Name: How a group of CEOs got more women on boards
Uploaded: 2015-06-16
Duration: 4 min 53 s
Description: At Fortune's Most Powerful Women Conference, Newton Investment Management CEO Helena Morrissey explained how the 30% Club is working to eliminate the gender gap in the boardroom.

[ MUSIC ] I want to go back to the origin of the 30 % club in 2010. What was the spark that caused you to start this? We were all in the dark. We didn't have a goal. We didn't have a measurable Target now I'm very anti quotas and we can perhaps talk about that. But having you know, we run our businesses with objectives and with deadlines around those objectives, so having some clear goals, and then secondly, involving men, the people in power, let's just be honest about that. We couldn't do this by women talking to each other all the time. We need you to involve men, 30 % by the way is critical mass point is obviously not parity, but given that we were about 12 % women on footsie boards at the time, it seemed high enough aspiration. And that was kind of how that all started and and had a few enlightened chair supporters. Seven founding chess board is all man All of whom got it, many of whom have daughters made it personal for them. That scene, they were at that age that their daughters were coming through working being fantastically well- educated working for great companies and yet not getting on as far as that. So it was 12. 5 % female representation on Footsie boards in 2011. 23. 5 %. Well, apparently, any day now, it's gonna be announced to be 25 %, [ CROSSTALK ] from them. Early this weekend, everyone is only of matter days, if not weeks. So at least we will have met already Lord Davis's goal of 25 % of women on boards. And we work very closely with the Davis committee. So that's an important part of the equation. And when are we going to get to thirty? Ok well I'm hoping no- one, everyone is going to stop and say we've already been there done that, we've got a few more women on the board. I've suggested the government adopt maybe a 30 % goal for the first half of this Parliament but I actually think we'll get there by the middle of next year. I think we've got momentum now. It's just important that people don't think okay, check that box, put on the women on board thing and oversee all of the work of the 30 % cut. Now really, it's about sustaining the momentum and around. The executive management teams where there are far fewer women than, say, on the boards, and going beyond that. You are expanding. You have expanded the 30 % club to the US, Hong Kong, Ireland, South Africa. You were just in Australia last month, right, launching it there. What do you tell people in foreign countries about the key thing to do to make this work in your country? Well, first of all, I should explain. But we're not going around looking for world domination just for the sake of it. This is countries coming and saying actually, we've not been able to see the breakthrough that you've had in the UK. Could you help share some of the things that have helped the breakthrough? And we'll copy it if it works. So what we've suggested always is that you need [ UNKNOWN ], you need a tight band of really committed business leaders, men and women, who are absolutely determined to be accountable for the change, but also to encourage their peers. That I think, it's been a bit like creating a wave. And it makes it sound a bit simple, but what I found originally, actually I forgot now, this is a big mistake I made early on, I thought I was told by one chairman who was very dispappointed that he hadn't been asked to join, [ UNKNOWN ] related to me. But at this point he hadn't been asked to join the 30 % company and I thought I'll ask the people I know But I hadn't thought of asking everybody in the Footsie or beyond. So I started writing letters to the Footsie 350, the top 350 companies in the country, alphabetically starting at A. And I got down to H a for Hansen and I was kinda getting hate mail back from the As and Bs by the time I got to H a until I gave up on that idea. People misunderstood the thing, why are you interfering with my board? What's this got to do with you? I've got a diversity initiative within my HR team. And then I realized that the peer pressure was It was much more effective that if they had their colleagues, their peers, the other captains of industry telling them, this is the sensible thing to do and this is a moral part of being a modern business. So, that's what we suggest in other countries that got to actually get the chairman talking to each other, don't go into the gang. The militant approach of waving a big stick and making people because you tell them. That doesn't work with this companies which have created a great deal of value, work with their shareholders, feel really on top of the game often. But you say well the next ten years, to be successful then, you need to be utilizing all your talent, I get that. And then you have their friends. Interesting, so you get the key men, you get the key involved men on board and then it's men pressuring men. Pretty much. Yeah. [ LAUGH ] Interesting, people really actually have, sorry I burst our bubble, very easy.

At Fortune's Most Powerful Women Conference, Newton Investment Management CEO Helena Morrissey explained how the 30% Club is working to eliminate the gender gap in the boardroom.

How a group of CEOs got more women on boards 

At Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Conference, Newton Investment Management CEO Helena Morrissey explained how the 30% Club is working to eliminate the gender gap in the boardroom.