The J K Rowling effect

The power of fiction is today underlined with the news that, on the eve of International Women’s Day, children’s author J K Rowling has been voted the most inspirational businesswoman in a survey of UK freelancers by Crunch Accounting.
Earning 23 per cent of all votes, J K Rowling beat a high profile field of business personalities, including online shopping entrepreneurs and creators of notonthehighstreet.com Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish (voted by 16 per cent) and The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick (16 per cent).
Other female leaders who also received recognition were Martha Lane Fox CBE, member of the House of Lords and former UK Digital Champion who co-founded lastminute.com and (14 per cent) and football managing director and TV personality Karen Brady (12 per cent).
The research was conducted to celebrate International Women’s Day (8^th March) which is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future, with 400 events scheduled across the United Kingdom.
Laura Hughes, Accountancy Training Manager at Crunch Accounting, said: ”We conducted the research to understand which high profile women are setting the best example and inspiring the freelance business community – a group that now makes up 14.5 per cent of the country’s total workforce, with 4.37 million self-employed currently working in the UK.
“The results have been really interesting. Women from across the digital and creative industries received far more votes than the corporate heavyweights, like Santander CEO Ana Patricia Botín. Above all however, the results remind us of the diverse and varied range of female business personalities that the UK has to offer, a fact well worth celebrating on Saturday for International Women’s Day.”
The survey was run by Crunch Accounting, which combines cloud software with expert accountants to provide a complete business accountancy service.
The full list is:

· JK Rowling, author - 23%
· Holly Tucker & Sophie Cornish, founders of notonthehighstreet.com - 16%
· Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop - 16%
· Martha Lane Fox, founder of lastminute.com – 14%
· Karen Brady,vice-chairman of West Ham United - 12%
· Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet - 7%
· Juliet Davenport, Chief Executive of The Good Energy Group - 4%
· Victoria Beckham, global fashion entrepreneur - 3%
· Carolyn McCall, chief executive of easyJet - 3%
· Ana Patricia Botín, CEO, Santander UK - 2%
· Christine Hodgson, executive chairman, capgemini - 1%
· Liv Garfield, CEO Severn Trent - 1%