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DISCUSSION
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What's on your mind?
Packaging Horizons
What Is Your Leadership Style?
Twenty-first century women leaders in the packaging industry face different challenges than their predecessors. Their experiences, their families, their education, and yes, their gender, shape the type of leader they have become. What makes their roads so unique is their personal approach. Each of us has our own style and way of doing things. The important lesson is to recognize our technique and capitalize on it!
Maria Dubuc, President, Marketing By Design, Beverly, Massachusetts
Q. What is the most significant difference you see in your leadership style as a women at the helm of your company?
A. As a woman leader I tend to work harder to get noticed. I am more careful to consider people’s feelings when making difficult decisions. I am open to change (I will listen to any argument for or against a particular subject). I carefully weigh all the options before I make a decision. I think I am also more understanding and flexible when people need time for personal and family issues. Also, in my case, and in general, I’ve seen that women are more able to multitask than men, and in our business that is very important.
Q. What advice would you give to the women in the future generation of business professionals?
A. Surround yourself with strong men and women — people who believe in you and people whom you can trust. Then empower them. Do not ‘micromanage’ or try to be involved in everything. If you do, you are sure to fail. Hold onto the people in your life who are self-motivated, hard workers — those who hold themselves accountable, and who do what they say they are going to do and do it well.
Maria Dubuc can be reached via e-mail at mdubuc@mbdesign.com, phone (978) 922-9199 or web site www.mbdesign.com.
Selvaggia Malvezzi, Marketing, VMM, Milano, Italy
Q. What is the most significant difference you see in your leadership style as a women at the top of your company?
A. Service, flexibility and listening to our customer’s needs. Our customers trust us because what they are asking us to produce is “our daily bread” and therefore no experiments are done with their money!
Q. What special skill sets do you bring to the table as a woman leader?
A. Pragmatism and asking questions. Being a woman, where women are rare makes me ask questions about routines which sometimes make men stop and think before they continue doing what they have been doing all their lives in exactly the same steps and moves.
Q. At any point in the progress of your career, did you feel like you needed to be ahead of the curve because of the position you were to assume within the company?
A. Not yet! My father still has the reins and should be exactly where he is as he knows what he is doing ... even if he is not a woman! :-)
Q. How did you get ahead of the curve?
A. I’m not there yet, and maybe I will never be there officially. But I think I’m getting some influence on the captains ... slowly, by following them and learning from their mistakes.
Q. As a woman in a male dominated industry, what obstacles did you encounter that only proved to make you a stronger leader?
A. I am a woman and young. The result is that I get laughed at most of the times and not listened to. So what? Let them believe the ideas you submit to the captains are theirs. Let them think their idea is the glory, but then you get them to achieve your plans and goals.
Q. What advice would you give to the women in the future generation of business professionals?
A. Don’t feel sorry that you are a woman and don’t try to be like a man. Be as different as you can. Outcasts make the difference.
Q. What makes you tick?
A. I’m a simple and ingenuous Italian woman in packaging, who dreams to make her dad’s business conquer the world. My perfect dream is to see dispensers on every corner and street of the world, like the beverage and Coca Cola ones, that in return for coins they give you VMM labels! Labels for your parties, and picnics, and labels for your private wine production.
Selvaggia Malvezzi can be reached at marketing@vmm.it, phone 0248011996 or web site www.vmm.it.
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