From the very start, the founders of Sygnum recognised that diversity and collaboration would be key factors to success. Our mission to transform the financial industry and realise Future Finance is an ambitious one, and not without significant challenges. We aim to build a DLT-based financial system which will increase efficiency and transparency, as well as provide individuals with greater financial control and access. To do this means bringing together and directing many different skillsets and expertise across both traditional finance and the newly developing DLT space.
In addition, we are convinced that no single start-up, incumbent financial institution, association or technology solution can unilaterally pave the way to mainstream adoption of DLT-powered financial services. We have therefore forged trusted and strategic partnerships together with established financial infrastructure providers such as Swisscom, with the belief that shaping the development of a digital asset ecosystem, fueled by relentless client focus, will accelerate industry and community growth and enable impact.
Sygnum’s interdisciplinary team is the industry’s most diverse. The fast-growing team, now drawn from more than 26 nationalities, combines a passion and belief in digital assets with a broad range of backgrounds, including banking, trading, investment, venture capital, blockchain engineering, security, technology, and more. Like the blockchain, our talent is globally distributed in the heart of Europe and Asia, with offices in Zürich and Singapore – and significant cross-border communication and teamwork occurring daily.
So what does this have to do with women?
With so much diversity in a small, fast-growing organisation with dual locations, the need to collaborate well becomes incredibly important. Mark Sareff, the former Chief Strategy Officer of Ogilvy Australia (who led Ogilvy Australia to win a Gold Lion in the Cannes Effectiveness Award for its Share-A-Coke campaign) once said that “Diversity is an intellect multiplier, especially when the diverse groups can collaborate well”. At Sygnum, our experience agrees with the research that shows[1] that women in general have an intrinsic strength at collaborative problem solving and are instrumental to building a collaborative and inclusive organisation culture which will maximise and realise the potential of its people.
Diversity is an intellect multiplier, especially when the diverse groups can collaborate well.
In addition, research has found that women tend to be emotionally more intelligent and self-aware, with stronger competencies in soft skills such as coaching and mentoring, influence and conflict management[2], which are all important for workplace effectiveness. Women are also perceived to be more honest and ethical[3], therefore inspiring greater trust – this is a quality particularly critical to Sygnum which holds trust as one of its key values.
The digital asset industry is currently a male-dominated one, and we are convinced that bringing more talented women into Sygnum and the industry on the whole will only help further the development of the overall digital asset ecosystem.
At Sygnum, our team currently comprises 28 percent of women – this is on the increase, and we already have have strong female representation across all levels of the organisation. Sygnum Co-Founder and CEO of Switzerland, Manuel Krieger says “We strive to foster a work environment which respects and leverages the strengths and needs of both genders, and hope to see an increasing number of women join us in building a digital asset ecosystem”.
[1] The OECD’s 2015 Program for International Student Assessment found that girls perform significantly better than boys in collaborative problem solving in every participating country and economy
[2] Korn Ferry data shows that women outperform men in 11 of 12 emotional intelligence competencies
[3] Pew Research Center’s 2015 Women and Leadership Survey found that 34% of American workers say women are better at being honest and ethical.