Academic institutions, consulting and search firms, and private organizations are among those offering programs to make aspiring women executives “board ready,” providing them with the necessary know-how, mentoring, and networking opportunities.
Female representation on boards has been steadily increasing. Primeinfobase.com data shared with ET shows that women held 26.73% of independent director positions in NSE-listed companies as of August 20, up from 13.56% as of March 31, 2015. However, experts feel that Indian boards continue to suffer from a diversity challenge. Most board appointments are made through informal networks that tend to favour men.
There is also the challenge of a small group of women occupying leadership positions in various companies. “The appetite for experimenting with new members is rather low. Companies use the same group of women leaders,” said Madhura DasGupta Sinha, CEO of Aspire For Her (AFH), an organisation that works with leading companies to motivate women to enter and remain in the workforce.
Last Friday, AFH, in association with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, launched its Women on Boards 3.0 programme, which in the past has featured senior professionals from Amazon, Meta, Google, HSBC, IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, Unilever and BCG, among others.
Tough odds
Aspire For Her supports them in securing corporate and non-profit board seats, providing mentorship from people like Moelis India CEO Manisha Girotra and Sepalika co-founder Sharda Agarwal on ways to approach board conversations. Since then, more than 20 of its participants have gone on to take up independent director positions. These include Neeta Mukherji at Fino Payments Bank, Ramya Suresh at Mylan Laboratories and Nupur Mukherjee at Capri Global Capital. In March, Shiv Nadar University launched Women Excel on Boards (WEB), with Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of HCLTech, as part of its core faculty.
The program, which began with 15 members, is aimed at women with 15 to 20 years of professional experience who are working toward their first board position or who already serve on boards but want to increase their effectiveness as directors.
Although a decade has passed since the enactment of the Companies Act, 2013, which mandated that there should be at least one woman director, diversity on corporate boards remains a challenge, said Professor Ananya Mukherjee, vice-chancellor of Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR.
“Male dominance on boards is a global fact, and few women have the opportunity, training, ability and desire to take on leadership roles,” Mukherjee said.
“Our goal with this program is simple: to bring together students, teachers, professionals and academics who believe in the value of a diverse and well-governed economy,” he added.
Shiv Nadar, who starts his second cohort in November, is also adapting his course according to market requirements.
Technology and more
“The most in-demand skills are those related to technology (cybersecurity, AI, etc.) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Technology is one of our focus areas as we work closely with HCL,” said Mukherjee. “While not all directors are technology experts, they are required to make decisions on the potential impact of evolving technologies on the business. Therefore, a deep, multi-perspective and socially conscious understanding is required.”
Similarly, the EY-ISB Executive Programme on Board Effectiveness, which aims to prepare high-potential women leaders to make an effective presence as new or first-time directors, focuses on areas such as board functionality and expertise alignment, conflict resolution, legal knowledge, financial acumen, personal risk management and recruitment readiness. The programme, which was launched in 2022, has completed two cohorts, with participants having 15-20 years of experience across diverse sectors comprising a mix of large and mid-sized Indian companies, multinationals and family-owned businesses, said Sanjay Kallapur, professor of accounting at the Indian School of Business.
“The program aims to break down structural barriers that prevent women from becoming leaders by providing them with the necessary tools, mentoring and networking opportunities to succeed,” Kallapur said, citing an EY report.
‘Diversity in the Boardroom: Progress and the Way Forward’ states that gender-diverse boards have been shown to drive organisations towards better decision-making, increased profitability, greater transparency and accountability, as well as disruptive innovation.
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