapore’s strong base in technology literacy and access to talent position it well to realise its goal in becoming the world’s first Smart Nation,” added Eric Goh, VP and MD, Singapore, Dell Technologies.

“This vision requires the collective effort of the public and private sector, to enable and equip individuals of all genders as agents of change. By highlighting the complex challenges that women entrepreneurs face in Singapore, we hope to be able to drive meaningful conversations and growth as we embark on this nationwide digital transformation journey.”

In a speech at DWEN Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Singapore noted that a lot had changed for women in the past 200 years. She highlighted the role of Samsui women in building infrastructure for Singapore in the 1960s and 70s, and said that women make up nearly half of the migrant workforce across ASEAN. Education for women has catalysed "a virtuous cycle that will benefit the economy," she said.

"Women are beginning to drive whole sectors of the economy. We are having our voices heard at all segments of Singapore," she said.

Source: Dell. Fu speaks about challenges facing women.

The Singapore government recognises the contribution that women make to the economy and is supporting the expansion of choices and opportunities for them, she said. "We don’t want our women to have to choose between career and family. We want to support them to have both in their lives, and increasingly men [to have the same flexibility in choices] too," she said.

Government initiatives include work-life grants to further develop a workplace that is supportive of flexible work arrangements, and a drive to expand diversity at the board level, Fu shared. The government is also looking at solutions to ease the social pressure on women to leave the workforce early to look after children and their elders.

"We need women around the table to equally cast our eyes on the present and the future, and ask ourselves what can we do to leave behind a great lecacy for ourselves, to create a better place for our daughters and our grand-daughters so that we will, equally, be the trailblazers of tomorrow," she concluded.

The 2017 to 2019 WE Cities Index results highlight the successes and challenges that each city faces, and where cities can learn best practices from one another. These key learnings, if supported by local governments, can add up to big changes for women-owned businesses, globally, said Dell.

Based on the findings and comparison between the 2017-2019 indices, Dell has developed a set of WE Cities Policy Recommendations focused on three areas, including:

• Access to and the development of financial and human capital.

Specifically, this can be supported through:

- Incentives for individuals and organisations to invest in women-owned companies through
venture funds, corporate venture, private equity and social capital.

- Modernisation of existing government certification, grant and loan programs that help women-owned businesses compete to reflect changing investment models.

- Promotion and marketing of existing government programs to encourage broader awareness and
use.

- Continuing to or start to foster small-business lending programmes.

- Creating new sources of capital such as crowdfunding and impact investments.

- Encouraging enterprises and government agencies to increase supplier diversity with a percentage of contracts being awarded to women-owned businesses.

- Considering a shortening of government payment cycles from 90 days to 30 days for small women-owned suppliers.

- Incentivise the adoption of family-friendly policies including access to affordable child care, elder
care and paid family leave policies.

• Private and public sectors role in increasing access to local and global networks and markets.

This could include:

- Supporting trade agreements that further liberalise trade and open new markets for businesses of
all sizes.

- Promoting global and open standards, and reliable mechanisms for cross-border data transfers
and business support services and networks, while providing sufficient protections for privacy and
information security.

- Supporting mentorship efforts through financial support and encouragement of multiplier
platforms such as accelerators, continuing education and training programmes, and facilitated
networking events.

- Encouraging conscious placement of women on boards, in venture partnerships and on executive
teams.

- Promoting positive success stories of female founders and business owners through the media,
conferences and leadership movements.

• How government and business leaders can help women entrepreneurs thrive in the changing face of technology, for example through:

- Streamlining the process of partnering and applying for government resources,

- Emphasising science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and digital literacy in
education and early training programmes.

- Working with business leaders and educators to encourage technology training programmes to end
unconscious biases in the STEM fields, government, corporations and institutions.

- Enabling access to broadband globally.

- Increasing awareness of options women have to the hardware, software and digital resources they need to scale their companies.
Dell partnered with IHS Markit to launch the research to measure a city’s ability to attract and support high-potential women entrepreneurs. Research for WE Cities began during the 2016 DWEN Research Symposium. The successful pilot of the 2016 index led to the scaling for the 2017 index to include 50 cities and in turn the remeasuring and ranking for 2019.

Building on 10 years of research on women entrepreneurs, Dell partnered with IHS Markit to research and rank 50 cities on five characteristics, including access to Capital, Technology, Talent, Culture and Markets. These pillars were organised into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment.

The criteria includes the impact of local policies, programmes and characteristics in addition to national laws and customs to help improve support for women entrepreneurs and the overall economy.

The overall rating is based on 71 indicators; 45 of which have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.

"When we invest in women, we invest in the future; communities prosper, economies thrive and the next generation leads with purpose,” said Karen Quintos, EVP and Chief Customer Officer at Dell Technologies.

“By arming city leaders and policymakers with actionable, data-driven research on the landscape for women entrepreneurs, we can collectively accelerate the success of women-owned businesses by removing financial, cultural and political barriers."

Dell supports and nurtures a community of female entrepreneurs through the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network by providing access to technology, networks and capital. The annual DWEN Summit was held in Singapore from July 14-16, 2019.

