Shame on You MSU and GM
The 1950s are long over!
Yesterday I received an invitation to attend Michigan State’s Business School’s 42nd annual executive forum.
- The conference at first glance sounded interesting.
- It’s focused on going global with branding.
- Looking more closely at the seven speakers, I noticed they are all men.
Give me a break!
In the entire state of Michigan, I have a hard time believing there are NO women qualified to share the stage with them.
Going deeper on the site, I discovered the alumni advisory committee is made up of sixteen men and ONE woman.
I loved attending Michigan State to earn my marketing degree - and feel so betrayed.
I was and still am flabbergasted that in 2007 the MSU Business School believes it is okay to create a major business seminar with no women as part of the program.
Living in a diverse world and global economy, people are not cookie-cutter images of each other.
I was further surprised to find the event “generously supported by GM.”
- GM has amazing women working for them.
- If you want to see how strongly women feel about their cars check out AskPatty.com
- US car sales are struggling and women make a large percentage of car buying decisions.
Why would GM sponsor a male-only business event?
Shame on you MSU and GM. I expected better from both of you.
- Out of a sense of fairness I contacted both MSU and GM to let them know what I was writing.
- I also volunteered to serve on the MSU committee planning the event to ensure they had names of women who would be qualified to speak in the future.
- We’ll see what happens.
Makes me think of chapter leaders…how do you make sure your programs embrace the diversity of your membership?
Filed under: Getting More Members Involved, Savvy Leadership
Great post!
So many awesome women at GM…I am very surprised there were none available to be on this important panel!
Women control the largest percent of the car buying market and GM needs to always put their best foot forward with them to earn their business and brand loyalty.
To sell a brand to women you need to think like a woman…and this imput needs to come FROM a woman or many women for that matter!
Jody DeVere
President
http://www.askpatty.com
http://www.carblabber.com
Thanks for stopping by Jody.
And in thinking like a woman, they need to be sensitive to not promoting men as the only experts for business issues.
GM could say they just gave sponsorship money to support the MSU’s B-school…. if you don’t bother to notice that two of the advisory committee members who created the program were from GM.
My grandmother always told me actions speak louder than words when it comes to love. Tsk, tsk GM.
Cynthia
Ms. D’Amour,
Great summary of your opinion, is the issue you were not asked? How could the board not have contacted you to be the moderator? Get past your self. Understand that the speaker is of minority status, a point you failed to applaud. Also be aware that the female panel member originally on the panel is sending an alternate in her place.
I hope you plan on attending the conference to walk the talk!
Great summary of your opinion, is the issue you were not asked? How could the board not have contacted you to be the moderator? Get past your self. Understand that the speaker is of minority status, a point you failed to applaud. Also be aware that the female panel member originally on the panel is sending an alternate in her place.
I hope you plan on attending the conference to walk the talk
Thanks for your post. Were you on the committee?
Is it all about me? Hardly.
I would not be a good fit for a program on global branding and would not expect to be part of a program on that topic.
Okay, one woman out of seven was invited. Big deal. Half of the business school graduates are women. Still not impressive - especially in 2007.
Plus, if you look at the stats over the last 10 years of the program - which MSU proudly showcases on the website, less than 10% of the speakers have been women historically. Again, shame, shame MSU.
I’m showing the full stats in my post today. All pulled from MSU supplied information.
As far as attending goes, I will be walking my talk and boycotting the program given the lack of representation on the program.
To “all about me”…
Your comments basically say, “kill the messenger”. Even without giving Cynthia the benefit of the doubt, looking the situation at least as what has been talked about here, you have not acknowledged the issue that Cynthia raised–that women are not worthy of full acknowledgement or full participation when it comes to looking at the business world.
You wrote: “Understand that the speaker is of minority status”. So should the committee get a gold star for this? Look, some of my best friends are white men (I happen to be one), but respectfully, it appears that your comment smacks of “tokenism”.
Sorry, as much passion as you obviously have for the issue, this dog doesn’t run here.
Caveman
Caveman!
Great to hear from you. Thanks for speaking up.
It’s so much easier to attack the messenger than have a discussion about the real issue - the decisions they made and the message communicated.
Cynthia
It is not all about Cynthia - I never even assumed it was about her, it was about the lack of women (ANY WOMEN!) on the program. When I read this entry, I was mortified that a premiere program on leadership included no women! How is that possible - what kind of message are you sending to the attendees, but even worse to the rest of the world. We are in 2007 and true, women have made some strides in business, I am an CEO - however, we have a long way to go. Leadership is about more than men - come on MSU - you plan this months, maybe a year in advance, you can’t tell me if you set out to find 4 women to be part of your program you could not find them - especially when GM is one of the sponsors - you would only have to look there. Next year, please learn and start earlier if necessary.
After reading the anonymous and obnoxious post from “all about me” I found myself getting angry at the author.
For their information (and coming from a Director in a 49,000 member organization who HAS had Cynthia moderate - and for a multiple day leadership retreat) they would have been LUCKY to get Cynthia as a moderator, no matter the topic, I am sure she would have handled it with her usual professionalism and (forgive me - but this is true) brilliance.
I have never witnessed Cynthia be “all about Cynthia” it has always about the needs of my organization and Chapter Leadership that came first and was her primary concern.
Rachel
Cathi, thanks for sharing your frustation as a female CEO. Obvisouly they thought you didn’t exist - or wouldn’t care.
Rachel, you rock. Thanks having my back. Unfortunately the author doesn’t understand the issue has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the real world today.
Cynthia