The components of successful women leadership

On November 19, 2016 in Astana a conference "Women's Entrepreneurship Day: co-creation and cooperation" in the framework of the global initiative Women's Entrepreneurship Day (WED) was held. Dana Inkarbekova, Managing Partner, PwC Kazakhstan took part in the forum as a speaker.

This year Kazakhstan has joined the global initiative of the WED for the first time. WED is aimed to support women in their social and economic development, promote women in business, share success stories and inspire other woman to spark their ideas and start a new business.

The inaugural event was held on November 19, 2014 in New York City. Later, on the initiative of the United Nations, November 19 was declared Women's Entrepreneurship Day. Thus, this year Kazakhstan became part of a global initiative of the Women's Entrepreneurship Day, which is celebrated in 144 countries.

Mrs. Inkarbekova’s speech was devoted to the components of the success of women's leadership. Dana came to the company in 1994 as an intern and in 2006 she became a Partner, and in 2015 she was appointed as the Managing Partner of PwC in Kazakhstan. Now she runs the company, whose staff consists of more than 500 people.

Among the components of success Dana noted such qualities as the active position, a positive attitude to life, a clear picture of yourself, the integrity, the ability to enjoy work. And most importantly, it was noted that all these qualities are inborn. "It's a question of attitude to yourself and to the world. Doing what is interesting, what you know the best, what you do best - is one of the main components of success "- said Dana.

Also in her speech, Dana highlighted that PwC has a huge number of programs and activities aimed at strengthening the position of women in business, for employees and customers, dedicated to personal development, career development, and leadership. Also she mentioned the importance of mentoring institution.

Indeed PwC supports gender equality. Recently, PwC and UN Women launched online course on gender equality called Building Gender IQ.  It is a part of a global solidarity campaign HeForShe, where talented young actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson serves as the public face.

HeForShe aims to engage men as agents of change to take action against negative inequalities faced by women in different areas: from education and violence against women to equal employment opportunities.

In addition to interesting speeches of successful women, during the panel session WED participants discussed women's entrepreneurship support programs implemented by the EBRD, Entrepreneurship Support Fund "Damu", UNDP in Kazakhstan. Another panel discussion “Do business and leadership have a gender?” provoked hot debates among speakers and audience.

Also participants had a chance to participate in foresight session, networking activities and get prizes from WED sponsors and partners.

Merey Mustafina, WED organizer, networking expert and Fryday Astana project manager, expressed her hope that this event will be an excellent starting point to launch new projects, and next WED would be promising and exciting as well.