Safilo believes that the optical industry has no reason to exclude women. On the contrary, one of the women I find most inspiring in the optical industry is Dame Mary Perkins,’ Safilo CEO Luisa Delgado tells Optician early in the conversation into how Safilo has been on a four-year journey to improved diversity within the company.
Four years ago, before she took up her position as CEO, Delgado says just one of the ‘top 125’ positions within the company’s global leadership team was held by a woman. Staggeringly, only one post these posts was taken up by an Italian.
‘We weren’t exactly balanced,’ says Delgado. ‘When I renewed and extended our leadership team, I engaged all my HR and other partners to say, “whenever we look at candidates, I want to see men and women – and then the best shall win.” I wanted to make sure we had totally fished the pool of candidates.’ The leadership team now comprises 39% women and at the last check, 11 different nationalities.
Delgado also found a number of issues facing women within the company, which were quickly remedied. In one instance, a woman was facing demotion because she wanted to work part time. ‘That’s not what we needed. We reorganised the work so that she would remain in her current position,’ she says.
‘The issue of gender in the workplace shouldn’t be an issue, but when it becomes an issue, it must be addressed correctly. This is the process Safilo has gone through,’ adds Delgado.
Carole Binet is the managing director of Safilo France and has worked in the eyewear industry for more than 30 years. She highlights another area in which increased gender diversity can benefit the company. ‘It will definitely make your product portfolio more inclusive,’ she says.
‘When I walk around our factories, I’m very proud to say that much of the craftsmanship is carried out by women. I’m actually really jealous of them because I tried to do what they do and I wasn’t able to,’ she adds.
Beyond the realm of Safilo, Binet is confident the rest of the industry is changing its attitudes. ‘For whatever reason, this business has always been driven by men, but that is changing. We have waited 50 years to have a woman as president of Silmo [Amélie Morel, appointed late 2017],’ she says.
Carole Binet
Delgado believes that historically, this attitude may have originated in male dominated Italian suppliers, rather than from the optician side of the industry. She says: ‘In the supplier world, I look at the big companies, they are still very male biased. It’s rare to see females, except in investor relations.
‘But I think the world has changed. Nowadays, you go to the US and most of the optometrist and ophthalmologist graduates are women.’
Barriers
Delgado and Binet may be at the vanguard of a new, diverse Safilo, but both have had extensive careers that stretch back to when attitudes in the workplace may not have been so inclusive. Optician asked if they had ever experienced any roadblocks.
Delgado says: ‘I have been blessed to work for multinational companies like Procter & Gamble, where there are principles and rules, but I have seen examples of other women facing barriers at work, where they have been judged on their personality. The real test comes when it comes to accepting and valuing different personalities.’
Binet says she has preferred to tackle roadblocks head on: ‘When I first started as an eyewear sales rep, there was the stereotypical talk about us women not being able to carry the bags and visiting opticians was difficult sometimes because there were very few women opticians back then. There were parts that were super-macho but I like to push against barriers.’
Delgado notes a by-product of the lack of women in the workplace, where women can find it difficult to make themselves heard while outnumbered by male counterparts. ‘I have observed women in meetings who, in a soft voice, will make a point, but nobody hears it. Then a man will repeat and take all the plaudits.
‘On one occasion, a colleague asked me for help after a meeting. I told her “If you’re in a meeting with 15 people you had better talk loudly.”’
When all these factors and attitudes are combined, women can experience a real lack of confidence at work, say Binet and Delgado.
‘Once, there was a man in the office, not Safilo, who was too hot in a board meeting and described it as his “female moment”. This still happens and you cannot underestimate attitudes like this,’ says Delgado.
‘Now if like me, you are in your early fifties, you do not take this. But if you’re a young woman just out of university, you’re trying to find your way, trying to see how one has to behave in corporate life – you are totally impressionable. It really underlines the impact of exclusion, unintended comments and outdated attitudes have on women in the workplace. Of course, with more women in senior positions, the less chance that these factors will continue to be a problem.
Networking
Recognising the changing face of the industry, Safilo created the Women in Optics networking events. Taking place at major exhibitions, the events bring together women from all facets of the eyewear industry – opticians, sales reps, marketers, journalists – for cocktails or breakfast meetings.
‘When we got together in Milan at Mido, there was no agenda – no talking about business. Someone asked why the company invited them and whether they were expected to buy something. Of course, I told them no,’ says Delgado.
The breakfast event at last year’s Vision Expo East took place at 7:15am and left Delgado amazed at the number of attendees. ‘There was a lot of common ground between everyone at both meetings, so we have been sharing ideas. I don’t think the ladies in Italy have the chance to network like that, so it was a good experience for them.’
A new way of working
Hot on the heels of the need to address the gender balance at the company has been the need to adapt to a new working culture – for both men and women.
‘Digital has brought about a new culture and new way of working,’ says Delgado. ‘The moment we started recruiting young people who expect to work differently, it opened our minds. It makes you revaluate your opinions and that’s what we’re looking for as a business, because then you can be close to the consumer and have a better understanding of them. It comes back to being inclusive, because my way is simply one way.’
Design teams have benefitted from this new flexible approach to working in their own patterns, says Binet. ‘We have five design studios and most important thing for us is to preserve and nurture the creativity of these people. You cannot be creative from 8am to 6pm and that’s it. Maybe it’s in the shower in the morning, maybe it’s in the evening – maybe it’s everything except for your office, so we strive to have a working environment that is flexible and inclusive.’
With the world of optics benefitting from a shift in attitude, what advice do Binet and Delgado have for women who want to progress in the industry? ‘If women are open enough, and they usually are, then have the potential to set the agenda,’ says Binet.
‘But it’s important to give them the freedom to try new approaches and that’s why I think the Women in Optics network is so important – learning from others and performing a little bit better than they did before.’
‘Carole is absolutely right,’ adds Delgado. ‘The world of optics has a fabulous cross section of medical, fashion and design to attract women to it. We need an industry that is balanced and has both business acumen and empathy. If you bring those two together, you can be very successful in this industry.’