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How to resolve AdBlock issue? Small Giants Academy helps drive women’s equity and excellence
By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>
GENDER EQUALITY is now a major issue for companies everywhere. But what sort of companies would agree to it?
Tamsin Jones, an expert in women’s leadership, an advocate for equity in boardrooms, a strategic advisor – and she is currently the head of programs at Small Giants Academy – is seeing certain companies and organisations embracing it.
Examples include Coles, Rio Tinto and the Department of Defence.
Ms Jones is leading the Mastery of Business and Empathy program — a 10-month MBA alternative that puts empathy at the heart of leadership, business and economics. 
“We (Small Giants Academy) are interested in bringing all perspectives into board rooms, C-suites, organisations and seeing how that might help us serve both our customers well but also serve the societal issues we are facing,” Ms Jones told Talking Business.
“It’s this idea that we want to be in our ecological boundaries, because that’s going to be a safe place for us to live in, and we also want to build social foundations.
“Business plays a role in both of those things and we can only do that if we bring different perspectives, viewpoints, understandings, around the table,” she said.
“Maybe to some people they feel this is not the role of business but I think ever since business was established as a concept, it always had a role of creating the kind of society we want to live in. It’s an important engine.”
Bringing best perspectives, ideas
This means the work Ms Jones does now is bringing the best perspectives, viewpoints and ideas. However, this was not just about reinventing board rooms but also organisational structures and ways of doing things.
“Many businesses see their organisations as a group of people,” Ms Jones said. “They see an opportunity to motivate end engage their people but also create a bigger impact in the world.
“We tend to get, at Small Giants, a lot of people sitting in senior roles saying I want to do things that will put us in a better place as a business, more sustainable, but also us responding to the challenges that we are seeing in the world.
“They tend to come from all over the place. From many different companies, like Coles, Rio Tinto, Defence as well as community organisations, platforms for renewable energy.
“Everyone coming in has a different perspective on what that means to them,” she said.
“Some of them want to leave a legacy that’s in line with their values and what needs to be done. Others want to create organisations that are built off a future system that might work more effectively than the current one we have.”
Cater better for women
Ms Jones said companies such as Coles and certain insurance businesses understood that a lot of their clients and stakeholders are women.
“They are really creating deep insights,” she said.
“Women are 50% of the population so it’s useful to consider whether their viewpoints are different. With businesses, you don’t want to be behind on those things.
“You want to be ahead of the curve so things like C-suite boardrooms, (and) seeing your customers as stakeholders, these things can help you design a business and run a business that is serving and responding to your stakeholder groups.” 
Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness
https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-2-interview-with-tamsin-jones-from-small-gi