Speaker: Nicky Nargues

It starts with Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Vanessa Paradis, Marion Cotillard, and continues through the countless women you’ve seen in the streets of France.

How do these women master style? How do they combine effortless chic with their high sense of fashion? Trust us, it’s not that difficult. If 31 Million French women do it, so can you. That’s our promise to you.

French style is based on a number of rules and we will teach you everything you need to know about them in this 1h30 workshop. Bring your notebooks if you want, but remember, our lessons are fun!

In this workshop, you will learn how to:
- Find your style
- Know the clothes that fit you
- Mix and Match your clothes
- Accessorize
- Learn to watch others
- Shop smart
- Relax with your looks!

31 Million is a personal style consultancy that trains women on the ins and outs of French fashion whilst exposing them to the secrets of French style and nutrition. Our focus is to offer women in their 20’s to 50’s French style and nutrition lessons, organize for personal wardrobe consultations, arrange exclusive and fun Paris shopping trips, as well as provide a rental platform where women can gain access to French-styled clothing and accessories for any occasion.

31 Million started as a fun venture in Amsterdam, where Franco-Iranian Nicky Adle was missing the action of Paris shopping and decided to spread the word that French women don’t have more taste than others but simply dress and eat according to implicit rules that together constitute the French Touch. Raised in Paris, Nicky has been living in and out of France for the past 15 years, has never (ever!) shopped outside her hometown, or given up on her French eating habits. Like most Parisians, she knows the capital’s shops, current styles and future trends.

On weekdays Nicky is an INSEAD MBA graduate and internet entrepreneur, currently launching wondersale.nl, a promotions and discounts webshop that activates on key calendar dates such as Sinterklaas, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

Website: www.31million.net
Weblog: http://31million.blogspot.com/
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/31-Million-The-French-Touch/279785544491

Enjoy the class!

**SEATING IS LIMITED**
Be sure to register by clicking the register “as a guest” or “as a member” link above this post.
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.

Organizer: Jacinta Noonan

Organizer: Ariëlle Brouwer

The smell of Spring is in the Air which sounds like a great excuse for a dinner and that is exactly what we are arranging for our May event.
On Wednesday May 19 we could like to invite you to the 2010 Spring Dinner which will be an evening of good food and great conversation.

In the recent survey you asked for more opportunities to get to know each other better. You asked, we listened and therefore, instead of having a guest speaker this month, Ariëlle Brouwer, www.brouwertheater.nl has kindly offered to be the facilitator for the evening together with Jacinta Noonan. They have a number of fun activities up their sleeves designed to get us up and moving about, meeting people in innovative and creative ways. The aim of the evening is to get to know each other at a deeper level and to engage in conversations that we are truly passionate about.

In the ambience of a beautiful restaurant, while enjoying a delicious meal accompanied by just the right wine, you will enjoy an enriching evening among friends; some you know and some who are just waiting to make your acquaintance.
Sign up now!

LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE for this event, to be allocated on first come, first serve basis. If you have registered and need to cancel, please advise us in a timely fashion so we are not left with empty seats. Please be advised that we cannot offer a refund if you need to cancel.

Date: Wednesday 19 May
Time: 19:00 Registration and Welcome Drink
Venue: Brasserie Harkema
Dress Code: Business Casual
The price of the dinner is 50 euros per person.

Ariëlle Brouwer is a pioneer, an initiator and a specialist in creativity. She originally comes from the world of theater and now brings her unique skills and talents into the field of training and coaching. Using special techniques from theatre, Ariëlle creates interesting workshops to enable people to explore openness, communication and authentic self-expression at a deeper level.
www.brouwertheater.nl and www.globalworkersexperience.com



Jacinta Noonan With a passion for helping people to achieve their true potential, Jacinta Noonan’s long and successful career as a coach and trainer is more a divine calling than a job choice.

She is the founder and Director of three companies. Each has a different focus and specialty, but her passion and devotion to transform people is at the heart of each one.

For Corporate Training and Coaching: Branch Out ; For Personal Coaching & Women in Transition: Soulworks – ; For Improved Body Image & Weight Loss: Big on the Inside

Organizer: Anna Farrenkopf

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

From Left to Right: Patty Kruiswijk, Manuela Roth (RSM ‘10), Dianne Bevelander, Camilla Bjorkqvist (RSM ‘10), Eleonore Breukel, Saskia Trurniet, and Ursula van Rozemeijer.

Women comprise about 30% of the students in the OneMBA and the percentage of women faculty is even less. While there are complex factors that might explain this, members of the 2010 and 2011 classes have decided to put women on the agenda.

The effort lead in large part by Camilla Björkqvist and Manuela Roth has focused on securing eminent business women to speak at OneMBA residencies. By connecting with women across the OneMBA community as well as the European Professional Women’s Network( EPWN), the kick-off on during the Spring 2009 RSM Residency featured Mirella Visser, Owner of the Center for Inclusive Leadership and the EuropeanPWN President. This conversation was continued when the class went to Istanbul and met with local women business leaders.

In September 2009 another panel took place with a group of Dutch women executives on the topics of “Women – the saviors of our economy?” With several courageous men participating in the audience, there was a lively and honest discussion.

At the EGADE Residency in November 2009, a Cemex executive, Irma Gomez shared her perspective on women, employment, and the economy in Mexico.

Events are in the works for Hong Kong and the the U.S. All alumni are invited to attend a session at the RSM Residency on April 8 2010 with Carien van der Laan, co-owner of Women Capital, and executive search firm specialized in women and placing them on top level positions. Van der Laan will address what to do with once you get an MBA and the value that women add in the executive ranks.

Some interesting statistics from the United States are worth sharing. According to the report The Economic Impact of Women-Owned Businesses in the United States by the American Center for Women’s Business Research and funded by the National Women’s Business Council and Wal-Mart, women-owned businesses contribute nearly $3 trillion to the U.S. economy and create or maintain 23 million jobs. If women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have the 5th largest GDP in the world, ahead of countries including France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Anecdotally, many women say that they start their own business because they want to balance work and family and that they cannot break into the traditional male-dominated positions—or do not want to.

Members of the 2011 class are taking leadership to continue the discussion of the women in the OneMBA. Anyone in the OneMBA community can join the events organized by Women@OneMBA, men included. If you would like to know more about this initiative, please contact Manuela Roth or Camilla Bjorkqvist in the OneMBA2010 class.

For more news about the one MBA programs and to see the full newsletter click through to the one MBA website.

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

Speaker: Jackie Cuthbert

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.

• Zapkliklees: De honderd vrouwen met meeste invloed
• De 100 Machtigste Vrouwen van Nederland

In an interview with the Volkskrant, KPN CEO Ad Scheepbouwer notes the number of women among its top management currently accounts for just 17 percent. The figure, he says, is too low and needs to be raised. As prior attempts to do so have produced little improvement, the company has decided that from now on only women will be considered for certain posts. The company still needs to determine the exact number and nature of the functions. KPN is thought to be the first large company to start an affirmative action policy for women. On Monday Parliament is to discuss a proposal by the Labour Party aimed at boosting the number of women in top management to 30 percent.

Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

• FT top 50 women in world business

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