How to solve a problem like diversity in business

• By Josh Bayliss, www.virgin.com
• View Original
• March 7th, 2014

You are reading an article from the women in business series, to read more about this you can visit the series homepage.

In fact, almost one in three people who took part in a recent survey thought that having more women in top management positions was not good for business. I’m not sure whether those people realise it, but business is part of society and not separate from it. And half of society is made up of women.

We are all the product of our own experiences. Diversity of background – whether gender, race, sexual orientation, culture – leads to diversity of thought and greater creativity. Businesses need those different perspectives in order to remain relevant and to thrive in a complex world.

The business world has always been dominated by male thinking. Some of the hubris of macho corporate cultures is evident in the destruction of value in a string of accounting scandals with a huge amount of associated detriment caused to people’s lives: Enron, Lehman Brothers, Tyco, WorldCom, the list goes on.