Revision as of 13:36, 6 April 2018

Chief executive officers

In India and the world: 2017

Women Chief executive officers in India and the world- 2017 (Part I)
From: March 12, 2018: The Times of India

Women Chief executive officers in India and the world- 2017 (Part II)
From: March 12, 2018: The Times of India

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Women Chief executive officers in India and the world- 2017 (Part I)

Women Chief executive officers in India and the world- 2017 (Part II)

Company directors

2015

The Times of India, Aug 29 2015

Some famous Indian women company directors ; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Aug 29 2015

Market regulator SEBI in April 2014 mandated that every listed Indian organization should have at exclusive least one woman director on board. Global executive search firm EMA Partners conducted a study to map women directors in the top 200 companies. Of the 2,048 directorships available, 217--or 11% -of board memberships are occupied by women. Of these, 50% are in senior management roles and 36% are civil servants.

Diverse boards outperform male-only by US$14 billion

The Times of India, Oct 14 2015

Diverse boards in India outperform male-only peers by US$14 billion

Indian companies with diverse executive boards outperform peers run by allmale boards according to new research from Grant Thornton.The study titled 'Women in business:the value of diversity' study, which covers listed companies in India,UK and US,estimates the opportunity cost for companies with male-only executive boards (in terms of lower returns on assets) at a staggering US$655 billion in 2014,where India's share is US$ 14 billion.

KEY FINDINGS: In the US,S&P 500 companies with diverse boards outperformed rivals by 1.91%.In the UK FTSE 350,the gap was 0.53% and for the Indian CNX 200,0.85%.This translates into an opportunity cost of US$567bn,US$74bn and US$14bn in each of the three markets respectively or around 3% of GDP in the UK and US; In the UK and US,the impact of moving to mixed boards on the S&P 500 and FTSE 350 could boost GDP by around 3%. The research shows a significant opportunity cost associated with male-only boards:US$655bn for 1,050 companies across the three markets.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Companies: You need to go further and move beyond female participation at a non-executive level.Diversity in decisionmaking boosts performance; Investors:You need to put pressure on companies to diversify their boards at an executive level.There are proven performance benefits. Governments: At a time when productivity is falling,mixed executive teams are generating greater returns from their assets.

Gender diversity laws

2015: Most companies implement gender diversity law

The Times of India, Jan 23 2016

Swati Deshpande

`Women still small part of cos' boards'

A historic gender diversity law did get women onto the boards of nearly 90% Indian companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), but experts say the spirit of the reform is yet to see the light of day . Only 147 of the 1,451 NSE-listed companies did not comply with the law on April 1, 2015 -the day the mandate to bring at least one woman onto their boards came into force. But the NSE Centre for Excellence in Corporate Governance, in its last report on gender diversity on boards, said the data showed “the unflattering reality that even after the deadline for complying with the woman-director mandate, women still constituted a very small part of the board make-up.“

According to the report's authors N Balasubramanian and Nirmal Mohanty , there is no doubt that the mandate issued by Sebi prompted a spurt in appointments in 2014-15 with 762 women directors and 895 women directorships.

The compliance was also delayed till the last minute by many . Most of the compliant companies in India have only one woman director on board, and she is usually not an independent director, said Afra Afsharipour, a UC Davis law professor. She is in Mumbai for an initiative called the Directors' Collective.

The report says there is a clear paucity of potential independent woman directors. The highest compliance is in Europe with Norway heading the world with 35.5% representation of women on their boards. “But the mindset of companies being an `old boys' club' is slowly changing,“ said Nick Sutcliffe, Asia-Pacific chief of The Conference Board, a not-for-profit group set up in the US to help businesses with best board practices.

Senior positions

2016, India and the world: An Egon Zehnder report

Namrata Singh, India lags in board gender diversity, Feb 25, 2017: The Times of India

Gender diversity of CEOs and CFOs in 2016; Namrata Singh, India lags in board gender diversity, Feb 25, 2017: The Times of India

India lags behind Asian markets like China and Hong Kong on certain board gender diversity parameters, despite the best of efforts to bring more women on boards of companies. An Egon Zehnder (EZ) report for 2016 -exclusive to TOI -reveals that India's numbers are lower when it comes to new women board member appointments, women executive directors and women CFOs.

In 2016, new women board member appointments in India stood at 11% of total hires in 2016, as against 14.5% for new male directors. This is lower than the global overall average of 17% women. In other Asian markets like Hong Kong and Malaysia, the same was 16.4% and 27.3%, respectively .

While the compulsion of maintaining one woman director on every listed company board could have helped more women get board positions, the EZ report shows that not many women directors in India have management responsibilities.

