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| I live in a remote community. I receive invitations daily for different mentoring and networking sessions in Winnipeg, but must commute over an hour to attend. Usually I just don't go. More on-line forums would be helpful for someone in my position. |
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| The glass ceiling is still very much in place. As a mentor to women in international engineering firms and other industries, I regularly work with them to deal with the challenges they express. Plus ca change: these women are frustrated at having to work twice as hard as men, to be thought of as half as competent... despite the fact that the men they are being compared against are hardly stellar examples of confidence or competence (and I realize that that sort of man is the biggest obstacle to women's success.) |
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| Time to network and finid capable people to delegate my work to. |
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| Government funding assistance, networking with the right people |
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| Managing male employees - how does one integrate male versus female styles. Advise from experience female managers would be appreciated |
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| Identifying the next trend market
I would benefit from getting research and statistics about what is coming that is hot in the industry so I am prepared.
How to keep ahead of the taxman... how to get the most out of my accountant.
Where I should invest and how to obtain "freedom 55" |
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| There are not many women in the high technology sector, so there is a lack of mentoring. |
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| Sufficient capital to grow the business to next stage and access to strategic alliance partners to seize global opportunties. |
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| Leadership
Business Focus |
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| Financing - giving the opportunity to talk openly with various type of financial institutions
Growth - the growing pain - How to handle and plan for the growth
Limited resources...multi tasking
Recruiting the executive team - getting the cream of the crop, passionate and brilliant people without giving away the company (I still want to share but I am not giving it away!)
Introducing new products and getting the financing to close the deal with the customers
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| Time-sensitive opportunities to meet with other female professionals would be welcome. Many networking opportunities are too time-consuming or are scheduled at times when busy women simply aren't available. Short lunches and value-added seminars would be welcome. |
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| As a small-buisiness owner with 25 years of experience, and a who's who of clients, that's still often not enough to win out against the multinational consulting firms -- some of whom call on me and my company to do the work they've been contracted to do, but have no one skilled to fulfill the commitment. And, having worked on projects for various large consulting firms, I know from experience that all too often they assign people to a project simply to have billable hours, and not because the person has the right skills for the job. Clients get fleeced and are led to believe that that's good service and value. What a hoax that's been perpetrated! |
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| Obtaining good training in areas such as financial management, maintaining French skills, etc. It is also important that we be able to constantly improve our presentation skills.
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| Sexism, whether low-key or overt, remains an issue. Older men do not seem comfortable, in fact sometimes they are hostile, to women in IT. |
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| The soft skills are the most important - when and how to introduce an idea, how to sell the idea, that balance between persuasive and much too persistent.
Women are still judged by a different standard than men, and a behaviour that is acceptable or tolerated in men is not accepted in women.
The one "course" that I would love to participate in is the Judy project, which in at least it's first year had a curriculum which I believe addressed many of the areas where women need to develop their skills in order to accomplish their ambition without being seen as offensive or in a negative light. |
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| 1) Building empowered teams while still maintaining control
2) Taking the business from a small enterprise to a medium sized organization
3) Gaining credibility in an external environment as I am relatively young as well as also being female. I would therefore like to gain mentoring from other individuals on how they deal with issues |
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| In smaller/rural communities it is not easy to find the women who are completing degrees online or attending out-of-town universities, who would be great mentors/role models.
Colleges and universities who promote women graduates and their particular fields of expertise, and then link them to new women enterpreneurs, can assist to bridge this gap. |
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| better networking opportunities in Ottawa
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| Not being a part of the "jock" culture and approaching thins too much from a woman's perspective as opposed to a male perspective. |
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| Access to resources...access to capital...sales and business development skills
Access to capital should be made available for service companies.
