Global Summit of Women 2019 in pictures

Please enjoy these pictures of the Global Summit of Women 2019, courtesy of MCM.

Proceeds from MCM's pop-up shop at #GSW2019 were donated to charity

Spot the MCM rabbit!

Ana Maria Montero, News Anchor, CNN Money

Ann Sherry, Executive Chairman, Carnival Australia

Government leaders participate in the opening panel session

Angela Mackay, Managing Director of the Financial Times, moderates the Male CEO Forum

Swiss performers at the opening ceremony in Basel

Summit President Irene Natividad presents Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen model of micro-financing, with the 2019 Global Women's Leadership Award

CEOs discuss the changing business of fashion

Understanding the fashion revolution

The fashion industry is undergoing a revolution and four companies are rising to the challenges posed by a profound shift in consumer attitudes. So how are top fashion brands MCM, Nina Ricci and Schiaparelli squaring up to the challenge of millennial spending? 

The answers came at a panel session titled “The Changing and Challenging Business of Fashion and Design”, held at the Global Summit of Women in Basel, Switzerland.

Sung-Joo Kim, the South Korean entrepreneur who helms MCM Group, has run the business since she acquired the German luxury brand in 2005. She has a team of 2,000 staff from 40 different nationalities, 75% of whom are women.  

“I faced many challenges buying a German fashion and being based in South Korea. People thought I was crazy and asked me: why did you do it? I didn’t come from a fashion background – my brothers run a big industrial group established by my father. I was thrown out of the family home when I didn’t want to follow the usual women’s path of marriage to another powerful Korean family. I had no money, so I had to do something and I rang around my friends. I spoke to the head of Bloomingdale’s and he hired me in his New York headquarters.”

Mrs Kim said she had no idea about retailing. “People were using the term MD. I thought it meant doctor, but I learnt it was a term used about merchandising.”

Power shift from West to East

The dynamic philanthropist – or Chief Visionary Officer, to use her MCM title – added that her degree studies in sociology helped her understand how society evolves. And being Asian herself, sensed how the balance of power, including purchasing power, was shifting from West to East. As soon as she acquired MCM, she set about targeting the Asian consumer, and particularly the high-spending young Chinese, who are often cosseted by their family because of the one-child policy. As Mrs Kim foresaw before many others, the Chinese traveller is vital for travel retailers. 

MCM has become a cult fashion label, spotted worldwide thanks to its famous hands-free backpacks worn by Chinese tourists in every fashion capital. American rappers love the brand, as well as the K-pop artists like Rain, boasting 100m followers. And not forgetting influential DJ Peggy Gou, who is in demand at every fashion party across the globe.

Mrs Kim believes the younger generation no longer want “princess fashion” but a more comfortable and practical aesthetic. This view seems to contrast with the approach of Nina Ricci, whose new fragrance trio is sold in Dufry stores alongside an ad campaign tagged #princesslife. This well-established French fashion house is headed by Charlotte Tasset as CEO for Fashion and Fragrances. Tasset believes the future of physical retailing is sharing. It’s not the same as online retailing, where the key is convenience. “You use the internet to buy your daughter Nike trainers or something like that. But shopping is about sharing. You go shopping with your friends, so you have to offer in-store experiences they can share,” she said.

Focus on sustainability

As for Schiaparelli, its haute couture legacy and artisanal focus chimes perfectly with today’s focus on sustainability and the shift away from overconsumption, according to Delphine Bellini, CEO, Elsa Schiaparelli SAS.

This fascinating all-female panel also included the leading fashion brand distributor Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG) of Vietnam. President Le Hong Thuy Tien revealed that there was such a lack of centrally located retail space for luxury brands that IPPG began building and operating its own shopping malls. IPPG also has a thriving travel retail division at the country’s airports. Its portfolio spans more than 100 luxury brands, such as MCM, whose stores in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi will soon be expanded.

Time for action on equal pay, urges French minister

Muriel Penicaud, the Minister of Labour in France, received a standing ovation – including from Monaco-based MJ Rabbit – for her rousing speech on gender equality.

Speaking about the gender pay gap at the 2019 Global Summit of Women in Basel, Penicaud told delegates: “It’s time for action and time for results.” 

Penicaud talked about the introduction of a new law that publishes an index in France to measure the women’s pay gap. Companies who do not comply with the law face big penalties. "It's better to give the money to women than the government," she joked. Staggeringly, following the publication of the first index on March 1, 2019, some 18% of the 1,400 companies included in the index have a red flag against them when it comes to equal pay; 80% of firms must improve; and only 2% have a green light.

“Let’s solve it,” said Penicaud, who was tasked by President Emmanuel Macron to tackle this on her appointment as a government minister in 2017. She calls it an issue of social justice, noting the effect of the index on a company’s reputation. Reputational risk is real today, as investors seek transparency – and people demand trust. 

At the G7 summit in August, held in France, gender equality and equal pay will be a key subject of discussion, Penicaud revealed.

We’re entering the era of bionic women

This year’s Global Summit of Women (#GSW2019) heard about global megatrends from corporate leaders. Pia Tischhauser, Global Head of Insurance, Boston Consulting Group (Switzerland), says we are entering The Bionic Age, otherwise known as the fourth industrial revolution – a connected world of mobile super-computing, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) and genetic editing. 

