EU Report: Women on Boards

Lord Patten Excerpts

Tuesday 13th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Patten]

My Lords, I should declare an interest—not mine but my wife’s, now in her twentieth year of uninterrupted service on the boards of FTSE 100 companies. From time to time, as your Lordships might imagine, her ladyship has occasionally favoured me with her views on this subject across the Chinese duvet that quite properly separates our business interests. That said, these are my views, not her ladyship’s. First, I give strong support to the noble Baroness, Lady O’Cathain, and her committee. Secondly, I certainly want more well-qualified women on boards. Thirdly, I agree with the general tenor of the remarks made recently by Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts when she said on 9 November in response to a question about quotas:

“Just put the best person into the job. It is not about gender, it is about experience, leadership and vision”.

Miss Ahrendts then very generously went on to observe,

“A man could do this job”.

Two of the best quota-free ways of encouraging more women directors are, first, for companies always to remember that women striving for the top make choices not sacrifices. They are not victims as they strive to struggle and juggle family, children and work. Secondly, improving company working practices, styles and rhythms to accommodate this juggling by women has a lot to do with companies’ success. The best companies, the crack companies, have already started this—Amazon, Apple and, indeed Burberry. One can go from A to Z through the list of major companies. It is one of the best non-discriminatory ways of helping more women up the executive leader, itself one of the best routes into non-executive directorships as it happens. It also helps to build better companies.