Business models for services companies to grow and founders to exit. |
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| Lack of mentoring, solution would be external mentoring contacts
Presentation skills
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| Lack of mentors
Lack of contacts |
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| The biggest challenges revolve around funding start-ups. There are no one area where one can learn who has the funds to invest in companies, the advantages and disadvantages of chosing one over the other. |
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| - getting in the door. creating opportunities and preventing the notion of overqualification. |
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| As I am nearly finsished by career in business (asPresident of 50 plus organization), the major challenge has been having a network of professional women available to discuss issues on managing the softer aspects of an organization. We all know how to increase the bottom line but managing highly qualified people given finite financial resources, and to stay the best is a continuous process. Lessons learned especially what goes wrong is the best source for planning and development of companies and people. A network of professional experienced women would be a real asset to younger folks in the field. |
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| as a women entrepreneur, i lack a sounding board for discussing ideas to grow my business. I also am never really sure if i'm focused on the right things or if i should be doing something that i'm not. |
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| Gaining enough traction for my issues, concerns, ideas. I need training or mentoring to help me position myself and those concepts more effectively in a very technical, male dominanted environment |
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| I am challenged by the lack of appreciation for the value of diversity in leadership. Having achieved the level of General Manager and being restricted by geography (family commitments require that I stay in the Toronto area), I am challenged to continue to find outlets that represent growth opportunities for my leadership capability. |
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| - convincing others that you have the capability to take on a new challenge or responsibility even though you haven't done it before |
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| Trying to find the balance between business and family. Childcare, including after-school care is a big issue for myself and many of my contacts. |
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| Meeting sales quotas - imrpoving my sales skills and getting the experience
Level of training and education - continuing education, possibly even working towards an MBA
Overall industry experience
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| Although I have been successful and have a senior position, I've never really bridged the gender gap. The solution may be for more women to be founders of companies, instead of joining a company and climbing the ladder. In other words, it is easier for women to be leaders and make a difference if they establish the ground rules and aren't trying to change the ground rules. |
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| Having the most effective tools to market our products. Setting up partnerships with other businesses. |
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| As an SME competing with large companies for business.
At least having an opportunity to demonstrate that small doesn't mean mediocre in terms of providing business services to industry. These can be delivered on a professional basis, size should never be an issue. |
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| I don't think the challenges I face as a woman are any different from any other person working in Technology. Having said this, government policies and practices are a challenge for small business - this is being addressed well by the CATA.
The other big challenge is 'educating' the market about our value proposition which ciuld be addressed by having access to marketing mentoring |
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| - Financing - need VC/ Seed/ Gov funding networking events
- Breaking the glass ceiling - need male/female networking events |
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| Lack of a mentor (finding another women who runs a high-tech business to network with or use as a sounding board)
Capital. |
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| Financing is extreemly difficult these days. Additionally, the IRAP and TPC days are targeted mostly for any province but Ontario. There is also a huge gap between the R&D phase and the marketing phase and traditionally I run out of money during this transition. |
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| Glass Ceiling |
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| financing - small amounts with angel investors |
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| opportunities for recognition of personal achievements and leadership roles both within existing work organisations and in external roles |
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| The finding of successors to the buisness, early enough in the game, which would be able to take over the buisness or the technology advances, after about 20 years of R& D. this stage is different than starting the developpment of an approach or product and finding the next stage of personnel, is excessively difficult. |
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| - still very male dominated field
- lack of sufficient industry mentors
- challenges specific to the industry |
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| not really applicable - I'm a partner at VC fund and not looking to advance career or start my own company, just look to better support our investee companies and in particular, try to seek out some more woman technology entrepreneurs. |
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| More hours in a day!
A better system to be organized.
Being better know/ having better access to some upper male inner circles - I never get invited to the boys fishing weekends where the deals are made.... |
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| same old same old; how to take care of the kids, how to be forceful as a woman without being disliked, how to establish cred when you didn't start as a developer.
