Glynis Rankin headed up the final panel on the first day of the Women’s World Banking Global Conference entitled “Leading through a Crisis”.  Professor Deborah Ancona from the MIT Sloan School of Management spoke about the four capabilities that leaders need to develop to lead in uncertain times. Glynis then considered the issues for leaders in the microfinance industry at the present time, and the ways in which this model is particularly useful for thinking about the challenges that microfinance institutions face.

The Conference brought together leaders from more than 40 microfinance institutions and banks from 29 countries. Held at the JP Morgan’s headquarters in New York City, the discussion on the first day focussed on the global economic situation and the impact on institutions and the low income clients that they serve.

Conference highlights were the recently appointed Global Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s issues Melanne Verveer  who spoke about commitment of the current President’s administration to continue building on the work done by Hilary Clinton that calls attention to the need for microfinance, particularly for women; and Pedro Aspe, former Minister of Finance for Mexico who spoke about the causes of the current crisis and urged microfinance institutions to continue to lend responsibly, and focus on savings to fund the portfolio.

The Conference celebrated 30 years of WWB, working to provide access to financials services for low income women. www.womensworldbanking.org

Deborah Ancona’s paper “In Praise of the Incomplete Leader” by Deborah Ancona, Thomas W Malone, Wanda J Orlikowski and Peter M Senge was published by Harvard Business Review in February 2007 and can be purchased at HBR.org