Hashtag: #DWEN

Singapore gets Women Entrepreneur City Blueprint

Source: Dell SlideShare. Cover slide for the deck introducing the Dell 2018 Women Entrepreneur Cities Study.

Dell has unveiled new diagnostic tools for local governments and policymakers to help enable women entrepreneurs to succeed at the 9th annual Dell Women Entrepreneur Network Summit (DWEN) in Toronto, Canada.

Built on the findings of the 2017 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index Dell, with research partner IHS Markit has developed deep-dive analyses on the barriers and opportunities for women entrepreneurs accessing capital and leveraging technology to scale. Dell also developed 10 city blueprints designed to spotlight actions a city can take to improve the ecosystem for women entrepreneurs.

“Women’s entrepreneurship rates rose globally by 13% in 2017, reflecting broader momentum of increased female representation across the public and private sectors in many regions around the world. However, access to capital and technology, as well as cultural and political barriers, continue to limit the success of women-owned businesses,” said Karen Quintos, Executive VP and Chief Customer Officer at Dell.

“With the release of the WE City Deep Dives and Blueprints, leaders and policymakers can confidently move from ‘analysis to action,’ accelerating positive change that allows women entrepreneurs to thrive – which benefits local communities, wider society and the global economy."

“According to extensive data and analysis, when barriers to women entrepreneurship are removed, there is a dramatic uplift in a city’s economic prospects,” said Cris Turner, VP of Government Affairs at Dell. “The WE City Deep Dives and Blueprints offer insights on what cities on the list can learn from one another and encourage political action to attract and support women entrepreneurs at the local level.”

WE City Blueprints

The WE City Blueprints look at areas of strength and areas of improvement to provide city leaders and policymakers with data-driven research and recommendations on how to foster high-potential women entrepreneurs.

Blueprint cities include:

• Austin, Texas, US
• Boston, Massachussetts, US
• Mexico City, Mexico
• Toronto, Canada
• London, UK
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Sydney, Australia
• Tokyo, Japan
• Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Singapore

“Being the only Asian city that made it to the top 10 of all the cities measured, Singapore holds huge promise and opportunity for women entrepreneurs. We believe that by highlighting these differences and successes via the WE City Deep Dives and Blueprints, we can collectively improve the landscape for high-potential women entrepreneurs,” said Eric Goh, VP, Singapore Enterprise Business, Dell EMC.

Singapore ranked No. 8 within the top 10. It ranks No. 7 in terms of Capital, No. 6 in Enabling Environment, No. 5 in Culture and No. 10 in Technology. On the dimensions that are measured:

- Singapore does particularly well on policies that can help impact a supportive culture for women entrepreneurs and provide capital.

- Singapore scores well above the median level in the areas of safety and security, ease of starting a business and access to open and flexible technology.


Specifically, Singapore's strengths are in:

Policies that can help impact a supportive technology and culture for women entrepreneurs including top scores in:

✓ Collection of city level data on income or employment by gender
✓ Frequency of city events for women entrepreneurs or businesswomen
✓ Gender equality in Facebook use
✓ Open data initiatives
✓ Paid maternity and paternity leave
✓ Presence of a city portal/website for business creation

- Singapore ranked relatively lower in the areas of markets and talent. While some of this is due to factors such as population and presence of global universities, some represent opportunity where Singapore can make significant progress for women entrepreneurs. Areas to improve include:

• Singaporean society places a high value on meritocratic advancement, leaving behind underrepresented groups as a result. The government has taken some steps to rectify unbalanced representation, but large gaps remain

• Singapore falls behind Beijing and Shanghai for having the highest female labour force participation rate (LFPR) at 60.4%. Singapore does not have a policy for “equal remunerator for work of equal value”, it is important to note that only three of the 11 Asian cities do. The city, among the rest of the Asian cities, does have a policy for paid maternity leave and it is among the majority for having a paid paternity leave policy

Key recommendations for Singapore:

• Policies to level the playing field for working women, and particularly help them return to work after having children, will help women get the experience they need to found successful businesses

• Though a commitment to flexible work practices has been emphasised and improving in the past ten years, further policies that improve work/life balance, and a commitment to encourage employees to take advantage of those policies, would help women take on leadership roles

• Less than 10% of company boards are women. Singapore should encourage women to serve in leadership roles in businesses by promoting them more publicly

• Policies that give women more access to capital, including working towards equal pay, will be important in encouraging women to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities

Capital and technology are critical for scaling any business, but women face unique challenges with both. In 2017, only 2% of venture funding went to female founders. Based on the qualitative analysis of the WE Cities Index and insights from members of the DWEN network, many women entrepreneurs are not leveraging innovative technologies to scale their businesses.

WE Cities ranking and methodology

Built on the past six years of Dell research on high-potential women entrepreneurs (HPWE), cities were ranked on five important characteristics: capital, technology, talent, culture and markets. These pillars were organised into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment. The overall rating is based on 72 indicators; 45 of these, nearly two-thirds, have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.

