Today, we celebrate Women’s Small Business Saturday.

As an extension of small business Saturday, we want to highlight the critically important work that women have done and continue to do in the business ecosystem. We believe that this year’s Women-owned Small Business Saturday comes at the perfect time to highlight the potential and necessity of empowering women entrepreneurs and small business owners. Women make up the bulk of small business employees and have succeeded at creating a robust, innovative, and crucial small businesses ecosystem despite historical and current challenges to their participation in the business world. There are realistic, concrete solutions to these challenges that allow women a real place to transform the business world positively.

The first few solutions are mostly technical. Women have traditionally been excluded from capital markets and been forced to do much more with much less. Creating incentives for banks and other financial institutions to offer low-interest loans and additional capital to women entrepreneurs and investors will immediately increase women’s impact in the MSME ecosystem. There must also be networks between businesses so that this impact can be distributed and multiplied in a just and sustainable way. We believe strongly in the idea that women should make decisions for women. We believe creating an infrastructure of communication and support between women-led-MSMEs will provide ample opportunities for their impact to grow.

In a similar vein, the challenges women have faced have not been restricted to the workplace, and too many women have had to choose between their career and family life. There needs to be childcare support and other social services offered to women to compensate them for the disproportionate share of domestic and household labor that falls on them. This labor has been completely hidden within a system that does not incentivize or prioritize domestic caregiving as particularly valuable. Investing in these resources will alleviate some of the weight from the various social pressures that have hindered women’s advancement within the business ecosystem.

Although implementing the resources listed above would drastically improve the situation, it would not solve everything. For too long, women have not been taken seriously by their male counterparts. Entrepreneurship is a male-dominated sector. With the men disproportionately represented within the power structure, women have struggled to succeed, even in the circumstances in which they have adequate access to capital and other resources. We must lead the way in changing the culture of entrepreneurship to value and prioritize women’s experiences in much the same way we are trying to lead the way on prioritizing humane and sustainable entrepreneurship. These goals are not in opposition to one another. In many ways, they depend on each other to succeed. Although women’s historic mistreatment needs to be rectified, being forced to invest and innovate frugally has given women the unique perspective and skill set to thrive in an increasingly unstable environment. Men have traditionally valued expansion and growth over humane and sustainable investment. Empowering women, especially in leadership, is one of the most straightforward, most cost-effective ways businesses can improve themselves. We do not have to reinvent the wheel to create a more prosperous and equitable world. We have to recognize the value of those who have been overlooked for far too long and put those people in the best places to succeed.

Today, many of you may notice that the ICSB.org site has been painted red. In many cultures, the color red is said to represent life, passion, and courage. What better color exists to represent the lifelines that hold up our world, women? At ICSB, we are launching more women-led programs, centering more women-owned businesses, and curating all women’s opportunities to join together in an entrepreneurial community that we have all long-awaited. We recognize that there can not be we in the entrepreneurial community until we all step up and begin breaking down the barriers that continue to hold women back from their fullest potential. Women are core to our work in creating sustainable patterns of change and focusing Humane Entrepreneurship. Today and every day, we honor the Womenpreneurs who are core to every social, economic, and cultural structure. We say thank you, and we commit ourselves to create an environment for WE.

I want to share my colleague’s, Professor Analia Pastran, opening remarks for ICSB’s first-ever Women Entrepreneurship Conference held recently. They are remarkable remarks and well-timed.

Greetings to everyone! We are delighted to be opening the First ICSB Women Entrepreneurs Conference (WE).

I want to share with all of you how this activity started. After a Spanish webinar entitled “Women entrepreneurship, which challenges and barriers?” that I did with Dr. Ines Gabarret, Diah Yusuf from Indonesia called us telling us that we needed to repeat that experience in English, so we got another three bold women, Dr. María Fernanda Andres, Shoroke Zedan and Vicki Stylianou, and we began to dream big. We started a WhatsApp group on August 20, 2020, having our meetings every Thursday from NYC, Paris, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Cairo, Melbourne. Six cities, six women, organize the First ICSB Global Conference of WE and daring to dream big!

After 65 years of the history of ICSB, this is the first global conference from women to women. This is a milestone! And as the US Vice President-Elect, Kamala Harris, said, “while I may be the first, I won’t be the last,” This may be the First ICSB Global WE Conference, but it won’t be the last.

From the beginning, we got the Chair of the Board of ICSB, Ahmed Osman, ICSB President and CEO, Dr. Ayman El Tarabishy, and of Incoming Chair of ICSB, Dr. Winslow Sargeant. Three men support women’s ideas and the new winds of change like the slogan HeforShe but trespassing the campaign and becoming a reality in our lives.

