全球女性領導者指導項目來到日本

Maria Mercedes Corralesknows well the challenges of navigating the corporate world of Japan as a female boss.

瑪麗亞蔠幨德絲科拉萊斯(Maria Mercedes Corrales)深知作爲一名女性老闆遊走於日本企業界的挑戰。

When she took over the struggling Japanese operations of Levi Strauss in 2001, she vividly recalls how some of her employees and clients refused to speak to a female president. That wall of silence came down gradually as she turned around the company’s performance.

她還能清晰地回憶起2001年接管李維斯(Levi Strauss)陷入困境的日本業務時，部分員工與客戶拒絕與身爲女性總裁的自己講話的情形。隨着她成功扭轉公司業績，他們之間的沉默之牆才逐漸瓦解。

“When you are a woman you are put to a test,” she says. “You are measured by the results that you deliver.”

“你是女人，就會經受考驗，”她說，“你的價值由你做出的成績衡量。”

Backed by her experience — which later included a stint heading the Japanese unit of Starbucks Ms Corrales, from the Philippines, has returned to Japan for a new role as mentor to a group of budding female entrepreneurs. “A lot of things have changed. It is like a renaissance in Japan for women,” Ms Corrales says.

科拉萊斯來自菲律賓。她後來還短暫領導過星巴克(Starbucks)日本分公司一段時間。因爲她的經歷，如今她再次以新的身份回到日本，爲一批嶄露頭角的女性創業者擔任導師。“世易時移。如今的日本像處於’女性復興時期‘，”科拉萊斯說。

Much of the change is driven by prime minister Shinzo Abe’s push for more women to be in the workforce. If he succeeds in closing the gender gap in employment, Goldman Sachs estimates it would boost Japan’s gross domestic product by almost 13 per cent.

大部分變化源於日本首相安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)推動更多女性進入職場的努力。高盛(Goldman Sachs)估計，如果他能成功地消除就業中的性別差距，這將爲日本國內生產總值(GDP)帶來近13%的增長。

Despite this, efforts to promote more women to senior roles have still to inspire women to become entrepreneurs. In the last financial year, only 16 per cent of new businesses were started by women, according to Japan Finance Corporation, the government-owned bank.

儘管如此，推動更多女性擔任高級職位的努力仍未能激發女性創業。日本國有銀行——日本政策金融公庫(Japan Finance Corporation)的數據顯示，上一財年，僅有16%的新公司由女性創辦。

“One of the things [Japanese women] face is access to women role models both in leadership and mentoring in different skill sets,” says Rena De Sisto, international corporate social responsibility executive at Bank of America. She heads a global mentoring programme for women leaders co-organised with Vital Voices, a non-profit organisation for empowering women.

“（日本女性）面臨的問題之一是，在各行各業缺乏女性領導者和導師做楷模，”美國銀行(Bank of America)國際企業社會責任執行官雷娜德西斯托(Rena De Sisto)說。她領導着一個由爲女性賦權的非盈利組織“關鍵聲音”(Vital Voices)參與組織的女性領導者全球指導項目。

When the programme, launched in 2012, held an event in Tokyo last month, 70 women applied for 11 slots. Ms Corrales cancelled her travel plans to apply for the role of mentor. She is now coaching managing director Yuki Uchida, 32, in shaping her business strategy at Re:public, which supports innovation in companies and cities.

當這一2012年發起的項目上月在東京舉行活動時，有70名女性申請11個名額。爲了擔任導師，科拉萊斯取消了自己的旅行計劃。現在，她正在指導32歲的董事總經理內田友紀(Yuki Uchida)，幫她爲她的公司Re:public制定商業策略，該公司支持企業和城市中的創新。

“We’re at a phase many start-ups face,” Ms Uchida says. “We need to think about where we want to take the company from here and how much we want to expand.”

“我們正處於一個許多初創企業都面臨的階段，”內田說，“我們需要考慮公司要往哪個方向發展，要擴大到何種規模。”

Tamiko Hayashi, founder of Social Concierge, a non-profit organisation promoting sustainable lifestyles with online magazines and shops, says the hurdle for her is the lack of know-how in gaining access to capital. Through the programme, she has learnt how to approach bankers to finance the expansion of her business.

Social Concierge是一家以在線雜誌和商店促進可持續生活方式的非盈利機構，其創始人林民子(Tamiko Hayashi)說，自己的障礙在於缺乏獲得資本的技巧。通過這一項目，她學會了如何與銀行家打交道，爲企業擴張融資。

Analysts say the low level of entrepreneurial activity in Japan also stems from attitudes towards start-ups, including the fear of failure. A report last year from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which analyses early stage start-up activity, respondents in Japan expressed a fear-of-failure rate of 54.5 per cent compared with 43 per cent in the UK and 34 per cent in the US.

分析師表示，日本創業活動不活躍還源於對創業的態度，包括對失敗的恐懼。分析早期創業活動的《全球創業觀察》(Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)去年發佈的一份報告顯示，在日本，表示恐懼失敗的受訪者的比例爲54.5%，而英國的這一比例爲43%，美國的爲34%。

As part of her mentoring role, Ms Corrales also sought to ease Ms Uchida’s fears about her prospects and her capabilities. “You have to believe in yourself. We are put on the job because people think we are capable of doing it,” she says.

作爲導師角色的一部分，科拉萊斯還要設法緩解內田對自己前途和能力的擔憂。“你必須相信自己。我們被推上這一崗位，因爲人們認爲我們有能力做好，”她說。

Looking back, Ms Corrales says she would not have accepted her jobs at Levi Strauss and Starbucks had she been offered a No 2 position: “When you are at the top, you set the tone in your organisation.”

回憶過往，科拉萊斯說，如果當時讓她擔任公司二把手，她不會接受自己在李維斯和星巴克的職位：“當你擔任一把手時，就可以爲組織定下基調。”