Management: It's the dawn of 'womenomics'

13 November 2011 - 02:27 By ADELE SHEVEL
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HANGING ON HIS EVERY WORD: Tom Peters delivers a talk during the Evolution of Innovation seminar in Johannesburg this week Picture: KATHERINE MUICK-MERE
HANGING ON HIS EVERY WORD: Tom Peters delivers a talk during the Evolution of Innovation seminar in Johannesburg this week Picture: KATHERINE MUICK-MERE

Women are likely to fill 80% of management and professional roles by 2020, says management guru Tom Peters, adding that the world hasentered the age of "womenomics".

Speaking in Johannesburg this week, he said men had two specialities: violence and dropping out of school.

Women, meanwhile, studied hard. Research had shown that 60% of undergraduates in the US were women, with this number increasing to 65% at postgraduate level.

"Of the top 10 industries ticketed for growth in America," said Peters, "nine of them predominantly hire women, such as the healthcare industry, in which 80% of employees are women."

Since 1970, women around the world had held two out of every three new jobs created.

US publication Business Week found that female managers outshone their male counterparts "in almost every measure".

Peters said women's buying power was huge. "So why do no more than 2% of companies worldwide understand this?"

And women were more likely to spread the word about good service. Studies showed that when men were satisfied with service they had received, they passed on a recommendation to an average of 2.6 people.

Women, on the other hand, told an average of 21 people if they received good service.

Peters said another factor to consider was the temperament of men versus women.

"When investing, men are frenzied, emotional animals. Women trade less than men, exhibit less overconfidence, are less optimistic, do more research, are more immune to peer pressure, learn from their mistakes, and have less testosterone and therefore take fewer risks."

The Economist agrees: "Forget China, India and the internet. Economic growth is driven by women."

Peters has shifted gear from a decade ago, when his message was about putting the customer first and focusing on strategy. He now supports action above all, and believes employees should be a business's priority.

"If you want to put the customer first, put the person who serves your customer first, first."

But it wasn't about paying employees more than they would receive from competitors. Instead, companies could do things to improve the lives of staff or make little gestures. "Those little gestures say, 'I understand, I care.'"

Peters supports action, saying: "We way overdo our pursuit of intellectual horsepower."

Intelligent people came up with intelligent reasons not to do something, he said.

Human resources needed to have greater prominence. Too much time was spent considering mergers and acquisitions, and barely any was devoted to getting the right people on board.

"Take 20% of the capital budget and put it into the people budget. It's easy to spend money on capital ... we get conned by concrete."

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