As women, our resilient attitude comes from the many validations we need to go through until our ideas are accepted. We are passionate and creative in solving these times’ challenges, and we are very optimistic about the future that we want for our communities.

That is why we need more Womenpreneurs around the world. That’s why we are organizing this Global Conference to showcase Women Empowerment’s concrete actions across the globe.

Many thanks for joining us in this movement: “Women Dare to Pursue Creative Solutions for Greater Global Impact.”

WE MOVE FORWARD.

View more about Womenpreneurs here

Dr. Ayman El Tarabishy
President & CEO, ICSB
Deputy Chair, Department of Management, GW School of Business

Prof. Analia Pastran
Co-Chair WE Conference
Founder & CEO Smartly Social Enterprise on the SDGs

Adjusting our metrics and measurements of success towards sustainability and humane investment, centering women, specifically through the expansion of womenentrepreneurs and women-led MSMEs.

This past week, members from around the business world gathered for the first ICSB Global Women Entrepreneurship (WE) Conference, a space designed for women that dare to pursue creative solutions for greater global impact. This conference comes at a crucial juncture, as MSMEs and entrepreneurs navigate an emerging and constantly changing business ecosystem. As we come together to reconsider and reimagine our world, it is clear that women play an increased and vital role in creating new, sustainable business practices. We hope that this conference, unique in its goals and ambition, will be the first of many such endeavors designed to take advantage of this historical moment and provide adequate resources and investments for women entrepreneurs and MSMEs.

Some of the themes we have stressed this year at ICSB have included sustainability, humane entrepreneurship and investment, flexibility, and resilience. Women have consistently been at the forefront of progress in all of these fields, and they have largely done so without significant investment from traditional business actors. We believe that resources like the WE Conference will help us all take advantage of the unique situation we find ourselves in by prioritizing and centering women’s experiences in the business ecosystem. Women have been working and innovating throughout history, even as the market has traditionally under-valued their labor. They have been forced to adapt creative and sustainable solutions with limited access to capital and no formal recognition within the system. Women overwhelmingly are the managers of their household, a chore far more cumbersome than most business management positions. They have experience in investing frugally to maximize services in the face of economic pressures.

Women have consistently met challenges with creative, quick thinking that has mostly prioritized sustainable, community-driven solutions to issues, which are precisely the values and experience we need to be centering at this moment. We can see this through the benefits that companies have brought in after hiring and promoting women executives, which have consistently been between a 15% and 69% increase in profits (Kathy Frey, WE Conference, 2020). Simply put, women are one of the top growth economies in an ecosystem looking for new growth opportunities.

With the dual challenges of the COVID-19 crisis and the looming instability that will accompany climate change, we have to begin changing how we view, understand, and carry out humane entrepreneurship and sustainable investment. Women have traditionally invested more of their finances in childcare and family development resources compared to men. Today, they spend on average 3x the time men do on domestic care and unpaid work. They have consistently been forced to produce more with less and have had to be sustainable and resilient to succeed. One of the most basic steps we can take to empower women in the business ecosystem is to have women decide for women.  Women’s autonomy is often overlooked because the struggles they face are hidden, a fact we saw throughout the world as many women were left out of stimulus packages passed in response to the COVID crisis. We must recognize that it is impossible to transition to sustainable, humane standards of entrepreneurship and investment without empowering and centering all women. Once we show women the support they deserve and are put in positions to influence and direct the activity in the business ecosystem, we will see improvements in every part of our society.

The process of transition to a business ecosystem that is more just, equitable, and profitable will not be an easy nor fast one. We have not been perfect here at ICSB, but we hope that this year’s WE Conference is the first of many such resources targeted towards women and their evolving role in society. As we adjust our metrics and measurements of success towards sustainability and humane investment, centering women, specifically through the expansion of women entrepreneurs and women-led MSMEs, will be crucial. We hope to bring attention to both educational and practical resources of which both aspiring women entrepreneurs and investors to take advantage. We want to be part of the process of change here at ICSB, and we hope our WE Conference is a blueprint for additional resources for women that creates space for them to thrive and be autonomous in the evolving business ecosystem. As Cecilia Tham declared at the WE conference, “Success is not defined by others, it’s how we want to be.”

