Progress Toward Gender Balance at NTT DATA

International Women’s Day (IWD) is this Friday! As we did last year, several women at NTT DATA Services will celebrate this week by blogging about their experiences as leaders at work. I want to start the series by looking at our company’s progress and expressing my pride that our company is turning words into actions.

For example, in the past year, NTT DATA has formalized a diversity and inclusion plan that sets near-term goals for expanding the numbers of female managers and executives in Japan. The plan also asks NTT DATA operating companies outside of Japan to set their own strategies and goals for gender inclusion, based on local environments.

Today, NTT DATA CEO Yo Honma endorsed the UN Global Compact’s Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP), which outline 7 steps toward a more gender-balanced world. In his statement of support for IWD, Honma-san said, “I am committed to ensuring that, at NTT DATA, we encourage equality and empower women … It is only through inclusion that organizations can benefit from diversity.”

This builds on NTT DATA’s commitment to our grassroots women’s initiative, Women Inspire NTT DATA (WIN), which was deepened at our global executive conference in Milan last October. At this meeting, which I attended, WIN was elevated into an official employee resource group at the corporate level to better develop women and our leadership capabilities, in alignment with business priorities.

In another encouraging step, NTT DATA recently became an official supporter of Catalyst.org. I think Catalyst is one of the world’s most effective advocates for women’s progress at work. We now have access to more tools and resources to speed our journey to gender parity. For me, it’s a privilege to be associated with an organization that has Catalyst’s expertise and constructive approach.

I’m incredibly proud to see our executives embrace diversity and inclusion, and I’m excited about our new partnership with Catalyst.org. I wholeheartedly agree with Catalyst CEO and President Lorraine Hariton, who recently said, “Workplaces that work for women work for everyone.”

Research backs her up. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that if women participated in the workforce at the same rate as men, the world would add $12 trillion to $25 trillion to the global economy by 2025. However, Catalyst reports that in 2018, just 48.5 percent of women participated in the labor force, compared with 75 percent of men. So, there is still work to do, and we must press on.

Yesterday, I spoke at the quarterly meeting of another global company’s women’s initiative, discussing my career journey, modern marketing and executive leadership. This Friday, I look forward to joining with other NTT DATA colleagues at our annual International Women’s Day event. We’ll celebrate our company’s latest advances and redouble our efforts to accelerate future progress.

I hope you enjoy the rest of this series of blogs, and that you will join the global effort to build a gender-balanced world.

Read the announcement by NTT DATA Corporation, with a statement by Yo Honma, President, and CEO of NTT DATA.

#balanceforbetter #IWD2019 #NTTDATA @nttdataservices

International Women’s Day 2019 blogging schedule:

• March 6 — Tammy McChain, VP of Civilian Solutions, NTT DATA Federal Inc.
• March 7 — Sweta Mepani, Chief of Staff & Head of Strategic Initiatives, Office of CEO and Deb Brasfield, Chief of Staff, Insurance Vertical
• March 8 — Shelly Barnes, Strategic Delivery Advisor, and Elizabeth Towson, SVP of Diversity & Inclusion