Results at the Top

Chapter 1YOUR WAKE‐UP CALL

Let's put it on the table right at the onset. We believe—and what's more, we believe we can prove—that if you want your business to perform at its peak, you must hire and promote women alongside men into management and elect them to your board of directors.

How we can possibly be doing the best for our businesses if we hire and promote from only one‐half of the population? This question has been out there forever, including back when women were not even considered full citizens. Asking this question has not led to the experience that most women and many men want, which is a full place for women alongside men in management and on boards. Other authors have tried to argue that women have superior skills (at least in certain areas) and this is the reason they should succeed in business. How is that argument working for change? Not so well.

We need to make a case that is provable based on evidence from an overwhelming number of experts in the field—a case that matters to those in positions of power. Who are they? Why—men, of course. This is the challenge that many who have tried to create change have been unable to resolve.

DIVERSITY AT THE TOP: CORRELATES WITH BETTER PERFORMANCE

For over twenty years, a growing body of research has demonstrated that companies that embrace diversity in general—and gender diversity at the highest company levels in particular—enjoy superior corporate performance. The evidence is globally relevant. It applies as much ...