Veranita Yosephine is sales development director at Danone Waters Indonesia. In 2015, She initiated the first HeforShe community in Danone Group worldwide and in Indonesia.
On September 20th, with two of her young colleagues, she attended 2nd Global HeForShe Anniversary at Museum of Modern Art in New York. For the occasion, Veranita wrote a testimony about her commitment to equality and shared responsibilities.
UN recognition to our passion for women at Danone
On September 20th, we were invited to attend 2nd Global HeForShe Anniversary at Museum of Modern Art in New York. Lupita Ardhyaningrum and Indah Tri Novita, young female managers from Danone, participated in youth video story contest hosted by UN Women and won a prize. Elizabeth Nyamayaro (Head of HeForShe worldwide) was very impressed by our commitment to support women carrying HeForShe values at Danone that she personally requested Lupita to speak on stage at the event to share her HeForShe experience at Danone. Lupita is 1 of 5 millennials in the world to have that opportunity.
At this very prestigious event, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women), Japan PM Shinzo Abe and President of Finland Sauli Niinisto gave remarks to highlight the HeForShe impacts in the world. The HeForShe story contest aims to make visible active roles of young generations globally to promote gender parity. We are delighted to have received superior recognition for our passion, for Indonesia and also for Danone.
HeForShe in the world and Indonesia
Launched in 2014 at UN General Assembly in New York, HeForShe is a global solidarity campaign for gender equality initiated by UN Women where men create strong and visible force for gender parity. Global leaders such as Barack Obama, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Indonesian President Joko Widodo are championing the movement.
Joko Widodo, 1 of 10 HeForShe Head of State Impact champions, has been recognized by UN for his prominent leadership in promoting gender equality in Indonesia — the largest moslem country in the world with 250 million population (49% women). Joko has declared his commitment achieve at least 30% of women representation in his parliament.
Last month, I had opportunity to meet with Yohana Yembise, Indonesia minister of women’s empowerment and child protection. She was very pleased to learn how Danone is taking lead in promoting gender equality and is recognized visibly by United Nations. She invites Danone to be partner with Indonesian government to launch HeForShe with the president and to promote women’s empowerment in Indonesia.
HeForShe at Danone
At Danone Indonesia, one and half year ago, I initiated the HeForShe movement in celebration of my 2 years mentorship with Ditmar Koster – General Manager of Nutricia Indonesia, a Danone company. For 3.5 years until today, he commits his personal time to help me grow personally and professionally. Every month for 3.5 years, as busy as his schedules can be, I always have opportunity to meet him for mentorship.
Believing that I shouldn’t be the only women fortunate enough to receive supports from a senior male leader in the company, I engage women and men to drive the HeForShe movement. We started building community with only few female managers and grew it with the supports of male colleagues. We knock on doors to collect supports from people across functions, business units, nationalities, and also countries. All our activities are done on voluntary basis with people contributing on top of doing their daily work. Our bottom up movement passionately aims to create greater opportunities for women to advance in the company, through powerful engagement of male employees.
We build mentorship programs for women where senior men provide their time, experience and network to help younger women develop skills and access opportunities. Our leadership training programs for young female managers are structured to help develop the emerging female leaders build confidence and capacity to lead. Today, more than 30 female talents are supported by male and female mentors and 60 female managers have participated in our leadership programs. We’re expanding these platforms and building more programs to support career development of women such as peer-coaching and networking. It’s a rewarding experience to learn how the movement has given substantial impacts and become inspirations for many people in Danone.
Today, more than 30 Danone General Managers, Regional and Global Vice Presidents have become sponsors together with executive committee members. Hundreds of people are engaged in activities and conversations promoting women’s empowerment in the company, in Indonesia, Asia Pacific and beyond. As the 1st HeForShe movement in Danone, the platform is still growing and now is shaping a global impact with the plan to formalize global HeForShe collaboration for Danone.