The 50 cities were ranked as follows:

• New York City, New York, US
• Bay Area, California, US
• London, UK
• Boston, Massachussetts, US
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Los Angeles, California, US
• Washington DC, US
• Singapore
• Toronto, Canada
• Seattle, Washington, US
• Sydney, Australia
• Paris, France
• Chicago, Illinois, US
• Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
• Austin, Texas, US
• Hong Kong, China
• Melbourne, Australia
• Atlanta, US
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Portland, Oregon, US
• Berlin, Germany
• Taipei, Taiwan
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
• Tel Aviv, Israel
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Vancouver, Canada
• Houston, US
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• Barcelona, Spain
• Seoul, South Korea
• Munich, Germany
• Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, US
• Nairobi, Kenya
• Dublin, Ireland
• Warsaw, Poland
• Belfast, Northern Ireland
• Milan, Italy
• Beijing, China
• Tokyo, Japan
• Bangalore, India
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Dubai, UAE
• Shanghai, China
• Mexico City, Mexico
• Lima, Peru
• Guadalajara, Mexico
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Delhi, India
• Jakarta, Indonesia

Key Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) findings include:

Access and use of technology varies widely across cities, but in general, Western cities and highly developed Asian cities outperform the rest. In APJ, Hong Kong (No. 5) and Singapore (No. 10) made it to the top 10 cities under the Technology pillar. Sydney is a benchmark city recognised as an emerging global entrepreneurship centre and ranks No. 23 in the Technology pillar.

Obtaining capital to start or expand a business is one of the biggest obstacles for women entrepreneurs. San Francisco greatly outperforms the other cities but in APJ, Singapore (No. 7) and Beijing (No. 10) made it to the top 10 cities under the Capital pillar.

The Dream Collective empowers potential female leaders in Singapore with inaugural bootcamp

Source: The Dream Collective. 

The Dream Collective, a global female corporate leadership training platform which offers a refreshing perspective on female empowerment and sparks a much-overlooked dialogue around talent development of female leadership in a corporate landscape, has launched the Emerging Leaders Bootcamp - Singapore Edition. 

Inspired by the MBA syllabi of the world's leading business schools, the programme works with leading corporations to identify, shape and equip high-potential young women with leadership capabilities. Designed to equip the next generation of corporate leaders with the skills, confidence, network and knowledge necessary to advance into higher management positions, the programme also recognises the importance of harnessing and honing soft skills. 

The two-day intensive programme focuses on upskilling five main areas of development – leadership, business, innovation, communication and wellness. The programme encourages collaboration through facilitated discussion, debate and skills training to deliver to members the skills and knowledge required to succeed in today's ever evolving and highly competitive corporate landscape. At the end of the programme, members are urged to set attainable goals to help them achieve new career heights.

Founded in 2012 by Sarah Liu, an entrepreneur deeply passionate about unlocking individual potential, The Dream Collective has worked with 123 leading corporations across Australia to deliver leadership programmes that empowers and equips high-calibre young professional women, and now, Singapore as well. 

Noticing a gap in leadership development opportunities that women faced in the corporate workplace today, The Dream Collective strives to build the pipeline of female leaders worldwide by empowering and equipping high calibre young professional women during the early to mid-stage of their careers. 

While Singapore is progressive in fostering entrepreneurship amongst women – it is ranked 8th best city for women entrepreneurs by the 2017 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index by Dell – the Singapore corporate ladder is still proving to be a steep climb for women. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, female representation within the science, technology, engineering and mathematics industries (STEM) in Singapore has been hovering around the 30% mark since 2006. A new study by Monster Singapore of 2,000 respondents revealed that 41% of local women cited a lack of opportunities for their career advancement. 

Liu said: “Singapore and Tokyo are proactively seeking out avenues to foster greater female empowerment in the corporate landscape. This is promising to see because like Australia, there is currently a gap in these markets when it comes to building up emerging female talent in the workplace.” 

Since its inception in 2012 in Australia, The Dream Collective has helped advance the careers of thousands of emerging female talents. With its launch in Singapore and then Tokyo, The Dream Collective hopes to power the momentum towards unshackling women from the gendered norms in corporate workplaces today. 

Interested?

The first session will kick off in October 2017. Register interest

New maternity, childcare rules for female Dubai government employees

In his capacity as Ruler of Dubai, VP and PM of UAE HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum issued Decree No (14) of 2017 on maternity and childcare leave for female employees of the Dubai government.

The decree aims to promote a balance between career and family, support the rights of working women and provide a legal framework for enhancing gender balance.

The provisions of the decree will be applied retroactively to current maternity leave and nursing breaks of female employees of the Dubai government.

Under the fecree, any full-time or part-time employee in a permanent position is entitled to 90 days of maternity leave from the date of delivery. The employee can also apply to start her maternity leave 30 days before her due date on the condition that the leave is taken continuously. Furthermore, the employee can combine maternity leave, regular annual leave and leave without pay for a maximum of 120 days.

Additionally, the decree states that an employee who has suffered a miscarriage before the 24th week of her pregnancy is entitled to sick leave based on a duly approved medical report. If the employee had a stillbirth or a miscarriage after the 24th week, she is entitled to 60 days of maternity leave after providing an approved medical report.

