unlocking the full potential of women in Czech business

Unlocking the full potential
of women in Czech business

Unlocking the full potential of women in Czech business
Contents
Introduction 2
Executive summary 4
Our methodology 8
Unexploited potential in Czech business 12
Women’s representation in executive committees 20
and management teams
We have identified the practices that companies 24
in the Czech Republic can employ in order to improve
women’s representation
Future directions 34
Acknowledgements 42

2Unlocking the full potential of women in Czech business
Introduction
Tomáš Víšek
Partner and Managing Director
McKinsey  Company
Radka Dohnalová
Consultant
McKinsey  Company
McKinsey has regularly contributed to Czech society with pro bono studies since 2008. This year,
based on input from CEOs and top managers, we focus on the topic of talent. We believe that women
are an underutilized source of talent, and that they bring different and complementary perspectives
and leadership styles. In this report, we propose ways to build and tap into this source of talent.
Since 2007, McKinsey Company, through its global Women Matter initiative, has been continuously
researching gender diversity as a performance lever for the economy and individual corporations.
We took this international research as a starting point for our own study with the largest companies
in the Czech Republic, and arrived at future directions to be taken that combine local and international
best practices.
This report is only one of the results of our effort. To trigger a change, we provided tailored feedback
to, and had boardroom discussions with, the participants in our study. We hope that many other com-
panies will find inspiration in the results and take practical steps towards unlocking the full potential of
women in Czech business. This study is a step on a journey, and we would be glad to hear about your
own progress and best practices.
Prague, April 2012
Uršula Kráľová
Consultant
McKinsey  Company

Executive summary
Women represent untapped potential in
Czech business. There is evidence that greater
participation by women in the workforce can spur
economic growth and enhance the performance
of individual companies.
The Czech Republic, with 4 percent, scores in
the bottom quartile in women’s representation
in executive committees1
among 12 major
economies. However, the underrepresentation
of women in executive committees is only a result
of the underrepresentation of women across
management levels.
Referred to as role models in this report,
the companies with the best gender diversity
results2
in the Czech Republic share certain
commonalities, mainly an awareness of the types
of barriers facing women in their organizations,
and a thorough implementation of a tailored,
comprehensive set of measures to promote
gender diversity.
Untapped potential in Czech business
A macro view suggests that women represent
untapped potential in Czech business:
 Women are an underutilized pool of talent.
The current rate of women’s employment in
the Czech Republic, 56 percent, lags behind
EU countries. The world’s strongest economies,
with double the GDP per capita of the Czech
Republic, have women’s employment rates
1 For the purposes of this document, executive
committee = představenstvo in Czech
2 Companies that have both implemented concrete measures
and boast a high share of women in their management
teams
which are at least 10 percentage points higher.
In addition, demographic changes are signaling
a growing scarcity of talent. The Czech economy
could lack up to 550 thousand economically
active people. Improving women’s participation
in the active workforce could help address the
challenge.
 McKinsey studies have demonstrated
a link between the proportion of women
in management teams and how well companies
perform. Our research shows that women
exhibit certain leadership behaviors more
frequently than men, e.g., people development
and defining expectations and responsibilities,
which can explain this “performance effect”.
 Women have more purchasing power than
men, deciding on spending of CZK 9 billion
more than men every week in the Czech
Republic, and this difference is even greater
in Western Europe and the US. Trends from
abroad show that women are also becoming
important influencers in industries where
buyers are traditionally male, e.g., banking and
consumer electronics. Understanding female
consumers could therefore help companies
build greater competitive advantage.

