Unauthorised entities are using au-gt.com impersonating our au.gt.com domain. Please confirm emails by contacting us here
Diversity of Thought in Family Business highlights the different approach to diversity between the Corporate World and Family Businesses.
Report author and Grant Thornton Partner Kirsten Taylor-Martin said although the survey conducted for the report found significant support for the concept of increasing diversity, many businesses did not appear to be matching that view with action.
“There seems to be widespread support for the idea that greater diversity in family businesses is important and something to aspire to,” Ms Taylor-Martin said.
“But many businesses seem to be of the view that diversity will just happen organically.
“Almost none of the businesses we spoke to for this report had any kind of benchmarking or targets in place for increasing diversity.
“The vast majority of family businesses we spoke to had male-dominated leadership teams, especially at CEO level.
“At the same time over a third of respondents expect women to make up half their leadership team by 2020.
“What’s not clear is what pathway they see to that becoming reality given that deadline is now less than two and a half years away and right now we’re a long way short of gender parity.”
Ms Taylor-Martin said increasing diversity of thought had significant benefits for family businesses.
“People with different life experiences bring different ideas and different approaches,” she said.
“In a business environment that is rapidly changing, being open to ideas from younger generations or from areas of the business that have not been involved in decision making can make the difference between success and failure.
“But it’s critical that the right support and frameworks are put in place. It’s telling that there was a strong correlation in our survey between the organisations that expected to grow in the next three years and those that had a formal leadership or monitoring program in place.
“Achieving greater diversity of thought in family business is most certainly achievable, but it needs to be seen as a priority and not just something that will take care of itself.
“Trust plays an important role in the governance of family business. A family business that has a governance structure will encourage challenging conversations and diversity of thought.”
For more information, please contact:
Dan Pollard
BBS Communications Group
P 07 3221 6711
M 0439 543 605
E dpollard@bbscommunications.com.au
About Grant Thornton Australia Limited
Grant Thornton is one of the world's leading organisations of independent assurance, tax and advisory firms. These firms help dynamic organisations unlock their potential for growth by providing meaningful, forward looking advice. Proactive teams, led by approachable partners in these firms, use insights, experience and instinct to understand complex issues for privately owned, publicly listed and public sector clients and help them to find solutions.
Grant Thornton Australia has more than 1,200 people working in offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. We combine service breadth, depth of expertise and industry insight with an approachable “client first” mindset and a broad commercial perspective.
More than 40,000 Grant Thornton people, across over 130 countries, are focused on making a difference to clients, colleagues and the communities in which we live and work. Through this membership, we access global resources and methodologies that enable us to deliver consistently high quality outcomes for owners and key executives in our clients.