An employee who gave birth to a child with disability is entitled to childcare leave of one year, which is renewable up to a maximum of three years based on an approved medical report and approval from the concerned senior official in the government entity.

During the maternity leave and childcare leave prescribed in this Decree, the employee will only receive her basic monthly salary; weekends and official holidays are considered part of the maternity leave and childcare leave.

The decree also states that Dubai government entities must establish a nursery for employees’ children below four years if the total number of children of female employees is 20 or above. If the total number of children is less than 20, two or more government entities can jointly establish a nursery. Government entities may also contract nurseries close to their headquarters if the entity does not have adequate space for the nursery.

This decree annuls any other legislation that contradicts or challenges its articles. The decree is valid from 1 March 2017 and will be published in the Official Gazette.

Shopee Malaysia celebrates women entrepreneurs

Shopee, the mobile-first marketplace in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, has celebrated women for their contributions in conjunction with International Women’s Day on 8 March 2017.

International Women’s Day this year focuses on empowering women across the globe and encouraging them to take groundbreaking actions. Shopee Malaysia celebrates the theme by sharing stories of women entrepreneurs who have left their comfort zone to start their own businesses. By providing the fuss-free platform for buyers and sellers, plus free shipping nationwide and zero commissions as incentives, Shopee wants to encourage more women out there to nurture the hidden leadership and entrepreneurial skills within them.

One Shopee merchant who embodies #BeBoldForChange is 20-year-old Erin Ong, who is bed-bound. She started her business selling fashion items (Shopee ID: Little Flower Closet) a year ago after her father succumbed to cancer, leaving her mother widowed.

“I need to fight for my life and my mother,” she said. Despite her physical constraints, Erin and her mother work hand in hand to manage orders and packaging for their customers, earning enough for medical expenses and to support them both.

Source: Shopee. Tee.

“I constantly want to improve myself to become a better person in any way possible,” she said.

Another Shopee seller (Shopee ID: Cathy Shop) is Tee Mei Hong, a 47-year old mother who came from Medan, Indonesia to work for a better life for herself and her family.

“When I first came here in 2003, I have no friends at all. Everybody I knew was in Indonesia, but I wanted to build my family and career here,” she said.

Conducting business online has tripled her sales and her a better role model for her children. “I’ve been asked by other online platforms to join them, but I’m more than happy with Shopee, so I’ll hang around”.

Behind Shopee ID SisterGojes is Rajinawati Rethuan, who started her retail career selling scarves at a physical store. After the beta launch of Shopee, she decided to become a seller and found that e-commerce tripled her profits. Happy with the results, she has been encouraging her friends to sign up as Shopee sellers as well.  

Source: Shopee. Rajinawati.

According to UN Women, women have been contributing directly to a country’s growth. Studies have also shown that when women participate in contributing to the household income, the imprudent in earning benefit children as well. In June 2016, TalentCorp has announced an increase of Malaysia’s female labour participation rate has increased to 54.1% in 2015 compared to 46.8% in 2010, and Shopee is part of the success story.

Last year, Shopee Malaysia organised the Mighty Moms Challenge to empower mompreneurs who are interested to establish their own business for additional income. More than 200 mothers applied for the opportunity to attend Shopee University with Shopee’s Top Sellers.

Shopee University is a specially tailored set of courses that enables the sellers to leverage on mobile features and optimise online marketing to increase business. In May 2017, Shopee will organise another round of the Mighty Moms Challenge following the success of the 2016’s edition, and aims to get more participation from mothers across the nation.

Shopee will also continue to play its part in empowering women through various community engagement programmes in the future. Plans have anyway been made to explore East Malaysia and to reach out to women entrepreneur associations with Shopee University sessions. Shopee University has penetrated 10 states in Malaysia to date.

Hashtag: #BeBoldForChange

posted from Bloggeroid

Women entrepreneurs cannot survive on grit alone: Mastercard

Strong supporting conditions such as access to financial services and ease of doing business pave the way for progress in businesses owned by women, according to findings from the inaugural Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs*. These enabling conditions are pivotal in overcoming the two main obstacles that most discourage women from becoming entrepreneurs – cultural biases and fewer opportunities for their advancement, say the research.

Overall, developed markets top the index, led by New Zealand (74.4), Canada (72.4) and the US (69.9). These countries have the strongest conditions that support women business ownership, such as robust small- and mid-sized business communities, a high quality of governance and ease of doing business.

Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs – Top 10 markets with the strongest supporting conditions and opportunities for women to thrive as entrepreneurs

New Zealand – 74.4
Canada – 72.4
US – 69.9
Sweden – 69.6
Singapore – 69.5
Belgium – 69.0
Australia – 68.5
Philippines – 68.4
UK – 67.9
Thailand – 67.5

On the other hand, lower-income economies such as Bangladesh (31.6%) and Vietnam (31.4%) have some of the highest percentages of women entrepreneurs, driven mostly by necessity as opposed to being inspired by business opportunities.

