Tuesday, June 20, 2000 - Business

Back to the future - WOMEN IN BUSINESS
By Tracey Johnson

MADDY Kent Dychtwald is a futurist whose job is to identify future trends. She said the job title sounded grander than it was in reality and her work involved trawling through demographic research and analysing information.

While most futurists are men who study technology and biotechnology issues, Ms Dychtwaldís area of interest is social and lifestyle trends.

ìI became really fascinated with the trends that the larger segments of the population, baby boomers, were creating and how they were influencing other parts of the marketplace,î she said.

ìI started speaking at meetings and I started developing a reputation as being someone who understood the marketplace and where it was going.î

Ms Dychtwald believes society is becoming more feminine and womenís importance in society is set to rise.

ìI think a lot of the qualities that women just naturally have are being accepted well in the world of business,î she said.

Ms. Dychtwald said multi-skilling was highly regarded in the workplace and women were more adept at juggling many tasks than men who were better at focusing on one thing.

She also attributed women with bringing more flexibility into the workforce, including casual dress codes, adaptable working hours and job sharing.

ìThe feminine influence, especially in the workplace, has been dramatic and will continue to grow and men are accepting it,î Ms. Dychtwald said.

She said business partnering was a feminine concept that would continue to expand. ìThe whole idea of win-win . . . thatís not a male concept, theirs is make war, beat that guy, heís your competitor.

ìWomen are: hey, look we can both win.

ìI think thatís definitely going to make the world, I donít want to sound a little bit sappy here but, a better place to live in.î Ms. Dychtwald is based in San Francisco but travelled to Australia last week to speak at the Mercedes-Benz Womenís Forum held last weekend.

She said another trend was the increasing popularity of New Age values.

ìI think weíre seeing a renaissance of interest in spiritual-related issues,î she said.

She said people were reacting against the world becoming more commercial and focused on marketing and media.