Ellen Voie

Bringing Gender Diversity in the Transportation Sector

Entrepreneurs think prolifically; they create something new, something different that adds value to the world through the development and implementation of their innovative ideas. Ellen Voie, the President, and CEO of Women In Trucking Association is one of the women in the business world who plays an essential role in changing the dynamics and empowering the involvement of women in the transportation sector.

Ellen is an internationally recognized speaker and authority on gender diversity and inclusion for women working in non-traditional careers in transportation. Ellen has always been described as a visionary, so being an entrepreneur was a natural extension to her because of her perception to look into the future and an aspiration to create change.

Initial Learning Experience

Ellen started as the Assistant Traffic Manager in the trucking industry but was later promoted to Traffic Manager. At that point, she was only 20 years old and was responsible for the shipments in and out of three fabricating plants, in addition to a private fleet of three trucks. She shipped in the raw steel from around the country and shipped out the finished material, handling products to customers. She says to have learned a great deal from that job and that it gave her the start of a long career in transportation and supply chain management.

Forming the Association

Ellen built the cornerstone for Women In Trucking Association in March 2007. Her goal was to create a more positive, empowering environment for women employed in the trucking industry. She was working for a large carrier in the Midwest and was charged with trying to better understand b how to attract and retain nontraditional groups as drivers, and this included women. At the time She was working on her private pilot’s license and belonged to an organization called Women in Aviation, International. It occurred to her that there was no similar organization for women in trucking and that was her impetus in forming the association.

A Comprehensive Organization

Ellen is proud to say that the organization’s membership is comprised of nearly twenty percent men who believe in its mission. This means that the organization is all-inclusive. Many men in the industry support and encourage more women to opt for careers in transportation. She says although the organization is called Women In Trucking, it is not FOR women as much as it is ABOUT women.

Ellen states that Women In Trucking Association has an annual strategic planning session where the board of directors, staff and any interested stakeholders look forward and define the activities and goals for the coming months and years. The combined effort gives the organization a vision into how the organization will address future needs for its members and the industry as a whole.

Being an Instrument of Positive Change

According to Ellen, an entrepreneur needs to see into the future and then determine how to create a positive change. She says an entrepreneur needs to possess a desire to use skills, determination and focus on helping move people and processes to result in the change one is seeking.

Ellen is of the opinion that an entrepreneur should be able to convince others that one’s path is the right one and should generate a support system, which ultimately creates a push in the right direction.

Valuing the skills women bring to

The Table

Women are often humble and focus on consensus building while leadership traits are often perceived as assertive and controlled. Ellen says these are the challenges women face, but instead of conforming she speaks of the need to change the culture to value leadership traits which women bring to an organization.

According to Ellen, women are better at engaging their teams, and this has been proven to be a positive employee retention strategy, but she is worried that the characteristics that allow one to be more collaborative are not identified as leadership skills. According to her women bring a different set of skills to the workplace, doesn’t mean these skills are less important to the company. She is of the opinion that these skills should be respected.

Perseverance through Adversities

Starting a nonprofit association in the middle of a recession is not the most desirable way to initiate change in an industry. Ellen lost her position due to the recession while she was responsible for two mortgages and her daughter’s college expenses. She is still not sure how she made it through that difficult time but she persevered and daughter graduated with a Master’s Degree in Economics from Purdue with NO student loans. She appreciates the thought that timing is everything and sometimes one needs to grab an opportunity despite the external conditions and make it work out.

Ellen is currently looking at leaving behind a thriving association that she let into an industry that recognized the need for change. She plans to retire in about five years, so now she is looking forward to focusing on traveling, writing and spending time with her family.

Determining the Course of Industry and Community

Ellen’s advice for budding entrepreneurs is to truly determine what one can bring to one’s industry, one’s community or one’s social network. She says that one should have something to contribute to empowering others, but one needs to identify what that skill, talent or passion is and stay true to one’s mission. She warns not to get sidetracked by others who want one to accommodate their goals. Ellen also advises staying focused and to stay away from distractions.

Fatima Al Shirawi

Defining Supremacy with Expertise

In an interview with Swiftnlift Media, the Emirati Founder and Entrepreneur of The Gracious F, Fatima Al Shirawi shares her great insight towards organization’s journey and its specialized solutions and services. Also, she broadly discussed about company’s core competencies and about how company is establishing in the market.

Fatima is a BA in Sociology and Marketing from George Washington University, she is also Certified from Polimoda Fashion School in Florence and London College of Fashion as a Certified colour Consultant accredited by The Colour Affects Institute.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Fatima and Insights Success:

How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to appeal to the target audience?

The Gracious F started as an Individual Colour Consultancy firm to support individuals to enhance their day to day through science of colour, might that be in their aesthetics or their emotional balance. Within following years our individual clients had requirements within their corporate, interior and fashion segments to increase their productivity and revenues through support of colour science. Past few years The Gracious F has also been catering to all major segments of business with tools of colour science, and is now also a accredited educational platform that offers trainings within Luxury Retail, Management universities and Government entities. Our diversification has been natural once the knowledge of colour science and its benefits spread within the region.

Describe some of the vital attributes that every entrepreneur should possess.

Apart from Passion, motivation and market adaptability to cater to your audience within your business concept, Research, a lot of Research was vital. Therefore, these would be the Vital

Attributes every entrepreneur should possess.

How do you strategize your game plans to tackle competition in the market?

I strongly believe there is no such thing as direct competition in the colour consulting segment, however all the similar concepts motivate me and my team, to exceed in our performance for every service we offer. All other organizations in the similar business concept compliment somehow our concept, and our first approach is to see how we could collaborate in the future with similar organizations, in order to create and perform more efficient and greater combination of services within the field of colour.

What are the frequent challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the workplaces and what are the ways to tackle them?

I will not lie, being a women entrepreneur has not been an easy path, especially within the region I started my operations, where women entrepreneurs were only existent and identified in some specific industries, such as interior, Fashion, FMBs and Government Organizations. Women worldwide are sometimes not taken seriously, and constantly put into an intimidating spot, my solution for this has always been, craft and perfect your abilities and show your challengers you are the best within your industry.

What were the primal challenges and roadblocks you faced during the initial phase of your career as an entrepreneur?

My primal challenges were associated to managing my finances, as I had no investment support when I started my journey within this industry but had imagined my company and expansion. My first step was to prioritize my needs, my initial investment was applied to my organizations marketing tools, such as my website and PR in order to offer awareness to my target audience in understanding the science of colour and its benefits, which by the way will always be consistent. To afford this strategy, I was located at a shared office for a few years and had a virtual PA for support. Yes, it was a one man show and this was not easy. Where do you see yourself in the near future and what are your future goals?

This is my favorite question, there are many things I see myself and The Gracious F doing in the future. However, the most significant goal is to be the leading colour consultancy firm globally. Which will allow me to support individuals and corporations in achieving their goals. The key is to understand that the colour psychology is a personal enhancement technique when it comes to individuals and a revenue generating science when it comes to organizations and firms, not a philosophy.

What is your advice for budding and emerging Shepreneurs?

Have no fear, take the challenges, no business is small or big, it’s your concept and attitude that make you a successful “shepreneur”