Beth Scanlan knows that the Internet doesn’t offer a magic success formula to women who dream of building an on-line business. But she is convinced of its potent opportunities.
“The e-business world is gender-blind,” says Scanlan, CEO of San-Francisco-based ElectronicAdvisor.com. “The Web is transforming the economy. As businesses look for technological solutions, they don’t care what gender you are. You will be perceived, not as a man or a woman, but from the vantage of whether you can get the job done.”
Scanlan’s 17 years in asset management at two Wall Street companies, the last nine as a senior vice president, well prepared her to launch her on-line financial services business, but she was pleasantly surprised to encounter such a level playing field.
Mary Reynolds, chief technology officer for the state of Illinois, sees similar openness.
“The opportunities in the new economy for women are extensive; and you don’t have to be a techie to take advantage of them,” she says, pointing out that Gov. George Ryan’s technology investment initiative includes $800 million in venture capital for start-up tech businesses. “This is a huge boon to women and other minorities who have great ideas but, until now, lacked funds to realize them.”
Private purse strings also are loosening. A growing number of venture capital companies, such as Chicago-area KB Partners, vcapital.com and Divine Interventures Inc., are solely focused on technology-based start-up companies, which often require less funding than traditional brick-and-mortar ventures.
Low start-up costs and the flexibility to run an on-line operation from any location suggest that on-line ventures offer many female entrepreneurs a means to succeed. But experts also stress that e-business needs women as much as, if not more than, women need it.
“E-business structures will evolve as cooperative networks with people working in teams, in contrast to traditional pyramid structures, which concentrate power at the top and delegate each worker’s responsibility,” says Lisa R. Klein, assistant professor of marketing at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Management in Houston.
“That new structure demands flexibility and cooperation, and women have these traits. Most social psychology research has shown that women are better cooperators than men, although I’m not convinced that’s universally true.
“But I am convinced women have more experience at being flexible. They are likely to have pursued alternative career plans, taking time off to raise children or work part time; and flexibility is critical in the on-line world. You can’t move quickly without it.”
Woman-centric creative skills also are in demand.
“Women tend to make good Web designers because they consider multiple options and various user needs, more so than men, who tend to see a project as a problem for which they devise a single solution,” says Elizabeth Wood, president of high-tech marketing consultancy firm Egeland Wood Zuber Inc. in Canton, Ga. “A multiple approach spawns dynamic sites.”
A mother of three, Scanlan also has been working toward an MBA during her company’s start-up phase. She believes women have honed another tool critical to building a new e-business economy–multitasking. “Many men are also good at it; but most women are masters at multitasking, and that’s exactly what e-business demands.”
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Highlights of the Tech.Woman series
Week 1: An engine of change–How women’s progress parallels technological innovation.
Week 2: The Chicago connection–Six leaders in the local technology community.
Week 3: High-tech help wanted–Women could hold the key to the worker shortage.
Week 4: Open for e-business–Women capitalize on Internet opportunities.
