<div>Between the NSE and the BSE, India has about 2,000 listed companies. Since directors can hold multiple board memberships, we can safely assume that the real demand for women directors is no more than 1,200-1,500 qualified women directors. Do we not have them? Wrong, we certainly have them. Yet, almost half of these companies have had an all-male board. On 1 April, about 250 companies appointed women directors, mostly family members, probably defeating the purpose for which this compliance norm was set by the government. <br /><br />What does this mean? That most boards, being male-dominated for years, have ignored a key parameter that could add to board capability — that of diversity through gender diversity. In this wake, quota for women directors is a welcome idea. May be initially it could be scorned, even by women, but in my view it is a positive as it puts women in board rooms and there will be spinoffs of this in the medium term. This will create opportunities for women looking for board membership as they can aim higher. This could be one of the turning points in women empowerment. <br /><br />Why has the government had to step in to bring this quota? Because companies were not doing it on their own. A key reason for this has been the role of the Nomination Committee and the process it adopts for selection of new directors. Research by Amrop’s Board Practice indicates that most nomination committees tend to seek friends and known people as their choices. Most boards have a ‘clubby’ approach. <br /><br />A thorough and unbiased search based process is not a commonly used method. Whenever we have conducted a search for women directors, the results have been very good, as there is a significant pool of capable and women directors with the right fit. However, due to lack of transparency in the recruitment process for board positions, this pool is not visible to many boards. <br /><br />Companies have to guard against appointing family members. That defeats the intent of the law. Market regulator Sebi may have to build a further screen on this to ensure the intent of this law is enforced, and realised. Until now, we talked about non-executive women directors. When we come to executive women directors, the story is worse. They are genuinely fewer in number. The onus for this lies on corporates and their talent management framework. <br /><br />Focusing on the talent management framework and holding it accountable for producing a pipeline of women leaders should be the process that needs to be adopted if we are serious about developing women. Women leaders’ pipeline can be built by giving them challenging and visible roles in companies, creating policies and facilities that make it comfortable for women to work at changing phases of their lives. Several leading women have talked about someone mentoring them in their journey — training women on directorships. These are only a few such ideas to building this pipeline. <br /><br />To an extent, I agree with Gauri that women equally need to seek these visible and challenging roles. They need to be visible and plan their careers. They need to network more. More important, there is a need for multiple strong women networking forums. We know that most male appointments to the Board are a function of their networks.<br /><br />Women need to appreciate that in order to be Board-ready, they can pursue a systematic approach. One crucial way to develop leadership skills as a precursor to Board appointments or as a ‘training ground’ to test their fitness for Board appointments is building a portfolio of experience and exposure in public forums/institutions, directorships of not-for-profit organisations, and networking with board members. Being accomplished is only one factor.<br /><br />Corporates, the government and women themselves have to come together and make conscious and concentrated efforts to run this marathon of women in boardrooms. <br />There is enough research that has placed great value is building a demographically diverse workforce, where gender diversity is key. That a diverse workforce equals superior business performance. Take this to boards: a gender diverse boardroom will lead to more effective board performance. We have to conclude that ‘Diversity in boardroom is a business imperative’. <br /><br /><em>The writer is the founding and Managing Partner at Amrop India</em><br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 18-05-2015)</div>
