MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT: Rosmah posing with some recipients of the Women In Leadership Achievement Awards. — Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR: There is a need for leaders not only to recognise the strategic importance of female talents but also to change their mindset to create long term winning strategies to attract, retain and develop female talents at all levels, said Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
The Prime Minister’s wife said this was vital to strengthen the talent pool and achieve substantial performance improvements.
“Recruiting and retaining more women in the workforce are not only good for business but it is the right thing to do.
“Gender diversity brings greater value to an organisation’s performance. It is not about more frenzied recruiting or changing of the human resource processes in organisation,” she when opening the Women In Leadership (WIL) Forum yesterday. Also present was Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.
The forum is being attended by 33 prominent women leaders and speakers from 10 countries.
Rosmah said top management must transform organisations from being just women friendly to one that enables them to stay ahead in their careers and to leverage on the cultural strength of gender diversity.
She said women at the decision-making level in Asia was particularly low in South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India, Singapore and Malaysia whereby only 22 out off 700 boards had more than two female members.
Meanwhile, at the function, the managing director of the Sintesa Group, Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, was named ‘Leading Businesswoman of The Year’.
Sintesa Group is an Indonesian conglomerate of 17 subsidiaries which operates in the consumer and industrial products, property, real estate and energy sectors.
Other recipients of the WIL Achievement Awards are founder and chief creative director of A Cut Above Group of Salons and Academy, Malaysia Winie Loo for “Most Innovative Woman Entrepreneur of the Year”; executive director of Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation, Philippines Cecilia D Del Castillo (Leading Woman in Public Sector); president of Sime Darby Berhad Malaysia Datuk Mohd Bakke Salleh (Male Champion of Change) and Ernst & Young (Most Women-Friendly Employer). — Bernama