Planbox launched a community challenge in honor of International Women’s Day
Wilmington, Delaware — Planbox, a pioneer in Agile Innovation Management solutions, opened its Pi (Planbox innovation) portal to members of its community to inspire dialogue and lessons learned in celebration of International Women’s Day 2021.
The challenge ran through March, and invited Planbox staff and customers to share personal stories about women who inspire them. For every idea and comment submitted in Pi throughout the duration of the challenge, a donation was made to women’s charities of Planbox’s choosing.
Many stories highlighted inspirational family members including mothers, sisters, aunts, and grandmothers. Some Pi members chose to headline historical figures such as Princess Diana and Rosa Parks, who continue to inspire old and young generations alike.
Here are a few of the stories shared by the Planbox community:
Sabrina’s sister, Samantha
Sabrina’s inspiration comes from her sister, Samantha. Sabrina labelled her a “healthcare hero” for her work in the COVID-19 unit at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. She shared a testament of her sister’s strong character with us: “She struggled through this last year, among all the other frontline and essential workers. She is my role model because she works so hard and always tries to make the world a better place through empathy for others and passion for nursing. She is my toughest critic, my strongest motivator, and my best friend.”
The wonderful women in Rudolf’s life
Like some other respondents, Rudolf had trouble picking just one inspirational woman in his life, so he highlighted a few. Firstly, his wife, who “shows so much love and affection to family and friends, always trying to be better and never giving up on anyone, no matter the circumstance.” His mom, who “always pushed me and my brother to work hard — finishing second was not an option”. Speaking of an ophthalmologist who saved his eyesight at a young age, Rudolf wrote: “these are women I would go to battle for and with,” and goes on to describe other special colleagues that he works with and has worked with who have made a positive impact on his life.
Nanar’s supermom
Nanar considers her mom to be the person she looks up to. She shared that her mom “always helps others, she’s always full of life and smiles, and always ready to take on life’s challenges”. Nanar considers herself lucky to have someone like that in her life, and she’s inspired to be that kind of mother for her child one day.
A perpetual pursuit of inspiration for Ludwig’s daughters
Similar to many fathers, Ludwig tries to teach his two daughters that their opportunities in life are limitless, and they can accomplish anything. He writes: “I always find myself making sure they know they can accomplish anything so I share whatever I can in way of stories, quotes, and movies from women who have that power in full display. I love to speak to them and see their reactions as their eyes glow, and you can see how much they love to see strong and inspirational women win, and accomplish what may have seen to be an impossible feat”. He has many women in his life who feed this continuous source of inspiration for his daughters and future generations to help make this world a better place.
Gilbert owes it all to strong women in his life
Growing up in a war-torn country, Gilbert shares that he was raised by his grandmother until the age of 7. Both the influence of his grandmother and mother had on him made him search for a partner who carries the same values, and he shared with us that he lucked out. “Strong, intelligent, opinionated, and not to mention drop dead gorgeous. My debt for who I am today is now owed to my wife for making me want to be the best man, father, and human because of the person she is… she is my rock and my hard place and I love being caught between them. I bow to the women in my life and in retrospect love and respect all women,” Gilbert gushes.
Barbara’s Hero
Barbara wrote about her mom and how she has always felt that helping others was important. A recent event reminded her that there is always a way to help if you use your creativity. Barbara shared: “At 80 years, living alone with a pandemic raging, she found out that someone from her ladies group had brought her very ill husband home from the hospital at 5 pm. It was already getting dark and she doesn’t drive after dark, but she was determined to get them something for a welcome home dinner. So… what to do… it just won’t be right for them not to have a hot meal and there was no way she was going to allow her friend to cook dinner. Try something new and stretch — she went to her phone, and looked up DOORDASH. She had seen ads for them on TV, but had never tried to use the app. Thankfully the app is easy, and she successfully ordered a nice dinner for them. When she told me the story, she was excited she had learned something new and helped her friend.”
Lorraine
Lucas described his mom, Lorraine, as having the toughest job in the world: being a mom. He added that his two brothers, his father, and male dog compounded this challenge: “She had to raise 3 boys (she would argue 4 if we consider my father) and living with just men can be challenging. Even the dog is a male, so that makes it five to some extent! Anyway, she’s incredible. More than incredible. She’s like the giving tree. She just gives, gives, gives. If you look up selfless in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of her. It’s amazing when you think about it: she didn’t seek a glamorous career, nor fame, nor money. None of it. Although she could have with her wits, that’s not what she sought. She wanted to have kids and raise them to be the best versions of themselves. And that’s what she did. She had a goal in mind, she reached it, and she’s proud of it. You could say she achieved her own kind of fame, the only kind that really matters, because to me she’s a driven, successful, and inspiring woman, and above all, my hero. I can only hope to do for my kids one day what she has done, and continues to do, for me my whole life.”
Princess Diana
Aleksandra’s inspirational female figure is Princess Diana. She pointed out her passion for giving to others and highlighted that she donated to numerous charities over the course of her life. The spotlight of Aleksandra’s idea was the mention of Princess Diana’s priority to support women around the globe, not just within her own community. Aleksandra described it in her own words, “She would visit centers and sit with female homeless youth, nurses around her said she was ‘never patronizing’ or detached, she truly cared about them and wanted to help them become strong women themselves. And despite her own struggles and depression, Diana stayed true to her beliefs through her cheeky humor, and natural charm, and continued to sprinkle love and kindness around the world. Diana is a true inspiration to me and an example of love and kindness.”
With the help of the Planbox community, we have donated a total of $500 to the charities below:
Impacted Charities
Catalyst is a global nonprofit working with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to build workplaces that work for women. Their mission focuses on 4 key aspects: Increasing the representation of women from racially and ethnically marginalized groups, in corporate leadership and promoting equal access to career opportunities, developing solutions for women and underrepresented groups to have full participation and equal opportunity in the 21st-century workplace, deepening understanding of workplace inclusion and equipping global companies to remedy inequities across intersections of identity (such as gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, or gender identity), and engaging men to leverage their influence to advocate for gender equity in the workplace.
Womankind Worldwide is a global women’s rights organization. Their aims include ending all forms of violence against women and girls, advancing women’s economic rights, and strengthening women’s influence and decision-making power. Womankind Worldwide strengthens and supports women’s rights organisations and movements and resources they need to challenge oppression and change the lives of women, in the home, the workplace and the communities they live in.
Dress for Success is a global not-for-profit organization that empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. The mission of Dress for Success is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. They believe that every woman has the right to realize her full potential and achieve financial independence in a more egalitarian world.
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Planbox is the pioneering agile innovation management platform software provider for full lifecycle Innovation Portfolio Management, Emerging Tech Empowerment and Ecosystem Enablement. Planbox is also recognized by Forrester as the top-ranking innovation management platform in the marketplace, having received the highest score in strategy and current offering in The Forrester Wave: Innovation Management Platforms, Q1 2020.
As the most robust and scalable platform on the market, we empower our clients to discover, collaborate and capitalize on the best strategically aligned concepts with their ecosystem of employees, customers, suppliers, partners, startups, academia, government and the general public to pursue breakthrough innovations, create a sustainable continuous improvement program, build a framework for corporate venturing and action on consumer insights.
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