Women business owners as a % of all business owners – Top 10 markets

Uganda – 34.8%
Botswana – 34.6%
New Zealand – 33.3%
Russia – 32.6%
Australia – 32.4%
Bangladesh – 31.6%
Vietnam – 31.4%
China – 30.9%
Spain – 30.8%
US – 30.7%

"The prevalence of ambitious, resourceful women should be regarded as a prime business opportunity. As society addresses existing cultural bias, we will do our part to help create those conditions that will strengthen and fuel the foundation for personal and economic growth,” said Martina Hund-Mejean, Chief Financial Officer, Mastercard.

“By increasing access to critical networks, our study shows that women are more able to recognise their full potential, achieve their goals and ultimately accelerate more inclusive growth. We have a fantastic opportunity to address cultural and organisational issues and further empower women leaders,” said Ann Cairns, President, International Markets, Mastercard.

The index suggests that countries with enabling conditions foster more Opportunity-Driven Entrepreneurs (driven by desire to progress) while countries with less conducive supporting conditions tend to breed more Necessity-Driven Entrepreneurs (driven by need to survive).

What spurs female entrepreneurship in developing markets? The research calls it 'grit'. Bangladesh (31.6 percent), Vietnam (31.4%) and China (30.9%) made the list of the top 10 markets for proportion of women business owners as a percentage of total business owners. In these economies, women capitalise on business opportunities that do not rely on knowledge or innovation assets alone.
However, successful businesses cannot survive on grit. To help women entrepreneurs thrive, they need access to financial services and products; ease of doing business; strong support for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and quality governance. These factors were seen in the countries in the top five spots on the index.

There are other markets such as the Philippines (68.4, 8th), Malaysia (63.9, 25th), and China (61.3, 31st) where even though supporting conditions for entrepreneurs are not as conducive, yet the local entrepreneurship landscape is highly energised and vibrant with a very healthy perception of business opportunities and high regard for the status of successful entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs here are often driven by a strong desire to succeed.

The low scores of markets such as India (41.7, 49th) and KSA (37.2, 52nd) are indicative of the fact that cultural biases against women severely undermine their ability to rise to positions of leadership and take advantage of entrepreneurial opportunities.

According to the index, some of the biggest obstacles that hinder women from venturing into business include lack of financial funding/venture capital, regulatory restrictions and institutional inefficiencies, lack of self-belief and entrepreneurial drive, fear of failure, sociocultural restrictions, and lack of training and education. In nearly all of the 54 economies covered, at least one or more of these constraints are holding back the progress of women as business owners.

“While there is still work to do, it is encouraging to see New Zealand’s supporting conditions for women in entrepreneurship are the highest in the world,” says Peter Chisnall, Country Manager for Mastercard New Zealand and the Pacific Islands of New Zealand's No. 1 position. “It is clear that the solid economic stability of New Zealand, access to financial services, robust small and mid-sized business communities and ease of doing business helps provide opportunities for businesses owned by women.”

In New Zealand, the most significant barrier for women entrepreneurs is fear of failure, at 22%. This was followed by the SME employee turnover rate (16%).

Interested?

Read the report

*The Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs tracks female entrepreneurs’ ability to capitalise on opportunities granted through various supporting conditions within their local environments and is the weighted sum of three components: Women’s Advancement Outcomes (degree of bias against women as workforce participants, political and business leaders, as well as the financial strength and entrepreneurial inclination of women), Knowledge Assets and Financial Assets (degree of access women have to basic financial services, advanced knowledge assets, and support for small and medium enterprises), and Supporting Entrepreneurial Conditions (overall perceptions on the ease on conducting business locally, quality of local governance, women’s perception of safety levels and cultural perception of women’s household financial influence). 

The index uses 12 indicators and 25 sub-indicators to look at how 54 economies across Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, North America, Latin America and Europe, representing 78.6% of the world’s female labour force, differ in terms of the level of Women’s Advancement Outcomes, Knowledge Assets & Financial Access, and Supporting Entrepreneurial Factors.

Startup Asia Women announces inaugural networking event in Singapore

Source: Startup Asia Women.

The newly-minted Startup Asia Women community, formed in December 2016, aims to bring together women who run or work in startups, who are planning to start or join startups, or simply would like to know more about startups.

The community aims to provide critical support and resources to women with an entrepreneurial mindset, and welcomes members who are at various stages of their startup pursuits. Startup Asia Women believes that this diverse background is a recipe for success, as it inspires new ideas, experiences and motivation.

Startup Asia Women's inaugural networking event will feature the founders of three female-founded startups – YuhWen Foong of Sushivid, an influencer marketing platform, headquartered in Malaysia; Ginny Ecklblad of Gorillaspace, a new startup aiming to disrupt the office rental market and Jacqueline Ye of Delegate.sg, semifinalists of Channel NewsAsia Startup Competition Season 4 in discussions around the theme of Thinking in design, and successful marketing startups. 

Men are welcome to attend.
 
Interested?

The networking event will be held on 17 January from 6:30pm to 9:15pm at 128 Prinsep Street, Impact Hub, Singapore. Tickets cost between S$6.50 and S$7.90. Register

Majority of women in Singapore say they are under-represented in leadership roles

Source: Robert Walters white paper. 

