Vow 2 Brief Intro

The Vision of Women (VOW) Project ROUND 2 ABOUT ‘VOW’

‘ VOW’ stands for Vision of Women, Value of Women, Voice of Women, Visibility of Women, Vitality of Women, and many more. The word ‘VOW’ itself speaks of the seriousness of the commitment women take in fighting for a world where all members of society, women AND men, support an environment where women have equal opportunities in leadership, in business, in development, and in every aspect of the society.

The ‘VOW’ project is a British government run project that looks at providing a platform to link forward-thinking young Chinese female professionals with British business leaders, with a purpose to exchange experience and establish mutual support to create a strong network for sustaining and developing modern female leadership. This network combines senior members in the British and Chinese governments and businesses, experts and academics in female leadership development, key opinion leaders (KOL), media, and most importantly, young female professionals who are in mid to senior management positions who have a desire to further their leadership vision, skills and practice.

ABOUT ‘VOW’ ROUND 1 The ‘VOW’ project Round 1 (led by British Consulate-General Shanghai and implemented by the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai) saw five young rising female entrepreneurs from Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces assigned to top Chinese and British business leaders for a

2-and-half-week-in-total1 work experience in China and the UK. Those leaders included Mr Jack MA, Founder of Alibaba Group (Zhejiang), Ms Huaizhen YANG, President of Sanpower Group (Jiangsu), Ms Xiaoyan ZHENG, Chairwoman of Hefei Department Store Group Co., Ltd., (Anhui), Sir Richard Branson, Founder and Chairman of Virgin Group, Ms Anna Manz, Group Strategy Director of Diageo, Ms Angela Brav, Chief Executive of IHG Europe, Ms Mei Shui, Managing Director of Virgin StartUp, and Ms Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money. As part of the ‘VOW’ project, CCTV1 programme (‘Let’s Talk’) filmed a session featuring female leadership in the UK, which reached an audience of over 100 million. This project sent out a strong message that young females, especially those in the 2nd and 3rd tier cities, can be aspired and supported to leadership positions.

1 The programme in each province was 2 days long, and one and half week in the UK.

The VOW-ers met Harriet Baldwin MP, former Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Shanghai, Sep 2015. From left to right: Tingting Yang, Project Lead, British Consulate Shanghai, Kasen Xia(Jiangsu), Haiyan Yu (Zhejiang), Yvonne Huang (Jiangsu), Harriet Baldwin MP, Rebecca Shao (Jiangsu), Echo Zhang (Anhui), Angela Lock, Project implementer, British Chamber Shanghai.

Influential speakers spoke of female leadership on CCTV ‘Let’s Talk’(“ 开讲啦”). From left to right: Mr Jack Ma, Alibaba, Mr Shi Wang, China Vanke and Ms Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Virgin Money, King’s College London, Oct 2015.

ABOUT ‘VOW’ ROUND 2 The project will identify 100 rising female entrepreneurs and mid to senior management level female professionals from Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai. The successful candidates will be assigned to renowned British companies with a strong female leadership scheme. The leaders of these British companies would be ‘VOW Ambassadors’, who would showcase and inspire participants to further their leadership skills and strengthen their unique leadership styles. A two- day leadership programme would be provided in Shanghai, which contains a half-day training course at the British Consulate and a 1.5-day hands-on experience completing a challenging task in the assigned company with one supporting ‘VOW Ambassador’.

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By the end of the programme in Shanghai, all 100 participants are required to complete a female- focused project proposal, either to improve female leadership within their own enterprise or to help with women’s development in their communities. Each project should be designed to practice the participant’s learnt leadership skills and have a fund of minimum 50,000 RMB sorted to support the implementation. The project should be backed by the participant’s organisation and its senior management team.

