Yesterday, September 20, the third luncheon of the annual Women in Value Cycle was held at the Hotel Novotel Barcelona City. The event was attended by the president of the Women in Value Commission and Director of INETUM Catalunya, Susana Pardo, who moderated the debate between Sabrina Barnhart, Head of Amazon Barcelona and Nina Kavaliova, Director of the Diagonal Mar Shopping Center, and president of the Mobility Commission.

The colloquium began with the presentation of both speakers and their respective companies, when Barnhart highlighted the great  attraction of Barcelona as a city in which to live and work, as well as the added value of the 22@ district in relation to its ability to bring together talent, linguistic plurality, and a highly advanced technology sector. In this sense, as Kavaliova pointed out, the 22@ district is currently the most important office market for technology companies in southern Europe.

During the symposium, the current post-pandemic  context was also taken into consideration. The director of Diagonal Mar underlined the difficulties faced and the lessons learned from a situation never before experienced in the retail sector with the temporary closure of the shopping center. She also highlighted and celebrated the surprising  speed of the sector's recovery, which has returned to practically the same number of sales as at the beginning of 2020.

In this sense, both leaders agreed on the complementarity  of online and physical commerce, where the particular circumstances in which a purchase is executed will be decisive and will determine the best purchase option.

Barnhart, for his part, highlighted the fact that the changes in the labor model that Amazon and its workers have been forced to undergo seem to be here to stay, after teleworking has established itself as a preferred option in terms of flexibility, comfort and, especially, in terms of co-responsibility for tasks and care.

Ultimately, by way of stressing the urgency  of applying the gender perspective to the business world and considering the responsibility that their position as managers gives them, Barnhart pointed out the need to be aware of and understand the way in which women behave and  interact in the workplace, reacting differently to men in different work situations. To this end, she especially recommended a reading, "Women  Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide" by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, which seeks to explore the reasons why women rarely ask for what they need, want, and deserve both at home and at work, and shows how they can develop that essential skill. Kavaliova, more generically, closed the colloquium by advocating the need to support, believe in, make visible and  promote female talent and leadership.