“I find it difficult to do business when I haven’t had a meal with somebody.”
For Renée McGowan, president of Asia, the Middle East and Africa at Mercer, the worst thing about the pandemic was the loss of facetime.
In spite of her position overseeing operations in 18 of the global consultancy’s 43 markets, McGowan still believes in a something decidedly old school – the power of a handshake deal.
“Particularly in our part of the world, the Middle East and Africa, you do business based on trust, relationships and the alignment of values between your organisations,” says McGowan. For her, body language is a crucial tool when it comes to building – and communicating – a culture of success across language barriers.
“Being able to connect one-on-one with people, observing people, really listening and watching – it’s really powerful for getting a sense of what’s happening.”
However, the pandemic has offered some silver linings. “The fact that the whole world literally was able to move to being online, almost overnight, was incredible,” she says, adding
that during a normal course of events, even with a five-year plan, such a feat would be “impossible”.
A mission to educate
Beyond managing Mercer’s business across the region, one of McGowan’s biggest concerns about the pandemic was its impact on girls’ education in developing countries.
“Across Southeast Asia and in parts of Africa, the number of girls who report that they will not go back to school once schools reopen or haven’t turned up is very high,” she says. It’s crucial, she adds, that we ensure the significant progress made over the past few decades in this area is not erased.
A vocal advocate on the right for girls around the world to an education, she has worked with the likes of Plan International, particularly in the early stages of the charity’s “Because I am a girl” campaign, which works to help millions of girls who aren’t participating in the formal educational system to get back in.
“Gender inequality and a lack of diversity is a problem in many workplaces and many societies – but it’s an issue that often starts at education,” says McGowan, who was awarded the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal by the Australian government for her support in the relief efforts in Indonesia during the 2004 tsunami.
“If you don’t have girls who have access to education, in the same way as their male counterparts, then you’re automatically almost compounding the problem with formal workforces,” she adds.
Having lived in countries such as Indonesia – where she picked up a bit of the language – McGowan has observed first-hand what impact even a few years of schooling can have socially.
She recognises the benefits of leveraging the organisation’s power in this regard, and this year, Mercer have launched P.A.G.E. (Powering Asian Girls’ Education), an initiative supporting girls’ education in Asia.
“We’ve committed to 150 hours of skill-based volunteering in every market that we operate across Asia, specifically working with organisations that are helping provide educational opportunities to girls,” she says.
Championing women
She isn’t doing this alone, but has the full backing of Mercer. “When we can use our organisational expertise to make a better contribution to the communities we’re living and working in, aiding NGOs who are already operating in these areas, it becomes a bit of a multiplier effect,” McGowan says.
McGowan has also volunteered with organisations such as the UK-based Cherie Blair Foundation which supports women entrepreneurs in developing and emerging markets. “The impact of a woman being educated and running her own business in a local community is multiplied well beyond positive impacts such as access of food, medicine and the alleviation of poverty,” she says.
The shift to savings
Due to its truly global nature as a black swan event, McGowan agrees that one of the lasting legacies of the pandemic will be a re-emphasis on the importance of savings. “So many people were left without a livelihood, the ability to work and earn around the world – and that happened almost overnight.”
While this really highlighted the importance of a financial buffer, McGowan is slightly concerned that the focus may have slightly moved away from longer-term goals such as retirement savings.
“Mercer is doing a lot of work with the World Economic Forum to push the importance of long-term savings, and long-term investment strategies, so that people are better protected. We need to make sure that global inequality doesn’t get exacerbated.”