5
Women are underrepresented across
management levels, and they are
increasingly outnumbered as they rise
through the ranks
Our research into gender diversity shows
that women are underrepresented across
management levels at the top of the 60 largest
companies in the Czech Republic (by revenue).
When we combined these results with a detailed
survey of 23 leading companies, we concluded
that the underrepresentation of women increases
with the level of seniority and is not improving.
 With 4 percent of women in executive
committees, the Czech Republic lags behind
major economies including the UK, US, China
and Russia. Moreover, female executive
committee members are concentrated in
only a few companies as most corporations
in the Czech Republic (85 percent) have all-
male executive committees. These statements
are true across industries.
 Our detailed research has shown that the
underrepresentation of women increases with
the level of seniority. In the 23 companies in
our sample, women account for 51 percent
of the total workforce, but only for 35 percent
of middle managers, and a mere 17 percent
of top managers. However, in these teams,
women mostly (more than 70 percent) have
support positions, which are not represented in
the executive committee (i.e., HR, and Finance).
Companies in our sample with the
best gender diversity share certain
commonalities
We have grouped the companies in our sample
into four quadrants according to women’s
representation in management, and the level
of implementation of measures promoting gender
diversity. We have decided to take the companies
that scored highly on both axes simultaneously
as the role models that other companies can
learn from. These companies share certain
commonalities:
 The role models have identified the types
of barriers facing women in life in general and
in their organizations in particular. Women
generally face three types of barriers. Most
companies in the Czech Republic had identified
only (i) lifestyle challenges, such as a lack of
support structures in terms of flexible working
environments and taking care of children,
and concerns about the executive lifestyle.
The role models are also aware of (ii) structural
challenges, such as a lack of informal networks,
role models, and sponsors; and (iii) embedded
mindsets, such as cultural stereotypes.
 The role models have thoroughly implemented
a comprehensive set of measures designed
to address their specific diversity challenges
across the main pillars of the gender-diversity
ecosystem (i.e., commitment and culture,
development programs, and collective
enablers). While most companies in the Czech
Republic managed to gain the commitment
of the CEO and apply measures mostly on
HR policies, the role models have taken
it a step further by; translating the CEO’s
dedication and measures into management
dedication; implementing at least one of the
three key women’s development programs
(women’s leadership, networking, and
mentoring); measuring their progress on
gender representation at a very granular level,
with results being discussed at executive
committee meetings; and implementing
flexible working conditions, and personalized
career plans for women.
Future directions
Our work to understand corporate
transformations, as well as our current research,
both in the Czech Republic and at the European

level3
, have allowed us to formulate three action
themes for companies that are serious about
building a successful gender-diversity ecosystem:
 Make senior management commitment
more visible. The top management needs
to convince others of the need for change so
that gender diversity is embraced throughout
the organization by (i) making a compelling
business case for the reasons why gender
diversity is important, and (ii) leading by
example by making the management’s support
for women visible at the executive committee
and middle management levels.
 Know where the obstacles lie. Companies
need a detailed understanding of women’s
representation at every level within the
organization and of the attitudes and beliefs
that block women’s progress. They should
also measure their progress on these areas
throughout implementation.
 Target a set of initiatives across the gender
diversity ecosystem at the particular challenges
a company faces:
– Development programs. Implement
specifically tailored mentoring and
sponsorship programs to increase the
visibility of, and support for, high-potential
women, and leadership skill-building
programs to meet women’s specific needs,
such as assertiveness and confidence
building.
3 The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium,
the Netherlands
– HR policies. Control biases in appraisal
systems (e.g., promoting people with similar
leadership styles and a full-time presence
in the office), ensure full implementation of
flexibility measures (e.g., home office and
part-time arrangements), and make the most
of a woman’s talent at every stage of her life
(e.g., switching between line management
and project work depending on the actual
personal situation).
In our conversations with CEOs in the Czech
Republic, we often hear about the scarcity of
talent. As women represent half of the available
talent pool, companies should ensure that the
very best minds, male and female, are brought
together. Both Czech and international research
clearly shows that such a change cannot be
achieved with individual initiatives - the change
calls for a systematic approach. We sincerely
hope we have demonstrated that the payoff will
be well worth the effort.

