Male opponents outclassed

WHETHER he is better known as the 'shark in a Val Doonican jumper' or the boss who insisted that Fridays were for golf is debatable.

But in the latest series of BBC2's I'll Show Them Who's Boss, Sir Gerry Robinson looks set to acquire another sobriquet - women's champion.

The Allied Domecq chairman and former Granada TV boss has been back and mixing it with a host of small companies in various degrees of trouble.

His previous forays were not without controversy - Financial Mail on Sunday reported on several firms that reckoned Robinson added to their problems.

This time, though, he seems to have emerged as a man with a mission. And after research published last week showed that companies usually appoint women to their boards only at times of crisis, Robinson's views have added resonance.

'The real issue is that men - still in the vast majority of senior positions - simply don't think enough about appointing women in senior roles,' he said. 'In effect, they don't really get on to the radar.

'In making I'll Show Them Who's Boss, I've been looking at family businesses. In at least three, there were clear instances of them simply not thinking of including a woman, despite the fact that they often outclassed their male opponents.

'This is a disaster because when you limit yourself to family members, already a dangerously small list, it is madness to eliminate 50% arbitrarily.'

Robinson points to the Hussain family, who own and run Shire Beds, one of the firms featured in his series. The company, set up in the Eighties, is run by the father and his two sons-in-law.

'The whole ethos made it difficult to think about using one of his daughters in the business, yet she was a star, a qualified accountant and very able,' he says. Robinson admits it caused a stir when the daughter was finally appointed, but he says 'the results have been terrific'.

'Things settled down quickly and the business is in much better shape,' he says. 'Believe me, running a small business is more difficult than running a large one.'

Robinson accepts that women who are held back in business are in a Catch 22 situation. He says: 'The arguments run something like this - I would have considered Mary, but she doesn't have experience. But Mary won't get the experience because she'll never have the chance.'

He accepts that there are 'real obstacles' for women such as having children and having to take time off for family crises.

But as a man who believes in the quality of decisions taken rather than the time taken to reach them, Robinson takes a pragmatic view.

'Senior roles are not time constrained,' he says. 'Often they are about making half a dozen critical decisions a year - such as which lines to stock, which senior people to hire or what part of the market to target. At that level, a talented person can make the same contribution in one day a week as someone less talented working five days a week.'

And he argues that it is wrong for businessmen not to appoint women 'of a certain' age in case they start having children.

'At a senior level, women are likely to be in their thirties or forties and may have already had children or decided not to,' he says. 'But if women do leave after four or five years, so what? Most employees, male or female, don't stay in jobs for much longer. The average is between seven-and-a-half and eight years.

'Good leadership skills are rare. In my experience, they are at least as likely to be there in the female members of staff.

'If I'm honest, I believe that women on the whole make better leaders. They have a better feeling for people issues, are careful in their approach to management and put a huge effort into making things work.

'My advice to men in senior management is to take risks with appointing women - it's ability, not experience, that counts.

'Go out of your way to change the statistics - the gamble will produce some great leaders for your business and do something to stop the waste of talent.'

Sir Gerry Robinson presents I'll Show Them Who's Boss (Sleeping Partners) on BBC2, Thursday, 23 September.