Catalyst honors women’s initiatives from Deloitte, Campbell

Initiatives from the Campbell Soup Company, Deloitte LLP, RBC and Telstra Corporation Limited have received the 2010 Catalyst Award, which honors exceptional initiatives from companies that advance women in business.

"These initiatives exemplify our Catalyst vision, ‘Changing workplaces, changing lives’,” said Ilene H. Lang, president and chief executive officer of Catalyst. "They impact the lives of employees, families and communities by transforming organizations and serve as models that inspire and encourage others to embrace inclusive workplaces that benefit women, men and business.”

Deloitte’s "The Women’s Initiative: Living the Lattice,” builds on the success of the Task Force of the Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women. The mission of the Women’s Initiative (WIN) is to drive marketplace growth and create a culture where the best talent chooses to work. It has fueled significant increases for women in leadership: women’s representation as partners, principals, and directors has risen from 6 percent in 1995 to 22 percent in 2009, and representation of women senior managers has increased from 23 percent to 36 percent in the same timeframe. In addition, the gender turnover gap decreased from 7 percent in 1995 to less than 1 percent during 2009. Deloitte reached an additional milestone in 2009 when it surpassed the 1,000 mark for U.S. women partners, principals, and directors.

Campbell wins with women

Campbell Soup’s initiative, "Winning in the Marketplace, Winning in the Workplace, Winning With Women,” has utilized employee engagement, knowledge sharing, and innovation to develop a culture of diversity and inclusion and support the company’s overall plan to transform its workplace and marketplace performance. It has achieved strong results: from 2005 to 2009, women in executive roles increased from 21 percent to 25 percent. In manufacturing roles, the percentage of women and women of color plant directors and managers increased from 14 percent to 21 percent, and from 1 percent to 3 percent, respectively.

RBC’s initiative, "Client First Transformation,” embedded diversity and inclusion principles into its approach with employees, clients and communities, reframing the company’s business strategy to be more client-focused and revitalizing its corporate culture.

Telstra’s "Next Generation Gender Diversity” initiative uses an integrated approach to increase women’s representation at senior and pipeline levels and engage men as change agents, creating an inclusive culture of mentoring and networking.

March conference

Catalyst Award-winning initiatives are evaluated in a rigorous year-long process against a robust set of criteria: business rationale, senior leadership support, accountability, communication, originality, and being measurable and replicable. These award-winning initiatives reflect best practices around diversity, inclusion, and advancement of women to leadership roles and positions of influence, Catalyst said

Campbell Soup, Deloitte, RBC, and Telstra will present in-depth discussions on their initiatives at the 2010 Catalyst Awards Conference at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on March 24, 2010.The conference, which is sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company and Walmart, will feature keynote speaker Anne Mulcahy, chairman of Xerox Corporation. In the evening, the 2010 Catalyst Awards Dinner, sponsored by PepsiCo, Inc. and Shell Oil Company, will be chaired by Jim Skinner, chief executive officer of McDonald’s Corporation. More than 70 CEOs and leaders of major corporations, academic institutions and non-profit organizations are expected to attend, along with more than 1,500 guests representing 250 national and global companies.