COMMENT
Why We Need Women Bosses

By David Kuo (TMFDragon)
December 14, 2005

How many women bosses can you name?

When I was asked that question recently, I could only recall, embarrassingly, the same old names that get trotted out time and again. You know the ones I mean: Anita Roddick of Body Shop International (LSE: BOS), Martha Lane Fox of Lastminute.com, Belinda Earl at Debenhams and Marjorie Scardino at Pearson (LSE: PSON).

Without doubt these women have made huge impressions on the public. In fact, in 2001 Belinda Earl became the first chief executive of a leading public company to take time off to have a baby. But apart from Scardino, who is still in charge at Pearson, the others have moved on to pastures new. That said, here are some new names of women in the FTSE 350 to familiarise yourselves with.

Angela Ahrendts was recently appointed to succeed Rose Marie Bravo as head of fashion group Burberry (LSE: BRBY). Amongst the many challenges that Ahrendts will face is a revival of the Burberry brand that has been badly tarnished by association with chav culture. There have even reports of some pubs and clubs that have banned customers who dress in the trademark Burberry camel check.

Kate Swann had her work cut out for her too, when she took control of struggling stationer WH Smith (LSE: SMWH). But there are definite signs of a turnaround. In October, WH Smith swung into the black thanks to Swann's tight grip on costs. Tough action by Patricia O'Driscoll has also triggered a dramatic turnaround at Northern Foods (LSE: NFDS). O'Driscoll has shut two factories and axed over 1,000 jobs at the food producer.

Meanwhile, Clara Furse is fighting tooth-and-nail to ensure that London maintains its lead as the financial centre of Europe. Failing that she will at least want any predator to pay top dollar for London Stock Exchange (LSE: LSE). She even recently slammed Macquarie Bank's £1.5b approach as derisory. Fiona Jane Cavanagh, chief executive of SCi Entertainment (LSE: SEG), is also involved in takeover talks. But Cavanagh, who oversaw the recent takeover of electronic games developer Eidos, has remained tight-lipped over its two suitors.

Sly Bailey of Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) is another woman boss with a big job on her hands. Since arriving at Trinity Mirror some three years ago, Bailey has increased profits at the newspaper publisher. She's done this through careful cost-cutting and also by boosting the performance of the group's regional newspapers. However, the company's three flagship titles, the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People continue to be a challenge.

From this cursory look at women bosses, it appears that more often than not they have been brought in as a last-gasp attempt to turn around struggling businesses. But it is unclear to me why this should be.

Perhaps ailing businesses require a gentler approach, or maybe there are more cynical reasons afoot. Interestingly, Cranfield University has discovered that companies with women directors show a slightly higher return on equity than businesses with all-male boards. So maybe that's the reason why!

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