Our methodology
Unique approach
McKinsey Company advises private and public
entities around the world on their most difficult
challenges. In doing so, the firm follows a struc-
tured, fact-based approach and our research into
the potential of women in Czech business is no
exception. We combine this fact-based approach
with our global experience in organizational top-
ics. In particular, we leverage a proprietary tool,
the Organizational Health Index (OHI). Tested
on more than 500,000 employees from over
600 organizations, OHI measures organizational
elements that drive financial performance, and
helps prioritize the management practices need-
ed to improve performance.
McKinsey has been exploring the topic of gender
diversity in business since 2007 in North America
and Europe1
. There are different approaches
to the topic. In our research, we have focused
on establishing the link between diversity and
corporate performance and identifying practices
that companies can employ to create the same
opportunities to those women who want to lever-
age them. In the Czech Republic, we have used
the global approach and methodology. At its
core lies the concept of the gender diversity
ecosystem:
 Management commitment, which means that
the CEO and the executive team champion
gender diversity and set targets for the number
of senior women in the organization.
 Women’s development programs, which equip
women with the skills and networks they need
1 Full Women Matter reports are available at the McKinsey
website
to master corporate codes and raise their
ambitions and profiles.
 A set of enablers, that together help ease
women’s progress through the company.
These include indicators to identify inequalities
and track improvements, human resources
processes and policies, and support mecha-
nisms such as help with childcare.
Unique data
For our research, we first analyzed publically
available data from the 60 largest companies
in the Czech Republic in order to get a high-level
view of the gender diversity in their executive com-
mittees. Then, we approached 23 companies
representing eight different industries. Sixteen
of them belong to the 35 largest companies on
the Czech market. Our data collection work stream
consisted of two different questionnaires that were
addressed to each participating company:
 The qualitative questionnaire looked
at the companies’ diversity challenges
(e.g., failure to attract enough female candi-
dates), and the barriers their female employees
face (e.g., lack of flexibility options). In the sec-
ond part, structured according to the 41 meas-
ures of the gender diversity ecosystem,
the questionnaire looked at what practices

9
the companies had in place and the degree
of their implementation2
.
 The quantitative questionnaire provided
numbers on each participant’s key gender
diversity metrics at different stages/hierar
chical levels and in different business situations
(e.g., recruitment, mobility, talent pool, salaries).
These questionnaires and the follow-up struc-
tured interviews with heads of HR, business
psychologists, executive committee members,
and experts in the field of diversity provided us
with a sound fact base to analyze women’s repre-
sentation across management levels, the level of
implementation of the 41 measures, and the per-
ceived barriers facing women in their professional
careers.
We plotted the companies on a two-by-two matrix
based on the number of implemented measures
and women’s representation. We then chose the
upper right quadrant (most measures implement-
ed and, simultaneously, a high women’s
2 We asked the participants in our survey to rate the
effectiveness of the various gender-diversity initiatives
in place at their companies in terms of how broadly they
were applied across the organization, how carefully they
were monitored, and how well communicated they were.
For example, the management may be committed to
the topic of gender diversity, but took no specific action
to foster it, or foster commitment with specific actions
and communicate on the results achieved. Similarly,
remote working arrangements may be formally in place but
nobody uses them, or they may be in place and used by
a majority of employees, which makes them a natural part
of the company’s culture.
representation) as the role models for the Czech
Republic from which other companies can learn
the relevant lessons for unlocking the potential
of women in Czech business.
Unique insights
This report combines international best practice
with the actions which have been seen to work by
the biggest companies from across industries in
the Czech Republic. As a result, the future direc-
tions proposed in this report are compatible with
Czech culture and its business environment.
However, we have gone beyond a static descrip-
tion of the directions proposed in this report. In
tailored discussions with participants, we have
not only reviewed their data, but also discussed
examples from companies that are facing chal-
lenges similar to theirs, and have suggested
specific actions that they can take in each of their
situations.

