Mrs. McKinstry shared how Wolters Kluwer, as a global, market-leading information services company is implementing innovation in its portfolio of products and services. We were honored to listen to Mrs. McKinstry, who has continuously been ranked among the most important woman in business, and her view on innovation at Wolters Kluwer as well as on innovative leadership.

A remarkable point of her speech, which definitely marks a highlight in our 2010 theme, was that an important aspect of innovation was to share it. Thanks to all of you for joining our event and for sharing your thoughts, experiences, and questions on innovative leadership. You can find the presentation under http://www.wolterskluwer.com/wk/Press/Presentations/2010

Our fellow member Cristina Stoian (www.crisspix.com) did an amazing job at capturing the evening on film. Please take two minutes (and 28 seconds) to enjoy the video presentation below.

Join us again next time!

Entrepreneurs Community Corner, a key initiative

One of the key initiatives for the EuropeanPWN (EPWN) Federation in 2010 is the Entrepreneurs  Community Corner (ECC), which is intended to grow into a great support community for our entrepreneurial members across City Networks, to facilitate their sharing, connecting and leveraging one another’s knowledge, contacts and talents as they build their business.

There are good ideas coming from all of our City Networks on resources, links, experts and tools to add to the ECC.

To support this ECC initiative, the EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam Board invited our entrepreneurial spirits to a brainstorming session on the 28th of April, that was generously facilitated by Ursula Brinkmann (see the information below).

The objective of the session was to gather and collate all ideas, needs, interests, concerns our self-employed EPWN members, and to communicate the outcome of the session to the Federation Board.

‘What support do the entrepreneurial women of our network need?’ was the question that was posed by facilitator Ursula Brinkmann, following an efficient and eye-opening session of introductions. The “silent brainstorm” session proved to be a very effective manner to get ideas on the table in a surprisingly short period of time. Within 10 minutes, an extensive list of areas that need focus had been proposed and the participants began the process of categorising, sorting and voting. We thank Ursula Brinkmann for leading this productive session.

These are the results of the session

Within EPWN we have a wealth of knowledge and professional experience that we know can be of benefit for all of our entrepreneurs. The following image highlights the key areas of interest that our participating entrepreneurs put forward that evening (the percentage reflects the number of votes from our participants – a high percentage therefore means that the topic is high on the list of their needs).

The participants further discussed ways to make these results possible. One of the ideas was to organize a series of workshops for and by our entrepreneurial spirits, as a means to connect and offer relevant training.

Thank you too!

Our thanks also go out to Petra Rona, a guest of the evening (who has since become a member), who captured all ideas in a power point presentation (the above image is one of the slides). The Amsterdam Board looks forward to sharing this PPT with the other City Networks when we discuss ways to engage and facilitate exchange among entrepreneurs across the networks.

You can contribute too. How?

If you are passionate about what you do and wish to profile yourself and share your expertise with your fellow entrepreneurial members in Amsterdam and throughout Europe, please contact any of the Amsterdam Board Members. Include in your email what you would like to contribute, whether in terms of workshop topics, mentoring skills, business connections and otherwise.

Background information on Ursula Brinkmann

Ursula Brinkmann is co-founder and director of Intercultural Business Improvement Ltd, a consultancy and training firm specialized in intercultural management development.

Ursula has been delivering courses and presentations for a number of public and private organizations. One of her recent assignments consisted of workshops on Managing Dutch-German cultural differences for the integration teams involved in a major cross-border acquisition. In 2007/2008 she was responsible for an integration program for a European corporation; the program combined training, individual assessment, coaching as well as networking events for 180 managers.

Together with Oscar van Weerdenburg, Ursula developed the Intercultural Readiness Check (IRC), a questionnaire assessing four key intercultural competences. The IRC has been widely recognized in the academic and business communities, and its database by now is one of the largest sources of information on intercultural competences world-wide.

Despite the fact that this situation is an economic nightmare and chaos for millions of people and organizations it was a positive and extremely interesting experience.
Read below my observations on organic groups, Uncertainty and External Control

The situation
On April 17th, I arrived at 10:00 hrs in Madrid after a 12 hours Iberia flight from Bogotá, where I delivered a number of trainings. My connecting flight to Amsterdam was cancelled. After standing five hours in line to get on a bus to Brussels, 17 hours on the bus and 5 hours on a train, I finally arrived at 17.00 hrs on the 18th of April in Amsterdam.

The situation at the airport was pretty chaotic in spite of the wonderful job IBERIA tried to do. There was little information on just about anything. The information which was available on flights and airport, on if and when busses would arrive at the airport to pick up passengers, on destinations of the busses, on lists of passengers for each bus etc etc.

What was positive about this experience and what did I observe:
- How an organic group of 15-20 people is formed while standing in line, mostly based on destination. Existing of 6 or more nationalities/languages.
- How uncertainty bonds people very quickly. The unity and power of the Group deals with the External control of the situation.
- How one can take the situation as an opportunity to meet great people from all over the world and having time to talk to them.
- How a natural leader stands up and takes charge of the group. Everyone follows his leadership. No power struggle between other possible leaders.
- How members of the group work to keep a good and positive spirit for every individual in the group. Group members rebuked impatient and angry passengers towards the very kind Iberia personnel. Complaining group members were taken apart and asked not to burden others with their problems.
- How each and everyone uses his qualities to be of service to the group. How the group accepts roles without questioning.
Such as providing food supplies, this was not done by the airlines, guarding each other’s luggage, obtaining information, entertaining and taking care of the children in the group, translations for every one etc. etc.
- Understood my own organic role in a group. Getting the relevant information from various sources at the airport and provide the group with a comprehensive message on the situation. (Due to my studies in Aviation Economy and 15 years of airline experience as well as the many languages I happen to speak).
- How the group kept his living area clean at the airport and in the bus.
- The group took care of each other throughout the 17 hours bus ride.

It was a tremendous experience and I am extremely grateful to be home safely…and with my luggage.

With thanks to Iberia, the two drivers of the bus and all the passengers in that bus from Madrid to Brussels.

Eleonore Breukel – Intercultural Communication bv Amsterdam

Innovation also means “do your core business right”

One of the most striking statements of Shannon Jones, Director Marketing and Category for Starbucks Coffee Company EMEA, was that most of the time innovation means to “do your core business right”.
Listening to the captivating presentation of our guest speaker who brought 70 members and guests of EPWN Amsterdam together on Monday evening this statement seems to have been one of the conclusions of the re-examination of the company’s strategy in the beginning of 2008.

Starbucks has been one of the greatest success stories in the US. The company started in 1971 with one coffee shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Today, Starbucks serves millions of customers every day, in close to 17.000 locations in over 50 countries. The EMEA headquarter is located, together with the roasting plant, in Amsterdam where around 130 Starbucks partners – this is how employees are called – of the regional support center are working closely with the countries in several areas.

In 2008, Starbucks reported slower profit growth mainly due to the business in the US. The start of a new era was set when Howard Schultz, founder of the company in 1971, decided to return as CEO in order to lead the company again – which at that time seemed to have become quite bureaucratic – to focus on its core business: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. So, innovation in the beginning of 2008 was to return to the core business.

Shannon shared with us how innovation at Starbucks is about large and also small things. Every aspect of the daily business at Starbucks is being reconsidered, like how to steam the milk properly for the perfect latte. When – during the recession – Starbucks was facing the reflection of a “luxury brand” rather than the “third place” that the company aimed to be, they also reviewed store design and developed new concepts like “heritage”, “artisan” or “regional modern” which are currently being piloted around the world, including flag ship stores in Europe to better respond to the local flavor of different places.

How to leverage with cultural differences was a big part of the Q&A session: Each country has its own habits and traditions when it comes to drinking coffee. The challenge is to implement the Starbucks concept in different parts of the world while staying true to the brand and taking local characteristic into account.

So what is the path to the future for Starbucks? New product lines are currently being introduced like VIA (portable instant coffee sachets), Starbucks Shared Planet comprises various areas of their long established corporate social responsibility program, and Starbucks extends its presence in social media like twitter and facebook to keep a very close contact to their consumers and partners.

All participants fully agreed that it was a sheer pleasure to follow the attention-grabbing presentation of a true passionate Starbucks partner Shannon Jones. Shannon truly lives the Starbucks spirit and was not intimidated by the large amount of questions she received. We all loved the straight forward answers and cannot wait to finally choose our “third place”, our very own Starbucks in The Netherlands… hopefully coming soon.

(Edited for publication)

The second main event of EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam for 2010 was held on 4 February 2010. The topic of the evening was: “Are you communicating what you want, secrets to interacting effectively in male-dominated environments.” We were privileged to welcome Richard Kwakernaak, founder of the Institute for Communication Psychology and Transformation (ICPT). As many as 70 members and guests met in Amsterdam for drinks, followed by Richard’s key-note address.

Richard explained that in business, on the domestic front and in our social lives, we all stand to benefit from more effective communication skills. He added that the greater your awareness is of how it all works, the more effective your communication can be.

Richard captivated the audience with his down-to-earth take on gender differences in communication. He quipped: “Men have been known to sometimes miss a hint.” When a woman for instance says “I don’t want to see the same turnover this year as we had last year“, which for her simply means “We’d better increase our sales“, men might miss that point and start explaining in a defensive tone of voice why last year’s targets were not met.

“Women can become more effective communicators by expressing what they do want, rather than what they don’t want”. Richard added that studies have shown that such ‘positive’ communication also has positive effects on the immune system. Richard indicated that our communication is predominantly influenced by our habits, rather than by logical thinking or willpower. He added that in order to increase effective communication methods, he integrates in his work with people the principles from the following  three disciplines: mindfulness (learning to observe how your mind operates), neuro leadership (always keeping the desired effects within the brain in mind) and NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming (adapting your behavior to get the response that you want).

Richard also went into the differences in the brain structure between men and women, which accounts for the fact that men have much more difficulty in putting their emotions into words, as easily as women can.

By using a number of simple physical exercises, Richard made the attendees experience that we are inclined to act on what we see, rather than on what we hear. A further exercise made clear that our natural reaction to feeling being pushed is to push back. Richard explained that becoming an effective communicator, sometimes requires that we should calmly notice and deflect situations in which we are challenged, rather than react on primary instinct.

The Amsterdam board members surprised Rieke by arranging for champagne to be served to celebrate her taking office as co-Chair of the Federation board.

Bio of Richard Kwakernaak:
Richard graduated from the Naval Academy with a specialization in Human Resources Management and he founded the ICPT and Transformation (ICPT) after fourteen years in active service of the Royal Netherlands Navy. During that time Richard acquired a vast amount of experience of communication in male dominated environments which he now also on in his work with various national and international companies and a number of seminars that he teaches for the military, especially at NATO’s Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence.

In our training sessions, we regularly receive this type of question from participants: “Why is my Russian colleague always so negative? Is it something I did wrong?” asks Tom from London. Our answer is: “On the contrary Tom, your Russian colleague trusts you enough to share his concerns with you. Actually he is trying to be friends and bond with you.”

Bonding by complaining

In Western Russia, many Eastern European cultures and various cultures in Southern Europe and Latin America, people try to bond with others by complaining. Complaints about the boss or about tasks to be performed or simply about the food, places people ‘together’ in a common situation in which they can relate to each other - bonding with the suffering majority. These complaints are usually expressed with emotion. However, it is passive and is not followed by an action to change the situation that is complained about. An outsider will get the impression that something terrible has happened and that the complainer is deeply unhappy. This however is not the case. There are many reasons for such behavior depending on the context. Some of the underlying reasons may be uncertainty, risk avoidance, xenophobia, fatalism and the feeling of not being in charge as well as being unable to create or accept change.

Seeking appraisal by complaining

Another reason people complain is to seek appraisal. The complainer feels that they have to show and communicate how problematic life or a task is in order to be taken seriously by his boss, colleagues and others. In this case the complainer seeks admiration, respect and compliments for his skills and the effort put into the task.

The mirror

For those coming from a mindset where one bonds by communicating something positive like “isn’t this interesting” or “let us make this work” complaining is seen as negative. For these people, someone who frequently complains at work is seen as being inadequate for the job. Frequent complaining in a social setting is seen as whining and complainers are not taken seriously. In this case, ‘frequent’ means complaining several times a day. Complainers are seen as negative and dissatisfied people whom no one likes to work or socialize with. In case one does complain he is expected to take action to change the situation he complains about. When we look at the American corporate language, we see that the word ‘problem’ has a negative connotation. Therefore, Americans substituted the negative word ‘problem’ by the word ‘challenge’ which has a positive connotation. The word ‘problem’ implies a negative situation, while the word ‘challenge’ has a ‘yes we can change it’ positive type of energy and action in it.

Ideas for creating a positive attitude for everyone

If you have members in your multicultural team who complain to bond or seek appraisal and like to try to create a more positive attitude try the following;

• Explain how you experience complaining.

• Discuss the different interpretations of complaining in various cultures.

• Show how stimulating it can be to have a positive approach towards work.

• Try to provide insight into how complaining influences the energy of the team members from other cultures.

• Together make two lists. One of what is the benefit of complaining for each person present and one of what is the benefit of a positive approach for each person present (energy, pain, admiration) and which of those benefits serve the project or task best.

• Create together a code of communication.

• Make a list of desired behaviors during meetings or ground rules for the team or the office. Post them on the wall as an aid in guiding conversation towards positivity and constructive action oriented communication.

© Eleonore Breukel

www.intercultural.nl

Misunderstandings, irritations, feelings of exclusion and a sense of inferiority, are daily challenges for non-native English speakers trying to communicate in the language of global business. What exactly happens and how can global organizations help employees become more effective in this intercultural language and its various communication styles?

Vast amounts of skill, expertise and knowledge remains hidden in organizations because of language and cultural barriers. Native Spanish, German, Dutch, Turkish, Chinese or Bahasa Indonesia speakers all make a daily effort to understand, speak and write English. Native English speakers try to understand the many variants of non-native speakers.

Together we try to get used to each other’s accents and accept the language mistakes inevitably made. We try to figure out what a good translation would be for a particular expression and how the words are to be interpreted and valued in our own language. We get lost in translation.

On many occasions the native English speakers form the majority at international meetings. They patiently watch how non-native speakers demolish their native language and still praise them on their command of English. Are native English speakers aware of the difficulties non-native speakers face and how this affects their feelings and the dynamics of a discussion or debate?

International presentations and discussions

During presentations at business meetings non-native speakers usually take more time to make their point. Their presentations may not be smooth and exiting since they’re often searching for the right words to use. Words with impact, words that sell their new project to the management. Searching for words causes many ‘umm’s in the speaker’s presentation, which distracts the listener.

Non-native English speakers may have a lot of expertise on a particular subject but may decide not to take part in discussions on it, as their English vocabulary is too limited for a fast intellectual debate. Or they try to memorize the English words the native English speakers use during the discussion, to be able to reproduce those words when it is their turn to speak. In the meantime they loose track of the thread of the discussion or debate.

This has a psychological effect on the non-native as well as native English speakers present in the meeting room. The non-native English speaker often feels inferior and excluded, while the native English speaker wonders if he is capable enough for the job.

What can both native- and non-native English speakers do?

• Observe if people frown or squeeze their eyes. This is often body language for not understanding a speaker.

• Ask once, twice or even three times if you do not understand.

• Ask questions frequently in order to know if that what is discussed is also understood.

• Summarize often or ask others to summarize for you.

• Invite a non-native English speaker to participate in the discussion and reassure him that if the language is a problem you will help.

• Native English speakers avoid proverbs, expressions, metaphors, slang, jargon and abbreviations.

• Non-native English speaker avoid translating proverbs, metaphors or jokes from your own language into the English language.

The internet

On the internet there are no facial expressions, gestures, or other non-verbal cues, which makes communication even more complicated. During a serious written virtual discussion, the non-native English speaker will want to check his English for mistakes. After all he does not want to lose face in front of three – or maybe 30,000 – people who might read his text.

As with verbal discussion, the thinking process is delayed by the search for words and the attempt to memorize words used by previous writers. Consequently, native English speaking people tend to dominate on the internet in the same way they might in meeting rooms.

What can you do?

• If you are a non-native English speaker and you think you have something valuable to say, say it and try to explain and describe what you mean.

• Use translation resources such as translate google or freetranslation.com

It is far from perfect, but it helps.

• Both native and non-native English speakers ask questions if you do not understand.

Cultural interpretations

As if translations weren’t complicated enough, a single word can have different cultural interpretations. The word and concept ‘contract’ requires different actions in various cultures. In U.S. English it does not have the same substantive meaning as the same word in Guiana, also an English-speaking country. In Japanese, it carries a different meaning as well.

Likewise the word ‘assertiveness’ varies according to the cultural values of the respective countries. In the Netherlands this carries a very positive connotation, while the same concept in Vietnam is highly negative.

What can you do?

• Make sure that you have thoroughly discussed the cultural interpretation of words before you start any collaboration or sign a contract.

