Female Consumers, Male Thinking
More industry leaders are seeing the light, overhauling business practices to better leverage the skills, knowledge and insights of women.
If you want to advance your business, try advancing more women leaders.
A growing stack of studies — from Catalyst, McKinsey & Co., the nation's universities and other researchers — reveals that companies with gender diversity in upper leadership outperform those with less representative c-suites. Yet the vast majority of high-level decision-makers are still men.
Only 12 women head Fortune 500 companies. Just six women head consumer products and retail companies on the list — the soon-to-depart Andrea Jung of Avon, Carol Meyrowitz of TJX, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Irene Rosenfeld of Kraft Foods, Laura Sen of BJ's Wholesale Club and Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup Co., the last of whom assumed the top spot last August.
In 2011, women held only 14 percent of executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies and just 7.5 percent of executive officer top-earner positions, according to a Catalyst study. More than one-fourth of the companies had no women executive officers.
Even in the CPG/retail industry, where women make 85 percent of the buying decisions and, according to one report, 70 percent of purchases in traditional retail stores, the top-most leaders are predominantly white males.
But while they're under-represented in corner suites, women wield real power in stores. They control $4.3 trillion in U.S. consumer spending, making gender diversity in leadership roles a business imperative.
Diversity Rules
The good news: More industry leaders are seeing the light, overhauling business practices to better leverage the skills, knowledge and insights of women. Some 40 percent of the 153 consumer goods CEOs surveyed by Pricewater-houseCoopers last year reported plans to change human resources policies to attract and retain more women. These decision-makers realize that building sales and loyalty requires a better understanding of women consumers, including the products, pricing, marketing and in-store experiences that keep them happy.
The most consistently successful consumer goods and retail companies recognize the advantages of attracting, retaining and advancing women to the highest levels. For example, women make up half the workforce at Ahold USA, whose banners include Stop & Shop, Giant-Landover, Giant-Carlisle and Martin's. They hold a variety of senior management positions and are well integrated into the retailer's management development programs. Ahold CEO Dick Boer has made the cultivation of a strong, diverse workforce a top priority around the world.
Despite challenging conditions in the food retail business, Ahold USA's fiscal 2011 third-quarter report showed year-to-date net sales of $5.8 billion, up 8.5 percent. Identical-store sales were up 4.5 percent — 6.8 percent if you include gasoline sales.
At Target Corp., 30 percent of the company's executives are women. Another impressive number: The company's fiscal 2011 third-quarter comparable-store sales were up more than 4 percent.
An excellent example of women-powered innovation on the supply side can be found at Campbell. The company's successful Select Harvest line was developed by women — specifically those in the company's Women of Campbell employee resource group — for female consumers.
Of course, increasing the number of X chromosomes in the c-suite isn't an automatic business booster. But cultivating the best talent in a gender-blind manner certainly strengthens any organization.
Joan Toth is president and CEO of the Network of Executive Women, a not-for-profit educational organization with 5,ooo-plus members from more than 400 companies, and 72 national sponsors in 19 regions in the United States and Canada. Its mission is to attract, retain and advance women in the retail and consumer products industry through education, leadership and business development. For more information, visit www.newonline.org.