The transformative power of diversity

Creating more diverse boards with regards to gender, race, age, expertise, experience, skill sets, and knowledge provides a plethora of advantages for businesses.  Research suggests that more inclusive and diverse boards can better drive innovation, business performance and growth in market share.  In addition, they help to build a more positive corporate image and employer brand. Conversely, a lack of board diversity can limit organisations’ ability to think critically, view situations from multiple perspectives and ultimately develop more innovative solutions. 

The Listing Rules of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) aimed at eliminating single-gender boards by 2024 are a welcome development to help achieve more gender diversity on boards, working towards bringing Hong Kong closer to the global benchmark of at least 30% female board representation. However, with investor and other stakeholder pressure for more diverse and inclusive organisations on the rise, more needs to be done to change the mindset of organisations and accelerate the pace of change.

This joint paper from The Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute and KPMG China addresses key challenges and practical considerations for organisations as they move to improve board diversity and implement diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategies and initiatives. Considering the numerous aspects that contribute to diversity as mentioned above, it includes a skills matrix that organisations can use in their diversity planning, experience sharing, and best practices on implementation.