Communication styles

Even if English is the global language of business, cultures maintain their own style of communicating. This frequently causes serious misunderstandings and irritations especially as we have no insight into our own communication style and the affect this has on people with a different cultural background.

Some may be offended by the directness of a foreign colleague while others find indirectness a cause for suspicion. There are cultures where people need many words to express themselves, such as in Italy or in India, while in other cultures people limit themselves to the minimum number of words possible, such as the Danish or the Dutch.

What can you do?

• Observe discussion programs on foreign television stations and look at the verbal and non-verbal communication style. Don’t worry if you understand the language or not.

• Watch foreign movies. Pay attention to those produced and directed by the countries you work with. Movies make it possible to ‘participate’ in the culture while you watch. They inform you about how people live and communicate.

• For those who are naturally direct, consider what impact your words may have before you speak.

• For those needing many words to express themselves, try not deviate from the main subject and save details for later.

Best results

The best results are achieved when people from different cultural backgrounds – both native- and non-native English speakers – look for solutions together with the condition that everyone is understood and feels included.

© Eleonore Breukel

www.intercultural.nl

Our summer program was packed with fun out-of-door terraces and the ever popular St. Nik boat club canal trip. In September Paula O’Connell introduced us to strategies on how to make ourselves relevant in a recession and to develop a personal career plan. Together with the Rotterdam School of Management EPWN Amsterdam also organized the panel ‘Female entrepreneurs – the saviors of our economy!?’ during which successful female entrepreneurs including Eleonore Breukel shared their visions on their contributions to our economy. In October Michelle Brailsford, president of our EuropeanPWN chapter in London and founding partner of Jupiter Consulting Group, codified for us the rules of the political game in organizations and Andrea Martins, director and co-founder of ExpatWomen.com, shared with us inspirational stories of a variety of (hugely successful) expat women. Stephanie Ward ignited the Wisdom Wildfire during our annual Speed Networking session in November. During our December event ‘DSM: Passion for People, Commitment to Diversity’ we welcomed Jackie Cuthbert, Senior Vice President Global Recruitment and Learning and Xander Wessels, President DSM Food Specialties at Royal DSM N.V.

On January 11th we are going to kick off the New Year with a genuine highlight: Fons Trompenaars, one of the most influential management thinkers and true guru on culture and business, will share his views on ‘Riding the Whirlwind: Culture & Innovation’. Please register for the event as seats are limited.

We would like to thank all of you – also in the name of the entire board of EuropeanPWN Amsterdam – for your interest in our events, your active participation, your inspiration and support. We are looking forward to see you at many events in 2010; you are welcome to spread the word about our network amongst your colleagues and friends. If there is anything that you missed in our programming or if you would like to suggest speakers, topics or themes, please get in touch with one of us. The folks in The Hague will welcome you on January 5th for a new year’s borrel and the Amsterdam board welcomes you January 27th in Amsterdam.
Mentors/mentees, don’t forget to fill in your online “matching” applications as promised.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year and all the best in 2010!

On behalf of the board of EuropeanPWN Amsterdam,
Anna Farrenkopf & Katharina Pohl

Speed Networking with Stephanie Ward

When our organization in Amsterdam was originally founded in 1986 as “the Women’s International Network (W.I.N.)”, there were about two dozen (predominantly English speaking) members.  One third of the participants were “Dutch”, one third Americans and one third “other English Speakers”.  In anticipation of our 25^th anniversary in 2011 it has been interesting to look at the history of the organization locally and to look at membership trends and changes.

We are mobile

As recently as 2003 we had 94 members and subsequent to the formation of EuropeanPWN in 2005, we have grown in Amsterdam to slightly more than 300 members in the third quarter of 2009.  Of our present day membership of more than 300, only 20 were also members in 2003 (nearly half of them the faithful Canadians).  Amsterdam as an organization continues to grow and change as the population of Europe becomes more mobile and overseas assignments attract more women, not only as partners, but also as employees.

We speak your language

Our demographic has significantly changed since becoming a co-founder of EuropeanPWN in 2005.  We speak, in addition to English and Dutch, thirty six different languages.  Thirty five of those languages are spoken by two or more members in the organization.  The exception being Icelandic – we only have one member professing proficiency. In addition to the other principal European continental and Nordic languages our members speak Thai, Lao Malay, Swahili, Papiamento, Hindi, Gallego, Frisian, Welsh, Greek, Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic and Hebrew.  While we typically meet “in English”, you will often also encounter in the informal networking sessions, German, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese on a regular basis – and the Dutch language throughout the evening.  It is a friendly and encouraging environment to practice your mother tongue and also your third and fourth languages.  We have also officially organized an “Hispano Hablante” happy hour to set a good example for the language flexibility that can be experienced in Amsterdam.

