A Leg Up: Women for Boards

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)

The UK has a new initiative for women who want to make it to the top: Women for Boards, sponsored by MWM Consulting, aims to support female high-fliers in their drive to become non-executive directors for major companies.

“Female board directors remain rare and still face a steep climb to the top,” says Rebecca Fitzpatrick, spokesperson for Women for Boards. “Women for Boards is targeting highly qualified women, who for whatever reason so far have lacked visibility, and helping them to gain their valuable first board position. This will not only bring greater diversity to the Boards to which they are appointment, it will also help these women develop the experience to take on other Non-Executive roles in the future, potentially on larger boards.”

The aim is to build a groundswell of women in FTSE 250 and 350 companies, with an eventual goal of giving these women the skills they need to take on more responsibility as non-executive directors of FTSE100 companies.

“We believe we can fundamentally improve the quality of boards by improving their diversity,” says Fitzpatrick. “There is clearly burgeoning demand for greater diversity on boards. We believe there is also a strong supply of talented, qualified female candidates, but until now those groups have not always found each other. Women For Boards aims to bring the two together – matching willing sellers with willing buyers, willing candidates with willing boards. What we also aim to do is not just provide a few women for a few boards, but to introduce scale, which will we hope bring a real, effective and enriching change to the FTSE 250 boards.”

Women on Boards Means Better Performance

There’s a growing realisation that women on boards leads to better performance: a study by Catalyst in 2007 of Fortune 500 companies concluded that companies with three or more women on their boards had an 83% greater return on equity than companies with the lowest representation of women. They also had a 73% better return on their sales and a 112% higher return on invested capital – not bad. Even if these results aren’t due solely to the presence of women in the boardroom they show that diversity on boards can be a good thing.

“We have created a calibrated database of highly qualified women who are able and ready for a non-executive role,” explains Fitzpatrick. “The database has been built up from research and recommendations from our own network and beyond. Potential clients will furnish MWM with briefs so they can put the two needs together. Everyone who goes forward to meet a client will have been met by MWM first to understand their interests, experience, background, location and strengths. The team will also help them manage their expectations. We now have a pool of highly qualified people ready to be appointed.”

The MWM team have also put together a pool of mentors, for women who have boardroom aims but not the experience or confidence – yet. Helen Alexander, President of the CBI and non-executive director of both Rolls-Royce Group and Centrica is on the list, along with ex-BBC journalist turned non-executive director of Sainsbury, Anna Ford. Fitzpatrick believes that the volunteer mentors – who have been there, done that – will be able to “help candidates make the step up, and hone their board skills.”

Board initiatives – Good Idea or Waste of Time?

Initiatives like this to help women find board positions are not unique to the UK. Australia has it’s own Women On Boards initiative and Women Executive Leadership does the same thing in Florida, where women-led businesses have a combined economic impact of more than $1.6 billion, according to a study by Florida International University.

But not everyone supports the idea of finding women for board positions through a matchmaking service like Women for Boards. “Quite frankly, I think it will hinder women,” says Roxanne Rivera, author of the forthcoming book, There’s No Crying in Business: How Women Can Succeed in Male-Dominated Industries. “I really don’t think that boards will go this route to find board members. I believe that women may sign on with this listing and then never see any progress.” Rivera thinks that a directory service could just be paying lip service to women, and that candidates run the risk of being contacted to serve on a board that doesn’t really interest them. “Do you take the board position simply because it offered to you? I don’t think so,” she says. “It needs to be either something that you are passionate about or something that ties in with your business.”

Rivera believes that there are other ways you can secure a board position – as she has done herself. She advises potential board members to be persistent and call up the Executive Director of a board that interests you. Find out if there are vacancies and ask to meet for coffee to discuss how you can put your talents and qualifications to use to benefit that particular board.

“Do your homework to find boards you are interested in that need board members,” she says. “Having a board position is a really great way to build your resume, but relying on a ‘service’ to do this for you just doesn’t resonate with me.” She stresses the importance of finding a board that you can dedicate your time and interest to. “Look at boards that you really think you can make a difference on,” she adds. “It is one thing to say you are a board member, but if you are not committed to the cause or the organisation, it will become a burden to be on that board and as busy as women are, we need to spend our time wisely.”