Men account for up to 90 per cent of managerial positions in Arab World, highlighting the need to create equal opportunities for career women
SKOPOS Consulting, a leading Organisation Development (OD) solutions firm in the Middle East and Africa, has urged governments and private sector institutions in the Middle East to invest in a variety of women leadership development programs as part of efforts to provide equal opportunities to women and to further create more diversification in the workplace. SKOPOS has revealed in a study that women possess unique qualities such as innate soft skills that are increasingly being sought out by businesses and corporate organisations, underlining the importance and benefits of initiatives that aim to capitalize on the potential of career women.
Despite the high potential of women to succeed as business and corporate leaders, SKOPOS has revealed that only 10 per cent of managerial positions in the Arab World are occupied by women, indicating an inequality that needs to be addressed by strengthening leadership development programs for women in the region. SKOPOS likewise underlined the need to encourage women to actively participate in investment and entrepreneurial activities by providing special training that will equip them with the right skills to succeed as investors and entrepreneurs in a leadership capacity. In the GCC alone, SKOPOS noted that women collectively account for USD 40 billion in personal wealth, representing a huge potential for various investment and entrepreneurial initiatives to help contribute to the development of the region.
Dr. Hussein El Kazzaz, Managing Director of SKOPOS Consulting, said: "Women have great potential in the business and the corporate environment because they possess natural soft skills such as emotional intelligence, multi-tasking, organisational proficiency and communication skills that are invaluable in the business world. Unfortunately, there is not enough effort being exerted to fully develop the leadership potential of women, which is one of the reasons why there are very few women holding high-level positions in the corporate world. Our goal is to raise awareness about the unequal distribution of opportunities and subsequently encourage the business community and governments to provide appropriate training for the skills development and career advancement of women. Diversification in people is a key element in forming effective and successful organizations."
"The investment potential of women, who account for over USD 40 billion in personal wealth in the GCC alone, is also enormous. As such, it is crucially important to create equal opportunities for women investors and to encourage them to venture into various investment and entrepreneurial activities. We must address the prevailing imbalance in terms of opportunities available to women to cultivate dynamism and generate greater activity in the investment sector," added Dr. El Kazzaz.
SKOPOS has revealed that various leadership development tools for both men and women are available to support organisations realise the full potential of their human resources and develop a much stronger pool of leaders. In addition to leadership development programs, SKOPOS also pointed out the need to implement various corporate initiatives such as Change Management, Culture Transformation, Strategy Execution through cross-functional teams, Organizational Design, and Organizational Vision, Mission and Values, to cultivate the effectiveness and efficiency of business organisations.
To assist its clients in the Middle East, SKOPOS has disclosed that it has developed customised leadership training programs that take into account the specific needs and sensitivities of each client. Coredia, the leadership development arm of SKOPOS Group centres around building organizational leadership capacity that is aligned with and supports the business strategy. The program places strong emphases on Self Awareness, System Thinking, Strategic Thinking, Leadership Capacity and Management Capacity, while using various learning techniques to help develop the Leaders through workshops, work assignments and executive coaching.
SKOPOS Consulting uses both soft and hard management tools to implement change programs with its clients in the Middle East and Africa. The company utilizes a mix of coaching, conflict management, team building, leadership development, communication, succession planning, performance management and other proven Organisational Development tools to help its clients become highly effective. Founded in 1991 in San Jose, CA, SKOPOS Consulting now offers its services across a range of industries, serving clients such as HP, Zain, Cisco and Dubai Police Department. SKOPOS Consulting has offices in Dubai, Cairo and Bahrain.
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© Press Release 2010