We come from all over

Clara Ko, Katharina Pohl, Anna Farrenkopf and Rieke Smakman

The average age of the EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam participants is 40 years old.   We identify as citizens of more than 41 different countries.  The majority of us identify as “Dutch” born and/or Dutch citizens (more than 30%).  The second largest group of members, consisting of less than 10% of the total organization, are from the United States (8%, 24), followed by Great Britain (5%, 15), Germany (4%, 11), Canada (3%, 8), Spain (2%, 6), Australia (<1%, 5) and France (<1%, 4).

We continue to change

Three times more Dutch women belong to the organization compared to five years ago.  Dutch women are the largest and fasting growing segment of our membership. The largest growing membership population (from outside the Netherlands) come from Spain and Latin America (including Mexico, Colombia and Brazil) who were completely unaccounted for as recently as five years ago.  Surprisingly, new EU nations Poland and Romania are not represented in the increases in membership of our organization.  Somalia, Morocco and Turkey are under-represented considering the population of the Netherlands in general.  The number of Russians (and members from the former Russian Republics) has also not increased over the years in contrast to women from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany who have joined in larger proportions recently. The diversity of nations represented in the last six years has increased from about 12 to more than 41 different countries.  All and all we are becoming much more diverse.

We are industrious

We work in 38 sectors of industry.  The top three sectors represented in Amsterdam are Financial Services (6%), Education and Training (5%), Management Consultants (4.5%).  A three-way-tie for fourth place includes Information Technology (3.6%), Marketing /Public Relations(3.6%), and Business Management (3.6%) closely followed by Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals/Medical Devices (3%).  In contrast to six years ago when 30% of our members were “translators”, it would be very challenging to pull an “average” member from such a diverse population.  No single industry represents more than 6% of our total membership.  The largest group: Financial Services accounts for only 17 individual members, Business Management only 11 members and the category “Translator” no longer exists.

We actively participate

Amsterdam hosts typically three to four events per month.  The schedule has been one or two social drinks events (borrel), one workshop (or special interest group) and one main event with a well known speaker per month.  Recently we have experimented with venues, size of events, frequency of events and the sustainability of adding more to our programming.  In 2009, we have hosted social events in The Hague in addition to Utrecht and Amsterdam.  In 2008, we took a delegation to London to celebrate CWN’s 30^th Anniversary and a delegation to Paris during the summer holiday.

Half of our attendees come from large corporations and the remaining half are entrepreneurs or small business owners.  Our wildly popular “Speed Networking: Wildfire of Wisdom” event with Stephanie Ward continues to attract more than 40 participants and is particularly popular with our entrepreneurs and small business owners.

What’s in it for us?

The current Amsterdam Board, as well as its predecessors, have consistently prepared and presented well organized, high quality, exceptionally diverse and inspiring programs.  We are responsive to member requests and have skillfully worked together with participating members from corporations to develop programs that are interesting to their diverse participants.  For example, the IT sector represents less than 5% of the total membership, however, when members requested programming in the Web 2.0 portal environment, the workshop series sold out within two days (even when offered the Thursday before the Christmas holiday).  The flexibility to offer training programs “on demand” is unparalleled within a corporation and nearly impossible for small businesses.  EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam is a forum with a structure that can meet these interests and training opportunities.  Our collective connections in the business world allow us to attract internationally renowned speakers, such as Linda Cook, Peter Meyer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Julie Gilbert and Fons Trompenaars (register for his event on 11 January 2010 in Amsterdam). Our members also have an environment in which to try out programs, ideas, speakers and subjects that might be considered “too risky” in their business sector.  We offer them the opportunity to expand their individual reach beyond their department or management group and to access others from within and outside their industries.  Building on each success, our members return to work the next day inspired to lead change and open to approaching their daily work in new ways with tangible results.

Who puts the flex-in-our-ability?