Unexploited potential in Czech
business
Women are an underutilized pool of talent despite
the demonstrated correlation3
between the pro-
portion of women in management teams and how
well companies perform. One possible explana-
tion of this performance effect lies in the different
and complementary perspectives and leadership
styles that women bring. Moreover, women help
companies build greater competitive advantage
by understanding female consumers.
3 But not causality
An underutilized pool of talent
Only 56 percent of Czech women participate in
the economy, putting the country in the bottom
quartile of 25 European countries. The world’s
strongest economies with double the Czech
GDP per capita have women’s employment rates
which are at least 10 percentage points higher
(Exhibit 1).
Going forward, women’s participation will be even
more important. Due to the aging of the popula-
tion, the workforce in the Czech Republic is likely
to shrink by 550 thousand by 2040. Closing the
gap would require bringing women’s employment
7271706969
67666665
636362616160
575656
53535251
48
73%
46%
Norway
Switzerland
Denmark
Sweden
Netherlands
Canada
Finland
Austria
Germany
UnitedKingdom
RussianFederation
Slovenia
UnitedStates
Portugal
Estonia
France
Belgium
Ireland
CzechRepublic
Poland
Spain
SlovakRepublic
Hungary
Greece
Italy
Bottom quartile
Average GDP per capita2
USD 21,618
Top quartile
Average GDP per capita
USD 56,262
Exhibit 1
The Czech Republic lags behind EU countries in terms of women’s employment1
in the active
workforce, 2010
1 Share of economically active women in the total female population aged 15–64
2 Nominal GDP
Source: OECD; The Economist Intelligence Unit; McKinsey analysis

13
to the same level as men. However, increasing
women’s employment rate to the level of Finland
alone would narrow the gap significantly
(Exhibit 2).
Improving performance
The results of two McKinsey studies which dem-
onstrate a correlation between greater gender
diversity and better performance represent
another argument as to why we believe that
diversity is a performance lever.
This first study focused on women’s role
in improving organizational performance.
The authors used OHI, a McKinsey propri-
etary diagnostic tool, which measures the
organizational health of a company against nine
criteria: leadership, direction, accountability,
coordination and control, innovation, external
orientation, capabilities, motivation, work envi-
ronment and values.
The authors selected 101 companies that publish
the gender composition of their governing bod-
ies — mainly large corporations in Europe, North
America and Asia — and analyzed the responses
of their staff to the diagnostic survey. This data
includes responses from over 50,000 people
and covers a broad spectrum of industries, from
energy and distribution, to finance. The authors
discovered that companies with three or more
women in senior management roles scored
higher, on average, for each organizational crite-
rion than companies with no women at the top.
Furthermore, the companies ranked the highest
according to these organizational criteria tended
to perform better financially, with operating
margins twice as high as those of lower-ranked
businesses.
It is notable that organizational performance
increases sharply once a certain threshold
is reached: namely, at least three women in
management committees with an average
membership of 10 people. Below this threshold,
5.2
5.0
4.8
4.6
4.4
0
-550,000
-150,000
Full scenario2
Finland scenario3
Status quo4
2010 204038363430282624222018161412 32
Exhibit 2
Increasing women’s employment in the active workforce1
can help address the demographic
challenge
Million
1 Total population aged 15–64 years multiplied by employment rate
2 Estimate based on the employment rate of men in 2010 in the Czech Republic — 74%, with a gradual increase assuming
convergence by 2036
3 Estimate based on the employment rate of women in Finland — 67%, with a gradual increase assuming convergence by 2036
4 Estimate based on the employment rate of women in 2010 in the Czech Republic — 56%
Source: CSU; OECD; McKinsey analysis

