By any standards 2024 has been a tumultuous year both in Corporate and Public worlds. With major shifts and changes in the Political Landscape continuing to ripple through the Globe, there are inevitably impacts on the Business World. While we can anticipate some re-orientation and disorientation on some themes and targets such as energy and DEI which have emerged in 2024, Business should continue the focus on the existing underlying Consumer and Governance trends.
There has been considerable success in improving the participation of women on Boards of the FTSE 350 at around 40%. A key aspect of this progression was compliance with targets, facilitated by removing the recruitment blockers and ‘qualification’ barriers to women achieving Non-Executive Director roles. However, in Executive Leadership roles there remains a significant lag, with women in Executive Leadership positions at 35% in the FTSE 350 and only 28% participation of women in the key Executive Committee of the Business. Crucially there is a significant and persistent deficit of women in the pivotal role of CEO, currently only 9% of CEOs in the FTSE 350 are women.
Advanced Boardroom Excellence, leading advisers in developing individual and collective director effectiveness, has today published a research report on diversity, with a focus on female talent in organisations.
The Report looks at this diversity agenda through the eyes of 70 successful women leaders and provides an insight into the extraordinary waste of female talent being overlooked.
