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FOREWORD – Marijn Dekkers, CEO Bayer
As a research-based company, Bayer usually sees innovation through the lens of scientific or technical breakthroughs. Yet the company’s approach to leadership can also be considered innovative.
For the past two years, based on the advice that appears in Seven Steps to Leading a Gender balanced Business, Bayer has been quietly building awareness and skills to lead across cultures and genders across all its global teams. Many of our corporate neighbours are responding to the legal and political pressures of European gender quotas by implementing initiatives focused on women.
I share Avivah Wittenberg-Cox’s idea that it’s time for companies to take a much broader look at the realities of changing markets and the demographics of talent. The globalization of markets and the dramatic increase in the number of women among the world’s educated workforce are drivers for any multinational company interested in growth and innovative responses to fast- changing conditions.
Many of Bayer’s senior leadership teams worldwide have held the kind of strategic debates described in this book. They focused on why and how we want to adjust the balance of national
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