New frontiers & entitlement
Edition 57
Schönen Sonntag,
My two cents, if you want them!
Why is it that most successful female entrepreneurs gloss over the hardest part of building a business? Getting the initial seed money to fund the idea. It’s tough. Let’s be honest about it. It’s even tougher if you don’t come from wealth, or have the right connections, or lack the kind of friends and family that can risk an investment in you.
I won’t even bother to depress you with the statistics of funding for women led startups in Europe. If you didn’t already know, all I’ll say is - If you’re a woman, fat chance you’re going get (at least VC) funding.
Even in the U.S. where the bull horn of female empowerment makes for loud and fabulous PR pitches and buzzword laden celebrity interviews, funding for companies founded solely by women has fallen 2 years in a row. If you can spin VC investments in women of just 2.1% of the total capital invested, into a female empowerment story - Let’s just say, I’ll wager putting lipstick on a pig (a live one!)
At a wealth management organisation’s women’s get-together this week I wasn’t surprised to hear from some familiar and successful names talk about their journey’s challenges, their approach, their focus. It was all the good stuff women in the room could learn from - branding, company values, people skills etc. It was also a great compilation of all the self-branding buzzwords to describe a successful journey. One even went so far as to say her naivety in business helped her negotiate an amazing private equity deal (cue my eye-roll). But with the exception of one speaker, none of them acknowledged that their initial leg-up came easier because of the privilege of who they already were.
Ladies let’s do each other a favour and let’s check our perception game into the cloakroom when we get together as women. Let’s be brutally honest about the start, middle and even the end of our journeys. Let’s acknowledge the advantages/disadvantages we had and offer beefy guidance on how others can potentially traverse an obstacle-ridden path. Let’s give real tips on raising money, climbing the corporate ladder or addressing challenges. Let’s talk about the landmines we avoided, or even blew up and the lessons to be learnt.
Most importantly if an idea or person resonates, let’s open our black books to make valuable introductions for the women who may not know the gatekeepers of fat wallets or job opportunities. That is what’s truly valuable to the 25-year-old who patents a new kind of shoe, the 40 year old brave enough to start her own law firm, or the accomplished 55 year old who deserves to be on the leaderboard.
Business of governing
Africa: the energy frontier
As Europe looks to diversify its energy needs away from Russia, it is suddenly waking up to the market that it has ignored for a long time. Africa. Tanzania’s stalled $30 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project looks like it’s about to come alive. And it is about time, considering the country has an estimated 57 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. Other countries like Mozambique have also seen increased Western interest in their energy projects.
According to Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan she’s revived the project at a time the world needs this African resource. She says investments in Tanzania’s LNG project are projected to rise by $10 billion. Per the President -the second phase of negotiations with a group of companies led by Equinor ASA and Shell Plc for building the long-delayed LNG terminal are expected to conclude by June. She’s even open to higher production, which would suck the LNG out quicker than planned, reducing the project’s lifetime from the initial estimate of 30 years. President Samia’s logic:
“We are not against the higher production because we know the market is there.” - Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan
April Fool’s Day Summit
Politico branded the EU-China Summit as the April Fool’s Day Summit. Why not, the Summit’s date fit, as did Ursula von der Leyen trying to drive home the point that somehow EU-China relations are stronger than that of China’s with Russia.
While tensions have ratcheted up between China and Europe in the past few years, the central theme of the Summit was Ukraine (and Covid). Ursula decided to focus on the one carrot she has for the Chinese, to stand with the West on Russian sanctions. That carrot is trade.
"We made very clear China should not interfere with our sanctions." - Ursula von der Leyen, President, European Commission
EU-China trade’s worth €2 billion Vs. Russia-China trade which is around the €330 million mark. Swinging that little carrot, she called for China to stand firm on respect for international law, Ukraine’s sovereignty reminding China. The stick? According to Ursula, that is China’s reputation — which is now at stake as a UN Security Council member.
Whether the Chinese think the EU is worth listening to, is a whole different ball game:
China “opposes division of blocs and taking sides,” and China is pushing for peace in “its own way.” Li Keqiang, premier of China's state council (per German press agency DPA & State broadcaster CCTV)
Military might
Ukraine’s invasion has put a fire under Germany, which is now headed towards having its biggest army since World War 2. And the build up to that goal is going to be quicker than anyone thought. Germany’s Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht says the German military is going to hasten that build up by bringing a division to combat-readiness two years ahead of schedule.
This is a big deal because Germany currently does not have a single combat-ready army division. During the Cold War and into the 1980s, it had 12 divisions. The country is reportedly also looking to beef up its defence by buying Israeli/U.S. missile defence systems.
