Ms. Adverthinker

Entrepreneurs must be a little more creative if they want to start a new business in a tough economy.  As a result, we see more businesses fill niche needs.  Enter Rent the Runway, a “Netflix model for haute couture” according to the New York Times:

“The mail-order service, which finishes the testing phase on Monday, allows women to rent dresses from notable fashion designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger and Proenza Schouler for roughly one-tenth of what they would cost to buy in a retail store.

“The rentals run $50 to $200 for a four-night loan and are shipped directly to the customer’s doorstep. After wearing the dress, she puts it into a prepaid envelope and drops it in the mail. Dry cleaning is included in the price, but damage insurance costs $5, and in the case of outright destruction of the dress, the renter is responsible for the full retail price.”

This is pretty exciting.  Granted, rental of dresses has been available for sometime.  But local rental selections aren’t always the best and there is that whole physical shopping thing to deal with (I am almost exclusively an online shopper).  An online rental that allows for easy returns is definitely a turn on.

The ladies who started this business are smart: they are only allowing for limited “membership” at this point.  When you make something exclusive, not only do even more people want to participate, but it also assures that you can walk into a party and know that not everyone there will have seen and shopped the same dresses you did.  As the business starts to take off and membership grows, I would like to see an ability to “register” your dress for the event to which you are wearing it, effectively blocking anyone else from renting that same style for the same event.  I also hope that they will incorporate customer reviews of the dresses to help those on the fence as to a particular style decide (I love this feature on Zappos.com).

I signed up to be put on the waiting list for membership at Rent the Runway.  Sigh.

Congratulations on the 25th anniversary.  I am proud that Arkansas has a respected business publication, and I appreciate the news and features in the weekly editions of Arkansas Business.  Thank you for your contributions to the state and its business population.

I am writing to respond to 25th Anniversary Edition’s list of “25 for the Future.” I was stunned by the lack of female representatives on this list: 3.5 women and 21.5 men (half designations for the #22 split).  Surely someone noticed this unbalanced distribution as the selections were made (using what I have to assume was the official criteria of “likely to impact the state based on their family wealth and position, and others have just exhibited a spark of potential”)?

I don’t believe that finding future-thinking women with a “spark of potential” would have been difficult.  Women make up 51% of the state’s population.  The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas has an Emerging Leaders program.  I work with many bright and talented women in business around the state everyday.  Chamber leadership programs are conducted around the state and include both men and women.

Please understand that I do not think that the men on the list are undeserving of the designation.  Most of the honorees certainly deserve the recognition.  I am simply disappointed by what comes across as an old-fashioned point-of-view about business and leadership, rather than the progressive one I know this state aspires to achieve.

Coming soon to Ms. Adverthinker: profiles and interviews with women who will shape Arkansas’s future.

Sincerely,

Ms. Adverthinker

UPDATE: Arkansas Business has pointed out that they included a list of “25 Women Leaders” in the 25th Anniversary Edition as well.  While this is a good thing, this does not counterbalance the “25 for the Future” list; if anything, it is the counterpart to the “25 Living Legends” (a list including only one woman, which is understandable as it is representation of the past).  In this 25th Anniversary edition, the “25 for the Future” was given prominent placement, which is, of course, why it will receive the most criticism.  I maintain my opinion that the balance men to women on the “future” list is severely lacking.

As I noted above, Arkansas Business is welcoming your feedback, which is impressive.  Tell them what you think of the lists.

“No matter which services you choose, the most important point is simply to use video.  Too many companies don’t have clips showing their products, their philosophies, or simple news announcements by their CEOs.  Business is a conversation, and video is increasingly how that conversation takes place.” — summary of an article in this month’s Fast Company that talks all about the various ways video can be used by businesses.

When making a job switch, women are more likely to bring their success with them to the new company. Unlike men. At least according to an article in this month’s Harvard Business Review:

“Unlike their male counterparts, female stars (189 women, 18% of the star analysts in the original study) who switched firms performed just as well, in the aggregate, as those that stayed put.”

“Though female stars adopt these career strategies as a way to overcome institutionalized norms that put them at a disadvantage, their strategies are not a second-best alternative. Rather, they constitute a powerful skill set from which any manager would do well to learn. The star performer study focused on one labor market–Wall Street analysts–but the challenges these women face are similar to those in other knowledge-based industries, such as management consulting, health care, public relations, advertising and the law. Some of the female stars’ actions were designed to help them advance within their firms, and only incidentally increased their portability; others were deliberately adopted to ensure that they would be able to succeed elsewhere. Either way, the strategies of star women can help both men and women enhance their ability to shine in any setting.”

What makes the difference? Why are women more capable of building skills that can travel from one employer to the next?

(1) They focus on building relationships outside their current firm, rather that relying on internal relationships. “By contrast, male analysts built up greater firm- and team-specific human capital, investing more in the internal networks and unique capabilities and resources of the firms where they worked.”

(2) They take greater care when assessing a prospective employer. “They evaluated their options more cautiously and analyzed a wider range of factors than men did before deciding to uproot themselves from a company where they were already successful.  Female star analysts, it would seem, take their work environment more seriously yet rely on it less than male stars do.  They look for a firm that will allow them to keep building their successful franchises their own way.”

Although it unacknowledged, the bottom line is that there is still sexism in the workplace.  To overcome this persistent inequality, women must employ “creative strategies” to succeed.  One of these creative strategies is finding a wardrobe balance.  As ridiculous as this is, “women in positions of authority, from Washington to Wall Street, face fashion scrutiny that’s so intense it can border on comical,” according to an article in the Wall Street Journal last week.

“The attention brought to clothing is a two-edged sword for authoritative women everywhere.  A style misstep can be career-limiting.  Yet paying too much attention to one’s appearance risks accusations of frivolity–which is equally career-limiting.”

With the challenges that face women in the workplace, it is a wonder we have ever succeeded.  But women are intuitive, smart, and adaptive; if we figure out what we want, we will figure out how to get it.  I have seen the evidence.  Our agency, Stone Ward, is woman-owned and Millie Ward has overcome these challenges to build a successful advertising agency.  And, I am proud that we have a viable female candidate for president this year.  Maybe one day we won’t have to have discussions about the different challenges that men verses women face in the workplace; instead we will just have discussions about workplace challenges.