ICSB congratulates and warmly thanks the WE Conference Chairs: 

• Shoroke Zedan, Partner, Envisage Consulting, Egypt
• María Fernanda Andrés, C-Level Executive / Chief Business Developer at Aceleradora Litoral, Argentina
• Inés Gabarret, Associate Dean at ESSCA School of Management, France
• Diah Yusuf, Founder at Indonesia Prima, Indonesia
• Analia Pastran, Founder and Executive Director of Smartly Social Entrepreneurship on the SDGs, USA
• Vicki Stylianou, Head of advocacy and policy at Institute of Public Accountants, Australia

Article by:
Ayman El Tarabishy
Deputy Chair, Department of Management, GW School of Business
President & CEO of ICSB

This chart shows how pharmaceutical spending (measured in USD per capita) in the United States is significantly higher than in other countries.

Image Credit: https://data.oecd.org/healthres/pharmaceutical-spending.htm 

For 68% of American voters, the cost of healthcare, including pharmaceutical drugs, was an important facet in determining whether they would vote for President Trump or Former Vice President Joe Biden.[1]  In fact, many Americans have stated they are willing to pay higher taxes and forgo new drug developments if it meant a decrease in prescription drug costs.  This isn’t surprising, as over 70% of Americans currently take at least one prescription drug, and every 1.25 hour, seven Americans die because they can’t afford their prescription drugs.[2]  The coronavirus pandemic has only intensified the use and need for prescription medicine.  With Joe Biden’s election to the Presidency, voters wonder if true reform will come from his healthcare plan.

The pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable industry in America.  Americans spent $460 billion on prescriptions in 2016.[3]  So why do drug prices continue to rise exponentially? Pharmaceutical companies would tell you the prices reflect the cost of research and development (R&D), but the real answer is simple: because the free market allows it.

If each American had a dollar for every time the pharmaceutical industry defended their price hikes in the name of R&D, they likely would be able to afford their prescriptions.  However, most big pharmaceutical companies do not do their own R&D.  In fact, most drugs are the product of small startups or biotech companies based on the scientific research by the NIH, a federally funded agency.  Once a drug is discovered, big pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer acquire the company and prepare it for the market.  Further, in what is referred to as a legal monopoly, when the drug’s patent is getting ready to expire, companies make small tweaks (i.e., changing the side of a molecule) to obtain a new patent.  For example, Prilosec became Nexium with very little change to the drug itself and no additional health benefits for patients.  When generic companies create generic versions of these drugs, the large pharmaceutical companies pay the generic companies to delay releasing their product for a set amount of time (referred to as pay for delay).

If money isn’t spent on R&D, where does it go?  Marketing.  The United States is only one of two countries in the world that allow direct to consumer marketing.  Pharmaceutical companies spend 19 times as much on marketing and advertising than they do R&D.[4]  For example, in 2016 alone, Pfizer spent $2.3 billion in off-label promotion and kickbacks[5] to doctors.  Aside from marketing, pharmaceutical companies also spend a considerable and unfathomable amount of money on executive pay.  While on paper, an executive might make $18 million, the company buys back its stocks so the executives can cash in on their stock options with their total salaries coming to $250 million a year.[6]

So how do you tackle the most profitable industry in America?  We can’t rely on corporations gaining a moral compass.  As Allergen showed in 2017, when they transferred their patents to the Mohawk reservation to gain sovereign nation protection, they’re incapable of morality.[7] Corporate law forces corporations to be answerable to their shareholders and maximizing profits.

President Trump tried reform recently when he issued an executive order titled “Lowering Drug Prices by Putting America First.”  This order directed the Department of Health and Human Services to use the “most favored nation” approach to test international pricing with certain high-cost drugs covered under Medicare Part B and insufficient competition under Part D.  Ironically, “the statutory provision that allows the Medicare program to test different payment approaches is part of the Affordable Care Act, which the Trump Administration is currently attempting to overturn.”[8]

The first real step is price regulation through negotiation reform.  The U.S. is the only industrialized country that operates on a system that allows pharmaceutical companies to charge whatever they want.   Medicare is forbidden from negotiating prices with drug companies, a practice employed by Britain, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland.  The legislature must create a pricing committee that negotiates prices with pharmaceutical companies.  Additionally, through the U.S Patent and Trademark Office, the government must prevent big pharmaceutical companies from obtaining new patents on the existing drugs by making nonsignificant developments.

Further, the tax deduction for marketing expenses must be stopped, as outlined in Joe Biden’s healthcare plan.  Reform will not be easy when the pharmaceutical companies spend over $3 billion a year in lobbying, outspending every other industry by 44%.  For example, Mitch McConnell, Republican majority leader, has received more than $200,000 from pharmaceutical companies in this most recent election cycle.  Looking forward, it will be important to elect government leaders who cannot be bought.

Jordyn Murphy is a second-year law student at Suffolk University Law School with an interest in corporate law, specifically asset management. Jordyn currently interns at Primark U.S. with the General Counsel and is a board member for the International Council for Small Business.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHBL or Suffolk University Law School.

