Diversity has many facets and research shows that more diverse teams produce better business results. So what should one keep in mind when hiring? How do we make business processes and team more diverse? At our AsiaBerlin event “ Driving diversity and bottom line”, we asked our experts exactly that.
Puja Kohli, Founder, Unfold Consulting has over 20 years of experience as a human resource leader, providing strategic advice to shape human capital solutions for global and local organizations in India. Puja has previously held corporate leadership roles at Accenture, CGI, and United Airlines technology venture in India and is currently helping companies build a business culture that is Inclusive, Intrapreneurial, and Future Ready.
Race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disabilities, and sexual orientation, differences in education, personalities, skill sets, experiences are parameters to keep in mind when talking about diversity.
In collaboration with Berlin Senate for Economics, GIZ, and enpact, we are supporting women founders in India in Germany, therefore conversation has revolved a lot around gender.
Dr. Gesa (Pelzer) Miczaika is one of the founders of Auxxo Beteiligungen, an investor focusing on female founders and women’s decision making power. Gesa is Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First and is on the board of the German Startups Association. She has also founded Evangelistas, a network of over 70 female business angels in Germany.
According to the Women Founders Monitor, a survey run by the German Startup Association, many women are still facing antiquated gender stereotypes and structural problems, e.g. access to finance, quality and availability of child care. In 2019, 92% of venture funding in Europe went to all-male founding teams.
’State can use its power as a limited partner in, for example, coparion, High-Tech Gründerfonds, KfW Capital to get more women in their management. (…) If you are a female investor, you do get more deal flow from women founders’.
Out of 10 companies, Auxxo Beteiligung has invested in, 7 are run by women. Localyze, founded by Hanna Asmussen is one of them. The Hamburg start-up provides all-in-one software to manage your international team: relocate international hires, temporarily transfer employees & contract remotely.
Sayali Karanjkar is the Co-Founder of Paysense, a leading consumer lending company in India. Paysense got acquired by PayU at a valuation of $185 million in January 2020.
Sayali oversaw company growth from 10 to over 400 staff in 5 years and she says it all starts with the founders and their worldview. One needs to actively develop and implement diversity strategies, create structure that allows for flexible working time and predictable workload.
‘One thing that has worked very well for us is bringing back moms into the workplace (..) with as much respect as they enjoyed before. They are hugely committed and efficient, it’s been awesome to have them with us. (..) They bring speed and efficiency that people that don’t care when they get home, don’t have. They are not shaken very easily and they bring a lot of resilience to the team’,
–Sayali Karanjkar is the Co-Founder of Paysense
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