Empowering Women In The Workplace, a white paper* from specialist professional recruitment firm Robert Walters, has found that 75% of women surveyed in Singapore feel that they are inadequately represented in leadership positions. In contrast, 56% of male respondents in Singapore state that they think women have sufficient standing in business-leading roles.

One in five (21%) of the respondents in Singapore agreed that women made up more than 20% of leadership positions in their organisations. However, less than half (45%) believed that there are strong female leaders within their organisations that they can look up to as role models.

Further advocating the need for gender diversity in the workplace, a majority (79%) of women in Singapore cited the presence of a mentor or sponsor at the senior management level as the most helpful driver in empowering them to develop their careers.

Joanne Chua, Account Director of Robert Walters Southeast Asia, comments, “From our interactions with professionals of both genders and observations as market leaders, we noticed that more often, women tend to second-guess their capabilities compared to their male counterparts. This has in turn often limited their progression at the workplace. It is our desire to inspire more females to break out of their comfort zones, challenge the mindsets of society and in some cases, their own mindsets of the role of women in the workplace to fulfill their fullest potential in the workplace.”

Highlights from the survey:

 More than a third (37%) of females in Singapore think their current employer has clear and enforced policies on gender diversity, equality and inclusion 

 Just under half (49%) of women surveyed feel that their organisation is lacking in fair and equal representation of female business leaders 

 When asked to name the top three reasons why women are under-represented, 37% of all respondents in Singapore cited family pressures or commitments outside of work 

 Additionally, 32% believed it is due to a preference by management to promote men over women, and 30% attributed it to a workplace culture that does not actively foster diversity, inclusion and equality

Interested?

Browse the Empowering Women In The Workplace white paper (PDF)

*Empowering Women In The Workplace is based on a survey conducted in January 2016 to better understand existing perceptions of gender diversity across key markets in Asia Pacific. The survey gathered the views of over 4,400 clients and active job seekers across Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Additional interviews and research were collated to complement survey findings.

Women in Business Asia Pageant organises digital marketing masterclass

Source: Women in Business Asia Pageant Facebook page.

As part of its initiative to help women entrepreneurs to skill up, Women in Business Asia Pageant is organising a masterclass in digital marketing and social media hacks for women entrepreneurs in Singapore.

The one-hour Digital Marketing and Social Media hacks for Women in Business session will show women in business how to create an optimal, business-friendly website that is focused on lead generation. They will also learn how to integrate content (both original and curated) in their marketing strategy. The session will also cover tips for creating a great brand video as well as deploying social media to proliferate messages to target audiences.

Organised by Event Embassy SG, the event features Dipashree Das as the speaker. Das has more than 13 years of experience in launching successful brands across Southeast Asia and in helping companies achieve marketing goals. She currently heads Regional Partnerships and Marketing for Singtel Media, based in Singapore.

Interested?

Digital Marketing and Social Media hacks for Women in Business
Date: 18 August
Time: 12.15pm to 1.30pm
Agenda: 45-minute talk and 15-minute Q&A session, followed by networking
Venue: Trehaus @ Claymore Connect, a co-working space at #03-01, 442 Orchard Rd, Singapore 238879

Cost: S$15 via Peatix; register at Digital Marketing and Social Media hacks for Women in Business. Selected discounts are available on the Peatix page

Singapore in top five for 2016 WE Cities Index

· The Dell Women Entrepreneur Cities Index (WE Cities) is the only global gender-specific index that looks at a city’s ability to attract and foster growth of women-owned firms

· Singapore is one of the top five cities for high-potential women entrepreneurs

· Data and analysis says that when impediments to female entrepreneurship are removed, there is a dramatic uplift in a city’s economic prospects

· Dell’s index provides a diagnostic tool to advise leaders and policy-makers on how to improve conditions to enable businesses founded by women to thrive

· Dell has partnered with 1776 to launch Union, an international startup platform

Source: Dell infographic. The Dell Women Entrepreneur Cities Index breakdown.

Dell has revealed the top 25 global cities fostering high potential women entrepreneurs (HPWE) for 2016. The Women Entrepreneur Cities Index (WE Cities) is the only global gender-specific index that looks at a city’s ability to attract and foster growth in firms founded by women entrepreneurs. Cities, instead of countries, were identified in order to show the impact of local policies and programmes in addition to national laws and customs.

Findings from WE Cities will be used as a springboard for conversation and change at the seventh annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network Summit (DWEN) —a global gathering of 200 of the top female entrepreneurs, business leaders, media and Dell partners that is set to take place in South Africa, June 27 to 28, 2016.

“Innovation and job creation by women entrepreneurs is critical for a thriving global economy, yet our research shows some cities and countries are doing far more than others to encourage and support this important subset of the startup community,” said Karen Quintos, SVP and CMO at Dell. “Our index provides insights to move the conversation with policymakers and city leaders from awareness to action and, in turn, to empower women entrepreneurs to have the greatest economic impact on the world.”

Ranked 5th on the index, Singapore performs in the top third of the 25 cities ranked for talent, culture and technology. Sydney is also in the top 10.

