On the 12th annual “Girls Who Print” Day two female leaders in print discuss the business benefits of diversity
Jennifer Kolloczek, Senior Director of Marketing & Innovation in Production Printing at Canon Europe, has been in the print industry for 25 years. During this time, she has noticed positive changes, “I still remember my first drupa in 2000, and I’m proud of the differences I have seen in the industry and Canon’s role in attracting more women in print, including our involvement in Girls Who Print.”
The benefits of diversity
Jennifer feels that celebrating diversity and working with people who have a wide range of experience is what makes for a great team, and keeps her consistently engaged. “Diversity wasn’t really spoken about in the same way 25 years ago,” she says. “Not many people realised diversity could be so beneficial to the workforce.” Working in global teams that were more diverse and inclusive has helped Jennifer to see the value that a broader team can bring to an organisation and its working culture.
This view is supported by Vice President of Production Print Direct Sales, Alicia Cifre-Trassierra, an economist by training who started as a Financial Controller in the company 20 years ago. Taking full advantage of the opportunity to move into sales in 2010, she was then promoted to be one of the few female Canon sales directors in Europe. “It’s great to see the growth of women in leadership over the past ten years” she says. “We are few, but the impact is clear in the way we approach problems and solutions.” She believes that we are reaching a point when it no longer matters whether you’re a male or female – professionally, your skills speak louder than your gender.
So how can the print industry attract more women?
Alicia thinks that production print is widely misunderstood, and Jennifer agrees. They both feel that printing companies need to be more creative when recruiting potential candidates by focusing on what drives and inspires them. Jennifer comments, “Companies should more clearly demonstrate the many opportunities within the print industry that could play to women’s strengths.” She continues, “And not just women, we need to play to all individual’s strengths, whether they’re women, men or non-binary. We need to get better as an industry at making them more visible, in their diverse roles, to inspire more talent into the print industry. I’m really proud to say that Canon has a number of initiatives that speak to this; from Canon Middle East, and Turkey’s Women in Sales to Canon Central and North Africa’s Women Who Empower campaign, and of course our support for Girls Who Print.”
Jennifer questions how many girls are fully aware of STEM subjects and are encouraged to pursue these careers, “we need to influence girls more and encourage them to try different subjects. Our local offices work with universities to start sowing the seeds early on, when students are beginning to consider their future career paths. We need to show them they can do it all, whether it’s HR, sales & marketing, analysis or ink chemistry – there are so many areas within the print industry that offer exciting and fulfilling careers.” She suggests asking, “Are they good at software development, engineering, communications, design or creativity? Many people don’t realise all of the different opportunities available within print.”
Jennifer believes that helping people understand print’s relevance in our lives is the first step to understanding its true potential. “Help them to see what the world would look like without any print,” she proposes. “We need signage for everything, at the airport, in the supermarket, on the roads when you’re driving, and also for everything we buy – think of all the printed packaging!”
Alicia is convinced that attracting women into print is also down to a company’s ethos and how it resonates with female values. “The key is to demonstrate your company’s strengths,” she says. “Many women are attracted to Canon’s pillars – respect, support and collaboration, sustainability, and innovation – and to our corporate philosophy, Kyosei – living and working together for the common good – as it aligns with their values.”
Company values are key to retaining women
A company’s values are also vital for retaining women in the workforce. “Companies need to show their principles have true meaning by integrating them into the day-to-day running of the company,” remarks Alicia. She believes that when women work with purpose, they feel fulfilled in their work, which will be evident in their business relationships, customer relationships, and the company’s growth. In turn, she comments, this will nourish their self-growth, “When you believe in yourself, it’s easy to have the confidence to talk to your customers and colleagues and to the market as a whole.”
Jennifer feels her belief in the value of individual contributions is what got her to where she is now. She began her career by being responsible for sales training and events in a small team, tasked with investigating growth opportunities for technology. At that time she worked in very high-volume commercial production printing – alongside an almost exclusively male global sales force. Years later, Jennifer joined the product planning team, which again was a male-dominated department in R&D and service. She explains how initially, this dynamic was challenging, “having seasoned engineers take me seriously as a young woman when working on the next generation of products took a while,” she comments, “but you have to be yourself and have self-belief: your role is an important piece of the overall picture. Remember that you add value to the project and your confidence will shine through, and in turn, respect will follow.”
As demonstrated by Jennifer and Alicia’s experiences and success, the print industry has changed a great deal over the past 20 years and continues to do so. With more industry groups, such as Girls Who Print, that are specifically set up for women, there is much more support available, encouraging professional women in the industry to learn from and support one another.
So on Girls Who Print day, we celebrate women’s contributions to the print industry and we look forward to having many more join our ranks; to continue to diversify the world of print for the better.
To learn more about Girls Who Print, visit girlswhoprint.net
