Page 8 - 7 Steps to Leading a Gender Balalnce Business_Preview

viii
Seven Steps to Leading a Gender Balanced Business
cultures and genders in the company’s management. Division heads, country managers and functional teams have used these sessions to analyse and understand shifting global and national trends and statistics in both talent and markets – and craft action plans to adapt mind-sets, processes and plans.
This book offers clear guidelines on how to create sustainable gender and cultural balance. Notably, that initiatives should be leader-led, strategically focused and business-driven. Accountability for change must lie with leaders to define and implement the balance that makes the most sense to their changing business realities. And CEOs must recognize that it takes time to build awareness and skills for managers to effectively lead across cultures and genders.
Based on a recently completed survey of a cross section of the organization’s leaders, senior management at Bayer is now aligned on the need for change. There is also a widespread recognition that this is the responsibility of leaders and managers – not HR or diversity departments. This investment should now accelerate the already-improving balance we are seeing in management.
This is the beginning of a journey. Bayer’s talent pipeline, the profile of our senior executives and the company’s management composition have all steadily evolved over the past two years. The goal is not to change overnight. Instead, we are committed to making steady progress in reflecting the markets we serve and the talent we have internally. I am personally committed to this objective, and I recognize that leadership is the key to unlocking the benefits that better balance will bring to Bayer. This book shows the way, but the buck stops with every CEO.