“Singapore has established a robust ecosystem to support women entrepreneurs with a strong focus on cultivating home-grown entrepreneurship and promoting digitization across all verticals. As the only Asian city in the top 10 of the WE Cities Index and having emerged as the third most Future Ready Economy in a study conducted earlier this year, Singapore is well positioned on a global landscape for women-owned businesses to thrive and is an exceptional example to Asia of the great contribution women bring to the economic growth of a nation,” said Margaret Franco, VP, APJ CSES Marketing, Dell.

"Women entrepreneurs are our country's best bet for economic growth,” said Elizabeth Gore, Entrepreneur-in-residence for Dell. “It's time for women to be politically engaged to ensure the right ecosystems are in place for them to scale. If politicians and entrepreneurs partner, dynamic policies can be put in place to close the circle and enhance the process from idea to enterprise. WE Cities can be used as a diagnostic tool to help ensure lawmakers are listening to their needs.”

Top 25 WE Cities

Overall Ranking

1. NEW YORK

2. BAY AREA

3. LONDON

4. STOCKHOLM

5. SINGAPORE

6. TORONTO

7. WASHINGTON, DC

8. SYDNEY

9. PARIS

10. SEATTLE

11. MUNICH

12. AUSTIN

13. BEIJING

14. HONG KONG

15. TAIPEI

16. SHANGHAI

17. TOKYO

18. MEXICO CITY

19. SAO PAULO

20. SEOUL

21. MILAN

22. DELHI

23. JOHANNESBURG

24. JAKARTA

25. ISTANBUL

Dell partnered with IHS—a source of insight and analytics—to launch the global research that measures a city’s ability to attract and support high-potential women entrepreneurs. The 25 cities in the ranking were chosen from the list of 50 global cities in the Dell Future-Ready Economies (FRE) Model in order to make comparisons between the two indices, with geographic diversity utilised as key criteria in city selection.

Building on the past four years of Dell’s research on HPWE, five important categories of city characteristics were identified: capital, technology, talent, culture and markets. These pillars were organised into two groups – operating environment and enabling environment. The overall rating has 70 indicators, and, of these, 44 have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.

Research for WE Cities began during the 2016 DWEN Future Ready Research Symposium chaired by Dr. David Ricketts from the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. The research symposium brought together 40 global thought leaders, women entrepreneurs, academics and media to develop insights for the model. Takeaways from the conversations at the symposium included:

· Access to capital is still the No. 1 challenge that women entrepreneurs face, although the numbers are showing a slight improvement

· Creating robust ecosystems with incubators, accelerators and mentors makes a world of difference for entrepreneurs—it is all about the network

· Cultural norms and their policy implications put serious binds on female entrepreneurs

To help entrepreneurs in cities and economies that may not provide adequate resources for scaling businesses, Dell has partnered with 1776 to launch an international startup platform, Union, aimed at enabling the next billion entrepreneurs by supporting, connecting and removing barriers for entrepreneurs regardless of their location.

Accessible through the Startup Federation—a worldwide network of startup campuses and mega-hubs—or virtually for entrepreneurs in remote areas, Union will provide entrepreneurs anywhere in the world the ability to reach the people, resources and education they need to take their ideas from seed to scale. Designed by 1776’s team of engineers and aided by insights from incubators, accelerators, experts and hubs around the world, the platform enables entrepreneurs to:

· Find content and courses in business-building

· Tap elite mentors in their industries for advice

· Consult experts in skills like marketing, sales, engineering and human resources

· Connect with potential investors, customers and business partners

“Dell’s WE Cities research proves that millions of entrepreneurs are hampered by conditions in their local economies and policies,” said Donna Harris, co-founder and co-CEO of 1776. “Entrepreneurs should be free to live wherever they want and have access to the same incredible resources. Our Union platform brings that idea to reality.”

Interested?

Read the takeaways from the symposium (PDF)

View a detailed summary of the research findings and recommendations (PDF)

Hashtags: #WECities, #DWEN

posted from Bloggeroid

Singapore winners of Ascendas-Singbridge Her Startup 2016 named

Source: The Ascendas-Singbridge Group. From left: Ho Kheng Lian, Venture Partner, Vectr Ventures; Natalie Loh, Vice President of Products, Vanitee; Kuik Xiao Shi, Co-Founder, Vanitee; Pocket Sun, Founding Partner of SoGal Ventures; Adrianna Tan, Founder, Wobe; Virginia Tan, Co-founder and Managing Director of Lean In China; Adeline Quek, Head of Regional Business Development, Grabtaxi; Mrs Nina Yang, Chief Operating Officer of Singbridge.

The Ascendas-Singbridge Group has crowned two winners from the Singapore round of the Ascendas-Singbridge Her Startup 2016 competition. Of nine shortlisted finalists from Singapore, Vanitee and Wobe won the judges over. The two will compete in the grand finals of the competition in Silicon Valley in the US on 20 July 2016.

Ascendas-Singbridge Her Startup 2016 is the world’s first cross-border startup competition for female entrepreneurs. Jointly organised by TechBase, SoGal, Lean In China and Krspace, the competition provides a means for women to showcase their ideas and innovations on an international platform. At least one member of each participating team must be a woman, or the product or services of the participating team must serve and impact women positively. Asia's sustainable urban solutions and business space provider Ascendas-Singbridge is the full title sponsor for this year’s contest.