Pallavi Kathuria, co-leader of diversity and inclusion practice at EZ, said, “Despite social and economic progress in other areas of the business world, diversity at the leaders hip level, particularly in the boardroom, has not kept pace. Data from the global board diversity analysis and EZ's experiences have shown that, as women start making their voice heard and encourage the de velopment of other women leaders, it is likely that companies will continue increasing female presence on boards.“

Falguni Nayar, founder & CEO, Nykaa, who is on the boards of a few companies in India, said, “To get to where they want to be, women need to lean in. We need to develop abilities to be able to take on the dual responsibilities of career and home. In most cases, this involves increasing risk appetite and pushing oneself forward.“

Nayar said men are comfortable with being on several boards, while women were more conservative in making themselves available for such positions. “However, while the average age of a board would be 55-plus, we are seeing several younger women coming on boards. The attitude is certainly changing,“ said Nayar.

According to the EZ report, India was better than China and Hong Kong on the number of women CEOs. Among CFOs, however, India is far behind at 5.1% of women as CFOs.

2017: 1 in 5 firms has a female CEO/ top manager

Women head merely 20% of companies globally, April 3, 2018: The Times of India

Percentage of female CEOs, worldwide, region-wise, in 2017
From: Women head merely 20% of companies globally, April 3, 2018: The Times of India

Women empowerment and feminism have been taking an all-new shape in the past decade. Though there has been observed a positive rise in the education level and job security of women all over the world, especially in developing economies like India, the percentage of women actually heading the companies worldwide is not even one-fourth to that of men.

There was a small rise in the number of women managers in the Indian mutual fund industry in 2017, but they still constitute a mere 8 per cent of the total fund managers in the country, a study by investment research provider Morningstar Inc.’s India unit showed some time back.

Ironically, as per a study conducted by Forbes revealed that it’s actually the companies with more number of women in top management that had a 41 per cent higher return on equity than the remaining others. And yet, today there are actually more male CEOs as compared to women top managers.

But despite all this, on a global level, only 1 in 5 firms worldwide have a female CEO or top manager, and it is a more common phenomenon in smaller firms. Thailand and Cambodia are the only countries where the data shows more women, as compared to men, running the companies.

2018: Hold 7% of crucial positions In BSE 100 cos

Namrata Singh, March 9, 2018: The Times of India

Women on corporate boards, 2016 and 2017
From: Namrata Singh, March 9, 2018: The Times of India

India Inc is walking the talk on gender diversity, especially at key management levels. Building a pipeline and elevating women managers to leadership positions is critical to not only improve upon gender diversity numbers, but also to ensure women managers don’t fall through the cracks as they move up the hierarchy.

Companies are proactively disclosing their diversity numbers along with the number of women key management persons, or WKMPs as they are called. In a BSE 100 companies’ analysis of performance and gender parameters by leading HR service provider Randstad India — done exclusively for TOI — a majority of 66 companies disclosed their diversity ratios, including WKMP numbers, in fiscal year 2017. In the BSE 100, out of a total of 1,039 key management persons (KMP), 76 are women, which is 7%.

Of the 66 companies that have disclosed their gender diversity numbers, 35 have at least one WKMP. Among the remaining 34 companies in the BSE 100 that have not disclosed their gender numbers, 15 have at least one WKMP. In all, there are 50 companies that have at least one WKMP in the BSE 100. Randstad’s research reveals that these 50 companies have shown an overall improvement of 21% in share price in 2017 over 2016.

Although, women are still far outnumbered by their male counterparts at key management levels, there are several indicators that suggest somewhere, in some form, the needle is moving.

‘Cos move towards transparency in gender diversity’

Randstad India MD & CEO Paul Dupuis said, “It is heartening to see that Indian companies are getting increasingly transparent and mature when it comes to details on diversity and inclusion as part of their continuing effort in becoming responsible corporate citizens. According to our research findings, women are represented on the board of every single company that feature in the BSE 100 and there is also a clear uptick in the number of WKMPs in these organisations. This is definitely a move in the positive direction and is a reflection of the fact that diversity has evolved from being just another checklist item. This should augur well for the role of women at the workplace going forward.”

An increase in WKMPs is expected to lead to a strong pipeline of women for directorship roles in future. At present, while the gender diversity ratios at entry levels are more or less balanced, the ratios get skewed towards male employees as one moves up the hierarchies, since a section of women employees leave their careers on attaining motherhood. Bringing women back into the career stream is a key priority for most organisations today.

Recognising the benefits of gender diversity, organisations globally are making several public commitments to make their workplace diverse and inclusive. Deutsche Bank India HR head Madhavi Lall said, “It is no secret that the gender gap widens at the higher echelons of the corporate ladder. So, it is vital to ensure that there is a strong pipeline of female talent. Our gender-neutral parental leave policy and other tailored training and development programmes — focused at the middle and senior management level — have been introduced to address this issue.”

See also

Tata Advanced Systems Limited

Women and crime: India

Women in senior corporate positions: India

Women in senior positions: South Asia

Women in sports

Women’s employment: India

Working women: South Asia