Every year, the 20-first Global Gender Balance Scorecard looks at a single measure of progress: the gender balance of the Executive Committee of the TOP 100 companies in three key regions of the globe (see www.genderbalancescorecard.com for global statistics). This companion survey focuses in on the gender balance of 20 top companies in Germany. Whereas much attention has been paid to the gender balance of Boards, we argue that the Executive Committee is a much better indicator of corporate progress in managing and developing talent in a truly meritocratic and gender “bilingual” way. Today, more and more companies are waking up to the 21st century reality, where most of the educated talent in the world and a majority of the consumer market is female. Many have begun to make gender balance in leadership a strategic priority. Let’s take a look at what the top companies in Germany have achieved to date. THE CORE METRIC 20-first © 2014 | www.20-first.com Info: [email protected] In our sample of Top 20 companies in Germany, there are a total of 135 Executive Committee members. We define the Executive Committee as the group of executives who report directly to the CEO. 93% of these Executive Committee members are men (125); 7 % are women (10). Of these 10 women, most (6, 60% of female Executive Committee members) are in staff or support roles. Only 4 women (or 40%) are in line or operational roles. Lufthansa stands out from the group, with its balanced team of 60% M and 40% F. No other company in this sample has more than 17% women on its top team, and in fact a number of companies have lost female talent since last year’s report (Continental, Deutsche Telekom, E.ON, and Siemens). A majority (55%) of Germany’s Top 20 companies however still do not have a single woman on their Executive Committee. It’s always hard in this business to decide if a year-on- year change in numbers represents a trend, and so we treat each year’s results more as a general snapshot than a definitive sign of change. We look forward to announcing that a clear shift towards better gender balance at the top has taken hold in a particular country; so far, we are a long way from that. Germany is a good example. In our 2013 report, we noted a slight increase in female executives from 6% to 9% (while emphasizing how far the country has to go). This year Germany has dropped back down to 7% - or just 10 women out of 135 Executive Committee members. Over half of Germany’s top companies still don’t have a single woman in their top teams – and many of those that did are losing them. Since last year, Continental, Deutsche Telekom, E.ON and Siemens all lost women – Siemens lost two (N.B. as we go to print, we hear they are headhunting a woman to head their energy business). Lufthansa is the only company in this group to now have 2 women on its 5- person ExCom, making theirs the only gender balanced leadership team. Startling for a country led by Angela Merkel, whose cabinet is 35% female, to see so little progress on gender in the private sector. It’s time for German business to recognize the world has changed. GLOBAL GENDER BALANCE SCORECARD Focus on Germany JUNE 2014 Avivah Wittenberg-Cox 2014 RUNNING ON HALF- EMPTY KEY FINDINGS Executive Committee = line = staff 93% 3% 4% * Staff or support roles include Communications, HR, Legal, IT, Strategy, Public Policy, etc. Line or operational roles include CEO, CFO, Country Head, Business Unit Head, etc. THE SIX PHASES OF THE GENDER JOURNEY The Top 20 companies on the following pages are segmented into one of the following six phases: Asleep. Exclusively male team. 100% M / 0% F Token. One (or two) women in staff or support function. < 15% F Starting Smart. One (or two) women in central core or operational role. <15% F Progressing. M/F ratio between 85 % M / 15% F and 76% M / 24% F. Critical Mass. M/F ratio of at least 75% M / 25% F. Balanced. Minimum of 40% of either gender. The data for this survey is based on publically available information provided by the Top 20 companies on their websites as of June 2014. The list of companies was drawn from the Fortune 500 Global rankings published in July 2013. Alastair Fyfe