"We will have the planned division of the army combat-ready in 2025, two years ahead of time." - Christine Lambrecht, German Defence Minister
Business of business
Fast fashion’s slow problem
Fast fashion is headed into choppy waters in Europe. As are furniture and smart phone manufacturers. New eco-design rules are being proposed by the EU, targeting products at every stage — including design, repair and recycling. A crackdown on misleading consumers with false environmental claims/greenwashing is not far behind either.
For fast fashion specifically, the European Commission is proposing a mandatory minimum use of recycled fibres by 2030 and a ban on the destruction of unsold products. The rules also seek to contain the release of microplastics and improve global labour conditions in the garment industry. But do expect some watering down of the Commission’s proposal as it winds its way through the European Council and Parliament to becoming law. National lobbies and their negotiations in these institutions tend to blunt the teeth of most European Commission proposals.
Flying high
The global airline industry can count the number of its female CEOs on its fingers. But this week it wasn’t just one, but 2 powerhouses who got added to this elite club — in Turkey and the Netherlands.
Güliz Öztürk has become Pegasus Airlines’ new CEO. She is not just the airline’s first female CEO but also the first female CEO to lead an airline in the history of Turkish civil aviation.
Dutch railway boss Marjan Rintel has been appointed CEO of KLM. She replaces Pieter Elbers who is leaving the company earlier than expected. Marjan has been the boss of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (the national railway) since 2014. She joins KLM on July 1st, 2022.
Commodities market watchdogs
Hallelujah! The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the U.S. is finally at full strength with 4 women taking their seats on the 5-seat bipartisan commission. A unanimous and historic U.S. Senate vote (3 of the 4 are women of colour), saw the confirmation of President Joe Biden's nominations of Kristin Johnson and Christy Goldsmith Romero to Democratic seats and Summer Kristine Mersinger and Caroline Pham to the Republican seats.
The CFTC is officially back to full strength at a critical time. The agency polices the commodities markets which have been volatile in the past weeks to say the least (Russia-Ukraine being the central cause). It also harbours ambitions to monitor the cryptocurrency markets going forward (since it already monitors some crypto products).
Money gal
Michele Bullock has become the first woman appointed to the position of Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia and is now also a member of the country’s Reserve Bank Board.
Chipping in
Pauline van der Meer Mohr has been appointed Chairperson of the supervisory board of semiconductor company ASM International. She becomes the first woman to ever chair the supervisory board of a Dutch listed company. ASM is listed on Euronext Amsterdam).
Caught my eye
Being too nice sucks
Being too nice or “too benevolent is a persistent root cause of the excruciatingly slow advancement of gender equity in Japan.” That’s a pretty strong statement which caught my eye in this Nikkei Asia opinion piece. From evaluating hands-on mothering, to accentuated gender roles — the struggle to clear the emotional hurdle of over-compliance and move the needle on gender equity in the Japanese workplace is real.
War on women
Ukraine
A Ukrainian MP is accusing Russia of war crimes, revealing accusations of Russian soldiers raping and sexually assaulting women. Maria Mezentseva, the head of Ukraine’s delegation to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe says a record needs to be maintained of these crimes, in order to seek justice. She cited one example to highlight the need for war-time crime records: the horrific story of a young mother in Brovary, an eastern suburb of Kyiv, who was raped in front of her child, with her husband shot dead in front of her.
Afghanistan
Last week the Taliban sent girls headed to school, home. You’d think that their argument for depriving girls of an education would fall flat if other conservative Muslim countries said - that isn’t an Islamic rule! Well, you’d guess wrong. In addition to banning education the hardliners have also ordered airlines to stop women flying unless they are accompanied by a male relative.
In response to these actions and as concern mounts internationally over human rights, but especially the rights of women — This week Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Qatar's Deputy Foreign Minister Lolwah Al Khater met the Taliban's acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to talk about precisely that. What the end result of that chat was — no one really knows. But you’d hope hardliners in the Taliban realise, support for them from other economically stronger Muslim nations is going to be contingent on changing their ways.
#Slapgate
I was quite disappointed this week on how long we as a society, and the media outlets feeding our celebrity voyeurism have stayed focussed on the Will Smith-Chris Rock #Slapgate moment.
From the actual Oscar slap, the non-stop headline coverage of Jada Pinkett Smith’s cryptic Instagram response post, the two men’s reactions and banal apologies, to statements of brothers, mothers, wives and an ineffectual Academy board response and resignations from it.
The non-stop headlines were topped off with supposedly deep analysis of “toxic masculinity,” racial aspects of #Slapgate, women needing/not needing men to “protect” them - you get the picture!
You would think going by all the hullabaloo, the entitled behaviour on a glitzy Oscar stage, where the same celebrities left for glamorous after-parties with $140,000 gift bags in tow was somehow reflective of the biggest issues society is facing at large in 2022.