Tuesday, July 26, 2011

(More) Women On Top Is a Very Good Thing..

I mean...at the top, or in boardrooms in decision-making positions.

Seriously. They bring good things to the companies they lead, or a part of.

According to Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Jalil, research has shown that public-listed companies with more women directors had better returns on equity or stock prices versus their respective market indices.

She was speaking at the Women's Summit 2011 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The research was undertaken by Shireen Muhyideen, who led the roundtable discussion of the Women's Summit, last year.

Shahrizat pointed out that on June 27, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the Cabinet's approval for a policy that advocated for at least 30% women at the decision-making level in the private sector.

She noted that the world's Fortune 500 companies, particularly in Europe and the United States, had all improved their financial performance and enjoyed better returns on investments largely due to having women directors who insisted on accountability, innovation and a better work environment.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who attended the event, said women had become the majority of university graduates (60%) and the majority of consumer goods purchasing decision-makers (80%) in many countries.

"Putting a minimum of 30% of women in the boardrooms will help companies develop more gender sensitive products and services," he said.

He urged Shahrizat's ministry to take the lead in drawing up serious training intervention strategies to get women to the top.

"There must be serious mentoring programmes put in place to make women board'-ready," Muhyiddin said during his keynote address at the summit here.

12 comments:

Bru99 said...

As Salam Nuraina

Sorry to say this but from my experience with a lady GM does not work out too well.

Anonymous said...

Sure, Baby, sure. Going on Top is the Best!

Too long, women has been kept lying down at the bottom. Agree?

Syed Abdul Jalil said...

Dear Nuraina,

Congratulation on the article and I can understand how it feels as you are a woman too.

Seriously, god created everyone equal but due to their differences physically there are things that man do and woman do differently and a good example is women can give birth which men cannot.

When it comes to Leadership, all are equal, if they learn to be leaders. I mean seriously learning to become leaders. I may be wrong but I always believe no one is born as leaders because leadership can be learned. learning come in many forms, either through formal or imformal ways. Some go through life in ways that inculcate leadership and these people feel they are born leaders withour formal learning.

If you constantly feel inferior without doing anything about it, you will not lead. Woman mindset that led them to be what they are (though not all). They let themselves to be led instead of leading. Beauty can also be a beast in getting around to get what they want without leadership (sorry to say that).

Leadership Development does not happen naturally, if it does it will be crude missing certain ingredients to make a good leader which will show at certain situations and environment.

Mentoring and coaching alone will not solve the problem. The development must be structured and it differs with different organisations and business at times. Even housewives need leadership but in a different way.

There is so much to do, but I fear, Sharizat's office will take a short-cut and finally the results will not show and be sustainable. For example a small rotation of jobs also will help in leadership development.

Let me share a short movie in Ted.com, that says there are other things to learn in addition to formal leadership development.
Here it is:
Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html

Firdaus Shahnaz said...

Salam Dato'

I think we need more and more Zeti's type in the industry.

Anonymous said...

yes its proven..
woman on top..woman in front..
will make the man works harder..
more efficient & more productive..

Anonymous said...

Women on top in any position is always a good thing!

Look at Zeti, not too much sweat, and she is in control all the time!

In control of our nation's money, that is!

- A Malaysian -

Anonymous said...

I prefer side by side or both at same level.

Anonymous said...

Shame on those that choose to make sexist comments and hide behind the anonymity bestowed by the Internet.

To echo Mr Syed Abdul Jalil's comment, I hope that instead of using shortcuts to generate publicity for political benefit, the ministry elects to put into effect long-term strategies that will benefit Malaysia in the long run.

Anonymous said...

How many Malay companies are in the Fortune 500? Do they have female CEOs or even CFOs?

Anonymous said...

Prefer women on top and they do all the work.

Men just lie back la and relax.

Once they are tired of being on top all the time, then

Either

You roll over and go to sleep or

Give all you got from behind, infront, under etc.

All the brains are the same size anyway.

Anonymous said...

Sharizat is a has been who cant even win Lembah pantai. I am confused how that INDIAN looking lady can ever be considered MELAYU.

Anonymous said...

From my experience working with Female bosses, sorry to say that most of them are better off jual nasik lemak at Pasar Ramadhan.