I just got an email from Kelly over at Start Up Princess.com (who, among other things, sells princess stuff; if you stopped by Carolynn’s* kiosk at the Provo mall (and I hope you did), you’re already familiar with her wares). Kelly is interested in gathering women entrepreneurs together for a littl’ conference and I think that’s a great idea. Let me explain why. I’m in favor of diversity in the business community (of the fortune 500 companies, only 10 are run by women). Speaking of women in business, did you know that they are, on average (in many situations), better negotiators than men?**

You probably have your own thoughts on diversity and given the largely conservative base of my readership, perhaps the word connotes a disagreeable image for you. I, too, once felt likewise. Stories of affirmative action quotas disenfranchising meritorious college and business applicants irked me beyond measure; “it’s unfair”, I wanted to scream! It was only during my MBA program that I began to see the matter a little differently. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m still bothered by many aspects of affirmative action.)

Here’s the deal: If you’re searching for the best solution to a dilemma, having a homogeneous problem solver pool is disadvantageous. As an illustration, we studied a case at the U where (some time ago) a certain shoe company (Reebok perhaps?) was having poor luck selling its running shoes to women. Their marketing team was largely male and the advertising campaigns focused on the technical superiority of the new line of shoes. Strangely, women weren’t really moved to buy the product.

A new team was created to study the problem and this new team included several women. They quickly discovered that, as it turns out, many women don’t really care so much about all the nifty features in a shoe (or at least they’re bored when ads cover that topic). On the other hand, if the commercial features montages of emotional experiences had in those shoes (the exhilaration of running through a park on a nice day), women really seem to resonate with that. The TV spots were re-filmed and shoes began to sell.

Now, the story might be trite and even apocryphal, but the lesson is true; it’s not probable that the first group of guys would have really understood how a woman feels about shoes. There is power in heterogeneity!

So ladies, go to the conference. You get lunch and you get to hear from Kristen Lamb (Designit Boutique) and Rachael Herrscher (Today’s Mama). Let me know how it goes as I’m not likely invited. :)

* I met Carolynn in person, BTW. She’s at once severely focused and energetic and gracious. Quite the amalgam.

** I’ll look up the reference for this. I’ve heard it several times in my negotiation classes.