Changing cultures: bold moves towards gender equality with Maren Gräf

Thank you so much, Ricardo, for this nice introduction. Thank you.

Yeah, of course. So the first question is from my point of view, why? I would really state one important fact. Of course, usually we hire both men and women. We are an automotive industry, and it's very important to have both on board. The most important thing is talent and quality. But last year we felt there's a need to step in our equity efforts at Škoda. So we made the decision after 126 years of automotive tradition and with a workforce 80% men and 20% women to make a big deal. That was our decision. So we decided from now on, it was in September I think, we focus on hiring women. We made a big campaign to hire them. We had a very nice film, maybe you have seen it. We decided to correspond to the distribution in the population, which is 50-50. That was our goal, to come there, of course not in one step, but to come a little bit nearer to this because our customers are women as well. So to balance this imbalance, it was for social and of course for business reasons. There was a very popular study from the USA that says if you have diverse teams, if you have both genders in your team, you will have much better financial results. So this was our decision. We started this campaign, and if I could report something about the results, we will come maybe later, but the campaign was really a success and we are glad to have done this very important step for Škoda.

Yeah, of course we had a lot of reactions. The first thing is our results were very good. In 2020 we had hired externally 29% of female candidates, and one year later we had 35% externally hired female candidates. So it was more than 6%, and my hope is for this year we have in addition 5% maybe, and so on. It's a big step in the automotive world to have 5% more female candidates, it's really huge. In the reactions, we met scepticism and resistance, of course. We had positive and negative reactions. But nevertheless, it was important for me to give a very clear signal and to walk the talk. I hate to be one kind of buzzword maker and not go into the process. That is not my kind. I do things. So we did it. In the recent months, our management board team dealt with this topic in many dialogue formats, and diversity and especially gender was the hot topic in all these formats. I got a lot of questions: why we now discriminate against men, whether women are at all interested in technical jobs or do they really want to go into management. All of this came up. I think the most important thing is to be always clear and to explain again and again that this is all part of a healthy transformation in the industry.

Yeah, it was a really big deal in the Volkswagen Group as well. I have to mention that Herbert Diess, maybe you can't see it, it's a first impression, but he is really someone who wants to get diversity in the company. That was really great for me. So firstly, the most important step is to be a role model, to be there, to live your career, to show what you are able to do, to show positive examples, and to share how these best practices can be multiplied in other teams. Secondly, the second important thing is to manage your own unconscious bias in every kind you can imagine, and to use nudges to prevent your biases from impacting your decisions. The next one is you have to repeat the business case. We are a company, we want to gain good results, and you have to repeat the business case again and again for diversity and inclusion, and explain the difference between equality and equity, and show that supporting one group doesn't mean disadvantaging other groups. That is very important. Both have to fulfill all requirements, meaning they are both equally qualified for a promotion. For me, it was very important to enable and coach our leaders in top management to realize everybody's potential regardless of their individual differences. That was one of the most important things I did. I always said inclusive leadership means also understanding work-life balance of your colleagues and fully support this point. So we decided for the appointment into management, for instance, the quota of 50% means if you want to support a man and bring him into management, you always have to promote a woman. So this was a big deal as well.

I think you can see it on what the people are asking you in the format, what's the hot topic and where they're working on. Changing a company's culture requires really strong moral, strong words, time, patience, and empathy. You always have to talk about positive stories. This is very important that they get the trust in your right direction and that the change is really important for the company. As I said before, there is no transformation possible without this transformation of diversity and change of culture. To my mentees, I always explain why we are doing that, what we are doing, where we are going, and how we want to get there. This is very important. You always have to listen, you always have to communicate, and to make sure that everybody is heard, every opinion is heard, and everybody is on board. From my point of view, these are the success factors.

Yeah, first of all, you have to realize that parental leave is not a break in your career. You have to continue, you have to keep in touch with your team, with your boss, and to be a part of the change, to contribute, to be a member of projects for instance. This is what I always say to my mentees: come in, learn, develop yourself, pick up new skills, and come back with all these new competencies and be a part of the change. And stay in contact. Contact is one of the most important things, really to know how the new strategy works, who are now the leaders, who are the most important persons in the company, who drives the change. You have to be in contact with the company and all the things that go around.

Yeah, of course. So when I went to China, my daughter was three years old and my son was nine. I had a management function in the HR department in China, in Chongqing. We had a Chinese nanny, and I had to leave my kids there for the whole day. The most outcome was they learned to speak fluent Mandarin. That was amazing for me. That shows that if you go to work, it has a very great impact for your kids. They are able to learn a new culture, new languages, they get friends from all over the world. It's not that they are unlucky. This was very important from my perspective. As well, in China it's totally normal that mothers and fathers go to work and the kids stay at home or in kindergarten or wherever, and there is no bias for this. This was really important for me to see and to live and to know it's totally normal. And to go further in your management position, this was my most important takeaway.

Yeah, what I did is really stay in touch with your team at the company, stay curious, pick up new skills. You have the time to pick up new skills and develop yourself. But above all, you have really to enjoy your time with the family, with the kids. Be there for your kids, and this will help you to be an inclusive leader. You will get so many skills you can transfer into your leadership function. This is so important. This was really important for me.

Yeah, I could share a lot of them, but I think the most important, or the three most important, are you have to be spontaneous, always the whole day you have to be spontaneous, the whole day you have to be flexible. And from my point of view, the most important one as a leader is you learn to stay calm in crisis. Whenever something comes around you didn't expect, you have to stay calm in crisis. This is what I learned in my parental leave: stay calm in crisis.

Thank you, Ricardo, have a nice evening. Bye.