This year, all General Manager of Danone companies in Indonesia signed Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) with UN Women to make visible our commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. As we are one of very few companies in Indonesia that signed WEPs, The Australian Chamber, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Indonesian government invited me this month to speak at their IORA Women in Business Symposium to promote WEPs to other companies. I am also informed that Danone is eager to sign WEPs globally.
HeForShe won Danone Manifestories Award 2016
Recognition and supports to our passion for women have expanded widely in Danone. This week, we won 1st prize of Manifestories Award at General Managers Meeting in Evian-France, with majority votes received from over 250 General Managers, Regional and Global Vice Presidents participating. The award recognizes Top 10 projects globally which embody Danone Manifesto – a set of principles that reinforces Danone’s dual commitment to business success and social progress.
We feel very grateful for the supports and resources Danone has made accessible to amplify our movement and for the opportunity to create a truly remarkable progress towards creating better opportunities for women to advance in the company.
HeForShe – When men drive visible actions for women
Above all, HeForShe to me is a personal matter.
Born, raised and lived all my life Indonesia — a country with strong patriarchal culture – I learn that the world for women can be really challenging. I come from a Batak tribe in North Sumatera island with social system that traditionally puts men before women. At 4th grade, I was told that I should accept if my future husband marries another woman if I fail to give him a biological son – that time I didn’t even understand what husband and marriage mean. I grew up surrounded by social values and common beliefs that leadership roles belong to men — that women should do domestic works while men go out for work and lead social groups.
I’ve learned how the system affects confidence of women thus limits their opportunities. It has created environment that hinders women to raise voices, to stand out and to assume leadership roles. Women begin to constantly seek for social approvals by accepting to conform, following the majority and not fighting for what they deserve. We learn that aggressive, too ambitious and pushy can be easily attributed to women who stand for bold decisions and drive actions. Men can do the same thing and be positively credited as : having strong leadership. It’s a reality that puts women to a great disadvantage.
Being mentored for 3.5 years by a strong male, caucasian, senior executive like Ditmar changes the way I see myself and the world. He taught me to be clear of what I want and be confident to express it. He helped me find courage to push boundaries and run after big goals. This confidence is instrumental to my ability to inspire and engage many people to build HeForShe. Ditmar also helps me to unlock doors and champion HeForShe in Danone.
Dariusz Kucz – VP Early Life Nutrition (ELN) Asia Pacific – is another ‘He’ who has helped me build the movement and also supported my personal growth. He pushed and supported me to pursue my ambition for MBA program however challenging it can be with my job and family responsibilities. He also helps me gain access and visibility to promote HeForShe to senior leaders in Danone to grow the movement to its size today.
I thank Ditmar and Dariusz for their tremendous supports to HeForShe and for making themselves available to support me personally. I wish many other people like me will find their mentors and supporters on HeForShe — that might not be possible otherwise.
EVE program inspires HeForShe at Danone
As an Indonesian woman, a wife, a mother of two boys, a Danoner, a leader of HeForShe and an MBA candidate at INSEAD, I have to juggle a lot on managing personal and professional priorities. Many times I am confronted with tough choices and feel not sure whether I can still manage everything at the same time.
At times of doubt and emotional turbulence, I normally look back to my amazing 3 days at EVE program last year in Evian-France. The sessions on centered leadership and mindfulness have impacted me the most. I learned to be more aware of myself and my environment, to understand what matters most and to be mindful and effective in things I do. Also, I met so many inspiring people and distinguished facilitators in the program who help me find courage to believe in myself and unleash my true potentials. I feel very grateful for my EVE experience and I’m quite sure I won’t be where I am today with HeForShe without that precious experience.
I wish to thank Anne Thevenet, Christine Descamps, Valerie Amalou and the entire EVE team for delivering such fantastic program and for helping many more people like me find their chance to impact people’s lives. I wish to also reach out to all the women to step up, to be courageous and to lead because the world is so full of possibilities. Lastly but certainly not the least, I wish to invite all men in the world to join the HeForShe cause to create an equal and meaningful world for men and women.
Thank you.