In addition to countless volunteers and involved members who come to us reguarly with ideas for programs, venues, and speakers -

Katharina Pohl is our VP Programming & Corporate Member from MEXX

Caroline van Leuven is our VP Membership ad interim & Entrepreneur Indivisible

Lucia Lloyo is our Board Secretary & Lawyer for ETS Global

Tip Atkins is our Treasurer & Freelance Consultant

Camilla Björkqvist is our VP Student and Corporate Partners & Corporate Member from Deloitte

Clara Ko is our VP Online Communications & IT Architect at Royal Bank of Scotland

Rieke Smakman is our President and Attorney at Law at Oostwaard Advocaten.

Who keeps track of all this?

Anna Farrenkopf, VP Social Events, Borrel Coördinator, master of trivia and perspicacious conversationalist.  Since hosting the presidents’ meeting in 2006 we have welcomed delegates from all of the EuropeanPWN affiliates to Amsterdam.  Most visitors have come from Paris, London, Milan, and Barcelona. Do come visit.

This event was the second organised by the female members of the RSM OneMBA Class of 2010 and on this occasion in cooperation with the European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN) and the School itself, hosted on the RSM campus.

The event was focused on hearing from three successful female entrepreneurs’ regarding their vision on their contribution to the economy and the chance to discuss and learn from their experiences.

At the start of the event there was an opportunity for attendees to chat informally with one another, which was followed by presentations and a workshop by the entrepreneurs. The evening rounded off with drinks where there was a chance to build upon the insights given in the presentations and workshops.

The Associate Dean MBA Programmes at RSM, Dianne Bevelander, opened the event by sharing some interesting points regarding female entrepreneurs versus male entrepreneurs. For example “What do Peru and Japan have in common regarding this topic?” In fact, in 2007 in these two countries, women were more active in starting a business than men were; (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2007).

Eleonore Breukel was the first to share her experiences with the participants. She is Managing Director of Intercultural Communications BV, an intercultural training and coaching firm, and has been an entrepreneur for 25 years. During her first ten years working independently, she started her own company in the Netherlands Antilles. She illustrated that being an foreigner can present difficulties when starting one’s own business, but using skills and abilities such as focusing on the objectives, having an open mind, resilience and hard work, things can work out quite well and you can overcome the barriers you face. After returning to the Netherlands, she started a new business that has been operational for 15 years now. Again, her success has been built on her strong decision making skills and ability to make things happen. The audience welcomed her contributions about things such as “walk the talk” that made much more sense after listening to her experiences, and understanding that “doing the right thing is not always being right”.

Ursula Rozemeijer was the second to speak. She completed the Management Development Program at VNU (media company) and later became a successful e-business consultant with her own consultancy Emio as well as with the office Beam’it. For the past three years she has been the director and co-founder of TC-One, a company that supports business in the sales area. Her presentation was based on her experiences dealing with internal stakeholders and how the “ego”, or the way of doing things right, are not always the right thing to do. Her insights gave the participants some tips on how to approach their personal competences concerning the business they wish to start, and to focus the efforts on the right activities to leverage business. Being a strategic consultant herself, she enlightened the group as to how the questions that need to be asked and answered regarding a start up venture must also be applied to the entrepreneurs themselves.

Last, but not least, drs. Patty Kruiswijk shared her experiences with the group. She has a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and has been active as a coach and a consultant since 1986. Patty has shaped her business since that time and her insights provided the audience with some tools that they needed to be aware of, such as “confront your fears” and “don’t give up”. She has applied this advice to herself in order to become an entrepreneur and to stand out in the crowd.

After the inspiring session the attendees participated in a workshop facilitated by the panellists. They had the opportunity to briefly discuss further regarding the topic, and the session concluded with a Q&A.

The participants at the event came away with some great learnings; Shabnam from One MBA2010 said “it has been a wonderful experience”. Teresa, also from the OneMBA2010 Program, stated “I enjoyed the diversity of the panel. I learned some lessons and I think we can support each other”.

But the event was not only created for women. Male participants from the OneMBA Class of 2010, such as David, came away with tips at the business level and some insights gathered from the panellists, for instance “confront your fears”, showing that the way women share is different to men, and hearing about both sides gave attendees a wider scope of information on how to do business.

Personally, I learned that entrepreneurs are not only the people that start a new business from scratch , but also anybody that starts a project and cooperates with others in order to succeed. So maybe women really are the saviours of the economy!

Patricia Tello
Full time MBA Programme, Class of 2010