Ripe for Change: ION’s New Report Highlights Business Case for Diversity

iStock_000002096821XSmallBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

The InterOrganization Network (ION) recently released its annual Report on the Status of U.S. Women Directors and Executive Officers and, as has been the case for the past six years the study has been conducted, the results aren’t much to be excited about. Or, as ION more optimistically states, the findings illustrate a “bleak landscape ripe for change.”

The Numbers

ION has 14 regions that are represented by their member organizations, these include: California, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Florida, Georgia, Kansas City, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. In these regions, women were found to hold between 7.6 and 17.8 percent of board seats in the nearly 2,000 companies included in the study.

In Fortune 500 companies located in the 14 regions, women hold between 12 and 19.5 percent of all board seats, while in Fortune 501 to 1000 companies, women hold between 6.3 and 18 percent of all seats.

Often with the results, the bad outweighs the good. For example, companies with boards on which women comprise 25 percent or more range between 1.4 and 21 percent. However, the percentages of companies that have no women directors range between 11 and 55 percent. And women of color have even less representation. ION’s 14 member organizations report that women of color hold between 0.8 and 3.6 percent of the board seats of companies in their respective research pools. It was also found that between 32 and 70 percent of the companies surveyed have no women in their executive suites and between 60 and 78.1 percent of companies surveyed don’t have a single woman among their highest paid executives.

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Full disclosure: UK Government steps in to get more women into the boardroom

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iStock_000006712763XSmallBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

UK companies may be required to report on their efforts to get more women into the boardroom. The Government has asked the Financial Reporting Council, which is currently consulting on its UK Corporate Governance Code, to consider adding in a requirement to get companies to disclose what they are doing to increase the number of women in senior management roles. It’s not exactly clear what would then happen to the data disclosed, but it’s likely to be used to highlight firms that aren’t making enough of an effort.

“Britain needs more women in the boardroom,” says Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equalities. “Too many British boardrooms are still no-go areas for women. Women are important consumers and employees. We’ll never get a proper meritocracy or truly family-friendly workplaces from male dominated boards.”

Harman’s proposals have been backed by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. “We all recognise the value of strong role models for women in all walks of life – and there are many in politics, the arts, public services, sport and the third sector,” he said. “But there are too few in Britain’s boardrooms. When more than half of graduates are women, it is completely unacceptable that some of our top 100 public companies have not a single woman on their boards – and that none at all have a majority of women on their boards. A new principle in the governance code on diversity would build on the provisions in the equality bill, which allow employers to take positive action when recruiting to balance their workforce.”

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Voice of Experience: Susan Allen, FCA, CPA, Audit Partner, TICE Assurance Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Susan Allen (C2VR)By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Motivated by a “secret love” of being a teacher, Susan Allen, TICE (Technology, Information Communications and Entertainment) Assurance Leader for PwC Canada and Chair of the firm’s Women in Leadership/Retention of Women initiative, has built her career on her leadership capabilities, and is motivated by a passion for encouraging women leaders.

She began her career at the University of Toronto. “I graduated from university with a geography and drama degree, because I wanted to be a teacher,” Allen explained. “I fell into accounting because I took on a job as the University Cashier, and the world of accounting opened up to me as I started taking courses.” Allen joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1981, after taking an introductory accounting course, and was offered a position in training as a new manager – which was perfect for her inclination toward teaching. “Funny that I had to get my CA to be a teacher!” she joked.

A 3 year secondment and two children later, Allen was promoted to senior manager. Commending PwC for the company’s flexibility, she said, “I decided that part time was the answer for me.” Working full time January through April, three days per week May through September, and four days per week September through June allowed her to spend more time with her young children – and still make partner in the regular amount of time.

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6 Steps to Take On the Unwritten Rules Keeping Women out of Leadership Roles

Lynn_24P2193_FContributed by Lynn Harris, Author of Unwritten Rules: What Women Need To Know About Leading In Today’s Organizations.

For years we’ve been told to be patient.

“Just give it time,” say the powers that be. “We’ll soon see more women leaders in government, corporations, law firms, universities, and more… just give it a little more time…”

The fact is, men still lead 80% to 90% of organizations worldwide. Yes, some women have moved up and into corner offices, but they’re relatively few in number, and the rate of change is painfully slow – in some countries it’s actually stalled.

Women constitute half of the world’s labor force. We now make or influence the majority of consumer buying decisions.

Why, then, do we still see so few women making key decisions in boardrooms and executive suites?

A big part of the answer is the unwritten rules.

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Movers and Shakers: Ann Zeiler, Senior Vice President, North American Sales at Northern Trust

Zeiler Ann 2007By Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

Ann Zeiler takes the long view in her position as a saleswoman for Global Fund Services at the 120-year-old bank, Northern Trust Corp. “I am the cheerleader of the group, the perpetual optimist,” said Zeiler. “If someone keeps saying no, it is hard to get a group of people to energize again. Why keep trying?”

She answered her own question: “Because a lost opportunity is your next prospect.”

Zeiler is a natural saleswoman. She is energetic, driven and believable. Her career began 28 years ago at Northern Trust when she was supporting retirees and “on the phone all day working on retirement benefits.” Eventually, her personality opened doors to a marketing role where she was supporting a sales team and responding to requests for proposals.

