The Glass Ceiling Syndrome

Is it just a case of women whose career progress has been blocked by their male colleagues - the so-called “glass ceiling syndrome” - being forced to set up their own businesses? Or do women share specific management qualities which somehow serve them better in self-employment? As many as forty per cent of start-ups fold within their first two years, but the failure rate of those run by women is substantially lower than that. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that though male bosses tend to be reluctant to promote women, male bank managers seem only too happy to finance their businesses.

The Roddick Phenomenon

Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop empire, is the perfect example of the female entrepreneur, with her company growing from zero to £470 million in its first fifteen years. Perhaps the secret of her success was caution. Rather than push ahead with the purchasing of new shops, Roddick got herself into franchising - the cheapest way to expand a business whilst keeping overheads down. Caution, forward planning and tight budgeting seem to be more female characteristics than male. They are also the blueprint for success when launching a new company. The recent internet boom allowed women like Martha Lane Fox to set up the massively successful web travel agency lastminute.com. In cyberspace nobody cares what sex you are.

More Sensitive

When women join an existing company, it's a different story. Less ruthlessly individualistic in their approach to business, women are more sensitive to the feelings of the group or team in which they work. They are generally more cooperative than competitive, less assertive, less prepared to lead from the front. Though they usually manage their time better than men and may even work harder, they are much less likely than their male counterparts to take risks. And, above all, it is risk-taking that makes corporate high fliers. As one male director put it: “I'm not paid to make the right decisions. I'm just paid to make decisions.”

Better Communicators

It's an overgeneralisation, of course, but it remains true that men will more readily take the initiative than women. The female style of management leans towards consensus and conciliation. Women seem to be better communicators than men - both more articulate and better listeners. And perhaps it is women's capacity to listen which makes them particularly effective in people-oriented areas of business. In any mixed group of business people the ones doing most of the talking will almost certainly be the men. But perhaps only the women will really be listening.

The New Achievers

It was predominantly men who led the hierarchical corporations of the nineties. But it may be women who achieve the most in the more democratic, people-centred years to come.

 

The Death of Economics

The world economy is falling apart. And no one has a clue what's going wrong - least of all the economists.

Whereas in the past, supply and demand had a way of evening themselves out, we now swing from hyperinflation to soaring unemployment as slump follows boom. The once predictable business cycles which drive the market economy have gone out of control. The economic statistics issued by governments seem more unreliable than ever. And, for the first time, politicians have started talking about “the death of economies”.

Speculative Greed

A major cause of the crisis has been the business sector's ruthless pursuit of capital. It was largely corrupt property speculators and poorly managed financial institutions that caused the collapse of the Japanese economy in the 90s and the subsequent “Asian meltdown”. The dotcom boom at the beginning of the 21st century was also motivated by short-term speculative greed. More money actually changes hands in four and a half days on the global currency markets than is exchanged annually through trade in merchandise and services. Business, it seems, is a very slow way to make money. The fastest way to make money is money.

Merger-mania

Two decades of bigger and bigger mergers and acquisitions have compounded the problem. In 1997 alone $1.6 trillion were spent on M&As. For the board members and shareholders of the companies concerned, there were huge windfall profits to be made, but for the companies themselves it was not always good news. Nor was it good news for the thousands laid off as a result of bringing ex-competitors together. In the new globalised economy, the need to grow at all costs has also led companies like Enron and WorldCom to become increasingly creative in their accounting methods. In some companies, hiding debts to finance acquisitions has become common practice.

Different Worlds

But the real long-term crisis is the widening gap between rich and poor. Thirty per cent of the world's population represents ninety per cent of the world's GDP, whilst the other seventy per cent have to survive on the remaining ten per cent. The income ratio between the richest and poorest countries went from 30:1 in 1960 to 74:1 in 1997 - and it's getting worse. So it isn't trade deficits, post-communist chaos or the global arms build-up that pose the greatest threat to the world economy. Nor is it political instability in Africa and the Middle East, international terrorism or the Latin American debt crisis. It is the emergence throughout both the developed and developing world of a vast and permanent underclass of seriously poor.