, The Davos gender quota for their 100 strategic partners generated tremendous global buzz around the state of women in business and leadership today.

Please join us at Rotterdam School of Management for an
upcoming seminar to give you an opportunity to see leadership from a unique perspective, help you see things that other people don’t see, and challenge the stereotypes that many have about leadership today.

Good or bad leadership can depend on one’s personal perspective; however, examples of leadership that have endured and prospered are the one’s most sought after. To achieve the same we are wise to study what those forms of leaderships were all about. To delve into the principles of natural and effective leadership we must first seek out where effective leadership manifests itself naturally.

What many do not know is that precisely this – highly effective and natural leadership – also exist outside the human world. Many species have, like humans, their own culture and specific society in which leadership plays an important role in the quest for survival.

For millions of years, one of the most successful and flourishing societies of all has been that of the equine society. By studying this utterly pure and very effective way of Equine leadership we can easily grasp the basics and applies what fits to our own. In this seminar we will compare and contrast human leadership with the basics principles derived from the study of equine behavior.

In this seminar about leadership you are offered the opportunity:

- to develop your leadership insights
- to see a bigger picture in a new persepective
- to understand key elements of “natural” leadership
- to look at great leaders in a new context

and to explore a unique perspective of leadership.

The seminar will offer you the opportunity to analyse and understand those who fall under your responsibility and peel away the surface of every day insufficiency. The basics which are unfolded in this seminar have become the foundation of many successful leaders, who in turn have enlightened and enabled their followers.

“Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Program

19.00 hrs. Registration
19.15 hrs. Seminar
20.00 hrs. Coffee break
20.15 hrs. Seminar
21.00 hrs. Reception

Our Speaker: Josepha Guillaume

Josepha fills her days with teaching clinics both national and international, writing for several Equine magazines, teaching courses at Horse Academy from Biomentor in The Netherlands, designing her own Tack line for Equihof as well as managing her own Bitless Tack Shop. She is also a founder of Art of Natural Dressage – an international forum with a unique philosophy and way of training in which the horse becomes the educational Master. Josepha is known for keeping the audience hooked, entertained and leaving with food for thought years to come. More about Josepha can be found on her website Taonara

Seminar Location:

This session takes place in JB-41, on the ground floor of RSM’s J-building. Parking is available at P1, right in front of the J-building, parking tickets can be paid at the machines in the car park.

Registration
Please send an email to Irene Broekmans-Versluijs at iversluijs@rsm.nl or Lidia Sholkova to lsholkova@mba11.rsm.nl. Registration closes Friday 24 September.

14 April 2010 – 18:00 – 6 pm.

Welcome MBA011

Anna together with the RSM and OneMBA programs will host the borrel beginning 18:00 in Rotterdam. All interested parties are welcome to join in us at Coopvaert.  The restaurant is located at Blaak 776 and can be easily reached by Tram 21, metro Beurs,  bus 32 & 48, Water taxi (Leuvehaven) and foot from central station if you’re feeling atheletic or missed your work out at lunch.

The federation board has met in Paris over the weekend and I’m sure everyone wants to hear about the opportunities and looking forward to staffing up the new initiatives.  We’ll be on hand to tell you more about it. Late arrivals always welcomed just jot me an email or an sms so I know to find you.

Cheers,

Anna

Hollis Kurman: Growth Strategy and Innovation Advisor

One of the ironies of leadership – whether it be for companies, brands, or individual managers – is that once we get to a certain level of success, we tend to spend more time and energy protecting what we’ve achieved rather than actually leading. At best, this means that we risk losing our edge and sliding into a conservative comfort zone. At worst, we also leave a gaping hole in the market for challengers to come in and shake things up for us.

As the bar for creating truly differentiating and sustainable innovation gets higher and higher, we need to challenge and re-shape the rules, sharpen our ‘inquisitiveness’ muscle, and make fresh connections that others don’t make or don’t know how to use. Perhaps most importantly, we do need to be ‘always on’. Not in the Facebook/Twitter/Skype sense of the word – but simply to be able to recognize, capture and leverage the inspiration that is quite literally all around us, at all times. Women, especially, should be masters of this refreshing version of the blurred boundaries between ‘professional life’ and ‘personal life’ – and use it to their advantage.

