Report on the 10th meeting of the Women's Leadership Network

On Sunday, March 31, the Women's Leadership Network "10th Women's Meeting" was held in a hybrid format at NUCB Business School Tokyo with 16 participants. The Women's Network is advised by Professor Shinichi Takeuchi, and is operated as a place not only to think about women's activities, but also to provide a forum for exchange among alumni and current students. This time, we invited Professor Etsuko Saito and Research Fellow Tomomi Fukuda of the Institute for Gendered Innovation at Ochanomizu University as speakers to talk about "Gender Diversity and Corporate Value Enhancement in the Promotion of Women's Success.

Gendered innovation represents "incremental measures toward gender equality," and Professor Saito spoke about the research and technological development aimed at diversity and inclusiveness that the Gendered Innovation Institute is conducting, including a gender perspective. This is a position of "management that actively recognizes gender differences without treating them as nothing, and allows everyone to thrive and play an active role." Next, Mr. Fukuda presented the way of "management that actively makes the most of gender differences. According to Ms. Fukuda, who is both a researcher and a senior research analyst at an asset management company, ESG management (i.e., aiming for sustainable development not only through immediate profit and evaluation, but also through consideration for the environment and society, and the establishment of sound management systems) has recently become important from an investment perspective, and the experience of directors and From the perspective of balancing expertise and ensuring diversity in terms of gender, internationality, etc., many institutional investors encouraged the inclusion of women on the board of directors, and the possibility of diversity enhancing corporate value was discussed.

Some of the day's participants were female non-executive directors who are actually in a position to pursue such challenges, and although they expressed frank concerns over disclosure of information to investors and shareholders, the institute offered strong advice on how to trigger a beneficial dialogue with investors. This will further accelerate gendered innovation, which in turn will lead to a movement to promote women's activities in the country as a whole. Finally, Dr. Shinichi Takeuchi gave a summary of the seminar, which seemed to have provided an opportunity for participants to think deeply about gender in corporate management.

About the Women's Leadership Network

This Network was established in 2017 as an alumni organization of the NUCB Business School, and has held five seminars on the theme of "MBA career development for women." We hope that this network will grow and flourish as a place for MBA holders and women currently enrolled in school to interact with each other and continue to learn from each other in order to broaden the scope of their careers.