Minorities Remain Outside Boardroom, Executive Suite

Uniformity: How important is diversity within corporations? IMD International Search and Consulting, an executive recruiter in Morristown, New Jersey, paints a grim portrait. According to its global study of 2,000 “market-leading” organizations, only 13 percent of respondents are optimistic that more minorities and women will move up to the executive suite during the next three years—in spite of the fact that 78 percent of organizations cite diversity as an important organizational strategy. Women also continue to be underrepresented on corporate boards, according to the findings, with nearly half the surveyed organizations having no female members. Succession planning and acquiring talent also are listed among top concerns for companies, but this may be mere lip service. IMD says only 30 percent of company boards have identified successors to their top leadership. And while recruiting gets tougher by the day, only two-thirds of corporate directors are making talent acquisition a central strategy in their planning.