Women on Corporate Boards

by | Apr 15, 2013 | PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook®

Karen: This is PKF Texas, The Entrepreneur’s Playbook, and I’m Karen Love, Director of Practice Growth. And the topic of today’s Playbook is the growing number of women in business leadership positions. We call it Women in Business 2.0. My guest today is Lisa Shumate. She’s the Executive Director and General Manager of Houston Public Media. Welcome back.

Lisa: Thank you, Karen. Happy to be here.

Karen: Thank you for being here. You know, a recent study that I was reading in the Wall Street Journal quoted the Carnegie-Mellon and MIT groups as saying that on corporate boards, if you have a woman participating in the board that – you know, we talked in the past about – there’s usually a financial increase. But now, I’ve heard that groups come to more of a compromise and a consensus more quickly when women are involved. Those aren’t my words; that was part of the study. Are you seeing that in groups that you’re a part of?

Lisa: Well, what I see is it really matters about the leadership of the board. And if the leadership of the board can get everyone to see a win-win, compromise happens. I think the main reason to have women on the board is that women represent half the population. And so, really, your product is going to be out there. Shouldn’t you have your board representative of the people consuming your product? But, do I believe that women on boards make the whole board act more effectively because of that input? Absolutely.

Karen: Wonderful. Well, that’s a great insight, and so you agree with Carnegie. That’s for sure.

Lisa: I certainly wouldn’t disagree with Carnegie.

Karen: Well, thank you for your insight. This has been a thought leader production brought to you by PKF Texas, The Entrepreneur’s Playbook. Tune in next week for another chapter.

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