Women's Finance

[ October 4, 2000 ]

Novelty Value

By Sarah Wilson (cercefool)

A recent Scott Adams Dilbert ^TM cartoon made a joke out of a company using its new female CEO for cynical publicity purposes. Naturally, being satire, the cartoon series takes things a little further than reality, with one of the characters going on to talk about tan lines and bikinis.

Satire is distorted reflection of life, and this cartoon is no exception. Adams may well have been inspired by Hewlett Packard, who recently made Carly Fiorina their CEO. You may remember her from the HP (computers, not the sauce) adverts a few months back, talking about how all the wonderful things in the world come out of garages (Microsoft, HP printers etc) and how we all need to get back to the garage (cue shots of wholesome Americans in quaint suburban garages). Ms Fiorina is clearly very bright, capable and talented (HP is only the latest in a string of senior appointments), and she clearly knows a good marketing angle when she sees one.

Ms Fiorina is by no means the only female superleague CEO, or even the only senior woman at HP, but even in a country that prides itself on equal opportunities the appointment of a woman to run a large technology is still enough to raise a few eyebrows. We are constantly told that more and more women are breaking through the "glass ceiling", but the degree to which this is a success over gender barriers depends on how low the ceiling is in the first place.

Moving to this side of the Atlantic, how many women are there on the board of UK listed companies? Okay, we all know about Martha Lane Fox, Majorie Scardino and Anita Roddick… who else?

Up until earlier this year, you couldn't turn on the television without seeing Martha Lane Fox earnestly telling the world that the Internet is the Future, and Lastminute.com is part of That Future, and could we have some money please. Capital raised (and share price tumbling), Martha's been a little less ubiquitous of late. But then she's achieved what she and her business partner (you know, the bloke) set out to achieve, namely a big Internet company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Martha's eagerness to make herself available as the bubbly spokesbabe for the wired generation to every lazy news and current affairs editor in the UK is the actions of a searingly intelligent and insightful businesswoman. You can just see the offices of Newsnight, "… and we'll do another piece on the Internet revolution, let's get that pretty young girl in, you know, the one we had last time. We'll get a debate going between her and some crusty old git in tweed suit we can drag out of the Gentleman's Club on Boar Lane. Cool Britannia vs. Old Establishment, great for ratings…" And perhaps Martha would answer her mobile, check her (electronic) diary and happily agree, before sending an SMS back to the office, "Can't do meeting this am, doing some telly :-) more free adverts!! Luv M".

The Glass Ceiling

If you're a woman in business, sales-orientated and just a little bit photogenic, you might just be your best advertising weapon against the competition. Anita Roddick is as synonymous with Body Shop (LSE: BOS) as Richard Branson is with Virgin Airlines, even though neither are now involved with the day to day running of the business. Ms Roddick has just published her autobiography. Would anyone be as interested in reading about the life history of Steve Russell, current big boss chap at Boots (LSE: BOOT)?

It seems to be generally assumed that a woman's ascent up the corporate ladder must be fraught and filled with personal triumphs and tragedies, all suitable material for the Oprah-style "tears 'n' triumphs" confessional. Where is the evidence for this? Women clearly still experience prejudice in business, as shown by the still low numbers reaching senior management, but then the same could be said for ethnic minorities, the disabled and people from poorer backgrounds. Women managers are obviously more human, warm and interesting, because they get married, have children, suffer health problems, get divorced… err, just like men, actually.

Not all women directors want to be the focus of the company's latest huggy advertising campaign. UK technology company FI Group's (LSE: FI.) board features no less than three women directors (out of seven), including managing director Jo Connell. Interestingly, purveyor of fine women's knickers Marks & Spencer (LSE: MKS), one company you would expect to have a heavy feminine influence, has no women on the board and only one female non-exec director (Dame Stella Rimmington of all people. What on earth can she be advising them on? Hidden cameras in buttons? Bullet-proof bras?).

FI Group is a bit of an exception. The company was actually founded by a woman, Stephanie "Steve" Shirley, in 1962. She became famous across the UK IT industry as Steve Shirley; she was forced to use a masculine pseudonym just to be taken seriously in the blokey world of IT. She has championed the cause of women in technology and is a regular advisor to government and the IT industry.

Most women make it to the board through more "traditional", "girly" routes, such as marketing or personnel. These areas of business are fairly well acknowledged as touch-feely "people" concerns, that women with our natural breastfeeding and cuddling instincts are bound to be better at. So it's perhaps not surprising that women seem more likely to crack through to board level through these routes than, say, finance or engineering.

The sight of Carly Fiorina in soft focus, extolling the wholesome virtues of garages, sheds and other suburban outbuildings didn't make me want to rush out and buy an Omnibook. Perhaps I missed the point. But the campaign does raise one interesting question: how many other big companies feature their MDs (or CEOs) in their adverts?

Come to think of it, since the days of Victor Kiam and his fabulous Remington Nasal Hair Trimmers, senior "fat cats" generally keep an extremely low profile with the general public. You have to trawl around annual reports of find out who the board are, even if you are a shareholder, let alone a customer. You'll notice that Asda, Currys and B&Q all use your ordinary, salt-of-the-earth shop floor sales staff in advertising, the more "earthy" the regional accent, the better. So, the fact that HP not only thinks that sticking a senior boss in their adverts is a good idea, but they practically based an advertising campaign around her appointment says more about the perception of women in senior management than about the quality of HP's products. And there probably isn't anyone who understands this better than Ms Fiorina: her background is in sales.

Where Next?
• Women's Finance Discussion Board
• Carly Fiorina biography
Reproduced with permission. © Copyright 2000, Aldur Systems, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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