Weber Shandwick, in partnership with KRC Research, released The Female CEO Reputation Premium? Differences & Similarities, a supplementary report to The CEO Reputation Premium: Gaining Advantage in the Engagement Era. This survey of more than 1,700 senior executives worldwide indicates that when women have a highly-regarded female CEO as a role model, they are more likely to stay at their companies and more motivated to strive to rise to the top themselves. It also finds that corporate and CEO reputations are largely gender-blind when it comes to contributing to overall company reputation and market value, and major differences between male and female CEOs leadership qualities are surprisingly few.
2. 2
The benefit of promoting greater gender diversity
in the C-Suite is generally acknowledged by both
men and women. According to a report from
Catalyst, companies with higher female
representation in top management deliver 34%
greater returns to shareholders than those with
lesser representation. Gender diversity is thus
good for women, good for companies and good
for business.
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3. 3
All well and good. But how female
leadership impacts CEO and corporate
reputation still remains largely
unexplored, so Weber Shandwick
decided to traverse this terrain by mining
global research we recently completed
about CEO reputation overall. What do
female CEOs bring to a company’s
reputation that is different from their male
counterparts, and how do these
differences affect how a company is
perceived? This is the focus of our new
report, The Female CEO Reputation
Premium? Differences & Similarities.
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5. 5
How we did it
The Female CEO Reputation Premium is a
supplement to The CEO Reputation Premium:
Gaining Advantage in the Engagement Era.
Conducted with KRC Research, it was released in
March 2015 and is based on more than 1,750
executives in large-sized companies ($US 500
million +) in 19 markets around the world.
The large sample size of our study allowed us to
segment our sample into two groups – those
executives with a male CEO and those with a
female CEO. The insights we share and
conclusions we draw are based on a comparison
of these two groups of respondents.
5
7. 7Source: The CEO Reputation Premium: Gaining Advantage in the Engagement Era, Weber Shandwick & KRC Research, 2015
First, a refresher: CEO reputation matters
% of company’s
reputation
attributed to
CEO’s
reputation
45%
% of company’s
market value
attributed to
CEO’s
reputation
44%
% expect CEO
reputation to
matter more in
next few years50%
% say CEO
reputation
retains
employees
70%
% say that CEO
reputation
attracts new
employees77%
8. 8
6 insights revealed
Corporate and CEO
Reputations are Gender-Blind
Gender-Based CEO
Leadership Qualities?
Not So Much
Female vs. Male CEO Visibility
is More Than Media-Hype
The Number of Female CEOs
is Vastly Overestimated
The CEO Pipeline has a
Gender Bender
How to Attract More Women
CEO-Aspirers: Make
Reputation Count!
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2
3
4
5
6
8
9. 9
Corporate and CEO reputations are
gender-blind
Company reputation
very strong
(% agree)
38%
36%
CEO reputation
very strong
(% agree)
35%
33%
% of company
market value
attributed to CEO
reputation
43%
47%
Apparently once women sit in the chief executive chair, they’ve proved
themselves and their gender is no longer an issue. Like their male counterparts,
all that now counts is business performance.
– LESLIE GAINES-ROSS, CHIEF REPUTATION STRATEGIST, WEBER SHANDWICK
Executives with female CEOsExecutives with male CEOs
1
“
“
11. 11
43% 52%
Male CEOs Female CEOs
33% 39%
Male CEOs Female CEOs
15% 20%
Male CEOs Female CEOs
Female CEOs are more likely to proactively engage external audiences.
Female vs. male CEO visibility is
more than media-hype
“comfortable talking to
the news media”
“participating in
social media”
Indicates significant difference
3
more willing to talk
with the news media
than he/she was a few
years ago.”
CEO IS DESCRIBED AS
BY EXECUTIVES
“MY CEO IS
(% EXECUTIVES AGREE)
CEO IS DESCRIBED AS
BY EXECUTIVES
12. 12
12% of global businesses have either
a female CEO or Managing Director
Global senior executives estimate
that 23% of large companies
have a female CEO
The number of female CEOs is vastly
overestimated
23%
5%
4%
12%
Perception
Reality
5% of CEOs running U.S. Fortune
1000 companies are women
Women run 4% of FTSE
100 companies
(The Grant Thornton International Business Report survey)
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13. 13
Female executives are significantly less likely
than male executives to be interested in
becoming CEO one day.
5
The CEO pipeline
has a gender bender
Would you personally ever want to be the
top leader of a large company?
(Global executives)
32% 30%
37%
23%
33%
43%
Yes No Maybe
Indicates significant difference between genders
Female executives
Male executives
Percentages may not add up to 100% because of decimal rounding
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14. 14
33%
16% 19% 22% 25%
15%
95
38%
18%
23% 27%
22%
14%
84
Consumer Healthcare Finance Technology Science/
Engineering
Travel/
Tourism
INDUSTRY*
31%
50%
19%
95
47%
40%
12%
84
95
46%
38%
16%
84
42%
49%
10%
Who wants to be a CEO?
Millennials GenXers Boomers
GENERATION CEO GENDER COMPANY OWNERSHIP
Public Private OtherMale Female
Indicates significant difference between genders
Female executives who want to be CEO
Male executives who want to be CEO
95%
5%
84%
16%
Percentages may not add to 100% because of decimal rounding
*Respondents were allowed to select more than one industry
Women who aspire to CEO are more likely than male aspirers to be Millennial, have a
woman CEO and to be employed in privately-held companies.
16. 16
6 How to attract
more women CEO-
aspirers: make
reputation count!
Good reputations matter more to women.
16
Indicates significant difference
54%
64%
Male executives Female Executives
CEO’s reputation influences
decision to remain at the company
17. 17
63% 70%
Female Executives with a
Male CEO
Female Executives with a
Female CEO
CEO’s reputation influences
decision to remain at the company
CEO reputation
matters even more to
women when the CEO
is a woman
18. 18
How to be a CEO who women executives want
to work for
Has a clear vision for the company (69%) Has a clear vision for the company (67%)
Decisive (59%) Has a global business outlook (61%)
Is honest and ethical (56%)
Has a global business outlook (56%)
Is focused on customers (55%)
Is a good communicator internally (55%)
Is a good communicator externally (55%)
Is a good communicator
internally (53%)
Is honest and ethical (53%)
Inspires and motivates others (51%)
Is focused on customers (51%)
Cares that the company is a
good place to work (52%)
Top-ranked characteristics of highly regarded CEOs
Indicates characteristic unique to male executives Indicates characteristic unique to female executives
According to male executives According to female executives
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For more information about The Female
CEO Reputation Premium? Differences
& Similarities, contact:
Micho Spring
Chair, Global Corporate Practice
Weber Shandwick
mspring@webershandwick.com
Carol Ballock
EVP, Executive Equity & Engagement Lead
Weber Shandwick
cballock@webershandwick.com
#ceoreputation
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Leslie Gaines-Ross
Chief Reputation Strategist
Weber Shandwick
lgaines-ross@webershandwick.com