Market Opportunities Unlimited (MOU) Blog

Should Gender Balance Matter on Your Board?

Just one (1) in seven (7) board members at Europe’s top companies is a woman.

 

But the European Commission is trying to change this and has implemented the 40% rule.

 

(The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union that is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the day-to-day running of the EU).

 

The 40% rule means that by the year 2020, for publicly-listed companies:

 

1) At least 40% of non-executive board members must be a woman. (Currently only 15% of these persons are women).

 

2) At  least 40% of board members must be a woman. (Currently only 8.9% of these persons are women).

 

So, should gender balance matter on your board?

 

Well, just consider this, Richard Branson, founder of The Virgin Group, in an interview with Entrepreneur Magazine stated that over 50% of the graduates from Cranfield School of Management (one of the top business programs, globally), were female and that in his group of companies, an increasing number of executive management are female).

 

That interview also revealed the results of a study by the Boston Consulting Group that showed that over 70% of purchasing decisions are made by women. These decisions include big-ticket items like cars and vacations.

 

These statistics are also transferable to the rest of Western countries, where over 60% of business school graduates are women and over 70% of households are being run by women.

 

This means that women are the major decision-makers when purchasing products for the household and beyond.

 

....So, should gender balance matter on your board?

 

Well, for your company to thrive in the present and for the future, it does.

 

You need a representative sample of female voices and opinions on your board, so that the entire board will be better able to understand and interpret these trends and enable your company to capitalize on same.

 

So, what do you think?...

 

...Should we wait for another forty (40) years to reach a fair gender balance? ...or do we do it now? :)

 

 

Gillian

 

Sources Include

1) The Virgin Group's  About Us page, accessed November 16,2012

 

2) Article,"Richard Branson on Why We Need More Women in the Boardroom", by Richard Branson, Entrepreneur, September 24,2012

The New E-commerce: Your Business is Not Needed!

I had an interesting experience with a popular software vendor today, whose products I've been testing for the past thirty (30) days.

 

I was just about to subscribe to their entire product suite, only to be told that the suite is not offered for sale in my home country.

 

(I'm based in Jamaica, in the Caribbean).

 

Now, they didn't mention this during the trial period, even when product updates were being done online, during said trial period.

 

So you can imagine my surprise when I saw this notice appear upon point of purchase.

 

I just had to shake my head in awesome disappointment.

 

In this  age of  a global economic recession, can US-based companies really afford to be turning away online customers...because these customers are located outside the four (4) major continents: North America, Europe, Asia and Australia?

 

Well this one did and has apparently been doing it for quite some time.

 

But guess what?

 

Their profits have been taking a beating...so too their stock price and their marketing executives don't even realize that it's as a result of their failure to effectively target the "Rest of the World".

 

So you know what I'm doing right now?

 

I'm continuing to test their competitors' products.

 

I've got my eyes on one particular product from their major competitor and will be purchasing it.

 

Why?

 

This product is less complicated than that of the erstwhile software vendor, has a shorter learning curve, is a little less expensive, gets the job done, quickly and guess what?... is available to the "Rest of the World"!

 

Although the suite of products from the erstwhile software vendor would have been a better buy as a package...I only need one product within a few days...the other products can wait.

 

So to e-Commerce providers who feel that the "Rest of the World" doesn't exist...you'd better think again...

 

...That dip in your profits over the past 2-3 years could just be as a result of your neglecting  countries in the "Rest of the World".

 

You're shooting yourselves in the foot if you believe that the major source of your revenue growth will be from the big "4" continents only.

 

(E.g. many US-based companies are realizing, albeit too late, that emerging economies represent their true growth markets).

 

Neglect "Rest of the World" markets and you might as well close shop.

 

A word to the wise is sufficient.

 

[Market Opportunities Unlimited enables companies in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector to gain and retain highly profitable customers...

 

We know how to cost-effectively reach these glocal (global and local) customers.

 

Please do contact us, if generating multi-million dollar profits is important to you].

 

Gillian

Facebook Employees to Sell 800 Million Shares on November 15

When the New York and NASDAQ stock exchanges opened last Wednesday, October 31, Facebook employees and pre-IPO investors were finally allowed to sell the 230 million shares that they could sell on the October 26, lock-up period expiry date.

The price they'd get ($21.11), would be 4% less than the closing price of $21.94 on Friday, October 26, but the shares went briskly, leaving them clear for other investors to lap up.

 

The next Lock-up Period Expiry will be on November 15, when 800 million shares are expected to be released.

 

Although Facebook founder - Mark Zuckerberg, has agreed not to sell his shares within the first year of the IPO, it is felt that Facebook committed a major blunder by allowing its early investors to sell their shares within the first year of its IPO.

 

Facebook's stock price over the past 5 months,  has not only decreased by 42%, but the price hasn't moved over the past five (5) days (meandering around $21.25).

 

News emerged on Monday, that Facebook  has updated its iOS app with gifts, a new messaging interface amd multi-photo sharing capabilities.

 

(Apple smartphone and tablet users access Facebook via the Facebook app on these devices. Apple's iOS operating system facilitates this).

 

But we'll just have to see if this will have any effect on Facebook's share price (in the short term).

 

(A major criticism for Facebook's stagnant growth within the developed world, is it' s late entry into the mobile market.

 

In June 2012, 57% of Facebook's users, used Facebook via their mobile phones).

 

(I'd like to thank Glen z Collection  for the use of her Flickr inset photo of Facebook's logo, above).

 

Gillian

 

Sources Include

 

1) Graph: Facebook Six (6) Months' Stock Price (June - November 2012), courtesy of Yahoo Finance, accessed November 7,2012

 

2) Article,"Facebook updates its iOS app with Gifts, new Messages interface, and multi-photo uploads", by Ken Yeung, TheNextWeb.com (TNW), November 5,2012

 

3) Article, "Facebook shares fall as lock-up period expires ", by Alexei Oreskovic, Reuters, October 31,2012

 

4) Article, "Here's The Part Of Facebook's Earnings Call That Caused The Stock To Crash", by Henry Blodget, Business Insider, August 3,2012

 

5) Article, "Facebook: Over 955 million users, 543 million mobile users ", by Emil Protalinski ,CNET.com, July 26,2012