Our guest speaker, Hollis Kurman, is an independent growth strategy and innovation advisor (as well as an aspiring writer of poetry and children’s stories…) and is currently:

• Advising clients (multinational leaders, challengers, not-for-profits, cultural institutions)
• Serving in a number of advisory- and innovation boards (commercial & academic)
• Member of the Dutch committee of Human Rights Watch
• Expert ‘outside advisor to the Firm’ McKinsey & Co.
• A frequent Workshop- and Co-Creation session- leader, speaker, university guest lecturer

Prior roles include Founder and Managing Director of Auberon, Growth Strategy Consultants; Founder and Managing Director Publicis Consultants (and in parallel Worldwide Account Director Unilever, and SVP Publicis Groupe); SVP Senior Account Director and Multinational Business Development, BBDO Worldwide; and Consultant/Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in NY, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels. Hollis is originally from New York but has spent most of her adult life living in Europe.

Join us on March 29th as Hollis shares some new perspectives as well as some practical tips and tricks for honing your innovation skills and creativity.

Participants are welcome to network from 19:00 to 20:00.

The program begins at 20:00.

Pre-registration is advised.

Registration and Guest Policy: Registration is required for members (no charge) and guests (guests are welcome at a cost of 25 Euro which includes snacks and drinks). Guests are allowed to attend two EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam functions per year. Please contact Caroline van Leuven, our VP Membership.

We had a fabulous discussion with our members new and senior at the Library in January. We’d like to broaden the discussion and present some of our new and on going collaborations with our members.

Please join the EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam board at the Renaissance Hotel for discussions about opportunities here and abroad in collaboration with some of our other European Professional Womens Neworks.

Guests are of course always welcome to the borrel, conversation will be tailored to our “club” business. There will be no guest speaker at this event. Rieke Smakman will be facilitating our discussion.

Twenty-one of our members gathered at the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam on 27 January 2010 for New Year’s drinks, followed by an Open Board Meeting of the EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam Board.

Anna Farrenkopf opened the meeting and talked about the history of the network since it was incorporated in 1986, how we got involved in the Federation 5 years ago and the accomplishments of our network builders. This set the stage for an invigorating discussion on our City Network’s ambitions for the future, and our desire to continue to play a lead role in the Federation’s future successes.

The Amsterdam Board members shared their stories on what motivates them and their passion for the network. Their enthusiasm triggered interest with the attendees to collaborate and develop leadership skills by getting involved in exciting projects and opportunities that are unfolding within the Amsterdam City Network organization and on cross-network level.

Richard Kwakernaak, founder Institute for Communication Psychology and Transformation (ICPT);

Thursday, February 4^th, 2010

Location: Amsterdam Renaissance Hotel

Why is it sometimes a challenge to enjoy working together with others, men in particular, while it seems so easy at many other occasions? What role do emotions play? How do we recognize each other’s and our own emotions? And how do we consciously as well as unconsciously focus our attention, depending on how we feel?

During this interactive event Richard Kwakernaak will guide us to reveal our inner resources to communicate and cooperate as effectively as possible, even under difficult circumstances.

Richard graduated from Naval Academy with a specialization in Human Resources Management and founded the Institute for Communication Psychology 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 passes 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.

Discover how to benefit from the latest insights in social neurosciences, practically applied in the fields of Mindfulness, NeuroLeadership and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Learn what all people have in common and yet how different individuals interpret experiences, including specific characteristics of male and female information processing.

Afterwards you will have a thorough understanding why men sometimes act in a neglecting way, how emotions arise and impact your communication. During entertaining exercises you will practice how to maintain focus in order to communicate how and what you want.

Participants are welcome to network from 19:00 to 20:00. The program begins at 20:00.

Registration and Guest Policy: Registration is required for members (no charge) and guests (guests are welcome at a cost of 25 Euro which includes snacks and drinks). Guests are allowed to attend two EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam functions per year. Please contact Caroline van Leuven, our VP Membership.

