Written by
Cynthia van de Moosdijk
Owner of Pelican Worldwide
When writing this item, I got inspired by recent media attention about women at the top positions within organizations. I must confess I never thought of it as something unique, but when these thoughts are projected onto my own company, it seemed that we are already more than fulfilling the new desire to have more women at leadership positions in businesses.
We as Pelican Worldwide have actually never focused on this topic specifically in our selection procedures. I am a strong believer in the best person for the position. I am glad more and more women are comfortable enough to respond to the same positions as men, which led to a substantial amount of women at the top within Pelican.
For example, Pelican Asia is run by women. Pelican Singapore has a female director, who runs Pelican Singapore in all aspects and is even Pelican’s top responsible person for the whole of our Asian market.
Pelican Wuxi’s assistant general manager (also a top position) is a woman as well, who is responsible for daily operations in our Pelican Wuxi factory. Warehouse manager in Wuxi? Female. Heads of accounting in Singapore, China, Turkey and America? All females. Leader Product Management division in The Netherlands? You guessed it: female.
As mentioned above, I never gave it much thought until the female leaders discussion gained more attention over the past years. I remember when I took a management position in the company of my father, I knew it would be hard work to prove myself both as a daughter and sibling as well as a woman. However, this was more related to my own personal feelings; never to feeling the pressure to do so. My father always judged me for my capabilities, never because of gender. I never felt like I was being held back because of my gender, which is fantastic and a privilege, now that I look back on it.
When selecting new staff members, ‘Personality’ is the most important asset in an interview for me. The personal click must be there. You can possess all the skills and diplomas, but if you are not capable of understanding other people or if you like to gossip or try to downgrade others then Pelican is not the place for you.
Is that our female touch? Maybe it is. I have never classified it as such. It is just the way how I want to run this business and how I like to treat people. We expect that from others within our company as well. This is the path I, and we, choose to follow!
