Today, while reading an insightful SMH article about the increased number of females on Boards, but the declining numbers of females in the upper corporate ranks, I found myself astonished by the following section of the article:
A (noteworthy corporate) female, who now runs her own business, said the best way to resolve the problem was to introduce targets in senior ranks. “We need to have targets for senior executive positions as well as board positions, but the targets in executive roles need to focus on the areas that chief executives are chosen from,” she said. “They are not chosen from human resources and consumer support.”
Whilst this is clearly just the quoted female’s observation (not necessarily what she agrees is right), I find it amazing that we are prepared to accept and declare that we define targets within targets to ensure the right ‘professions’ are in the CEO ranks. As females, surely we want the best executives amongst our ranks in those positions and we need to move on from the old-fashioned view that HR professionals and consumer-orientated executives can’t run businesses. Who’s left, just accountants? I personally know many amazingly talented women from these fields, who not only can read, analyse and adjust behaviours based on their P&L’s, but have the added skills of strong personnel and supplier relationships. They also seem to have a substantial attention to well-rounded results which include the necessary selling and consumer engagement experiences to grow a business. Just as in every corporate field, there are those that can manage a business and those that grow it. The best CEO’s will combine both these characteristics. To suggest that HR and consumer support directors are NOT a focus for CEO candidature just supports a bias within the female barracks that is not required and certainly not justified. Source: Executives scarce thanks to push for women on boards
