Elaine’s blog

It’s hard to know which areas of employment are going to get hit more than others in the period of “downturn”. That word seems inadequate to describe the cataclysmic events of the late 2008, but businesses  are now folding like cards at the rate of one famous name per week. I thought about which businesses will be the survivors and why. It may be as simple as those who ran their finances more prudently and were less exposed to major risks when it all went sideways. I think it is more than that. I was reading that the French bank BNP Paribas seems to have remained stable in these risky times, whilst as we know, even before the Leman crash, competitor Societe Generale ran into trouble, and the share price of Credit Agricole has now dropped 50% too.

Whilst the Woollies staff conga-ed their way out of the door, I have been watching local government workers quietly walking away with their redundancy notices. It’s hard to see if anyone is safe from this new peril of redundancy and suspension of work. That’s sobering……

I did pick up that the management of BNP Paribas is 39% female, and I am so tempted to extrapolate wildly from this one example to make a point I have for so long wanted to believe: that female management is generally sounder and more rational than that provided by the male. But then, I suppose that’s just hooey……

Or not. A French study called Global Financial Crisis: Are women the antidote? (natty title) published in October found that firms in the CAC40 (FTSE equivalent) with a higher proportion of women in management have indeed shown better resilience in time of financial crisis. I am sure there is a lot of PHD fertility in establishing the causes of such an assertion, as well as in disproving it. Still, I find it encouraging for all those aspiring women who have a permanent headache from banging on the glass ceiling.

Interestingly, Denise Kingsmill CBE, non-exec and board member extraordinaire, has posited another view about the demise of the arrogant and impatient, “you’re-fired” school of management.  Writing recently in a management magazine, she has expressed the view that the Alpha Chief Executive (ACE) is now an endangered species as the need for decency, integrity, openness, engagement and commitment come to the fore to steer businesses through tough times. What is interesting about the ACE is that he relies entirely on the command and control model of leadership, and in this century thus far, this has not proved to be successful. If he hasn’t noticed this outcome yet, I think Ms Kingmill has not exaggerated the rumours about his demise.