You can be on a board
Australia needs more talented women on boards, so Mrs Moneypenny advises on the best way in – and how it’s not just ASX 200 companies.
THERE ARE 21 of them and they know who they are. That’s 21 Australian companies in the ASX 200 which don’t have any women on their boards. Yet more women on the board means more profit – researchers at La Trobe University in Melbourne published a paper earlier this year, in the journal Australian Accounting Review, linking the financial performance of the top 500 companies in Australia to the number of women they had on the board.
The Australian Institute of Corporate Directors and campaign group 30% Club are calling for 30 per cent of women on ASX 200 boards by the end of 2018, and many more women are being appointed. To add to that, in March, the Minister for Women, Senator Michaelia Cash, announced a new target of 50 per cent women on all Australian government boards.
So where are these women going to come from? We need more women in Australia to put their hands up to serve. Yet even if you think you can add value to a board, how 1do you get your first position?
Start by writing down the things that you think you could bring to a board, whether of a company, a charity or a public sector department. Maybe you have legal, financial or business experience. People and talent are key issues for companies. More than a CV, it should be a personal statement of the value you could bring to a board and you should also be able to articulate it verbally. Once you have written it down, try explaining it to a friend. This is the “elevator pitch” because you need to imagine you have only an elevator journey – a short period of time – to explain yourself in.
2 Identify the organisations
where you would like to serve. They don’t have to be companies. They could be public bodies or not-for-profit
organisations. Most people start their board career in the not-for-profit area, to get valuable experience of governance. Obviously, you need a genuine interest in any organisation you are offering to serve. One possibility would be to get involved in the university or school where you studied. Many educational organisations have committees where you can volunteer your time, then work your way up to sitting on the main board. Charities usually welcome volunteers for their committees, such as 3 finance, marketing and human resources.
Once you have identified the organisation, look to see how you could network your way in. Do you know people on the board or senior executives there? Personal connections are the best way in, but 4if all else fails, try writing to the Chairman. The Australian Institute of Corporate
Directors offers a Developing Your Director Career half-day course, which will help you to identify your specific skills and how to position yourself, develop your CV and find your first or next board position. 5Visit companydirectors.com.au for details.
Become a member of Women on Boards, the organisation with more than 21,000 members which supports women at every stage of their boardroom journey “from aspiring to their first board through to ASX”. It runs a Getting Started workshop and helps with building a CV, plus lots of organisations advertise their board positions on its website. There are various levels of membership, but I recommend Subscribed Member, which costs $185 a year. Visit womenonboards.net for more information.
Professor Paul Mather, the head of La Trobe Business School and one of the authors of the study mentioned earlier, believes that the case for female representation at the top levels of business is clear. “It’s not just about equity and social justice,” he says. “It makes economic sense to have greater diversity on boards”.
As more companies recognise that and seek out women, you may decide this is something you would like to do. Good luck! Australia’s companies need you – especially the 21.