Friday, January 9, 2009

The Meltdown and other crises...

Hi!


Its been ages since I blogged!. Well I've been very busy with a number of things, but neverthe less I'm back. The recent meltdown has affected most sectors and everyone has major concerns about the current scenario. For instance, a friend was asking me what recruitment agencies could do to survive. It got my brain ticking but I was wondering if all you readers could come up with some ideas.


The way employees have been ruthlessly sacked in many firms has led to a low morale. All of a sudden, there is no respect as such, for people who were 'valued employees' a short while ago.


In addition, we had the crisis in Mumbai which, in its aftermath, has left people with scared and bruised spirits.

I think the answer to all this lies in more long-term solutions rather than knee jerk reactions. I'm yet to come up with any concrete ideas but hey like everyone else I'm thinking too.

Let's hope 2009 brings happy tidings for one and all!



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Women in the Boardroom

A recent study conducted by New York-based not-for-profit organization Catalyst has revealed that companies that hire more women at senior executive positions stand to improve financially.

It wqs found that companies which had at least 30 per cent women on the board performed better. Also, boards that had more women in 2001 saw their numbers rise further by 2006, indicating that women on top bring in more women.

Catalyst based its study on an analysis of 359 Fortune 500 companies starting in 2000 and thereafter once again in 2006. Companies with maximum women directors and corporate officers also showed improved financial numbers as against companies that lacked women at the top.

The study also said that the number of Fortune 500 companeis that had more than 25 per cent or more of women, was also growing in numbers consistently. While only 30 companies fitted the bill in 2001, the number went up to 68 in 2007.

In Feb 2008, PepsiCo's India-born chief Indra Nooyi was among Forbes' list of 10 best women chief executive officers of large corporations based on their total return to investors since each woman took the top job.

Forbes gives top rank to Catherine Burzik, head of Kinetic Concepts, a medical technology company, and number two to Meg Whitman of eBay, the online marketplace. PepsiCo under Nooyi, who took over as CEO in October 2006, gave investors annual return of 9.4 percent, and 13.1 percent cumulative. Standard & Poor (S&P) annualised return is 2.6 percent while industry average annualised return is 0.4 percent, according to the magazine.

Paying a compliment to the women CEOs on the list, Forbes magazine said stock performance had as much to do with corporate leadership as it had to do with the state of the marketplace.

The magazine said of about 1,000 public companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue, there are 30 female chief executives in its database. A dozen of these companies have shown total returns greater than their industry peers, with a minimum length of time in office of the CEO of a year and a half. Nooyi's strategy and style of functioning at the global food and soft drinks behemoth has been analysed by Fortune magazine in a cover story in its current issue.

The magazine had earlier rated her the world's most powerful businesswoman in 2006 and 2007.