Recent progress – and the continued push – toward greater boardroom diversity comes at a pivotal time for businesses. The ability to challenge long-held assumptions; understand megatrends; and effectively calibrate strategy, risk, and talent in the context of heightened stakeholder expectations puts a premium on thinking differently.
To better understand how directors view the opportunities and challenges of enhancing diversity in the boardroom, the KPMG Board Leadership Center surveyed more than 700 directors around the world.
Among the respondents to the survey, it’s clear that:
- Many directors (59 percent) would make moderate changes to their board’s composition if starting from a clean sheet today.
- Many directors (46 percent) have concerns about blind spots and missed opportunities due to a lack of diverse views.
- Seventy-three percent of directors say board diversity of composition and thinking is relevant or very relevant to the company’s consideration of its role in society.
- While a majority of directors (54 percent) say board leadership is effective at drawing out the views of all members, achieving better boardroom discussions is still a work in progress.
- Industry experience (76 percent), risk management experience (75 percent) and gender diversity (61 percent) are the top ‘currently represented’ types of diversity deemed most beneficial to the board based on the company’s long-term strategy.
This report highlights the key takeaways based on the global results. Included in the global results, are responses from 18 directors in Belgium. While this does not meet the criteria for a standalone report, we have highlighted key similarities and differences between the global and Belgian results throughout the report.
We hope these survey results – and questions – help you drive robust discussions about diversity in your own boardroom.
Read the full report here:
