Diversity: Why We Believe in and Empower Women

This example from Eneo Cameroon builds upon the Project Transformer principle of: "Think Big. Start Small."

At Eneo, empowering women is key to our transformation and development. We believe that women bring unique capabilities and strengths to their work and our organization. And when we create real opportunities for women to apply their know-how, we are demonstrating that we believe in them – like never before. Beyond mere words, we have made a real effort to show women that they can absolutely make a difference in our company, in our country.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at how we’ve increased our gender diversity at Eneo, Cameroon’s public-private electrical utility. Guided by our “Think Big. Start Small.” principle, Eneo has made continuous progress over the past four years in rejuvenating the organization and increasing the number of women at all levels. Eneo has engaged directly with employees and identified capable talent through in-person meetups and conversations including the “Feminine Energy Café”; increased dialogue with the Eneo Women’s Group; sessions with the Management Committee; unannounced field visits; and discovering emergent female talent in the annual "Simply Smart Innovation" employee competition that seeks low-cost innovation ideas; etc. All Eneo leaders have been assigned the responsibility to identify and develop talented women on their teams, and ensure that they have appropriate training and career opportunities. We want a forward-looking company with all staff reaching their full professional potential.

The early results of this in-person approach are already visible:

• As of Q4 2018, 21% of our senior management are women (up from only 3% women in 2014);
• A woman has recently managed Songloulou, Eneo’s biggest power plant (30% of the country’s entire generation capacity); and
• More and more women are working in and leading field technical operations.

At Eneo, we believe that men and women bring important and complementary skills to their work. By putting in place a solid policy and practice to find, develop and promote female talent, this ensures women can more fully contribute their unique creativity and ingenuity to strategic projects that directly benefit our customers.

 For a more in-depth look at the positive impact diversity can have on business, take a look at this EY article, “Diversity – is it good for business?” in which the author explains, "[T]here is a myriad of research and countless statistics that support Diversity & Inclusion as a key driver in having success in new markets, improving market share and ultimately driving revenue generation and profitability."