The Women's IP World Annual 2019/2020

– Women apply for fewer and smaller small
business loans, but when they do receive
loans, it’s at a higher annual percentage rate
(the actual yearly cost of funds over the term
of a loan.)
– Women-owned businesses account for
only 4 percent of the U.S’ business revenue,
and women entrepreneurs employ fewer
workers - about 8 percent of all workers.
Are women focusing on small businesses
that don’t need outside investment because
they know their chances of receiving funding
are so low? Almost two-thirds of women selffund
their businesses or bootstrap. Are they
hamstrung by a lack of working capital, or are
they taking other paths to success? Seventyone
percent of women business owners said
their business was profitable according to
Guidant Financial and LendingClub’s 2019
Small Business Trends report.
Outside financing can make the difference
when it comes to the survival of your startup
or small company. Twenty percent of small
businesses fail in the first year, and half fail
before five years – why pile on the challenges
when you might be able to focus your energies
on starting and growing a business that
doesn’t need funding or investment?
More and more data are surfacing that points
to the existence of diverse teams as a way to
speed success, to solve problems faster, and to
produce fresh innovation. (Note that diversity
is not just gender-oriented but involves race,
economic strata, sexual-orientation, and
more.) Two heads are better than one when
it comes to innovation. Why? Moreover, why
women in particular?
When we talk about innovation, we’re often
talking about new products and processes.
When conceiving and designing these, it’s
always helpful to test theories and prototypes
on your target market. In addition to products
designed specifically for women, are we ready
to write off the opinions of half the potential
market? Making sure women are represented
on your team helps you design with them in
mind. Having women on your team speeds
the overall process.
Also, it’s not just the teams; it’s the team
leaders. Have you ever wanted to offer up a
new idea or concept and rejected the thought
yourself before you shared it with others?
Maybe you didn’t share your idea because
you were fearful of rejection, scarred by
repeated and persistent rejection? According
to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Melinda Marshall and
Laura Sherbin, writing in the 2013 article “How
Diversity Can Drive Innovation” in the Harvard
Business Review, “Without diverse leadership,
women are 20 percent less likely than straight
white men to win endorsement for their ideas;
people of colour are 24 percent less likely;
LGBTs are 21 percent less likely.”
Head spinning yet?
The odds are indeed stacked against us. Or
are they? Perhaps it is time to throw aside the
scary negative data and focus on results:
– According to data from First Round
Venture Capital’s 10-year Project, female
founders outperform their male peers by
63 percent in terms of value created for
investors.
– The Small Business Association concluded
in 2017 that venture firms that invested in
Women-Led Businesses (WLB) saw an
improvement in their fund’s performance.
– According to David Rock and Heidi
Grant in an article in the Harvard Business
Review, various studies point to companies
with more women being more likely to
introduce radical innovations, and “cultural
diversity is also a boon to innovativeness.”
If results are better for female founders and
diverse teams, why are we still so far behind
and so far away from gender-parity? The World
Economic Forum estimated in 2018 that at the
current rate of progress toward equity in pay,
it will take 202 years to reach parity. (Progress
– in 2017, the estimate was 217 years. However,
this was a significant jump from the previous
year – in 2016, the estimate was “only” 170
years.)
How do we move beyond the scary data and
the challenges represented by the numbers?
1) Start by examining your biases – both
conscious and unconscious. When we say
entrepreneur, who do you see? When we say,
scientist or engineer? Lawyer? Doctor? Nurse?
(Biases cut both ways.) What do they look like
in your mind’s eye? We all have biases formed
by our life experience. Know your bias. How do
you treat the team? Who is shouldering extra
office work and chores? Often, it’s the women.
2) Think about how you inform and influence
the unconscious bias of others. Who do we see
as thought leaders, experts, and influencers?
Often these are the speakers at conferences,
the expert sources in the media and the (very
visible) executives? Visibility drives business
opportunities and shows the next generation
what a leader looks like. Don’t turn down that
speaking opportunity. Don’t assume that only
the (more-likely male) CEO can speak for your
company. Stand up and be counted. Mentor.
Speak to classes. Show the flag. Also, when
you can’t take the stage, don’t automatically
pass the opportunity off to one of the usual
suspects – look to the women on the team,
even if this might be their first time on-stage.
(You may wish to consider speaker training or
specifically targeted practice opportunities.)
3) Consider family-friendly policies for
everyone. Flexible schedules. Working from
home. Paid leave for both maternity and
paternity. When men have flexibility, their
partners have options that could include
staying with your company where before
they might have dropped out or pulled back
from their careers. (This applies to same-sex
couples too.)
4) Expand your thinking. Don’t stop at gender
equity. Diversity and inclusion should be
our approach. While white women have
challenges in the workplace, the challenges
multiply when you bring women of color into
the fold. Pay equity gets farther and farther
away. So diversity is more than gender and
race – consider economic status, physical
abilities, national origin, political beliefs, and
sexual orientation too.
5) Have a goal. Track and measure your
progress toward your goal. If we want to
have an impact, we need to know where we
are starting (setting a benchmark) and what
success looks like.
6) Don’t just focus on the top layer. Think long
term and consider in-depth succession plans.
It’s tough to move up when there’s no one to
backfill what you do.
7) Don’t settle. Our goal should be 50/50 when
we look at gender equity. We should receive
equal pay. Women should sit on boards, lead
companies, and countries.
8) Consider legislation to move stalled efforts
forward. No Manel Zones. Board equity.
In 2018, California passed a bill requiring
companies to have a minimum of one on their
board of directors by the end of 2019. This is
modeled on the requirements from European
countries. At the end of July 2021, companies
with five-person boards will need two women
and boards with six or more will need three.
It’s important to us all that we tap the
entire population if we want to make real
and timely progress toward the biggest
challenges of our age – disease, climate
change, privacy, an aging population,
racial and gender inequality, ethical use of
artificial intelligence, income inequality,
hunger, clean water…the list goes on. Half
of us can’t sit on the sidelines and hope the
other half come up with the answers.
Bibliography:
https://www.weforum.org/projects/closing-the-gender-gapgender-parity-task-forces
https://www.sba.gov/content/venture-capital-social-capital-andfunding-women-led-businesses
https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter
https://s3.amazonaws.com/mentoring.redesign/s3fs-public/
SCORE-Megaphone-of-Main-Street-Women%E2%80%99s-
Entrepreneurship-Spring-2018_1.pdf
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/competitive-and-
special-competitive-opportunity-gap-analysis-7a-and-504-
programs/view/full_report
https://www.fundera.com/blog/2017-spotlight-womenentrepreneurs
https://fortune.com/2019/01/28/funding-female-founders-2018/
https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-on-corporate-boards/
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/16/the-number-of-womenrunning-fortune-500-companies-is-at-a-record-high.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/16/the-number-of-womenrunning-fortune-500-companies-is-at-a-record-high.html
http://10years.firstround.com/
https://www.guidantfinancial.com/small-business-trends/
women-in-business/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2019/05/04/womenentrepreneurs-self-fund-new-business/#7751e732256e
I P L A W F I R M
PROFILES
&
ARTICLES
Sponsored by
08
09