It seems like every few weeks an article is published or a report comes out about the lack of women on boards. They typically report that there is no progress and that at this rate it is going to take 100-years to reach parity. Even though they do tell you their article or report is on the Fortune 500 public companies, they do not point out that there are thousands of smaller public boards and private companies, and many, many companies who have advisory boards. Plus, some of the Fortune 500 companies have advisory boards in addition to their board of directors.
Research is not being done on smaller public companies and their boards, and since private companies are, well private, that information is hard to come by. But I am here to tell you that times are a changin’! As you have probably seen by our big splash this week – we hit the big 1-0-0 in the amount of board seat notifications we’ve received over the last few years. These 100 board seats are a mix of public and private companies – large, medium and small. These board seats have not only spanned across all industries but the skill-sets are just as varied. The good news is things have changed greatly over the last five years, and in the last three years, I dare say they have changed dramatically.
So yay for us, yay for you and yay for these companies realizing that it makes sense to have board members that look like their customers and that diversity of thought at a table is good for the bottom line!
