At the heart of our innovation lies the people that we serve. As a global citizen, Lenovo works to provide smarter technology for all. The word “all” meaning everyone - across all ages, genders, nationalities, abilities and ethnicities.
In particular, getting the gender balance right is still a challenge, with too few women considering a career in technology. We aim to show why technology is a great career choice for women – to attract more women to our sector and build a diverse talent pool.
“The dimension of gender unites our employees across locations around the world, and yet represents one of the biggest challenges globally in and out of the workplace. Increasing the number of different voices from women and from different races and ethnicities at the executive level leads to better decisions, better products, and better business results. We are committed to continuing advancing greater diversity in all its forms across our workforce and to foster a sense of belonging with inclusive practices. Because we all feel like we belong, we can create the next wave of technology that will do amazing, smarter things – for us all.”
Yolanda Lee Conyers
Chief Diversity Officer
President, Lenovo Foundation
Women’s Forum: A conversation for women’s empowerment
The Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society is a global organization for the promotion of learning, inspiration and networking among professional females.
We are now the Global Partner of the Women’s Forum Global meeting; the event is core to our commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion around the globe.
Following our sponsorship of regional editions in Mexico City on 30th-31st May and Singapore 18th-20th September, we are proud now to support the global edition in Paris under a theme which resonates for us “taking the lead for inclusion.”
Lenovo is also contributing our expertise within the STEM sector (science, technology, engineering & maths) to the Women’s Forum Daring Circles. Our aim is to empower female leadership in STEM and to encourage young women to choose this path.
Women’s Forum:
20-22 November, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
We’re passionate about highlighting how technology is a force for good – to encourage more women to consider a career in technology, and help close the gender gap. That’s why we’re proud to sponsor the 15th Women’s Forum Global Meeting in Paris. This year we’ll have 2 key speakers: our Chief Channel Officer & Head of EMEA Operations Fiona O’Brien, as well as VP of Global Accounts WW Paul Rector, who will take part in the New York Times debate. Our Executive Director of Communications EMEA, Catherine Ladousse, will moderate the Lenovo session in the Women in STEM corner, we will also participate in the Daring Circle, and last but not least our EMEA President Francois Bornibus will attend the CEO Champions initiative and contribute to the discussion with other partners on diverse organisations of the future.
Looking back: Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society 2018
Last year around 20 Lenovo delegates attended the Forum, adding their voices to the dialogue around the 2018 theme ‘bridging humanity for inclusive progress.’ Discussing how women can make a difference and truly influence business and societal outcomes, the two-day event’s prevalent topics were the need to address unconscious bias, and act to eradicate the inherent stereotyping of the kind found in schools, businesses, and governments.
As a leading platform dedicated to highlighting women’s voices on global issues, the global meeting also presented the ideal opportunity to launch Lenovo’s first Global Diversity and Inclusion Report. The report offers a close look at our journey to emphasize our commitment to D&I among all of our stakeholders as we redefine what it means to be a truly global company. In line with our continued evolution and innovation, this year we will launch a second edition of the report at the 2019 Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society Global Meeting in Paris.
Lenovo women speak out
“When I joined Lenovo I co-founded “Women in Lenovo Leadership” (WILL) in order to encourage our female talent to grow their network, develop leadership skills and work better together. Key drivers of career success are coaching, mentoring and networking. That’s why we’ve partnered with the Women’s Forum since 2006; we’re committed to encouraging diversity and inclusion and closing the gender gap. This year, as the Global Partner, we’ve attended the Forums in Mexico and Singapore and are proud to attend Paris with our largest delegation ever; almost 50 of our female talent from 21 different countries, as well as our leaders – who are fully committed to this initiative”
Catherine Ladousse
Executive Director of Communications EMEA and Co-founder & President of Cercle InterElles network
Diversity wins with Diversitas
Diversitas is a team of Lenovo employees that promote inclusion across cultures, disabilities, LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer), immigration and more. The team was awarded the European Diversity award in 2017 for Employees resource group, actively represents Lenovo in EMEA Pride events and supports inclusion in the workplace with the award winning concept for Diversity Month.
Women leading the way
We’re continuing to increase opportunities with our Women’s Leadership Development Program. Women now represent 18.5% of Lenovo executives – an increase of more than 30% in just five years. What’s more, women are staying at Lenovo for longer and we set up precise target published in our D&I report last year to reach 20% women executives in 2020.
Diverse workforce, smarter workforce
The mission of our AI Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Project is to ensure usability for a diverse customer base; minimizing any bias inherent in the technology or product itself. So we’ve plans to invite our employees on voluntary bases to evaluate our own technologies to increase the awareness and transparency of D&I performance in our AI solutions.
We're quite the community – we’ve more than 57,000 employees living and working in more than 60 countries around the world.
Supporting diversity across EMEA
Women in Africa
For the third consecutive year we attended June’s Women in Africa event with a delegation from MEA and France, supporting the important cause for women entrepreneurship in Africa.
Colloque InterElles Paris
More than 600 delegates from across the tech industry gathered at this French yearly women’s networking event to discuss how to close the gender gap in artificial intelligence and the importance of diversity programs across the generations within our companies. The network InterElles represents 15 tech companies in France, including Lenovo, IBM, GE, Intel, ENGIE Orange, SAP & EDF.
Women in Lenovo Leadership (WILL) EMEA
Launched on International Women’s Day 2007, WILL EMEA continues to support women’s growth and skills. It now offers a newsletter, talent pool and mentoring programmes that aim to transform working conditions and nurture female progress.
Resources
Women Innovators: A Shift in Perspective
Have you thanked a woman today? You ought to. Without them, we wouldn’t have things like beer. Central heating. Windshield wipers.
Watch the video >
Love On Global Month of Service in EMEA
In May 2019 employees across EMEA came together with the common purpose of giving back to local communities. Supported by the Lenovo Foundation, the community projects helped increased access to STEM education for diverse and minority populations around the world. We delivered a total of 37 projects, partnering with 25 NGOs and schools, creating more than 800 volunteering opportunities in 21 countries.
Read more >
What #BalanceforBetter means to Lenovo employees
Each year we recognise International Women’s Day (IWD) and the progress we’re making in increasing the number of women at every level and each position in our workforce across our business. This year, in alignment with the theme Balance for Better, we hosted events with employees in local offices to continue to focus on increasing our diversity and strengthening our inclusive culture.
Read the article >
We talked to some of the women from the Lenovo delegation attending the Women’s Forum Global Meeting in Paris – a team of 46 delegates including female and male leaders and young talents. Here, a few of them talk about why diversity and inclusion is important when facing the current challenges of today.
“How can you remain a tech industry leader if you only represent a part of the world’s population? Being inclusive is the only way to give a global answer to today’s ethical and ecological challenges”
Belen Castineira de Anta
Service Delivery Manager South
“It is important that diversity and inclusion are practiced in every aspect of our life starting with the workplace. Companies with a workplace diversity and equality can gain a wider range of perspectives heard and adopted, which is crucial to answer to customers’ needs effectively and far more likely to drive innovation and thus stronger results.”
Hanane Farhane
Legal Counsel Middle East, Turkey and Africa region
“I passionately believe that it’s key for businesses to have a balance of male and female employees across all levels of the organisation, to ensure they have a diverse talent pool to foster and inspire creativity and innovation, which is not a myth in my experience and can create true value. Whilst the tide is changing there is still much work to do and every one of us has a part to play in that.”
Lisa Calder
EMEA Sales Operations Director, Global Accounts