PETALING JAYA: Ensuring a composition of 30% women on the boards of publicly listed companies is very difficult as the boards are akin to a boys club, said Women’s Institute of Management (WIM) chairman Datuk Dr Nellie S.L Tan-Wong, adding that there are a huge number of capable women who can be directors.
“A major issue is once a group of directors are comfortable with one woman, she is appointed to numerous other boards, thus denying other women a chance.”
Tan said there have been announcements of retired senior military officers being appointed directors, and questioned what kind of knowledge they have on company and tax laws.
“It is important for those who are directors to understand their role and have the ability and knowledge to make snap decisions when issues crop up.
“Directors need to undergo training, which was once conducted by WIM. Several directors were unwilling to attend training sessions and some even sent their drivers to sit in for them but they were caught out.”
Tan also said some even complained to the government, causing the training programme to be cancelled halfway.
On its history, she said WIM was set up in 1993 and is an NGO that does not receive any funding or grants from the government, except once in the 1990s, when it received some funds to help organise training programmes for women in rural areas.
When WIM was first set up, Tan said it organised a basic two-day entrepreneurship programme.
“We had an average of over 40 women turning up each time. Many of them were interested in doing business, so in the first part of the programme, we explained all the pitfalls involved and the commitment required.
“This served to help them understand that setting up a business requires a lot of hard work,” she said.
Tan added that once they understood the fundamentals of doing business, those who remained then thought about how to set up a business.
“WIM is a voluntary organisation and those involved do not get any financial remuneration. WIM relies on fundraising to run the organisation. We have over 20 staff and funds to pay them come from its activities.
“We took our time to construct a six-storey, RM10 million building on NGO-allocated land in Taman Tun Dr Ismail. WIM also built a hostel, which can accommodate over 80 people.”
She said some of the rooms are used for those attending WIM courses while the others are rented out to single adults. The car park is another source of income, but the charges are low, at only RM4 per day.
Tan also said WIM is the only NGO that runs a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) programme in collaboration with the University of East London in Barking, UK.
“The course started in 2000 when there was hardly anyone offering MBA courses. We took the risk although none of us in WIM had any background in running an educational institution. We believed it could be successful, but were heartbroken when only four students registered,” she said.
Tan added that WIM persevered on its MBA course and now there are two graduations a year.
“WIM is also organising a two-day Millennials Summit in October with the keynote speaker being Tan Sri Andrew Sheng, who will talk about ‘Re-thinking the NEP for the Knowldge-Based Economy’.”
She said WIM has carried out 771 courses, which benefited 36,363 participants. The majority of the courses are free training in small businesses and basic ICT.
