View summary of the conference (only for members)

Sol Daurella (Lic&MBA 90), Vice President and CEO of COBEGA, was the guest speaker at the 4th session of the Women and Leadership Forum.

Drawing on her experience as Vice President and CEO of her family business, COBEGA, S.A. (the Coca-Cola bottler for the Iberian Peninsula and Africa), and as a member of the board of Banc Sabadell, Ms. Daurella discussed three main topics: the concept of leadership, the current status of women in business, and proposals to foster the convergence of women and leadership.

Ms. Daurella stressed the importance of the team, noting that "without it, there can be no leadership". She defined leadership as "a process by which a person or group influences others in order to achieve transformations that reflect common purposes". In the current economic crisis, this concept "is especially relevant in terms of maintaining the excellence of our industry", she said. 

Ms. Daurella then described how she envisions the figure of the leader: "A driver of human capital capable of forging success from differences, creating synergies from this diversity in the team, and knowing when to bring the group together to move forward". Such a leader would "understand better than anyone that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and champion a management model that fosters teamwork". 

"I reject the elitist and essentialist visions of leadership", said Ms. Daurella. She added that, due to the wide variety of relationships that each of us maintain, we all play many leadership roles in life – not just at work, but also in our family lives.

Current perspectives

In the second part of her talk, Ms. Daurella discussed the current situation of women in the business world. "We almost always associate leadership with upper management or the board of directors", she said, "and in the IBEX 35 companies, just six percent of these positions are held by women". These numbers are not much better in small and medium-sized companies, she said. 

Ms. Daurella explained the significance of these figures: "Women are indeed starting careers in business, but few reach positions of great responsibility. What’s worrying about this is the inequality of opportunity that it implies, especially in a world where the need for leaders is growing continually". 

Ms. Daurella then examined various proposals aimed at keeping women in positions of leadership ("the goal that has proven to be the most difficult to achieve", in her words). She highlighted the need to redefine maternity leave as "something that we are all responsible for" and argued in favour of "an infrastructure that helps women to combine the roles of mother and worker without running into the problems they currently face". She then called for the concept of "compatibility" to be replaced with the idea of "management". 

Ms. Daurella then stressed the importance of the role played by major universities such as ESADE in working towards this shift in perspective and changing the current situation from the bottom up. Finally, speaking as a member of the ESADE Foundation, she promised to support actions aimed at upholding the values discussed in her talk, in particular equality between men and women.

For further information:
esadealumni@esade.edu

View summary of the conference (only for members)

Sol Daurella (Lic&MBA 90), Vice President and CEO of COBEGA, was the guest speaker at the 4th session of the Women and Leadership Forum.

Drawing on her experience as Vice President and CEO of her family business, COBEGA, S.A. (the Coca-Cola bottler for the Iberian Peninsula and Africa), and as a member of the board of Banc Sabadell, Ms. Daurella discussed three main topics: the concept of leadership, the current status of women in business, and proposals to foster the convergence of women and leadership.

Ms. Daurella stressed the importance of the team, noting that "without it, there can be no leadership". She defined leadership as "a process by which a person or group influences others in order to achieve transformations that reflect common purposes". In the current economic crisis, this concept "is especially relevant in terms of maintaining the excellence of our industry", she said. 

Ms. Daurella then described how she envisions the figure of the leader: "A driver of human capital capable of forging success from differences, creating synergies from this diversity in the team, and knowing when to bring the group together to move forward". Such a leader would "understand better than anyone that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and champion a management model that fosters teamwork". 

"I reject the elitist and essentialist visions of leadership", said Ms. Daurella. She added that, due to the wide variety of relationships that each of us maintain, we all play many leadership roles in life – not just at work, but also in our family lives.

Current perspectives

In the second part of her talk, Ms. Daurella discussed the current situation of women in the business world. "We almost always associate leadership with upper management or the board of directors", she said, "and in the IBEX 35 companies, just six percent of these positions are held by women". These numbers are not much better in small and medium-sized companies, she said. 

Ms. Daurella explained the significance of these figures: "Women are indeed starting careers in business, but few reach positions of great responsibility. What’s worrying about this is the inequality of opportunity that it implies, especially in a world where the need for leaders is growing continually". 

Ms. Daurella then examined various proposals aimed at keeping women in positions of leadership ("the goal that has proven to be the most difficult to achieve", in her words). She highlighted the need to redefine maternity leave as "something that we are all responsible for" and argued in favour of "an infrastructure that helps women to combine the roles of mother and worker without running into the problems they currently face". She then called for the concept of "compatibility" to be replaced with the idea of "management". 

Ms. Daurella then stressed the importance of the role played by major universities such as ESADE in working towards this shift in perspective and changing the current situation from the bottom up. Finally, speaking as a member of the ESADE Foundation, she promised to support actions aimed at upholding the values discussed in her talk, in particular equality between men and women.

For further information:
esadealumni@esade.edu