HYDERABAD: From playing an "invisible" role of informal advisors in family businesses, women are now coming out of the shadows of men and having more defined roles, revealed a report titled 'Power of Women in Family Business'.
The report, which has been prepared by the STEP Project Global Consortium and KPMG Private Enterprise, surveyed over 1,800 family businesses from 33 countries. In India, the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise of the Indian School of Business (ISB) conducted the survey with responses from 53 companies.
The report reveals that 18% of family business leaders globally are women, with the highest percentage belonging to family businesses in Europe and Central Asia.
As per the findings of the report, women are now equipped with the required education and are taking up leadership positions in so-called masculine industries such as manufacturing, mining and construction.
It said that the traditional role of women nurturing and taking care of the emotional needs of the family and keeping it together make them holistic leaders with unique management styles.
It said that women in family businesses, especially Millennials, are breaking down barriers and redefining how women in non-traditional businesses are perceived. "Many highly competent women leaders are successfully managing their family businesses in male-dominated industries such as steel and scrap-metal processing, cement manufacturing and the production of hardware products. They have the knowledge, experience and skills in their business and are valued and respected by the employees and customers," the report said.
Besides, government push such as amendment to the Hindu Succession Act in 2005, that conferred property rights to daughters, and the mandatory gender quota for women on corporate boards introduced by the Companies Act (2013) prompted family firms to have a higher percentage of women representation on company boards as compared to non-family firms.
The report has been co-authored by Nupur Pavan Bang and Yashodhara Basuthakur of the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise of ISB, Andrea Calabrò, director of the STEP Global Academic Director and IPAG Family Business Institute, IPAG Business School and Mary Jo Fedy, Karmen Yeung and Tom McGinness of KPMG.