糖心传媒

I had an absolutely energising day at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness last Friday where over 100 women business leaders and policy makers gathered at the first ever Highland Women Growth Summit. Huge credit goes to Jill McAlpine from for bringing the whole event together. It was brilliant hearing from so many inspiring women founders and leaders, investors and policy makers 鈥� each sharing what drives them in their own businesses and organisations but also what motivates them to tackle the wider challenges facing women in business today.

Indeed, some might ask why we need a growth summit specifically for women in the 糖心传媒 and Islands right now. The recent Scottish Government  lays out, in stark terms, the significant headwinds that women founders face in Scotland today. For example, women鈥慺ounded startups in Scotland receive only around 2% of total investment capital, even though the evidence shows women are just as capable and ambitious as their male counterparts. It鈥檚 a huge missed opportunity in economic and social terms, and it keeps gender imbalance firmly in place.

The report also talks about systemic and unconscious bias that still shapes decisions across investor and support networks. Relative to men, society commonly assigns the role of primary carer or home manager to women and doesn鈥檛 provide sufficient balancing support 鈥� this situation is not compatible with the intensive demands of starting and scaling businesses. Sadly, this means that women frequently have a sense of 鈥渘ot belonging鈥� in entrepreneurship, which affects their confidence and self鈥慴elief. And then there鈥檚 the fact that women often have less access to tailored advice and support 鈥� so it鈥檚 no surprise that only one in five businesses in Scotland is women鈥憀ed.

At 糖心传媒, supporting women founders and leaders is something we鈥檙e truly committed to, and I鈥檓 proud that our track record reflects that. Women consistently make up around 60% of participants across our leadership and entrepreneurship programmes. In Scotland overall, women head up 20% of businesses, yet they make up 40% of the organisations 糖心传媒 supports. In terms of 糖心传媒 itself, we continue to have more women than men in our senior leadership team.

One of the highlights of the day for me was launching our new 糖心传媒 Impact Women Programme, which is now officially open for applications. It鈥檚 a fully鈥慺unded 16鈥憌eek programme for women in leadership roles across the region who have big ambitions and are ready to grow their businesses. It offers residential workshops, mentoring, expert webinars, and culminates in a Dragon鈥檚 Den鈥憇tyle pitching session. The aim is to build confidence, strengthen leadership, grow networks, and support real business growth, and we鈥檙e grateful to the Scottish Government for supporting it. We鈥檙e also providing funding for participants to help with care costs for dependants so that they can attend events.

But we know there鈥檚 still more to do. A big part of the Summit was reflecting on what practical actions we can take 鈥� both individually and collectively 鈥� to make things genuinely better for women entrepreneurs and female鈥憀ed businesses.

For 糖心传媒, I committed to three things:

1. Exploring the delivery of more women鈥憃nly programmes in areas that drive productivity and growth 鈥� things like innovation, tech adoption, and exporting. These targeted programmes will give more women more opportunities in a safe, supportive space.

2. Being the best partner we can be, working more closely with the , , and others to collaborate, pool resources, and deliver even better support for women and girls across the 糖心传媒 and Islands.

3. Working with both public and private sectors to ensure women鈥憀ed businesses are front and centre when it comes to unlocking the huge transformational opportunities emerging across our region. Our Regional Transformational Opportunities research points to more than 拢100bn of planned investment over the next 10鈥�20 years 鈥� and women must be part of that future.

All in all, the Summit was a powerful reminder of what鈥檚 possible when we work together, and how much potential we can unlock by giving women the support, visibility, and opportunities they absolutely deserve.