A Board should challenge itself, and its Management Team. It should actively review, question, explore potential flaws, exploit current and future potential of the Company. The greatest threat faced by any Company is not political or economic but, complacency. Having a diverse Board should be a key tool to ensure complacency does not exist or creep into a company structure unseen or, unchallenged.
Board Diversity should embrace all diversity in order to maximise its own potential, for example:
o gender – a no brainer, society consists of different genders, why would a Board not reflect the realities of society;
o ageism – maintaining a balanced age profile on a Board provides experience and fresh thinking;
o occupation – Director occupations can bring an imbalance to a Board, e.g. the majority of individual Directors on the Board of an engineering company should not be engineers;
o length of service – staying too long on a Board can, in some cases, end up being a little like a guest who is enjoying themselves so much they do not realise they are no longer as entertaining as they once were!
Appointing an individual simply to “fit” whatever is the current hot topic for Board Diversity is insulting to the individual, and an utter waste of time for the Board, Management and the Company itself.
Boards must willingly embrace the concept of diversity in all its guises, and support the individual Directors, and the Company adapt to the change in Board dynamics.
Board diversity is for the long haul, there are no shortcuts but, like anything that is hard work the results should be worth waiting for.