In the silence of the night when everyone else has shut down and you are left with your decisions, that’s when you become an entrepreneur. Someone said to me once that to be an entrepreneur you have to have a spouse with a full-time job and while that anecdote is funny it’s also a bit sad. The very essence of an entrepreneur is a risk-taker, however unfair that risk is to the … [Read more...]
Research Finds Lack of Gender Diversity in Boardrooms Causes Dysfunction
Women held just 16% of corporate board seats in 2012 and in the past six years, there has been just a 2% increase in that number. An annual study published by the Harvard Business review and done in partnership with WomenCorporateDirectors and Heidrick & Struggles reports that gender inequality in corporate boardrooms causes real dysfunction in 2013. The study was … [Read more...]
Business Advice for Dummies
As a business owner particularly when you are starting out, ‘constructive criticism’ is something that you get in spades. Some of the criticism is great, it tells you things about yourself and your company that you didn’t know. Other times it can feel like a direct attack, so how do you know the difference and how do you find the silver lining? Consider the source Sometimes … [Read more...]
For Love of the Game
This morning I had the privilege of attending an Executive Breakfast that focused on employee engagement and what that actually means. It was a timely discussion because I hear the phrase employee engagement in just about every explanation of what’s wrong with an organization. But what is it really? What does employee engagement mean and why is it important to your business? … [Read more...]
Senator Urges SEC to Increase Diversity on Corporate Boards
In a letter sent today to Mary Jo White, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) urged the SEC to take steps to address the lack of representation of women and minorities on corporate boards. In his letter, Senator Casey cited several statistics from a recent Alliance Board for Diversity report to support his message, … [Read more...]
Most Powerful Women in the World 2013 Announced
Who are the most powerful women in the world? According to the Forbes 2013 World's Most Powerful Women List, they come from diverse industries, including business, technology, media, politics, philanthropy, real estate, investments, fashion and retail, food and beverage, and entertainment (i.e., celebrities). Of the 100 power women on the list, a large percentage work in … [Read more...]
2013 Women on Boards Survey Finds the Gender Gap Closed 1.7% Since 2009
The number of women on the corporate boards at 5,977 companies in 47 countries across the globe has increased by just 0.5% since 2012 and only 1.7% since 2009. Those statistics come from GMI Ratings' 2013 Women on Boards Survey as reported by Kimberly Gladman, Director of Research and Risk Analytics at GovernanceMetrics International. Gladman shared the key study results on … [Read more...]
Just 4 out of 10 Male Senior Executives Believe More Women are Needed in Senior Positions
New research from the Conference Board of Canada found that just 42% of male senior executives agree that more women are needed in senior-level positions versus 90% of female senior executives. Interestingly, the percentage of males who believe more women are needed in the senior ranks increases in inverse proportion to the hierarchical level of the males' roles. The exact … [Read more...]
Women on Boards – Leading Companies of Silicon Valley
Which companies in Silicon Valley have the most women on boards? That's the question Bryce Druzen answered yesterday on the Silicon Valley Business Journal website. Not surprisingly, Druzen found that only 16.9% of Silicon Valley companies have women corporate board members. You can see how the companies in the tech capitol of the United States rank below and get all of … [Read more...]
14-Point Roadmap to Improve Boardroom Diversity and Get More Women on Boards
Only one in five corporate board members in the S&P 100 are women and just 15.6% of all board seats in the United States are held by women. In other words, there is very little diversity in corporate board rooms. Today, WomenCorporateDirectors and the WomenCorporateDirectors Global Institute released a 14-point roadmap to improve diversity in corporate boardrooms. These … [Read more...]