The Learning Factor M.D. Meets With Federal Liberal Deputy Leader Julie Bishop

Vicki Kossoff, Managing Director of The Learning Factor met this week with the Hon. Julie Bishop to discuss gender parity in corporate Australia; sustainable leadership and continuing economic development through education...

Article By Chris Gaborit - Director on 01-03-2010

This week Vicki Kossoff, Managing Director of The Learning Factor flew to Canberra to meet with the Hon. Julie Bishop, Federal Liberal deputy leader to discuss gender parity in corporate Australia; sustainable leadership and continuing economic development through education.

How close are we to Gender-Parity at Work? The stark results are reported in a recent Bain & Co. survey of 1,800 businesspeople worldwide. Although 80 percent of women and men say they are convinced of the benefits of gender parity, only 20 percent believe their companies put meaningful resources behind it.

Vicki is one of Australia’s leading advocates of sustainable leadership. She believes the key to sustainable leadership is gender parity. She quotes an extensive 19-year study of 215 Fortune 500 firms showing a strong correlation between a strong record of promoting women into the executive suite and high profitability. In this study, three measures of profitability were used to demonstrate that the 25 Fortune 500 firms with the best record of promoting women to high positions are between 18 and 69 percent more profitable than the median Fortune 500 firms in their industries.

“I have been discussing sustainable leadership with key policy makers in the Australian government and industry to address gender equality.” Vicki Kossoff said. “I’ve been tasked with identifying best practice in sustainable leadership as adopted in key Australian and US businesses and discovering how we can implement effective education programs into the Asia Pacific region following in the footsteps of successful global business and political leaders.”

Vicki has worked with some of the leading global CEO’s - people like Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt and (former) Pitney Bowes CEO and Chairman, Mike Critelli.

“I will be flying to the USA in May 2010 to continue conducting a series of interviews with high-profile global leaders on this vitally important aspect of globally sustainable leadership. I want to discover from these global leaders how their organisations have implemented sustainable leadership policies and how they as CEO’s have personally driven these initiatives to make their businesses a true leading global business.” Vicki Kossoff said.

What is Vicki trying to achieve

With the help of global business leaders and pro-active government representatives, we plan to champion the cause of sustainable leadership throughout the Asia Pacific region. Without the support of key male business and government leaders, significant progress toward ending gender disparities is unlikely.

With this research, and by using real business success stories and proven methods, we intend to initiate a number of education programs throughout the Asia Pacific that will focus on sustainable leadership in schools, universities and industry.

About Vicki Kossoff

Vicki Kossoff over 25 years of business experience working as both an internal and external consultant in the area of adult learning and organisational change. Her company, The Learning Factor, of which she is a founding Director, is a leader in managed learning services with offices in the USA, Europe, Australia and throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Her expertise in strategic planning, client focus and operational excellence has been instrumental in making The Learning Factor a top-tier global learning solution provider. Her advanced understanding of this field positions her as an Australian expert able to effectively implement sustainable leadership policies into Asia Pacific business.