There is one sentence that keeps coming up to me: ‘I’m spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world’. This is a great metaphor that I would like to use for the first 100 days of presence of Women on Wings in India.
It is good to be here, because there is a lot going on the Indian social sector. Discussions about reconsidering the eco-system of social investment, social entrepreneurship, impact investment etc. are going on every day and Women on Wings now can join these discussions. We can decide where we can add most value in this system and which partners and companies are good for us to collaborate. Women on Wings is an accelerator for growth in revenue and jobs in a company and shares the broad business experience of its network of Dutch experts with her clients. And so far with success: more than 81,000 jobs have been created. The target for this year is at least to reach the magic milestone of 100,000 jobs.
We broaden our network of clients, partners and prospects and we work more intensively with our existing client base. More frequent contact by phone or through visits and regular meetings turn out to be highly effective. After the success of our 2 day-workshop for our clients about Social Media in 2012, we are now organizing an interactive Trend Summit workshop next September. Because knowledge and understanding about the outside world, market and consumers help our clients in their own marketing, positioning and activities.
The Indian Government’s “Corporate Social Responsibility – Companies Bill 2012” brings new opportunities. The new Companies Bill made it mandatory for Indian companies to report on how much they spend on CSR every year. If companies spend less than 2% of their average net profit over the last three years, they are required to explain the reasons. India is the first nation in the world to frame such legislation. No CEO will be in the position that he/she has to explain why the company didn’t spend its 2%. Women on Wings can advise and support companies on their CSR policy and how to create jobs for women in rural India.
Maria van de Heijden, co-founder of Women on Wings, is joining the Dutch Trade Mission from 2-6 September to India with Minister Liliane Ploumen. Another opportunity to strengthen our network in India and The Netherlands.
With our Dutch attitude we expect immediate result from what we are doing. But in India it will take time. Time to build up relationships, time to reach your appointment despite traffic or heavy rain, time because it is Indian Stretched Time (IST). India is built on relationships. Every good relation will open doors to new interesting relations. That’s why Women on Wings is now in India. In the changing environment of the social sector, a review and restructure of the social eco-system in a challenging economic situation and with elections in 2014, it makes it worth to be here in India.
Till now there are a lot of silk threads, some finished but most just started spinning. But they will all be used for weaving a large network that will ultimately help realize our goal: 1 million jobs for women in rural India.
