Kerry Ho’s story embodies the Canadian dream, and serves as a cautionary tale for companies who take a narrow-minded approach to seeding their boards.
Born to an immigrant grocery store owner, Ho put himself through eight years of school via student loans before landing a promising job as a financial coordinator with one of the biggest oil companies in the world. He thought that if he worked hard, there would be no barriers to how high he could rise in the company. One day, his mentor, a senior executive in the company asked him, “Where do see yourself going in the company?” Ho’s unabashed response: “I want to be on the board.” The executive replied, “I’ll be honest with you. That will never happen. You’re not the right type.” The oil company lost a promising young employee, and today Ho is CEO at Inhance Investment Management, part of the VanCity Group, which makes a point of not imposing limits on its most talented—all the way up to the board level.
According to Statistics Canada, visible minorities, who currently make up over 16 per cent of the population, grew at a rate five times faster than the overall population between 2001 and 2006. Not surprising, given that immigration accounts for over 56 per cent of Canada’s population growth. The Conference Board of Canada has found that by 2016, nearly one in five Canadians will be a visible minority.
Canada’s elected governments are starting to reflect these changing trends. For example, Canada’s parliament currently has 69 women (22 per cent) and 19 visible minorities (6 per cent) out of 308 MPs. Yet on the TSX60, nine companies have no female board members and 40 have no visible minorities on their boards. In total, visible minorities hold less than four per cent of the TSX60’s board seats.
An increasingly global marketplace requires companies to promote and select competent, qualified individuals for leadership positions who will bring diverse perspectives to the decision-making process. Further, bringing more diversity to senior positions broadens a business’s appeal to potential employees. The face of Canada is changing and smart companies will seek diversity on boards and among senior officers as a competitive advantage.
