Berthine Crèvecoeur West, founder and CEO of Westbridge Solutions, LLC, a strategic advisory and management consulting firm specializing in organizational transformation, will present the opening keynote at the RISE Women in Health Care Leadership Summit. In this article, RISE talks to Crèvecoeur West about what she hopes attendees will learn from her upcoming presentation on Monday, June 30.
Crèvecoeur West has a unique ability: she can think 10 steps ahead and see where people in an organization are headed before they see it themselves.
From there, she “reverse engineers” the process to help executives aim for 10 times their development, growth, and performance compared to their current state.
Crèvecoeur West knows the process works because she served as her own case study and used the “10x concept” for her own business during COVID. She already had a master’s degree in government and politics, but during the pandemic she decided to go to business school and earned her MBA and became a as Certified Diversity Executive®.
“With the business background and DEI background, that led me to all the things that I realized that I was, which was a strategist,” she explains.
Crèvecoeur West will share 10 transformative strategies as part of her keynote at the RISE Women in Health Care Leadership Summit, which will take place June 30 to July 1 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“In my experience, when it comes to strategy, people don’t think about it. We think, ‘I can do this.’ But do what, how, and to what end? Strategy is really taking your goals, turning them into a roadmap, having action items, and then having tasks so there are steps to what we want to do in the long run. There are many steps that have to occur for us to get a successful outcome,” she says.
And, Crèvecoeur West explains, success means what’s good for you and what’s good for the business. “With my keynote, I want to give women strategies that they can use to build a roadmap to navigate as executives, to help them scale and grow their plans, whatever those plans may be,” she says. “My keynote will give them a high-level overview of the steps they can use today.”
One common tendency of women is to think they aren’t enough, according to Crèvecoeur West. It’s deeper than what people often refer to as “imposter syndrome.” She referred to a statistic that reveals men will apply for a job when they meet only 60 percent of the qualifications, but women will apply only if they meet 100 percent of them. “There's a confidence gap that we have to rail against and go for the gold,” she says.
Another barrier: Many women think they can’t say no and overwork themselves, stretching themselves too thin and burning out. “No has become a full sentence to me. No. Period. I don’t owe someone an explanation. If I give one, it’s because I choose to. But I think we often carry bags that are not ours. And what happens when we do that at TSA? If we are carrying bags that are not ours, we pay a penalty. There are consequences to carrying bags that are not yours,” she says. Crèvecoeur West says she encourages women executives to define clear boundaries and know how to navigate those boundaries. It requires a level of communication and strategy.
“In my experience with my clients who are women, they think if they say no, they’ll miss an opportunity. I say no, you are the moment. You are what will be missed if you say no. Nothing else,” she says, noting that she says yes to the opportunities that are meaningful to her. “I say yes to things that make me happy, bring me joy, or add to my business. And yes, joy can be found in business.”
About Berthine Crèvecoeur West
Berthine Crèvecoeur West, MA, EMBA, CDE®, CEO of Westbridge Solutions, is a trailblazing force in the world of business strategy and executive consulting and has emerged as a beacon of excellence and innovation. With a diverse skillset and a passion for fostering inclusive environments, she is a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE)® who brings over two decades of experience to the table.
Crèvecoeur West has an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business & Technology, an MA in Government & Politics from St. John’s University, and coinciding certifications, including a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Certification. She is an alumna of Leadership Gwinnett (Class of 2017), as well as an executive board member of GUIDE, Inc., a member of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. She is the recipient of the 2024 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors individuals who have completed over 4,000 hours of service in their lifetime. Crèvecoeur West is also a TEDx speaker, Amazon best-selling author, award-nominated podcast host, and editor-in-chief of Global Fluency Magazine.
Crèvecoeur West will present her keynote, She Means Business™: Advanced Business Strategies for Women Leaders in Health Care, on June 30, the first day of the RISE Women in Health Care Leadership Summit. The conference will be held June 30-July 1 at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Scottsdale, Ariz. Click here to learn more about the conference, including the full agenda, roster of speakers, and how to register.