Women, Sports & Leadership
Women’s professional sports are “having a moment”, but this did not happen in a vacuum nor did it happen overnight. In a highly anticipated episode (for us), the hosts finally got a chance to sit down with Claire Knapp (CEO of Havas Lynx) and Denise Melone (Managing Director of Havas Life San Francisco) to discuss the implications of the growth of women’s sports, both as a business and as an opportunity. Both of these female leaders are accomplished athletes, and we discuss the role of things like teamwork, coaching, and mental fortitude learned on the judo mats and tennis courts, in their successes as corporate leaders at Havas.
The growing interest in the competitive aspects of women’s sports has coincided with the appearance of women in a variety of hitherto-denied spaces, such as the boardroom, the judging panel, and even just full-court basketball. While this shift is notable, both Knapp and Melone express the sentiment that disparities in treatment, compensation, and conversation are still as important as ever to address and overcome. What’s important is how we talk about women, not as bodies but as humans and, in the case of this episode, as fierce, aggressive, badass athletes.
Welcome to Breaking the Code! Behavioral science is a cornerstone of modern marketing practice, but much of what passes itself off as behavioral science is just bs. Good social science gives us the insights and roadmap we need to change behavior, but bad social science just muddies the water and tarnishes the social sciences. As behavior change is a core objective of marketing, getting behavioral science right is crucial. Listen in as hosts Brad Davidson, PhD and Sonika Garcia, MPH, Medical Anthropology Strategists at Havas Health, sound off on what is, and isn’t, good social science, from a variety of disciplines covering new topics every podcast.