Head's Up: International Women's Day Special
Welcome back to an all-new Head’s Up. Despite significant progress having achieved to improve workplace opportunities for women across the world, the pandemic that has stretched for over 2 years has also significantly impaired progress in the workplace.
A study by McKinsey showed that Covid-19 dealt a major setback to women in workplace across America, particularly among women of colour, working mothers and women in senior management positions. In Malaysia, the lack of advancement opportunities has been observed across various sectors. The 30% Club Malaysia reported a 2% decline in women representation on the top 100 public listed boards in 2018 from previous year.
Head’s Up aims to continue publishing more female founders and champions across different sectors. In our International Women’s Day special, we speak to PC Gan, Country Manager of Homage Malaysia. She shares a her journey, challenges women face in corporate and the future she envisions for women in the workforce.
But just before you go on to read her thoughts, here’s a recap of previous interviews with women leaders.
We spoke to the founders of Good & Honest Co. (G&H), Inga Jawahir and Anna Loi, a duo of young, dedicated, and passionately tech-savvy team on the importance of having the right PR services for startups and founders.
For further reading, click here
Deborah Henry, the founder of Fugeelah shares her commitment and drive to raise awareness on conscious fashion here.
Bavita Dhillon, the founder of Bavitaeats and Co-Founder of Big Wieners KL shares with us her start in the F&B field, the challenges she has faced and what lessons she has learnt along the way here.
Viviantie Sarjuni, General Manager of SCEIC shares initiatives and efforts taken on by the newly minted Sabah Creative Economy and Innovation Centre to aid startups in the land below the wind here.
Could you share a little on your journey to where you are now?
I started off my career as a certified accountant. When you’re the firstborn in an Asian household, you tend to gravitate following in your parents' footsteps and measuring up to a certain expectation. That served to my advantage because it molded my character and shaped my identity with the ability to discern heart, clarity and focus.
In the early days of my career with the financial background, I quickly realized I had a penchant for numbers and data which drew me in with how I viewed efficiency and returns to businesses. My past roles have given me diverse growth journeys starting out from corporate life in a multi-national company to now scaling growth in multiple startups. I love the agility and direct impact we have in creating value and significance for not just people but within the space itself.
What inspires you to keep growing?
For most of my career, whether I liked to admit it or not, money was one of the biggest motivating factors. It gave me the satisfaction of knowing that I can provide a better quality of life for my family which made it all worthwhile.
In my career journey, Homage was a defining turning point because I was able to be a catalyst to serve a larger purpose beyond my own. Just as how I could improve the livelihood of my family, I now have the privilege to improve the lives of other by setting a higher standard of care for Malaysians.
This has kept me going since and I hope to be able to see the impact I’m making in my lifetime take shape to leave a legacy for generations to come.
What more can companies do to keep encouraging more women to step into bigger roles?
In the last century, we’ve seen the how a woman’s role has taken big strides from not being allowed in the workplace to leading change in industries as a whole. Developing meaningful equity policies at the workplace means looking past the physical ability between genders and to drill deeper into what is means to be an equitable individual, no matter the gender.
I am a big advocate of working moms returning to the workforce. Often times, women are forced to make the sacrifice to give up their career aspirations to care for their children at home. I aspire to see the day when assumed societal gender roles —where men should the sole breadwinner, women should learn to juggle career and family — will be the thing of the past.
In order for a business to thrive, the company would need all the experiences and knowledge they can leverage on. Personally, I believe in setting the tone for a balanced workplace. Some things that we’ve put in place are ensuring flexible work hours for expecting mothers, providing the option for remote work, and intentionally ensuring 50% of the management team is represented by women.
Challenges faced by women in corporate. Any particular challenge you have faced?
When I was working in the automotive industry, it was daunting being the only woman in a male dominated industry and I always set it upon myself to never let people perceive you differently or put you in a box just because I was a woman. There were also times when I realized I was the only woman on a panel or in the boardroom. Over the years, these experiences have really taught me to rise above to never conform to what people think and to be mindful about creating a healthy environment for employees.
What future you envision for women in the workforce?
A future where family and household commitments are a shared responsibility, and not a role that is fully subjected to women solely because of their gender.
There are already so little of us in the marketplace and we need women to create a well-balanced organization. We should not downplay our impact to individuals, society and the nation. With that, women who are in decision-making positions ought to create a support system that recognises the balance by creating equity within the organisation and more importantly, a safe space for them to grow with no boundaries and limitations.
What are you doing actively to mentor young women?
During the pre-COVID days, I was intentional in playing a part in forums that facilitate deeper conversations about women in tech to share and resonate with women individuals within the space. In my local church, I am also involved in mentoring young women in their career choices from questions about the marketplace to interview skills.
What I have observed is that we generally do not have problems with skillsets. Often times in my conversations, we need to believe and take that first step in order to live out our fullest potential.
With over 15 years’ experience in building companies from the ground-up and managing more than 300 employees across myriad business operations and digital transformation areas, PC has now fully set her sights on disrupting healthcare. Prior to joining Homage, she helmed the operations of many startups within a variety of industries – which include online aggregators, job portals, e-commerce and automotive; all of which provided tangible solutions for pressing real-world needs.
Head’s Up invites women from across industries to share their thoughts and experience with us on the challenges they face in the workplace and how companies and the government can further improve through better policies and advocacy.
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I'm so proud of you Viviantie Sarjuni!
happy international women's day everyone!