Columbia Women in Business (CWIB), the largest club at the School, drew more than 650 participants to its 13th annual conference. This year’s theme was “Impact of the Individual: Power of the Network.”
The February 24 conference gave students, alumni and business professionals an opportunity to establish contacts and exchange ideas with women who have followed diverse career paths, from leading communications start-ups to managing hedge funds. Geraldine Laybourne, the founder and CEO of Oxygen Media, gave the keynote address. She explained why she decided to leave a successful career in children’s programming at Nickelodeon — she created and managed the brand and launched Nick at Nite — for the risky venture of developing a new network.
“I saw a sociological shift in progress for women,” Laybourne said. She said she founded Oxygen “partly because I could, and partly because I believed it was time for women to own and operate a network.” That sociological shift, she explained, was a desire for programming that respected women’s intelligence and interests, and was also entertaining. According to her studies, 74 percent of women rate themselves as funny — or very funny. However, the network made some early missteps, she said. “We gave women stellar role models,” which is not what her audience was looking for.
Oxygen’s earliest content was too strident and earnest, the same mistake she had made in her early efforts to develop children’s shows for Nickelodeon. But she advised the audience not to be too afraid of failures. “Flop early, and flop often,” she said. “You learn so much more from an early mistake than an early success.” She also described the changes that have taken place since she launched her business career. “My generation of women, we did have to struggle,” she said. Today’s women “really come into the world with a much more optimistic attitude, a much higher expectation that they will be able to do things.”
Management styles typically regarded as “female” have not only become accepted but also admired, Laybourne said. “Women have a distinctly different management style,” she said, one which creates a structure in which all participants win. “The leadership abilities that are respected in the 21st century all have feminine qualities.”
Diana Taylor ’80, the superintendent of banks for the New York State Banking Department, received the 10th annual Distinguished Alumna Award. She called for the financial community to support microfinance initiatives, particularly in the United States. “Microfinance is not a panacea,” she said. Yet “it is both economically right and financially sound.” The vast majority of borrowers repay microfinance loans, Taylor said. As borrowers begin to achieve some security, “these new patrons could prove very profitable as a customer base.”
Taylor has also served as New York’s deputy secretary for finance and housing, chief financial officer for the Long Island Power Authority and a founding partner of M.R. Beal & Company, an investment banking firm specializing in municipal bonds. Surveying the sold-out auditorium in Lerner Hall, she noted, “I remember, when I was a student here, wondering if anyone was ever going to hire me.” The conference included workshops on managing international careers, networking for entrepreneurs, the future of hedge funds, leadership strategies and managing financial success.
CWIB has more than 8,000 alumnae and hosts events throughout the year that focus on networking, support and guidance.
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