Download the poster

A recent survey of global CEO’s found that leaders in every industry and in every part of the world are emerging from a period of retrenchment and moving towards a vision of sustained growth, and that innovation is the preferred path to achieving that growth. Innovation has regained its central place in corporate life.

Dr. Fons Trompenaars will show how a winning team is made up of individuals who can demonstrate different strengths and, in fact, if a team does not embrace these different strengths, then it will not have the important dynamic to move forward and to innovate. For twenty years Fons Trompenaars has been interviewing leaders around the world, conducting seminars and advising their companies. His conclusions demonstrate how successful leaders have developed cross-cultural competences, the ability to ride what he calls “the waves of culture” and to reconcile the dilemmas involved.

Fons Trompenaars will show how to make culture work for your business. Listed regularly as one of the world’s most influential management thinkers, Trompenaars is recognized internationally for his work as consultant, trainer, motivational speaker and author of bestsellers on culture and business. Captivating and thought-provoking in his presentation style and backed by rigorous research, Trompenaars has contributed many breakthrough ideas on the deeper understanding and reconciliation of inter and intra-cultural diversity, creativity and innovation. Participants will learn how to deal with cross-cultural challenges and dilemmas as well as how to embrace an evolving innovation culture. Leaders must adopt new approaches to make them, their teams and their business more sustainable in these ‘whirlwind’ times.

Fons Trompenaars is author of the seminal book ‘Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business’. His latest bestseller ‘Riding the Whirlwind’, is a blueprint for developing a supportive culture that reinforces creativity and innovation for long term sustainability.

Participants are welcome to network from 19:00 to 20:00. The program begins at 20:00.

Registration and Guest Policy: Registration is required for members (no charge) and guests (guests are welcome at a cost of 45 Euro or ladies can become a member for a little extra). Snacks and drinks included. Guests are allowed to attend two EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam functions per year.

Jackie Cuthbert: Senior Vice President Global Recruitment & Learning

December 7^th 2009, Renaissance Hotel, Kattegat 1, Amsterdam

DSM: Passion for People, Commitment to Diversity

Jackie Cuthbert: Senior Vice President Global Recruitment & Learning

Jackie Cuthbert is the Senior Vice President Global Recruitment & Learning at Royal DSM N.V. She started her career in her homeland UK where she held various senior HR positions in Retail, Merchant Banking and the ICT industry (Sainsbury’s, Credit Suisse and Unisys). Having worked amongst others in the US and Germany, Jackie moved to the Netherlands when she joined DSM in 2002.

Jackie’s career focus has primarily been on establishing best practice performance management programs to develop and retain highly skilled resources within international businesses. Her current responsibilities also include Diversity and Change Management in DSM.

Royal DSM N.V., a € 9.3 billion company, creates innovative products and services in Life and Material Sciences. End markets include human and animal nutrition and health, personal care, pharmaceuticals, automotive, coatings and paint, electrical and electronics, life protection and housing. The company is headquartered in the Netherlands and employs about 23.500 people worldwide.

At DSM the Passion for People strategy has been a major driver in strengthening the diversity of the leadership team, not only in terms of gender and nationality but also in terms of leadership styles. A key element of Passion for People is to support employees in dealing with the challenges of a changing company in a fast-moving global marketplace. The intensified efforts with regard to diversity pay off: the number of non-Dutch and female professionals entering DSM continues to grow and we will hopefully see many women crossing the board border.

Jackie Cuthbert will talk about the Diversity at DSM and her view on the critical success criteria. In addition, her colleague Xander Wessels, President DSM Food Specialties, will share his experiences from a business perspective. Following their presentations, Dana Krueger from Russell Reynolds Associates will facilitate an interactive discussion.

Registration and Guest Policy

Registration is required for members (free including dinner and drinks) and guests (guests are welcome at a cost of 25 Euro which includes dinner and drinks). Guests are allowed to attend two EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam functions per year.
Please contact Caroline van Leuven, our VP Membership.

Executives have markedly changed their leadership styles in the past year—but not their views on which ones will help companies most in the long term. Many of the most needed leadership styles, now and in the future, are those used more frequently by women than by men.

Read more from McKinseyQuarterly.com:

• Leadership through the crisis and after: McKinsey Global Survey results