Unlike previous revolutions, such as the industrial revolution, it’s the speed of change that’s different today. Society faces challenges. The global elite is driving these tech-related changes, but many people feel left behind, said Tischhauser. According to the World Economic Forum, 65% of children who have started primary school will work in roles that don’t exist yet. Today, she says companies need to demonstrate these qualities: new intelligence; resilience; flexibility and readiness; strategic focus; and they must think differently. Companies need to achieve a personalised customer experience; machine-augmented operations; and start-up style innovation.

Tischhauser noted that women are at risk of losing their jobs to automation and that only 22% of women AI professionals are women. She urged the audience to invest in upskilling and to try AI tech to amplify their skills. “Let’s be the bionic women to foster bionic thinking,” she said.

In the Male CEO Forum session that discussed implementing gender diversity in a time of change, the five panellists agreed that many studies had shown that businesses with women in management positions perform better. Les Clifford, CEO, EY Switzerland, noted that it takes between three and six years to change the culture of a company. He told the story of his teenage son, who gave him a wake-up call one day. When asked what he thought of gender diversity, his son remarked: “Dad, we look at organisations and we want to see diversity – people of different backgrounds, ages, and that are 50% female. If you can’t get that right, how can you get the other things right?”  (MJ Rabbit agrees.)

In the session led by female CEOs of global stock exchanges in Mexico and Thailand, the moderator, Marisa Drew, CEO, Impact Advisory & Finance, Credit Suisse (UK), revealed a new term she’d just heard: “manels”, meaning panels with all men. She said it was refreshing to see conference sessions full of women, rather than men. The Gender 3000 report from Credit Suisse, which sets out the business case for diversity in business, is out soon. (Marisa, please send me a copy.)

The Women Entrepreneurs Forum heard from many high-powered women – including Daniele Henkel, founder and President of her own beauty and wellbeing brand, who stars on the Dragon’s Den TV series in Canada. Henkel noted the competitive nature of the beauty industry and the need for her cosmetics brand to stand out from the crowd. 

Marketing Your Business in the Age of Disruption heard from the inspirational Swiss-born executive, Kathrin Amacker, Chief Communications Officer and Management Board Member, SBB, the Swiss railway company. Amacker talked about the effect on her daughter of her job. If a train was late, her daughter would hear about it at school in the morning. (MJ Rabbit has written about the impressive array of food and drink onboard SBB trains for PAX International magazine, the leading voice of news and analysis for the passenger services industry.)

Carol Dominguez was a standout speaker at the session titled The Art of Persuasion in the World Business, where I discovered where I’d been going wrong for all these years. Dominguez is President & CEO of John Clements Consultants in the Philippines. She’s a legend. If you need a good speaker, ask her. She’s super-busy, so you’ll have to persuade her!

The Global Women’s Leadership Awards Gala Dinner saw three award recipients: Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, OXFAM International (Uganda); Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh; and Doris Leuthard, former President and Federal Councillor, Switzerland.

Not forgetting the amazing contributions of Sung-Joo Kim, Chair and Chief Visionary Officer, Sungjoo Group (South Korea) and Irene Natividad, President, GlobeWomen Research and Education Institute (USA). Read all about Mrs Kim (www.kimsungjoo.com) on this blog: 66 blog posts and counting…

Global Summit of Women 2019 kicks off in Basel

Greetings from the Global Summit of Women 2019, which has begun in Basel, Switzerland (#GSW2019). More than 1,000 women from all corners of the globe are gathering to celebrate and foster women’s empowerment in all areas of society, business, governments and non-profits.

Organised by the dynamic Washington DC-based Irene Natividad as President, this year’s Summit agenda is “Women: Redefining Success” and is sponsored by companies including MCM, Dufry, Credit Suisse, AXA, Engie and McDonald’s. 

Irene Natividad, President of the Global Summit of Women, at the press briefing

This year’s opening press conference saw the release of the Summit’s 2019 report “Women Directors in the World’s Largest Banks & Financial Services Companies”. It shows that only 25% of board seats are held by women in the largest financial institutions in the world, based in 18 countries. Regionally, Europe had the highest percentage of women directors in its largest companies at 34%, while the region with the lowest record of appointing women directors is Asia Pacific at only 12%.  

Natividad announced four recommendations for businesses to boost the number of women in top positions, namely: Develop a pipeline for women in senior executive positions; Make a concerted national effort; Emphasise the business case for women on management boards (McKinsey, among others, has produced studies showing the correlation between the number of women on boards and company profitability); and, finally, Nomination boards and executive search companies must include women candidates.

Three formidable Prime Ministers also gave their views at the opening session. Each one was the first woman to hold their position in their respective countries of Namibia, Aruba and Kosovo.

Highlights of this inspirational session:

The Prime Minister of Namibia, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, is credited with creating the first-ever budget surplus in Namibia and furthering women’s empowerment in the country by instituting many government measures.

The Prime Minister of Aruba, Evelyn Wever-Croes, says her first priority in office was to create trust, as people had lost faith in politicians. She has created an Integrity Bureau to restore trust.

The former President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, who was also the former General Lieutenant Colonel of the police force in Kosovo, said she faced challenges when she took office, but celebrated the fact that she had inspired women to aspire to high office. She told the story of some young schoolchildren in Kosovo. When asked what they wanted to do when they grew up, the girls said: “To be President.” Asked if he wanted to be President one day, a little boy said: “Boys aren’t allowed to be Presidents in Kosovo.” She finished by saying: “Change starts with ourselves.”