A week-long ‘VOW Plus’ programme in the UK would then be open to eligible candidates amongst the 100 participants with a fantastic agenda to experience the best of Britain: meeting senior government officials in the British government, touring around the Parliament, speaking to inspiration business leaders, and a rare opportunity to be taken outside of London to see UK’s regional cities.2

- Entry Criteria

 25-35 of age (flexible to 40) and passionate about diversity

 Mid to senior level in the organisation

 Familiar with the UK (studied in UK before, or have business dealings with the UK)

 Have a clear desire to aspire to a more senior leadership position

 Interested in developing a more equal environment for women

 Need to have endorsement of the CxO of the organisation

 Good English skills preferred

The application process closes on 16 September 2016 at 5pm, Beijing time.

- The ‘VOW’ Female Leadership Programme

A typical 2-day session (each session holds 25 max participants):

0.5 day, - Consul-General welcome - Group discussion British - FCO’s values and concepts of leadership - Compare notes on Consulate- and diversity the pre-course General homework Shanghai - Leadership training half-day course - Active participation in

2 Candidates who are interested need to apply to attend ‘VOW Plus’ programme. Good English is a must. ‘VOW Plus’ is organised by the ‘VOW’ project team and will cover the programme cost (venue hire, local transportation and work meals). Candidates need to cover their own expenses including international flights and accommodation. ‘VOW Plus’ can only accommodate a maximum of15 participants. More details will be shared with the 100 VOW participants in due course.

the training

1.5 day, - meet ‘VOW Ambassador’ - Divided into 4-5 Field study smaller groups - ‘VOW Ambassador’ introduces their company value on diversity leadership - Group discussion

- ‘VOW Ambassador’ sets a task for - Set up project participants and offers strategic advice strategy

- Group discussion with the support from - Allocate individual senior staff from hosting company tasks

- Presentations - Complete tasks

- VOW Ambassador’s comments - Group presentation

- Graduation ceremony - Wrap up discussion *This is a provisional schedule.

- Project Schedule:

Late July Project Launch

August  Recruitment participants

 Confirm ‘VOW Ambassadors’

 Confirm ‘VOW participants’ name list. According to availability, each participant will be assigned to one of four working groups. September,  Set pre-course homework for the 100 participants to prepare (self intro, October company intro, female-focused project design ideas etc). Participants start communication with assigned VOW Ambassadors.

 Complete four leadership programmes in China, 2 days per programme, each working group only attends 1 programme.

 Participants complete individual female-focused project design and start their projects.

 Interested participants apply to ‘VOW Plus’ UK programme (max 15 percipients), state expectation and contribution. November  Complete the one-week ‘VOW Plus’ UK Programme leadership programme in London and one UK regional city. December  ‘ VOW Shanghai Declaration’ to coincide with 2016 ‘China-UK People-to- People Dialogue’ in Shanghai, 5th Dec. *This is a provisional schedule.

- Project Goals:

1. A business network of 300+ female leadership enthusiasts including: 100 young female professionals and their supporting company senior leaders, 8-10 ‘VOW Ambassadors’ who are senior leaders from renowned British businesses, British and Chinese government senior members, academics, key opinion leaders and media. 2. One joint declaration: CxOs of participating companies and all participants of VOW will jointly pledge their VOW to supporting, establishing and maintaining a female leadership network, whose mission is to sustain and develop a more diverse environment for women to be in senior positions and to grow their female leadership styles. 3. One collaborative female leadership fund of a minimum of 5,000,000RMB will be kick start.

4. Potentially, the VOW project round 2 will produce an initial analysis of Chinese (Eastern China) internationalising companies needs for female leadership, their readiness in female leadership development.

The British Consulate is taking the initiative in female leadership development as a response to HMA Dame Barbara Woodward’s call on diversity. The intention of this Bilateral-funded project is to lay foundation and appeal for a broader support from both UK and China network. We highly appreciate your participation and we look forward to forming a more balanced society with you.

Contacts

Tingting YANG 仰婷婷

Project Lead

Head of Regional Cities Team, British Consulate-General Shanghai

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Shu XIE 谢姝 Project Implementer Email: [email protected]; [email protected]