To be clear, the data doesn't prove companies did better because their boards were more diverse — there is a slew of other factors that play a role.
What they're saying: "There isn't enough data yet to show causation, but there's strong correlation," says Deanna Oppenheimer, founder of BoardReady.
By the numbers: As a cohort, the companies with more women on their boards saw the smallest year-over-year drop in revenue growth in 2020.
- And a group of companies with board members whose ages spanned over 30 years saw an improvement in revenue growth compared to the prior year. The rest saw growth slow.
- The businesses with at least 30% of seats filled by non-white executives saw a bigger jump in revenue growth. However, those that had between 20% and 30% non-white board executives fared worse than those with fewer non-white members.
- BoardReady cautions that this data might be skewed because so few companies have enough non-white executives on their boards to meet that threshold.
What to watch: The data comes as there's a sea change of sorts in corporate America. Legislators, regulators and the Nasdaq are eyeing the makeup of corporations' top decision-makers — and pushing them to step it up on diversity.
- "People used to ask the question: 'Why diversify?' The debate has now moved on from why to how," says Oppenheimer.
Where it stands: The numbers are improving, though still dismal.
Worth noting: BoardReady used revenue as a yardstick — rather than say, profits or EBITDA — to avoid the data being distorted by any adjustments companies made during the pandemic, the study says.
Go deeper: Read the report