Sources:

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/08/13/important-issues-in-the-2020-election/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ_ncGqyAfY

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ_ncGqyAfY

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ_ncGqyAfY

[5] Kickbacks are essentially bribes to doctors to incentivize them to prescribe medications to patients at high rates and high dosages. Kickbacks have included tickets to basketball games, vacations, tennis lessons, etc.

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ_ncGqyAfY

[7] Allergen transferred legal ownership of one patent to the New York Mohawk Tribe. The Tribe then licensed the patent back to Allergen for ongoing payments. Allergen was sued by another pharmaceutical company and argued that federal law prohibited the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from reviewing the patents because they were protected under the Tribe’s sovereign status. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling that sovereign immunity does not apply to patent review proceedings. The Supreme Court denied certiorari.

[8] https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2020/10/15/491425/little-late-trumps-prescription-drug-executive-order-not-help-patients/

https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/kickbacks-and-fraud-in-our-health-care-system-43547 

https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2020/09/23/the-promise-and-pitfalls-of-trumps-most-favored-nation-approach-to-drug-pricing/#more-29213 

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/08/13/important-issues-in-the-2020-election/ 

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2020/10/15/491425/little-late-trumps-prescription-drug-executive-order-not-help-patients/  

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/health_glance-2015-5-en.pdf?expires=1604603042&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=E732605FD9298C9871813184671C44FE  

https://data.oecd.org/healthres/pharmaceutical-spending.htm 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ_ncGqyAfY 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/us/politics/coronavirus-drug-pricing-legislation.html  

https://joebiden.com/healthcare/#  

Being the Change, You Wish to See

Those of us in the museum field, as evident in the dialogue between Hilary-Morgan Watt and Lenore Miller, are passionate about presenting art and we can call upon the entrepreneurial spirit for persistence in creating new models of experience. Digital platforms and social media are a form of outreach highly prized now, and in the future.

Museums and other cultural institutions are vulnerable due to closures and financial perils, and yet have been able to pivot effectively to represent on social media. Museums are adapting to the pandemic restrictions by utilizing social media as never before. Hilary-Morgan Watt brilliantly outlined how social media has stepped up to the challenge while museums have been shuttered. In the Spring, museums designed campaigns that creative and talented staff organized campaigns to engage audiences virtually. These were meant to uplift, providing a “light lift” for museums and way to humanize the museums’ missions by sensing the public mood.

Some exhibition themes are easier to translate to digital platforms than others. Open air components, such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, have been able to offer visitors immersive outdoor experiences. For example, Lee Ufan’s sculpture installation was environmental and related to the museum’s architecture, and could best be experienced by moving around in space. In contrast, however, Jimmie Durham: Still Life with Spirit and Xitle, a somewhat humorous work consisting of a car smashed by an animated boulder, could be experienced through a photograph, yet its presence in the front of the museum expanded the conversation with Lee Ufan’s installations.

A museum staff using social media effectively to augment its mission’s outreach is not new, but has become essential strategic thinking out of necessity. Staff well versed in utilization of social media have become essential players and more numerous. In our webinar Hilary-Morgan Watt described the “lay of the land” how museums have embraced social media during these uncertain times. One example that was innovative for the contemporary art museum, was introducing the personality and private studios spaces of artists to audiences through video and Zoom presentations. In the example of envisioning Pat Steir’s studio, one piece of a creative’s “content is repurposed,” stated Hilary-Morgan Watt. This is effective and vital. It opens another dimension to the appreciation of the
sustained hard work that artists do. Many successful artists are busy with their process, and the ability to glimpse inside their studios was most effectively caught by the Hirshhorn’s videography.

Artists reputations can grow and spread in popular culture through social media, as in the case of Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrors” and the “Obliteration Room” (February – May, 2017) “This extremely popular exhibition was amplified by visitors’ and staff’s participation in social media,” read the website. So, using social media has just stepped up in its versatility for the current state of affairs. And one must remember that by digital means, the museum can track its successes, and yes failures. Support museums and make your voice heard through comments, as they are heard!

While museums are closed or visitation reduced, are we losing our ability to engage in “sustained looking” at works of art? The experience of close examination of works of art — the subtle textures, details, and yes “presence” — is the most enriching experience of a museum visit. By oneself or with others. The collecting and preservation of artifacts will not be replaced by the digital experience, but it adds an accessible way of visiting the museum’s treasures. The local reach of a small museum can become global. Its educational mission reaching new and diverse audiences. But being “old school” I still want to be present to experience the interaction among works of art as they have been curated and displayed.