No. of Recommendations: 16
Now it's possible that it doesn't matter at all who is on the board, but a reasonable argument can be made that since 50% of the population is women, and that women buy lots of stuff, perhaps they should have a voice in the rooms where what gets sold and how those companies operate gets decided. That seems pretty fair to me, and while that 16% figure is a lot lower than 50%, I can see that might be an artifact of the lower participation in the workforce for women through the 80's and 90's.
I don't think Buffett, I, or anyone actually concerned with running businesses would consider "reasonable" an argument that if you want to market to a demographic that the world's expert at marketing to that demographic is particularly likely to be in that demographic. This argument is to marketing as Lamarckian acquired traits is to evolution.
The vast majority of surgeries are done on people who could not get a surgery degree. A lot of tone deaf people with uninspiring voices listen to music. A lot of short pudgy lazy people watch a lot of NBA basketball. A lot of people who have never written a two page story watch hours of media. NONE of us want the average demographic consumer of something to PRODUCE the thing that we would want to buy. Only the most confused among us even think we want something like that.
The idea that skin color, national origin, religion, lack of wealth, political party, or family name are more important or even equally important or even comparably important as actual competence is the memetic equivalent of a virus infecting western civilization at the moment. So far it hasn't killed us, but it sure as poop is not helping us, and not wanting to protect ourselves against such idiotic ideas does not bode well for the long term survival of western civilization. It sure seems like the kind of bad idea that COULD strike at the heart of what makes western civilization a winner, which is, essentially, science, engineering, competence, and realistic thinking.
R:)
