Thank you for attending the POWER: Opening Doors for Women® 3rd annual London programme. We want to thank our presenting sponsor, Baker McKenzie, for their continued support as lead sponsor of our programme. We also want to recognize our other partners: Lear, AT&T, Lloyd’s Corporation, XL Catlin, Reed Smith, and Grange Hotels; The official POWER Hotel. To our speakers, thank you for your wisdom and candor! The evaluation and verbal feedback has been positive! TAKEAWAYS Economic Roundtable: Brexit and the World Economy Keynote Speaker: Martin Wolf CBE • It will be impossible to replace what is lost with Brexit. No trade deal in the world is as comprehensive as the EU single market, created by Margaret Thatcher and deliberately designed to benefit the UK. • Formally, the UK will leave the EU in two years. Economically, it will take longer. London will remain the financial centre in Europe for the indefinite future. • The best outcome would be an agreed transition plan and a clear view on the final deal. • The likely outcome will be that the UK becomes ground zero for trade policy and confronts an administrative and policy mess. The UK will likely negotiate the same trade deal with the EU as it has with the U.S. Click to view Martin Wolf's presentation on Brexit and the World Economy The Volatility Factor: Career Strategies for Unprecedented Times Keynote Speaker: Brenda Trenowden CFA It is important to know what resilience is, but also what it is not. Many confuse resilience with being tenacious and tough. In fact, it is not about the capacity to go flat out. It is about having the capacity to maintain a positive mindset, bounce back, improvise, reframe situations, and adapt. You don’t really know how resilient you are until you have faced real adversity. Meanwhile, you can create beneficial conditions that will make you more resilient regardless of the circumstances: • Nurture a support network before you need it. • Maintain good physical and mental health. • Have a firm sense of purpose, it helps with perspective and goal setting. • Develop a positive “glass half-full” mindset. The 30% Club’s campaign for gender balance on FTSE-100 boards continues. The numbers have changed since inception in 2010, currently standing at 27% up from 12.5%. The emphasis is now changing a little: • Not only do we need to continue the push to get more women on boards, we also need to improve the pipeline by having more women at all levels throughout organisations. • The discussion is shifting from why to how. The business case has been well articulated and is better understood. We now need to have the belief that we can influence the outcome. • With a growth mind-set, we can lead and be the change we want to see. The panel challenged us to consider the option of consciously choosing volatility when life demands. It may seem counterintuitive but, making an active choice, however difficult, presents the opportunity to take control. It can be an opportunity to be one's authentic self and to move toward a more satisfying and fulfilling life. Participant Engagement Session In Discussion: Perspectives on Career Resilience. Click the link below to view the exercise. Resilience Exercise Diversity & Inclusion: What Has Worked & The Challenges Ahead Lloyd’s Corporation and AT&T Pauline Miller reminded us that D&I efforts are about change management – “it is not about the fluffy stuff”. Awareness programmes alone (e.g. Unconscious Bias training) do not make change happen. She offered five practical steps to inclusion: 1. Executive Sponsorship and Support: Demonstrable and clear commitment from the top. 2. Frameworks for Action: Clarity of the case, values, behaviour, and the goal for success. 3. Awareness and Learning: Embedded at key touch points throughout the organisation remembering that one size does not fit all. 4. Employee Resource Groups: Done well, they can be a great source of organisational insights. 5. Measurement and Evaluation: What gets measured, gets done. It is a means of tracking success and progress. Click to View Presentation Julie Fowler and Bianca Hammen provided an overview of the AT&T D&I story which is very much about leadership from the top and stakeholder engagement, including: • Employees • Communities • Suppliers • Customers Click to View Presentation D&I at AT&T is very much about bringing the best and the brightest to the development of innovative products and solutions. Employee Resource Groups play a significant role in this as “grass-roots” organisations including the AT&T EMEA Women’s Network. The View from the C-Suite Traversing a range of topics from how to develop resilience in the workforce, supply chain and operations, to mentorship, sponsorship and top C-suite trends, some highlights of this fireside chat were: Brian Kirwan • Mentoring is not like holding a therapy session. Mentees need to have goals and I want to see them achieve results. It’s about delivering effective change. • Where there is inevitable volatility e.g. with Brexit, it is incumbent on us to look for the opportunities and to decide how to approach the risks. The question is how do we best serve our customers? Whatever the regulatory environment is, we need to know how we will adjust. • The insurance sector is set for more disruption through the use of technology. The speed at which the change is occurring is a great opportunity for those who know their tech! Michael Cole-Fontayn • Whenever there is massive economic and societal change, those with a growth mindset will seize the opportunity. • Given that nobody knows the answers right now, Brexit offers a tremendous opportunity for those who are bold enough to get involved and prepare for the change. At the same time, clients want to know that they will have options, stability, and continuity of service. • When considering the value of sponsorship, remember that during your career, you may need different support, at different times, from different sponsors who can offer different things. This means you need to appoint a variety of people to your personal boardroom. We look forward to seeing you next year in London! Sincerely, Deirdre Joy Smith, Founder & CEO, POWER: Opening Doors for Women® and the entire POWER team If you do not want to receive future emails from {[P-FIRST NAME]} {[P-LAST NAME]}, go to: {[EMAIL OPT OUT]}.