Should Canada have Quotas for Females on Boards?

Should there be quotas for the number of women on Boards? I was asked this question by The Globe and Mail - read the full article here.

Having been at a Women Directors dinner with Diane Francis where this question was raised, I was surprised by how many women liked the idea of quotas. All of the women at that prestigious dinner held at Canoe would certainly be at the front of the line to benefit from a quota. Diane Francis said she was against quotas but the other women Directors argued against her points. 

After the dinner, I read about Quebec and Norway's foray with quotas. Norway has had companies de-list from their stock exchange to avoid the quota. 

Canada is a terrific place to be a working woman. Men have been my mentors and my sponsors. Very few women have held out a helping hand to me. As a consequence of those negative experiences, I try and pull up every woman behind me.

When Rebecca Eichler posed the question about boards being forced to have females on their Boards for the Globe article, I hesitated but spoke my true mind. Women are making incredible inroads by being great at business and knowing how to make the bottom line. How do I describe the powerful women in private business who are my clients?

Here is my response:

Jacoline Loewen, director of Loewen & Partners in Toronto, which sources capital for growing companies, has served on a range of boards and believes a quota would dilute the competitive, aggressive behaviour required to drive strong business results.

“I got to my position through hard work and would hate to be seen as a token appointee,” she said. “Men have to pay a price to get on a board, and the women I know on boards have worked hard to get there too.”

The article was posted and quickly attracted over 200 comments. As I read them, there really was an anger about affirmative action. With more women at university and entering the medical and legal professions, the playing fields seem to be open for all. 

Here are some of the comments. 

What do you think?

Where do you stop this quota foolishness? Government is to provice service, not employ minorities to fulfill quotas to look good on someones anual review. Private industry has an obligation to it's shareholders, if the shareholders are willing to risk finacial loss due to some silly poltically correct machination, it is their money. Under no circumstance whould quotas of any kind be legislated into law.

In Argentina they passed a law some 15 years ago that 30% of the MPs have to be women. What did that achieve? Most MP's wives are now MPs.

As a shareholder, I only want folks who make me money. I hold Corby's stock, a decade ago we had a lady as chairman, she made me a ton of money and her salary requests had my total approval. Now she has gone and corby's is a mess. I cant fire the male aholio who runs the place and special dividends have disappeared. Why quota up employment equity deadheads? If you cant make money for the shareholders, I dont care how big your breasts are or how small your penis is. It is all about return on investment.

How Mary Meeker Earned Back Her Reputation

Mary Meaker was the darling of tech investors back in the 1990's and with the dreadful crash, her reputation also took a hammering.
I do admire her as she got back up and has worked fearlessly to gain back trust. In the finance industry, this is very difficult to do once you have advised the fund investors and cost them a great deal of money and business.
Mary's detailed analysis was what built her status. Fund managers clamoured to see her latest presentations.
Twelve years late, Mary is back as an authority. Check out her overview of the Web today and in the next few years.
See the latest Mary Meecker PowerPoint Presentation on Web 0.2

After the show - BNN The Pitch with Jacoline Loewen and Derek Smith, Bridgescale

Brave entrepreneurs face the panel of private equity experts on The Pitch, brought to you by BNN. I am on the panel of experts. Andrew Bell hosts the panel and after the show, we often chat with the entrepreneurs to give them feedback. Then the private equity panel tends to review the presentations and have a quick gossip about business and what is on the radar screen.
This week, Robert Gold and Andrew Brown did an "after the show" podcast and I must say, they asked great questions. Hear what Derek Smith of Bridgescale had to say about RIM - oddly prophetic.

Listen to the Podcast 
If you have problems use Robert Gold's directions below:

This week on the BusinessCast we go behind the scenes of BNN's 'The Pitch' and debrief three of their top investors - right after they've turned down the entrepreneurs.  Hear what the investors really think, with this unique opportunity to be inside their heads - and pitch better yourself.


Listen or Subscribe to the BusinessCast for free in iTunes.


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Canadian Government R&D Benefits the US

This month, we are looking at how to move Canada beyond its weak financial support for early stage and technology firms.We will be discussing ideas about how to get beyond this problem of being the little market for American Private Equity to cherry pick our winners.
Canada is among the most generous countries in the world in its financial support of R and D for its emerging technology companies. Canadian government support for business R and D as a percentage of GDP is the second highest of any OECD country and ahead of that of the US.
But Canada is facing a dire shortage of the highly-specialized financing source, venture capital, that is dedicated to commercializing that R&D. In 2010, the Canadian venture capital industry experienced its worst fundraising in 16 years and is virtually moribund.
In the absence of venture capital, the R&D of emerging technology companies cannot be commercialized into products and services to be sold in the global market to create jobs, revenues and exports. Much of that R&D is going to waste. The Canadian government’s billions of dollars in annual support for R&D of its emerging technology companies is effectively a vast program for creating advanced aircraft when there is no fuel to fly them.
When Canadian emerging technology companies do obtain VC financing, it is often insufficient, and many find themselves at a serious competitive disadvantage. Canadian VC backed emerging technology companies currently receive on average only 36% of the funding of their VC-backed direct US competitors.
This underfunding of Canada’s emerging technology companies is a recipe for decline, as these undercapitalized companies must compete in the same fast-moving global market with their far-better financed US competitors (not to mention those from other countries). Hobbled by having only a fraction of the capital of their competitors, these Canadian companies also have little prospect of achieving VC follow-on financing when needed, which is in especially short supply in Canada. As a result, many promising Canadian emerging technology companies fail, or are sold early in their lifecycles long before they obtain industry leadership. These sales are frequently to large US companies, and often at low prices.
The Canadian government’s support for R and D of its emerging technology companies has become, in effect, a subsidy to US businesses which acquire the most promising of these capital-starved but R&D-rich Canadian companies cheaply, then reap the financial rewards by commercializing that R&D and bringing those companies to industry leadership. Worse still, these companies are often moved to the US, resulting in the loss of Canadian jobs, revenues and exports. The bottom line: Canada is losing much of the benefit of its billions of dollars in R&D funding for its emerging technology companies.

Running Your Own Business in 2011