SMEs benefit from females helping to run firms

Mixed gender boardrooms have fewer insolvencies

All male boards and all female boards have a higher chance of crashing their companies compared to a mixed gender run business with male and females on the board.

That’s the finding of research by the Insolvency Practitioners KSA Group as reported in The Gazette this week revealing that a balance of gender gives – well a balanced view when it comes to decisions and a better chance of keeping a company solvent.

Robert Moore, Marketing Manager for KSA Group, said; “This is the second year that we have researched the role of gender in the insolvency rates of SMEs.  Last year we found that female dominated boards had a lower insolvency than male dominated boards. 

“This year we looked at the role of gender diversity and found that mixed boards had lower insolvency rates than both all male and all female boards.  Whilst it is not possible to prove that women are better at running businesses than men, the body of evidence is growing that companies that have women on the board do reap benefits in terms of increased profitability and less failure.”

KSA Group Limited looked at the insolvency rate of the UK’s 1.5m companies with two or more directors in the last 12 months to June 2019. The research showed the insolvency rate is 49% higher in all-male boards when compared to mixed boards while the insolvency rate is 32% higher in all-male boards when compared to all-female boards

They said the insolvency rate for male-dominated boards was 0.63 per cent and 0.48 per cent for female boards. However, for mixed boards it was 0.43 per cent. These rates suggest that mixed boards are more likely to avoid insolvency than either all male or all female run companies.

The reasons for which are unclear but the findings do echo a recent study by Morgan Stanley, who found that organisations with more gender equal boards have outperformed their less diverse peers by 2.8 per cent per annum in the last eight years.

Ian Carrotte of ICSM Credit said that getting a balance of views was important in keeping a company of the straight and narrow. He said: “Women bring a different dimension to a board room which can give a better outlook for a firm compared to one of all men where testosterone can sometimes create too higher risk taking. Traditional all male businesses such as construction and manufacturing have a higher casualty rate when it’s an all-male board.”

To read the full story by KSA see https://www.companyrescue.co.uk/guides-knowledge/news/new-research-suggests-that-uk-smes-with-women-on-the-board-are-less-likely-to-go-bust-4373/

For details about ICSM Credit call 0844 854 1850 or visit the website www.icsmcredit.com or email Ian at Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com on how to subscribe and to join the UK’s credit intelligence network to avoid bad debts and late payers. Follow ICSM Credit on FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube and Ian Carrotte on LinkedIn.

To keep up to date subscribe to the FREE ICSM Credit Newsletter to hear all the latest insolvency news and to see who has gone out of business click on the orange panel on the top left of the home page of the website www.icsmcredit.com or send an email to Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com

Picture: The Metro


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