Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs in Europe
Viviane de Beaufort, founder and academic director of the EAF Women Entrepreneurs program at ESSEC, and professor in European and comparative law, together with Diana Derval, course leader of the ESSEC program, lecturer in market research and marketing strategy, and President of DervalResearch, identified the secrets of successful European women entrepreneurs: management, mentoring and motivation!
Women who become entrepreneurs fall under one of three categories, shares Professor de Beaufort, who carried out a study on European women entrepreneurs in 2007 under the aegis of the Women’s Forum:
- Generation Y: young women with an average of 3 years of professional experience and a solid amount of training who deliberately step out of the system and assert their autonomy.
- Generation X: mostly college graduates with excellent track records in business, who hit the “glass ceiling” and must create their own opportunities for advancement; they capitalize on their experience and their professional networks and are in need of training that focuses on transferable management skills.
- The “forgotten”: often unemployed or underemployed, these women need training that will teach them the fundamentals of management and help them overcome the age barrier through networking and coaching. They create businesses to create jobs for themselves.
Management fast-tracks and on-going mentorship are particularly pertinent for all groups, according to Professor de Beaufort, as they help ambitious women overcome internal and external obstacles. Women in all of the groups face the usual obstacles: self-censorship; the fear that life and family obligations will be adversely affected by the effort required to start a business; masculine stereotypes of entrepreneurs that make it tougher for women to succeed because they have to "prove themselves."
A' Generation X' Women Entrepreneur with Flair
Brigit Mettra is one of the many successful ‘Generation X' entrepreneurs who have participated in the EAF (‘Entreprendre Au Feminin') Women Entrepreneurs program at ESSEC Paris-Singapore Business School since it was started up in 2008. Brigit was a former trader with a flair for luxury and design. She took the 9-day program and turned her idea into a winning brand: La Favorite.
La Favorite designs and manufactures luxury furniture and accessories for VIPs, Very Important Pets. Her defining creation is the Sofa O' - an egg-shaped sofa for distinguished dogs. "Brigit delivered with Sofa O' the right sensory mix in terms of color, texture, and shape, and she quickly won over both pets and owners", highlights Professor Derval. La Favorite target customers are wealthy households and luxury resorts; a typical customer is an elegant woman in her forties, well-educated, who enjoys contemporary art and, of course, pets! She loves white and considers Sofa O' a work of art - with a Dali-twist.
Brigit is proud of having created a brand from A to Z. Her Sofa O' required 8 months of R&D. "Our first sale with the luxury Parisian hotel Le Meurice was a high point in the firm's development," she says. Brigit anticipates customers' needs, forever seeking out new natural and recycled materials. "Our know-how is based on our understanding of the market environment."
Brigit is results-oriented, listens to others, will take advice and sometimes change her mind. But, she confirms, "I make the final decision on my own". She is demanding and never loses sight of her objectives. Brigit is now expanding the brand internationally as new opportunities are increasingly coming from the US and from Asia.
References and Links
- ESSEC EAF Women Entrepreneurs Program, contact Nathalie Simonet, phone + 33 1 34 43 32 47, Email : simonet@essec.fr, website: http://formation.essec.fr/
- La Favorite: http://www.lafavorite.fr
- Derval, D. (2010) The Right Sensory Mix: Targeting Consumer Product Development Scientifically. Heidelberg: Springer.
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