More than 100 women leaders from 26 countries came together in Bled On Thursday and Friday for the conference.

Susan Madsen, a researcher of the Utah Valley University in the US, told the conference that women in leadership improved business results, productivity and creativity, as well as worker satisfaction and better decision making.

Research shows that many qualities attributed to great leaders are actually typical of women, Madsen said. Mollie Painter Morland, the head of an IEDC department, added that women doubted themselves too much and were paralysed by uncertainty.

Madsen said that systemic changes were needed to encourage women to strive for leading positions and that women must become more empowered.

The IEDC-Bled School of Management is headed by a successful female manager. Its founder and director Danica Purg takes great pride that the school has become an established institution.

In its three decades of existence more than 75,800 managers from 82 countries have taken part in its training programmes, she has told the STA.

Purg added that she always "strove for the best and invited professors from the best management schools from around the world".