Trust building and Integration as critical leadership skills that will be required of Business in the future is a perspective that is in short supply at the moment. Helen Pitcher OBE argues that we can not afford to ignore the 30% to 40% tranche of females emerging from Commercial, Organisational and Charitable Boards who are likely to have these skills, as such we need to rapidly accelerate the numbers of Female Chairman of our Boards.
Why do we need a change of leadership approach?
Everywhere you look, the future of the Company and consequently Boards, is in flow. As recently widely reported in the media, the top 180 U.S. CEOs say, “companies should put social responsibility above profit”.
This has in turn agitated the debate about the purpose of Business and the future nature of Companies (The Economist August 24th 2019). The lively debate pits the forces of change against the forces on the status quo. While increasing Shareholder Value will continue to be the underlying driving incentive for most Companies, we can equally see the emergent debate about what should be done about the gathering armies of change ranged against ‘Shareholder Value’ as the ‘only question’ on the table.
Many, myself included, would argue that ‘Shareholder Value’ has been distorted to become ‘Short-termism’ where the ‘Company Value’ can be hi-jacked for the benefit of a restricted elite. There is no doubt that the creating of ‘Shareholder Value’ is essential to the wider range of investors, pension funds and investment funds, however, the short-term ‘ramps’ of value in reality tend to accrue to a small restricted group of people.
There can be few serious thinkers about Boards, who suggest there is no need for change in the face of a multiple range of pressure, from Institutional Investors, Political Parties, Society and Lobbying Interest Groups. These pressures increase the pace and nature of change for Businesses. The question to pose is, how do Boards effectively navigate and survive these pressures?
The size and nature of the change is a debate about self-sustaining change or revolutionary jolt. If Chairman and Companies do not respond to these changing pressures, they will be imposed upon them. Even in the US, mainstream Democratic Presidential candidates are talking about the notion of Companies ‘licence to operate’ which could be revoked where they do not meet a wider purpose. There are additional changing ethical and cultural standards being driven by the emerging generations of the workforce to ‘do good’ and operate ethically.
In the UK the progress towards a 33% female representation on Boards, is pitted against mandatory quotes across Europe of 30-40% with France leading the charge at 40% and the likelihood of the EU adopting this 40% as the standard. Irrespective of our future in Europe this will be the de-facto ‘standard’ across Western Europe.
