Melanie Brock, Non-Executive Director of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. and Chair Emeritus of the Australia & New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan, Tokyo, facilitated today’s Roundtable discussion titled “Expand Our Business”. She was joined by two panelists, Sarah Liu, Founder & Managing Director of The Dream Collective, and Takako Mori, Senior Managing Director of Nomura Holdings, Inc. / Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.

Ms. Brock opened the session by commending Kaori Sasaki and the ewoman team for their long commitment to promoting diversity and supporting working women and congratulating them on the 25th anniversary of the Conference. Ms. Liu explained that she launched her business based on her own experience; she realized that while executive-level women were getting some support, those climbing the corporate ladder were not. She launched The Dream Collective to meet that need. Invited to talk about her remarkable career journey, Ms. Mori explained how her attitude to take on challenges that would get her “out of the box”, such as learning English and then passing the New York Bar exam, gave her the confidence to accumulate numerous “Go Beyond” experiences. She said “If you can express your passion to others, then you will find somebody who can give you support.”

Asked by Ms. Brock for advice on how to “get seen” by management, Ms. Liu explained the systemic and individual barriers that women must confront and why male allies are important. Ms. Mori stressed that communication is essential and that women shouldn’t be shy to explicitly state the position or title they want, saying that if women can have the courage to ask for what they want, then we can change the world. Ms. Liu said “It’s so important to have the courage and the conviction to stand up for what you need and to voice that” and explained how companies can support these women.

Ms. Liu spoke about how The Dream Collective turned a crisis into an opportunity by creating a free online service, She Pivots, to help the many women that had lost their jobs during the pandemic to find new ones. She advised the participants to “find a problem, find a pain point, create value, create ways to solve it, and that will create even bigger opportunities for your business.”