we observed no significant difference in organi-
zational performance. One hypothesis is that the
one or two women in a committee may be isolated
or marginalized; when there are three or more
female representatives, they may participate more
actively in discussions and decisions.
The second study identified women’s contribu-
tion to increased financial performance. In it,
the authors identified, industry by industry, the
top-quartile companies in terms of the proportion
of women in executive committees. In each sec-
tor, they then compared the financial performance
of this top-quartile group with companies with all-
male executive committees. Companies with the
highest proportion of women outperform compa-
nies with no women. In terms of return on equity,
the top-quartile group exceeds by 41 percent
the group with no women (22 vs. 15 percent),
and in terms of operating results (i.e., EBIT
margin), the more gender-diverse companies
exceed by 56 percent the group with no women
(17 vs. 11 percent).
This statistically significant difference indicates
that companies with a higher proportion of
women in their executive committees are also
the companies that have the best performance.
While this link does not demonstrate causality,
it does provide a strong factual basis to continue
to argue in favor of greater gender diversity in cor-
porate top management.
What could explain such a positive performance
gap? The authors found part of the answer resting
with the way women exercise leadership. They
identified nine leadership behaviors which have
a positiveimpactontheorganizationalperformance
Exhibit 3
OHI’s 9 drivers of organizational health
Source: McKinsey proprietary tool
Direction
Articulate where the company is
headed and how to get there, and
align people around the vision
Coordination and control
Measure and evaluate business
performance and risk
Accountability
Design structure/reporting relation-
ships and evaluate individual per-
formance to ensure that people are
accountable and take responsibility
for business resultsExternal orientation
Engage in constant two-way
interactions with customers,
suppliers, partners or other external
groups to drive value
Leadership
Ensure that leaders shape and
inspire the actions of other
organizational members to drive
better performance
Innovation
Generate a flow of ideas and
change so that the company can
sustain itself, survive and/or grow
over time
Capability
Ensure that the requisite institutional
skills and talent exist to support
the company’s strategy and create
competitive advantage
Motivation
Inspire and encourage employees
to perform and stay with the
company
Environment and values
Shape the quality of employee
interactions (e.g., norms,
workspace design) and foster
a shared understanding of core
values

15
Exhibit 4
Companies with 3 or more women in their executive committees have better results
on the 9 dimensions of organizational health
Differences in OHI scores1
1 Analysis conducted on a sample of 101 Worldwide companies, 58,240 employees surveyed
Source: McKinsey’s Women Matter 2007
11%
17%
+56%
15%
22%
+41%
Average return on equity, 2007–2009 Average EBIT margin, 2007–2009
Companies in the top quartile for women’s representation in executive committees
Companies with 0 women in their executive committees
Exhibit 5
Companies with a higher proportion of women in their executive committees have better financial
performance
Scope: 6 European countries (UK, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Norway) and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India
and China)
Direction
Coordination and controlAccountability
External orientation Leadership Innovation
Capability Motivation
Environment and values
+6 pts
+1 pts +5 pts
+4 pts
+7 pts
+3 pts
+1 pts +1 pts
+3 pts

dimensions (Exhibit 6). Statistical studies show
that women apply five leadership behaviors (peo-
ple development, expectations and rewards, role
model, inspiration, participative decision making)
more frequently than men, especially the first
three. Men apply two behaviors more than their
female colleagues (control and corrective action,
and individualistic decision making). There are no
significant differences between men and women
regarding the last two behaviors.
Understanding purchasing decision
makers
McKinsey analysis shows that in the Czech
Republic, women account for 63 percent of
consumer purchasing deciding on spending
of CZK 9 billion more per week than men. This
trend is obvious in the whole Central and Eastern
European region, and the difference is even
greater in Western Europe and the US.
Furthermore, trends from abroad show that
women are also becoming important influencers
in industries where buyers are traditionally male.
In the US4
, women are the key decision-makers
4 Tom Peters: Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive
Age, Publisher: DK Publishing, 1st edition October 6, 2003
in purchases concerning consumer electron-
ics (51 percent), new bank accounts (89 per-
cent), home furnishings (94 percent), and other
categories. Understanding female consumers
could therefore help companies build greater
competitive advantage. While we do not have
similar data for the Czech Republic as companies
there generally do not measure it, a similar trend
can be discerned. For example, a beer producer
in the Czech Republic realized that female cus-
tomers accounted for a significant proportion
of their sales in stores (to be consumed by men).
In order to change from a production company
to a consumer-oriented one, they strengthened
their group of female managers so that the
“female element” was reflected as early as dur-
ing the development of new products.

