Business culture will change only through action, not just words or good intentions.

The 30% Club is working to bring about a real transformation by:

• Encouraging and supporting chairmen to appoint more women to their boards.
• Providing information and help for businesses trying to improve their diversity at all levels. There are two ‘pipeline’ groups within the 30% Club, aimed at sharing innovations that work and devising new collaborative actions. These two groups are the ‘Professional Services Firms Pipeline Group’ and the ‘Balancing the Pyramid Project’, aimed at corporates.
• Working with other related groups such as the Professional Boards Forum, the Women’s Business Council and the Mentoring Foundation. We believe that collective, concerted effort can achieve much more than individual initiatives and are ‘open source’ in our approach. We are driven by our objective, rather than by any ‘ownership’ of the issue.
• Keeping the spotlight on the issue through our ongoing role in the public debate, on TV and radio and through social media. Focused activities aimed at influencing policy-makers through, for example, consultation responses, providing oral evidence to select committees and close alignment with the Davies Committee.
• Staging large-scale events (free of charge to attendees) to develop momentum and to evolve thinking around the issue (‘Action Beyond Words’, Cass Business School, July 2011; Investors’ Seminar, February 2012; launch of Cranfield research (instigated by Equality and Human Rights Commission) into Executive Search firms’ role in May 2012; ‘Transforming Business Culture’ seminar at the London Stock Exchange, November 2012; Professional Services Firms Pipeline Project outcomes at Linklaters, December 2012; ‘Accelerator Steps towards Developing Female Talent’, Bloomberg, April 2012’ ).
• Ongoing focused activity around a number of areas: Investors’ Group (comprising 14 leading institutional investment firms with assets under management totalling £2trn); Professional Services Firms’ Pipeline Group; Balancing the Pyramid (pipeline effort with corporates); International Development; Events; and Social Media. Currently establishing two new groups focused on the Public Sector and Sports/Culture.
• Providing strategic advice to groups overseas.
• Speaking at schools, universities and international women’s events.
• Tracking progress towards the 30% target.

A Steering Committee oversees the overall development of the 30% Club.

A group of five senior chairmen form an Advisory Group to provide advice and help recruit other chairmen.

We are also piloting a mentoring scheme aimed at cross-company mentoring at mid-career level, to enable hundreds of women to be mentored, complementing existing senior level schemes. We have also been working to establish a community of female directors who may foster the development of high potential women.