“Cabin doors closing. We are now taxiing to the runway – fasten your seat belts, because what awaits us today is not a smooth cruising flight.” These were the welcoming words at this year’s Great Women network meeting, which took place at Germany’s largest airport – and for good reason. 

On May 7, around 60 leading women from the financial industry came together for the 14^th Great Women network meeting in the exclusive FRALounge, which offers a direct view of the runway at Frankfurt Airport. In this setting, the participants discussed one of the most pressing topics of our time: the geopolitical turning point – and the various associated challenges and new opportunities.

“Tariffs up, tariffs down. Climate crisis. Trade wars. Fears of armed conflicts. Loan defaults. Both our emotions and the stock markets are on a rollercoaster ride …” – Dr. Sarah Brockhoff, Senior Manager at zeb, gave the participating decision-makers from the finance industry a pointed and entertaining introduction to the topic, which affects all of us during these times. In “pilot lingo”, Dr. Sarah Brockhoff pointed out: “There is a huge storm ahead of us – and we have to fly right through it.”, thereby making a fitting connection between the two highly interesting “Great Women” speakers of the afternoon right at the start of the network meeting:  Dr. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Chairwoman of the Committee on Security and Defence in the EU Parliament, and Cordula Pflaum, training captain at Lufthansa. 

After the coffee break, Cordula Pflaum, an experienced pilot and training captain at Lufthansa, provided an interesting change of perspective. She impressively demonstrated how geopolitical changes impact the aviation industry and what companies can learn from that. Pflaum gave the participants clear advice for mastering critical decisions:  “With the FORDEC approach, pilots learn to act systematically rather than impulsively when under pressure.”

The participating decision-makers found this structured approach, which is based on the elements Facts, Options, Risks & Benefits, Decision, Execution and Check, very interesting and potentially helpful for making decisions in an objective and targeted manner – even if they themselves usually have more time for their decisions than pilots who have to overcome a critical situation right in the cockpit.

To sum things up, the participants in our Great Women network meeting spent an afternoon exchanging ideas and sharing their various perspectives in a small circle of inspiring experts, which once again made the event a full success.