Women’s Forum Asia 2019 concluded with an inspiring CEO Champions workshop hosted in partnership with Singapore Summit and McKinsey & Company. The CEO Champions Initiative seeks to promote evidence-based best practices on advancing gender diversity in public and private sectors and calls for commitments and actions from top leaders worldwide. The workshop brought together 40 diverse and committed leaders from the region and beyond to discuss women’s leadership and the future of work, including automation and technological change.
The discussion was opened by Chiara Corazza, Managing Director of the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society, who welcomed Kwon Ping Ho, Conference Chairman of Singapore Summit and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, to offer opening remarks.
McKinsey & Company then shared their key findings from a report on The Future of Work: Transition in the age of automation, which underlines the fact that 40 million to 160 million women worldwide may need to transition occupations by 2030 due to technological transformation.
The workshop continued with A Conversation with Inclusive Leaders between Chiara Corazza, Peter Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg, and Kevin Sneader, Global Managing Partner at McKinsey, and which was moderated by Diann-Yi Lin, Managing Partner of McKinsey Singapore.
In the final session of the workshop we took a deep-dive into Taking the lead for an inclusive future, allowing participants to discuss best practices and formulate the following recommendations for corporations and governments on how to adapt for the future.
6 Recommendations from the Women’s Forum to the Singapore Summit:
• Establish the balance between mandatory targets and chosen targets according to local context
• Measure regularly the progress and hold accountability with full transparency
• Lead by example by companies with best practices which will shift the mindset, influence the market, attract and retain the talents and investors
• Ensure the top leadership is fully convinced of the business case for diversity; and the voice from the bottom can be fully heard
• Create a flexible and favourable environment, including not breaking the pipeline of talent
• Leverage innovation and technology to provide equal opportunities for women and men to unlock the full potential of the workforce.
Please find the entire report here.
