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Af Jørgen Vig Knudstorp
The Danish government's Minister for Ligestilling has just asked me to become an ambassador for women's careers. It is a good challenge because we are, not exactly a company that can pride itself of the many women who are part of our management. In fact there is a very small amount of women in what we normally call "top management layers".
I saw an interesting statistic the other day in "The Economist". It turns out that the more women who work, the wealthier the country. Coming from a Scandinavian angle this is no surprise. I wonder if that might be true for companies that are trying to survive in a globalizing age? The more relevant diversity in management, the more competitive power the companies possess?
In my opinion, there is per se not a female style of management. As there is also not a per se male way of management. Suffice it to say that most companies are run by men, and we all know that they do extremely differently because no men are exactly equal in style and approach, and so I find it is an illusion to suspect that there is a particular female style of management. Trying to strieve of that is missing the point.
The point - to me - is that diversity can be very productive. That it is very productive attracting people to management that are not all white males who live in Vejle is obvious. This is the point. It is all about diversity, which when well managed can be extremely productive. Therefore we want to be able to attract more women, as well as more non-Danes, to management in LEGO Group.
Also, I think women in management is important because they make certain demands on degrees of freedom. You cannot be a mother and manager without asking for some degrees of freedom. Degrees of freedom that I think we should offer to all employees in LEGO Group. So women are good ice breakers here, if men aren't (we try :-) though).
It doesn't sound very nice to say this, so I apologize but I do think women provide for a more spacious and gracious working environment that is respectful of the employee's right to lead a full life.
So there you have it, I am a happy recipient of the title "female ambassador to the Danish government". My job will be to at appropriate intervals promote that more women join Danish management teams, externally and internally. I am so pleased we have a grass roots initiative with so much energy - that will make my job a breeze. Thank you for a fantastic effort by the people behind the initiative in LEGO Group!!
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