Major issue for training; hiring the right people around you. I was going to say time, but the issue of time is having people around who are skilled that you can delegate too. Putting together the right team, especially 'around' the founders can be tricky. |
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| - no mentor to confide in
- not speaking up enough at the appropriate times (it's a gender thing - men "stretch the truth" better than woman)
- shy when it comes to sales |
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| finding good business management staff. |
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| Having other women in leadership positions to discuss my challenges with in my company or outside of my company. More networking with leaders in the community (men and women) and leadership skills/executive mgmt workshops for women would be great. |
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| As a legazl advisor to businesses, I think that hiring strong management, developing effective marketing and securing adequate growth capital are important challenges. Achieving the first informs the next two. Effective legal counsel and accounting advice are crucial to achieve the third. |
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| The challenge with Hi Tech is keeping up with the fast pace changes, which requires constant change and re-investment. It always appears to be a black hole for money.
The second challenge is how to be patient in the extremely long sales cycle. |
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| From time to time I have been told that I haven't enough grey hair yet. Other times that I am so good at what I do, no one wants to see me move on. I am too enthusiastic with my present job that no one will think I want to go to a new one.
I have developed a succession plan for my own position but as the most senior person in our organization there isn't a clear career path elsewher. |
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| Lack of finding life balance (kids and work) |
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| Hiring good salespeople. |
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| My biggest challenge so far has been to balance my family life with my career advancement and development ambitions. I have always treated my family obligations as a single mother of 2 with number one priority, which has lead to my having to compromise my career advancement ambitions as well as my very strong desire to explore some of my entreprenural/innovative ideas. |
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| Being female in a male-dominated environment. Resistance to accept hands-on experience of many years as equal to education, especially from academic executives/decision makers. Position not valued as highly as equivalent roles in other departments of the organization.
Not sure what solutions are...
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| One of the main challenges is the "unknown" when it comes to income. It would be great if there was a safety net to help women establish their own businesses (and if something like this exists, it would be helpful to know about it.)
Another challenge is that as a women in a managerial role with 8 years work experience, continued opportunities for additional growth are slow. To move from a manager to more senior levels, the expectations are that you have to work for 20 years plus and earn the merit. It should be encouraged to stream women into higher positions sooner, and have more opportunities for them to participate on committees or as mentors, as we do have a lot to offer, even though we haven't worked for 20 years.
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| Getting past the executives, in order to liaise senior people in the businesses we support. Would like more opportunities to build relationships and have some 'face time' with our business people |
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| not being taken seriously by technical males
the only solution is to be more technical than they are |
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| Access to leadership examples |
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| Gender bias in financial institutions |
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| Current corporate environment is one of constant cutbacks and reduced resources. Leaves no opportunity for advancement/growth or expansion. Don't know the answer in this case except leaving to start something entreprenuerial |
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| Inability to get financial support from banks even with established business with profitable bottom line and receivables from regular large clientbase. Lobbying banks to assist small business. |
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| N/A |
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| I am a 4th year UofT student so I dont know what these challenges are specifically.
I do anticipate that I will have some challenge networking with appropriate mentors. A specific mentoring program for graduates would be excellent. |
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| angel investment |
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| Access to senior female executives or decision makers.
We need more senior female executives in the industry.
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| Challenges: finding talented people, finding time for business development and developing new leads |
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| advancing career within organizations: inability of male colleagues to communicate adequately with women (and other minorities); and to recognize and respect the value they add.
my solution: established own business.
issue there: certain clients expect to pay less because a woman is offering the service. (solution: work with those clients who respect and value my work, irrespective of gender) |
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| Women are marginalized in specialized professions |
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| I find it very difficult to advance my career and still handle the requirements of a busy family. |
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| Personally: Having enough time to network. Still not as many leadership/recognition opportunities for women available in tech/new media.
Access to capital is still an ongoing issue.
Market: Companies/corporations still don't take women's needs (as consumers and experts) seriously. |
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| I feel that network access is key to success so that collaboration and coordination with other key network members and stakeholders can help develop a better understanding of what is required and available. A win-win situation. |