FranklinCovey Blog

A Business Case for Women

Thursday, July 16th, 2009 | Executive Mama | 1 Comment

Ernst & Young (E&Y) presented a white paper at Davos that shows that companies with more women executives make more money than their less female-populated competitors as measured by EBITDA, return on invested capital, and net profits.  Very cool!  However, I’m not thinking that just any woman in the role makes a difference.  Obviously, the woman needs character and competence and leadership capability and a whole host of things we can explore on later posts.  For today, here are some questions related to the E&Y study to consider if you are a woman that aspires to an executive role: 

• 1. Do you know how EBITDA is measured? Or even what the acronym stand for?
• 2. What about return on invested capital or net profits?
• 3. How does your company currently stand in terms of cash flow, revenues, profits?
• 4. Any idea what Davos is?

 My point is this:  One of the main responsibilities of an executive is fiduciary responsibility.  And you aren’t even going to get a shot if you can’t answer the questions listed above.  (OK, you could probably get away with not knowing that Davos is where the World Economic Forum holds their annual meeting.) 

While exclusive networks and things like prejudice might be outside of your influence, building your business acumen is something you can do!  Right now!  Ram Charan wrote the book What the CEO Wants You To Know in order to simplify some of the complexity of how business works.  He asks every worker, from front-line to executive to examine how they impact their organization’s cash, margin, velocity, growth, and customers.  Good advice in tough economic times even if you don’t aspire to an executive role.  Another great book is by John A. Tracy and is called How to Read a Financial Report.  Executive Mamas can make good financial decisions for their organizations and read a financial report. 

Learn more about What the CEO wants you to know.

Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Vice President of Sales and Delivery Effectiveness at FranklinCovey

Tags: Acronym, Business Acumen, Business Case, Davos, Economic Times, Executive Role, Fiduciary Responsibility, Financial Decisions, Good Advice, How To Read A Financial Report, Jennifer Colosimo, John A Tracy, Leadership Capability, Net Profits, Ram Charan, Report Author, Report Executive, Return On Invested Capital, Velocity, Women Executives, World Economic Forum

1 Comment to A Business Case for Women

Alexandra
July 29, 2009

Hi Jennifer

I just found this – congratulations on this wonderful blog and the great tag line!! We as Executiives Mamas have so much to share – and you are a great role model!!

Alexandra

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