Sponsorship involves putting your own political capital at risk, so they are going to help that person to succeed. Women get promoted; they don't get sponsored. Women know they are on their own if they get that promotion.

Research shows that women at that mid level tend to get promoted based on performance, and men tend to get promoted based on potential.

We all know business financial performance improves when more women are in senior levels of management and leadership.

Sometimes women get devastated by failing. Athletes don't; they just know that means they've got to practise harder, and they've got to do something else differently.

Mentorship has been an excuse not to promote women.

Some companies are already investing in women and thereby betting on a brighter future - for a workforce just waiting to blossom, for emerging economies whose development depends on this new talent, and, of course, for their own financial growth.