Partner Highlight Archives - Women Business Collaborative

Highlighting Women Led Businesses: Insights on the Pandemic and Management from DC’s iRicchi

Christianne Ricchi — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Facing the unknown wasn’t new. That’s how it all began over thirty years ago. Some thought we were crazy to take such a risk by leaving a successful business in Tuscany to open a restaurant in Washington, DC. What did we know about operating an Italian restaurant in the United States? Turns out, very little, but sometimes in life you just have to take that leap into darkness. And so, here we were once more, last March, facing the unknown again.

There was little time to try to understand what was happening when the directive came to close the restaurant in the face of the spread of COVID-19. At the time we wanted to offer our customers a way to stay connected for a couple of weeks until this annoying and inconvenient little virus died out. Now, here we are, 55 weeks later, still working to maintain and nurture our community through our food. Though no one could have predicted the enormity of this pandemic, and maybe it was good that we didn’t realize it then, we were intent on offering stability and comfort in a time of fear and uncertainty. We wanted to replicate the i Ricchi dining experience at home by curating authentic Italian menus accompanied by entertaining stories in such a way that people could have the sensation of being part of a larger whole while isolating alone. The i Ricchi Food Club was born out of extreme necessity and has turned out to be the thing that has differentiated us and kept the restaurant alive. It has developed into the vehicle through which we have solidified our connection with customers while at the same time enlightening them about Italian food, culture, history and travel. The pandemic has reinforced the idea of a restaurant as center of the community.

Facing the unknown seems to be a reoccurring theme in the restaurant business and is more prevalent for women owners and co-owners. When Francesco and I divorced a few years after opening the restaurant, there was a real fear that this wife/partner could not sustain the business. I kept the news of the split as quiet as I could and took over the kitchen. It wasn’t easy dealing with the all-male staff and I had to continually prove myself. Customers and sale reps would ask to speak to “your father or your husband”, because I certainly could not be the decision maker.

Things have changed since then – more than half of the restaurants in the US have women as full or co-owners. With these growing numbers, there has been an effort to organize women led food businesses in the DC metro area, to create a forum to collaborate with and promote each other. Though this forum has been a resource for information and support during the pandemic, the fact remains that the city’s urban landscape has changed, and it will be a tough climb back to normalcy. Professional offices are still closed as are most of the hotels. Fly-in lobbying has ceased and there are no more conventions, conferences or tourists. Business is no longer conducted around DC tables, and downtown restaurants have become inconvenient destinations for locals residing and working from home in the suburbs. The locally owned small grocers and most retail shops are gone, so it will be up to small independent restaurants to retain the thread that keeps these once vibrant neighborhoods together and alive. Again we are facing the unknown, and will have to change to meet the demands of a new age business district. But as in the past, we will take a step forward with the firm belief that “failure is not an option.” For more information about and to order from i Ricchi, please visit http://iricchidc.com/

The time is now to help women owned restaurants and businesses as much as possible. You can do so through the RestaurantHER function on Grubhub, which allows you to find women owned restaurants nearest to your current location. Once you eat at these restaurants, you can share your experience through the Women Business Collaborative’s interactive survey to help these businesses gain exposure and traction.

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Collaboration Report Update: March 2021

WBC Staff — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

On March 30th, 2021, the Women Business Collaborative published its bi-annual Collaboration Report, detailing the ongoing progress towards the Nine Action Initiatives and their Accelerator Goals. As we continue to move towards our ultimate goal of equal position, pay and power for all women, the past six months have revealed that our alliance of partners and champions is working tirelessly towards making this a reality.

Within the CEO Leadership and Sponsorship of Women CEOs Initiative, partner organizations C200 and Working Mother Media (WMM) continue to work together on developing a pipeline for high potential women from diverse backgrounds to advance in business. In 2020, 300 women participated in this virtual program. In addition, C200 has started working with Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) and Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) to build a partnership specifically focusing on advancing women entrepreneurs. WBC, Catalyst, and C200 continue to track the data on appointment of women CEOs; the most recent percentage is at 8.4% for women occupying CEO roles.

The Women in the C-Suite and Executive Leadership with P&L Responsibility Action Initiative introduced the leadership of C200 to take on leading the Training and Learning Resource Guides and Toolkits Workstream. Meanwhile, Working Mother Media is working with the Women in the Pipeline Action Initiative to develop a white paper on best practices in succession plans. Overall, this initiative is expanding its range of influence as it will begin to share its framework for metrics and success to the larger WBC networks.

The Women in the Boardroom Action Initiative is proud to highlight its partnership with theBoardlist, as they are building a robust database of existing and prospective female Board members that can be searched by diverse sub-segments. In addition, The Latino Corporate Directors Association is preparing to release a report in May 2021 detailing their monthly reporting on women in the boardroom within each US state. WBC and Equilar publish a monthly report detailing how many women are appointed to the boards of public companies and which companies and industries are leading the way in appointing women to fill board seats. On average, women comprise 40% of monthly board appointments and at the end of 2020 women held 21.5% of total board seats.

The Women in Technology Action Initiative is designing a pilot certification program for companies that will center on creating a path to C-Suite or comparable executive positions for women. As this program is being developed, a specific curriculum will be incorporated to include and recruit BIPOC women.

This spring, the Women the Pipeline Action Initiative will release a Resource Repository Guide – a list of services offered by WBC partner organizations from recruitment to succession planning to diversity, equity and inclusion training. The guide is broken down into six categories: (1) broad consulting on DE&I (2) recruiting services, (3) succession planning and leadership development services, (4) inclusion consulting and services, (5) measurement consulting, and (6) sponsorship/allyship consulting and services, spanning a vast array of industries and possibilities.

Overall, this report demonstrates that the WBC is gaining traction in building multi-organizational collaborations and tools that will make a difference in the lives of businesswomen and women in the workforce for many years to come.

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2020 Women On Boards Gender Diversity Index

WBC Staff — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

2020 Women on Boards (2020WOB), the preeminent education and research campaign tracking the progress of women on corporate boards in the U.S. over the last ten years, released its annual 2019 Gender Diversity Index (GDI) today showing that while women corporate directors hold a record 20.4% board seats nationally for the first time, 311 companies in the Russell 3000 Index still have no women on their boards.

To view the PDF, click here.

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