“I am a team player but I like having individual responsibilities,” said Zeiler. “Buying decisions are emotional decisions. A sale depends on your knowledge and your ability to communicate.”

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A Man’s Undercover Mission into the World of Women Leaders

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_DSC3667Contributed by Mark Palmer, CEO, StreamBase Systems, Inc.

Recently, I attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the gathering of 2,500 CEOs,heads of state, and visionaries from the arts. At Davos, I saw Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, met Miss Universe, and participated with the “titans of social media” — as the founders of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn squared off. Heady stuff. But mid week, I went to a session that eclipsed them all. It was innocuously entitled The Power of the Purse.

Davos is an economic forum and I went for economic interests. But I went to this session for different reasons. At work I’m a CEO, but at home I’m a widow. When my wife died of cancer three years ago I took on a new, foreign role — mom, and so I attended this session with my 7-year-old daughter Ruby in mind. I thought this session might give me some insight into the world as she will encounter it.

But as I took my seat, I felt out of place. There I was, one of a handful of men with 60 of the most accomplished women in the world. I felt like I had mistakenly slipped behind enemy lines, then been cordially invited to an intimate power lunch in the general’s tent. The panel included Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, author Margaret Atwood, and Laura D’Andrea Tyson, former chair of Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors.

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Ask-A-Career-Coach: The Versatility of Specific Graduate Degrees

jobsearchContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart™

I recently have graduated with my BS in Business Administration, Finance. I’ve been accepted into University of Richmond to study the Masters of HR Management. I find HR very interesting and want to learn about the subject, but what if later on I decide to focus on a career outside of HR? Will this masters degree hinder me? Since my undergrad is in business, I have absolutely no desire to go for my MBA. They seem like a dime a dozen these days. How would the MHRM be viewed to recruiters in terms of managing other areas of a business? Other departments?

If you ask 10 recruiters the same question, you will get a range of answers. Careers are not an exact science and vary based on an individual’s goals, skill set, personality, drive, etc. In this case, the only thing I am sure about is that you will find some recruiters who highly value the MHRM, some who dismiss it and some who will be in-between.

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Championing the Flexwork Initiative at Your Company: How and Why

meryl02f (2)By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last week U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama opened the White House’s conference on workplace flexibility, a topic near and dear to her heart. She said, “for many years before coming to Washington, I was a working mother, doing my best to juggle the demands of my job with the needs of my family, with a husband who has crazy ideas.”

She told the story of her last job interview before moving to Washington – she was unable to find a babysitter for her daughter, so ended up having to take her along to the interview. The interviewer was understanding, and she got the job. But, she said, she was lucky – many women wouldn’t have had such good fortune.

The conference, hosted by the Obamas, coincided with the release of a new report by the Executive Office of the President Council of Economic Advisers, “Work-Life Balance and the Economics of Workplace Flexibility” [PDF]. The report makes an economic argument for flexible work programs, noting that there are many challenges to instituting such programs – not the least of which is a lack of facts about their actual costs and related benefits.

The Glass Hammer talked with workplace flexibility expert and co-founder of FlexPaths Meryl Rosenthal on why women can benefit from flexible work arrangements, and how they can encourage flexible work programs in their office.

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Paying the Price: Work/life Issues Most Challenging for Women in Investment Banking

finance-wlbalanceBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Those who’ve been immersed in the world of investment banking for years know all too well that it’s an incredibly difficult, demanding, and time-consuming career path that requires making sacrifices on a very personal level. As if that’s not asking enough of one person, some troubling information has come to light thanks to new research by two of the world’s most esteemed economists, Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and director of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Development of the American Economy program, and Lawrence Katz, the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics at Harvard and a research associate at the NBER.

The study, entitled “Harvard and Beyond,” surveyed 6,500 former Harvard and Radcliff students who graduated between the years 1969 and 1992 and essentially, the economists found that women pay an incredibly high price to be in the finance industry, which is now considered a profession more demanding than medicine or law.

On first read, the report almost sounds as though financial services is one industry hell-bent on not letting women have it all. In the survey, Goldin and Katz found that female investment bankers, for example, who made up for the work they missed after taking time off to have a child, still saw the largest pay decreases.

It also indicates that female investment bankers who took a year and a half off made 41 percent less than their counterparts.

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Voices of Experience: Janet Thomas, Director, Citi FX Prime

Janet-ThomasBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

“Foreign Exchange is exciting,” says Janet Thomas, Director at Citi Foreign Exchange Prime. “The pace of change is so fast that trading takes place in microseconds.”

Thomas has played a key role expanding the business from a start-up to being ranked a key global FX Prime of strategic importance to clients. “The relationship I have with clients is one of the most rewarding aspects of my position,” she says. “Some clients have expanded their business through acquisitions as unprecedented market conditions presented once in a life time opportunities; others have devised pioneering new models of business and substantially increased their profits.”

Thomas joined Citi FX Prime in 2006, and was very excited about the challenges ahead – and economically it has been an interesting time since then. She believes that the foreign exchange market has been incredibly resilient during the credit crisis which has decimated other business areas in financial services. “It’s at the epicentre of any political, economic and social change and these factors impact the market immediately,” she says.

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