Vanitee is a beauty and wellness marketplace community which allows consumers to connect with beauty professionals for their services. Co-founder Kuik Xiao Shi said: “Our priority is to strengthen our customer relationships and to perfect the user experience. We’re also proud to have grown Vanitee into a powerful channel for beauty professionals, both women and men, to market their craft. Expanding the business is on the horizon.”

Wobe is a developer of mobile business and finance tools for the Southeast Asian woman. Founder Adrianna Tan said: “We are looking to transform today’s microbusiness landscape and to create equal access in cash-based Asian economies such as Indonesia. The mobile application that we’ve developed will enable low income groups with no access to capital, to buy and resell prepaid credits in a more streamlined and cost efficient manner. This improves ease of transactions and allows them to start small businesses.”

The company is looking to execute a national rollout in the next few months, which will take the mobile application into cities and non-cities in Indonesia.

Virginia Tan, Co-founder and Managing Director of Lean In China, who founded the Her Startup competition in 2015, said: “Today we are seeing many more women entrepreneurs coming forward with innovative business ideas. However one of the key challenges that women entrepreneurs face is the lack of access to funding. The competition has to-date featured many early-stage startups
whose innovations have subsequently put them in prime position for initial rounds of financing. Last year, 40% of our global finalists attracted over US$5 million in funding in total after the competition. Providing access to knowledge, expert advice, and an opportunity to network with an established and supportive community, can be very empowering as the competition has shown.”

The live pitching round in Singapore on 14 June was held at Workcentral, a co-working space at Dhoby Ghaut which aims to build a purpose-driven community that works, learns, shares and grows together. Each shortlisted Singapore startup was given five minutes to present their ideas judges including representatives from app-based ride-hailing service GrabTaxi, SoGal Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on investing in female-led startups, and venture capital funds Arbor Ventures, Venturra Capital, Vectr Ventures and KK Funds. The teams were evaluated on their business model, experience and potential of their founding team, as well as the scalability of their product and markets.

Pocket Sun, founding partner of SoGal Ventures and one of the judges, said: “The teams were all very impressive and it was a challenge selecting the winners. However, Vanitee demonstrated tremendous growth and traction, and a strong degree of execution. The Silicon Valley programme would be a great entry point for them in the US. Wobe’s mobile application promises to empower unbanked women in Indonesia and to improve their livelihoods. Their founder showcased a high resolution of technical knowledge and understanding of doing business in emerging markets. We look forward to seeing these ideas materialise.”

Support for startups

Ascendas-Singbridge is a supporter of advancing the roles that startups play in the innovation landscape, and this includes nurturing female-focused startups to encourage more women to participate in the startup landscape.

Mrs Nina Yang, Chief Operating Officer of Singbridge, a member of Ascendas-Singbridge Group, said: "As Asia’s leading provider of sustainable urban and business space solutions, Ascendas-Singbridge looks to foster a strong entrepreneurial spirit within the communities that it operates in. We are pleased to see the competition host a Singapore round for the first time this year. The startup scene in Singapore is constantly abuzz with new talent, technologies and innovations. The
competition gives us an opportunity to help aspiring entrepreneurs turn creative and disruptive ideas into enduring, real-world solutions today.”

Mrs Yang added: “Aside from being the title sponsor for Ascendas-Singbridge Her Startup 2016, the Group has embarked on other initiatives this year to ensure that it stays ahead of the market as Singapore continues its technopreneurship push to develop local innovations and global champions. We established a Deep Technology Hub at Singapore Science Park I to test bed a co-working space model catering to the startups and growth-stage companies.

"We also successfully formed AIRmaker, an accelerator that supports the development of startups seeking to grow and develop in Asia, which will enhance our relevance to the developing startup ecosystems in the region.”

Competition rounds for Ascendas-Singbridge Her Startup 2016 are being held across China, the US, Singapore and Vietnam from 27 May to 24 June. A total of 15 finalist teams from four countries will have the opportunity to travel to the US to participate in the global finals held in Silicon Valley. Finalists will also receive a US$5,000 scholarship to attend Draper University's one-year MBA programme, as well as the opportunity to participate in an immersive week-long experience which includes a two-day entrepreneurship growth hacking bootcamp and two days of visits to leading technology companies, incubators, and accelerators.

All 15 finalist teams pitching at the Silicon Valley final will receive mentorship, funding and media opportunities from experts, investors, CEOs and like-minded entrepreneurs.

Interested?

Key competition dates:

27 May Beijing Round
28 May Hangzhou Round
29 May Chengdu Round
4 June Guangzhou Round
5 June Shenzhen Round
18 June China Final in Beijing
11 June Vietnam Round
14 June Singapore Round
22 June New York Round
23 June Los Angeles Round
24 June San Francisco Round
20 July Global Final in Silicon Valley

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about the Guangzhou leg of the competition
Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about Vanitee's funding
Read the WorkSmart Asia blog post about Ascendas OneHub Guangzhou Knowledge City

posted from Bloggeroid