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Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré: women are 'too cautious' in business

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

March 23, 2015 | 3 min read

Havas chief executive Yannick Bolloré has called on women to be "less cautious" in their approach to business in order to bolster the number of females acting in senior roles.

The recently appointed agency boss told the audience at Advertising Week Europe today (23 March) that the reason there is a disparity between males and females in top jobs in the industry "lies with the persons themselves".

Despite the ratio of employees at Havas being predominatley female (70 per cent) that number drops off higher up the career ladder, according to Bolloré.

"I’m a huge believer in gender equality and it’s very important to be able to find a way to integrate more women into top management," he said.

"[But] the problem lies in the person themselves, they [women] are too cautious. Men are taking more risks... I think it's important that women become more confident about themselves."

Speaking in conversation with Kathleen Saxton, founder and CEO at The Lighthouse Company, Bolloré batted aside questions about the geographical and talent strategy at Havas for 2015, but did share that mobile advertising would be a focus in the coming year, something which needs to be worked on "together as an industry" to crack.

Bolloré also dismissed the idea that Havas will ever become a privately held agency as it does not work "from the image of profit", but rather is working to build a sustainable group going forward.

"When we take a decision we don’t really think about what will be the share stock reaction or what will be the impact for the next quarter," he said. "It's important to try to think about the long term so it brings added value for us.

"For clients it's very important to see the company they are partnering with is sustainable.... and it's important to maintain significant free float that attracts investors."

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