The war for leadership talent is real, with serious skill shortages challenging many organisations. And yet, women remain underutilized and the biggest source of untapped talent.

Time is not the answer. In 1994 women made up just under 9% of executives in the ASX 200. Twelve years later, in 2006, it was just 12%. Yet 50% of all graduates from business, economics and law faculties are women. And, there exists a serious high-end skills shortage with 42% of Australian CEO’s citing talent-retention as their most pressing challenge (2005 ‘Hewitt Best Employers in Australia and New Zealand’ study).

Click here to view the CEO Kit Executive Summary

Over the last 5 years, CEW has worked with the CEOs of a number of organisations eager to improve their retention of female talent. In that process we learned that the wastage of female talent can be stemmed with a practical, problem solving approach.              

We also discovered that many organisations have little information about why women leave. There are plenty of myths - such as 'they leave for family reasons' - but few facts to support this, and little other information as to the real reasons behind their defection.

The CEO Kit has been developed to help organisations discuss the issues at a senior level and using their own company’s data, decide for themselves how to attract and retain female talent. It's been tested and it works!

Like any complex problem, this issue requires ongoing attention and must be driven by the CEO. The Kit provides the means to look at the facts in new ways and apply different approaches to address ingrained situations.

The second version of the CEO Kit including an Introductory Seminar and Charting Tool is available now. For information on how to order the CEO Kit, go to How to order the Kit