I knew I should have bought that grit!
Is it really December? It was my birthday this week. I’m not fishing for a flurry of ‘Happy birthday’ messages, I just can’t remember a time when it actually snowed on my birthday. Extraordinary! As usual, the country has ground to a halt and I realise the folly once more of having a rear wheel drive automatic car as my wheels spin uselessly on the ice.
No matter. It’s been a busy few days and I’ve been along to some great events and meetings that I hope will result in extra value and benefits for myexec and mygrad members. I went along to the Russam GMS ‘Interim Women’ event at the Royal Yacht Club last week to hear a presentation on careers as Trustees and Non-Executive Directors. There were some great speakers – Judy Lowe who was the first woman NED appointee through the Institute of Directors, Barry Gamble – NED and Editor at Large for Boardroom magazine (well worth a subscription), Hilary Sears an experienced Headhunter and Board coach, Sue O’Brien – CEO of Norman Broadbent and Sarah Hodgkinson – CEO of ‘Getting on Board’. It was great to hear their honest accounts about how women need to position themselves differently if they are ever to get ‘beyond the boy’s club’ and how best to go about securing a Board post.
Men have a few issues with breaking down the oak ceiling too, but the situation for women is particularly dire. According to new research from Cranfield School of Management there are only 135 female-held directorships (12.5%) out of 1,076 on FTSE 100 boards. This is a small increase over the previous year due to three women joining FTSE 100 boards, bringing the total to 116 women holding 135 positions. However, there was a positive finding – the number of companies with no female directors has fallen to 21 (from 25 in 2009). Burberry was the company in top place this year with three out of eight female board members. In addition, both the Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer are women. There is also a female non-executive director.
Dr Ruth Sealy, co-author of the report, comments: “There is still too much female talent not making it to the boardroom. 82 of the FTSE 100 companies have women on their executive committees. These women are a rich resource pool for future board directorships.” The report has also identified a significant lack of women on boards in FTSE 250 companies. Just 7.8% of FTSE 250 board directors are women.
Lynne Featherstone, Equalities Minister, adds: “Making boards more diverse is not about political correctness – it’s about making sure companies draw senior staff from the widest possible pool of talent, which is good for business, good for staff and good for customers. That’s why the Government is committed to working with employers to boost the number of women in Britain’s boardrooms.”
At myexecutivecareer.com, we’re looking to see how we can link up to create a series of articles and resources for the site to help people interested in developing their careers along these lines – more in the New Year, however, Premium members can already access useful resources on the MyBoard&NedCareer page.
We’ll also be looking to run a joint workshop on the use of social media in the New Year. In the meantime, you can see my updated article on Twitter here: What use is Twitter?
Next week, I’ve been invited to be a panel member by The Guardian on their ‘Live Careers Q&A’ – Tuesday December 7th from 12 on how public sector professionals can move into the world of consulting. The link isn’t live yet, however, if this is a topic you’re interested in then do please log in on Tuesday. There’s also an information page on the newlifenetwork.co.uk site here.
On the mygraduatecareer.com front, we will now feature a video clip on the homepage every week of a different graduate employer. This week we have M&S. Emma is also cooking up a new marketing idea that we hope will have graduate talent fair flocking to the site. We’ve also been looking at some interesting ‘employability’ training courses with Graduate Coach – again, more on that over the coming weeks.
Have a great weekend and mind how you go in the snow!
