Banks Must Make Gender Balance A Priority To Avoid Another Fall - Building Gender Balanced Business

The most important question for all those concerned about the future robustness of the financial sector is what is the risk of not having a better gender balance on the top teams of the banks? And what is the cost of squandering talent among women graduates (an ever increasing majority) and high-potential people within their companies?

What is the level of risk of not having an equal gender balance?
The most important question for all those concerned about the future robustness of the financial sector is what is the risk of not having a more equal gender balance on the top teams of the banks? And what is the cost of squandering talent among women graduates (an ever increasing majority) and high potential people within their companies? The fact that men were in charge (in the main) when the biggest financial crisis to hit one generation took place should have put these questions up in neon lights.

Culture change
Instead, there is a carry-on-as-before attitude, with more “fix the women” programmes and policies. Only occasionally do we come upon CEOs determined to change things in a more fundamental way, and they come to recognise that it is about changing mindsets and the corporate culture.

This crisis will end, that much is known. Already, there are some wannabe Masters of the Universe shaking off the dust from their Armani suits and starting to hoist the “Greed is Good” banner again. (Note how a recent issue of the UK magazine The Spectator said that “Gekko was right”, referring to Michael Douglas’s character Gordon Gekko in the 1980s movie Wall Street, which defined an earlier era of excess).

It’s a matter for investors
Piyush Gupta, CEO of South East Asia Pacific, Citibank, told us that making progress on the gender diversity front required a big change to the corporate culture: “At the end of the day, it is not about creating processes to change women; it is about creating processes to change the company.”

So, amidst all the talk about what went wrong and all the effort to cope with the present difficulties, we need the issue of gender balance to be up there as one of the top priorities of the financial institutions.

Shareholders should be raising the issue at their meetings. Companies should be reporting on their progress, providing metrics on their gender diversity. All managers should be pushing for change because it is a business issue, with implications for profits, governance and wisdom. And, as far as the banks are concerned, it is a matter of survival. To paraphrase Lady Bracknell, the formidable character in Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest: To lose one bank may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose another would look like carelessness.

SPECIAL REPORT
THE WOMEN-OMICS SPECIAL REPORT ON THE CREDIT CRUNCH
BETTER BOTTOM LINE – THE LINK BETWEEN GENDER BALANCE AND PERFORMANCE

CEO’S WHO GET IT
JASPAL BINDRA, CEO, ASIA, STANDARD CHARTERED BANK
PIYUSH GUPTA, CEO, SOUTH EAST ASIA PACIFIC, CITIBANK
KUNDAPUR VAMAN KAMATH, ICICI BANK
MIKE SMITH, CEO, ANZ

OTHER
Assessing Women’s Taste for Risk in the Finance Industry
Banks Need To Do Better
One Woman Questions the Benefit of a Gender Switch in Finance
New Index Measures Firms’ Gender Diversity
Firms with More Women in Charge Are Faring the Economic Crisis Better
Leeds University Study Shows 1 Woman on Board Cuts Risk by 20%

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is CEO of 20-first, one of Europe’s leading gender consultancies. Based in Paris, she works with progressive companies to develop more inclusive leadership styles, promote more gender-balanced management teams, and review processes and policies to better respond to women – both as employees and consumers. She is publisher of the new website, www.WOMEN-omics.com.

She is also the co-author of the bestselling Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution. She is the Founder and Honorary President of the European Professional Women’s Network, a certified executive coach and spent five years as a Visiting Coach at INSEAD. She has spoken on leadership and growth opportunities across Europe and has had articles, reviews, and interviews published in publications ranging from the Harvard Business Review and the International Herald Tribune to the Financial Times in the UK, Le Temps in Geneva, Le Monde and ELLE in France and the National in Abu Dhabi. Canadian, French and Swiss, Avivah has a BA from the University of Toronto, an MBA from INSEAD and has completed the Women’s Leadership Program at Harvard. ELLE Magazine recently recognized her as one of the TOP 40 Women Leading Change.

Press Contact:
For more information about WOMEN-omics and 20-first or if you would like to speak with Ms. Wittenberg-Cox, please contact Morice Mendoza at:
tel: +44 (0)786 3344865
e-mail: morice@women-omics.com

WOMEN-omics is the website of 20-first, and is a portal that presents and delivers the latest business thinking from around the globe on how to optimize both halves of the talent pool and both halves of the market – the female and male halves.

WOMEN-omics is the brainchild of consultant, coach, and author Avivah Wittenberg-Cox. As CEO of the consultancy 20-first, Wittenberg-Cox advises companies on drawing the maximum potential from 21st century talent, market, and leadership opportunities. The site continues her ongoing work to help companies achieve better business performance through better gender balance.

Aimed at companies, managers, researchers, journalists, business schools, and women, WOMEN-omics is the first website focused on the theme of promoting women as an economic opportunity. It is designed to be a one-stop shop providing insights and practical information on how to facilitate implementation of gender balancing policies and maximize the resulting benefits.