Caroline Berube, a lawyer practicing in Asia for 11 years shared her impressive career with our audience and the keys that bring success. With special focus on being a Western woman in Asia and the advantages that brings, to male and female negotiating styles, to keeping clients satisfied without harming yourself and reputation, and team management, Ms Berube establishes herself as a true role model. The discussion focused on how professional women need to do careful self marketing by looking for board directorships or other opportunities within associations and rely less on networkings, especially as they age. The stark contrast between women and men with regards to negotiation was also point of discussion, along with women's expression of guilt or responsibility for other people's feelings. Successful negotiating must be firm and straightforward, yet there seems to be a tendency among women to talk about feelings instead of fact, illustrated with salary negotiation techniques. The advantage of female intuition in negotiation of course, is hearing the communication barriers between 2 third parties and being able to dissolve them. For Caroline, the important job is to get the deal for her clients and be instrumental in the negotiation, but also important is maintaining credibility and safeguarding your reputation among male clients and peers by prioritising family values and dismissing yourself from socially compromising deal making. Caroline views the cultural lessons learned in Asia's business environment with as much interest as the female experiences within the legal world. 

Professional accomplishments are only borne from a well-balanced life, which in Caroline's case include loving and supporting family, friendship, and running. This success, as we saw with other speakers is largely attributed to help from her team at work, and her caretakers for her children at home. Thank you Ms Berube for your stellar contribution to Women in Business.

Please click on a photo to see the original size

Venue: Tuesday, 18th November 2008 – 8.30am – 10.00am
Westin Hotel

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