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This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 2, 2017 - October 8, 2017

It is not entirely surprising that women remain absent from company boardrooms across Asia, as detailed in a recent Bloom-berg report. But that does not make it right.

Forget about fairness. The absence of women atop global corporate giants such as Samsung Electronics Co, Toyota Motor Corp, and Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co is irresponsible, particularly at companies that explicitly cater for women customers.

At a recent lunch held to discuss Hong Kong-listed luggage maker Samsonite International SA's interim financial results, a cadre of male executives explained how its 2016 purchase of high-end luxury products brand Tumi Holdings Inc awakened the company to what was, to them, a new discovery: Women are working! And travelling! And buying luggage!

It turns out that women make up a meaningful portion of the business travellers, consultants and bankers that comprise Samsonite's target market. And although women control the lion's share of consumer spending, they accounted for less than 10% of the group's net sales.

"Most of the people running the company are men, and as a masculine brand, we were predominantly designing products and stores with men in mind," CEO Ramesh Tainwala says.

To increase sales among women, he says the company is now taking on a "women-first" mentality that includes hiring more women in decision-making positions.

Although it is jarring to hear someone like Tainwala speak earnestly of revelations that women are "increasingly treated equal to men in the working world and are buying high-end luggage”, at least he has already had the epiphany and is doing something about it.

It is a different picture over at Fosun International Ltd, the Shanghai-based conglomerate run by Guo Guangchang, China's 19th richest man.

At a recent bi-annual presentation of results for the retail-to-real estate empire, seven men in suits took the stage to answer shareholder questions, expounding on the company's strategy to target families under the kitschy tagline, "Health, Wealth, and Happiness”. Practically, that means things like making baby strollers and running Club Med programmes for children and families across China.

Fosun's 13-member board includes one woman, Kang Lan, who also heads human resources. It is hard to be encouraged by a business strategy focused on serving women and families when there are virtually no women running the business.

Ditto for Samsung Electronics, which currently has zero female board members or top executives, despite being a global technology leader. (Samsung has had a woman on the board in the past and has said it is open to broadening diversity.)

A woman in the boardroom could help business lines like mobile phones, which make up 43% of the company's annual revenue but tend to do better with men than women, according to multiple studies that have found women prefer Apple Inc's iPhones.

A seat could go to Lee Boo-jin, the eldest sister of Samsung vice-chairman Jay Y Lee, who in August was sentenced to five years in jail on bribery charges. Boo-jin brings a female perspective, a sought-after family presence and a business acumen acquired while increasing revenue for eight straight years at the family's US$3.3 billion hotel and duty-free business, Hotel Shilla Co, though complications could arise from cross-shareholdings and family ownership rules.

The percentage of female directors and executives in South Korea's male-dominated society, Samsung's home base, are among the lowest in the world. Just 2% of South Korean companies have women on their boards.

The facts are apparent — shares in large-cap companies with female board members outperformed their peers by 26% over a six-year period ending in 2012, according to Credit Suisse AG. Those corporations also posted higher returns on equity, net income growth and price-to-book multiples, researchers found.

Samsung could help change South Korea's poor showing by setting a good example for its home country, Asia and the rest of the world. After all, a misguided business practice is no less terrible just because it happens to be the status quo. — Bloomberg


Shelly Banjo is a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist covering industrial companies and conglomerates. She previously was a reporter at Quartz and The Wall Street Journal.

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