17
Exhibit 6
On average, women use 5 of 9 leadership behaviors more frequently than men
Women apply
more
People development — spending time teaching, mentoring and listening to
individual needs and concerns
Expectations and rewards — defining expectations and responsibilities clearly
and rewarding achievement of targets
Role model — being a role model, focusing on building respect and considering
the ethical consequences of decisions
Women apply
slightly more
Inspiration — presenting a compelling vision of the future and inspiring optimism
about its implementation
Participative decision making — building a team atmosphere in which everyone
is encouraged to participate in decision making
Women and men
apply equally
Intellectual stimulation — challenging assumptions and encouraging risk taking
and creativity
Efficient communication — communicating in a convincing way and with
charisma
Men apply more
Individualistic decision making — preferring to make decisions alone and
engaging others in executing them
Control and corrective action — monitoring individual performance, including
errors and gaps against objectives, and taking corrective action when needed
(sanctions, realignment)
Leadership behaviors

Women’s representation in
executive committees and
management teams
Women are significantly underrepresented in
executive committees of the 60 largest compa-
nies5
in the Czech Republic. Our detailed survey
and interviews with 23 leading companies con-
clude that women are underrepresented across
management levels and their underrepresentation
increases with the level of seniority.
5 By revenue
Women are underrepresented in execu-
tive committees and management teams
in the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic has very few women in
top management. Women accounted for only
4 percent of executive committee members
in the 60 companies with the largest revenues
in 2010 that we looked at. This is even less than
Brazil (6 percent), France (7 percent), China
(8 percent) or Russia (11 percent), and markedly
less than the US and the UK (14 percent in both)
(Exhibit 7). Out of the 60 companies’ 279 execu-
tive committee members, only 12 were women
India 2%
Germany 2%
Czech Republic 4%
Brazil 6%
Spain 6%
France 7%
China 8%
Russia 11%
Norway 12%
US 14%
UK 14%
Sweden 17%
Exhibit 7
Among the largest companies in the Czech Republic women account for 4 % of executive
committee members
Source: McKinsey proprietary database (analysis based on the annual reports of companies listed on the country’s main index);
50 largest non-financial companies by revenue, 5 largest banks by assets, and 5 largest insurers by GPW in the Czech
Republic, 2010

21
3
1
3
1
1
1
8
9
7
6Other1
Operations
Sales
Finance
HR
0
Marketing
0
Number of women in top management teams
Represented
Not represented
Exhibit 8
In the Czech Republic, women typically have top management positions which are not
represented on the executive committee
1 Other includes IT and Production
Source: 50 largest non-financial companies by revenue, 5 largest banks by assets, and 5 largest insurers by GPW in the Czech
Republic, 2010; McKinsey analysis
51%
35%
25%
17%
17%
Total company
CEO-3
CEO-2
CEO-1
CEO
Odds of advancement for
men over those for women
…
1.9×
1.6×
1.6×
1×
Exhibit 9
In our survey, women were underrepresented across all management levels
Source: McKinsey’s Women Matter 2012 survey of 23 companies in the Czech Republic

in 2010. Moreover, five female executive commit-
tee members out of this total were concentrated
in only two companies, as most corporations in
the Czech Republic (51 out of the 60 companies
we looked at) have no women in their executive
committees at all. Only two of the 60 CEOs were
women.
The disproportionate spread of female executive
committee members is driven by a few compa-
nies having very good overall gender diversity,
rather than by industry specifics. Even industries
with traditionally very good natural openings for
women, like banking or consumer goods, have
zero or marginal representation of women in their
executive committees. However, this situation
corresponds to most European economies.
Going below the upper levels of companies’
management, we drilled down with a survey and
detailed interviews with 23 companies — the larg-
est by revenue or the leaders in their industries.
Women are increasingly outnumbered
as they rise through the ranks
Interestingly, the 23 companies in our detailed
survey had a relatively high share of women
overall to start with. Indeed, women accounted
for 51 percent of the companies’ total workforce,
compared to 40 percent in the EU. A closer
look revealed a structural discontinuity: certain
industries, particularly banking and insurance,
which accounted for 43 percent of our sample,
had a women’s representation level of 71 per-
cent. The rest of the industries averaged a mere
37 percent.
Regardless of this, our survey has shown that
women’s representation decreases with the level
of seniority. While women account for 51 percent
of all employees, their share drops to 35 percent
among CEO-3 managers, 25 percent for CEO-2
positions, and a mere 17 percent at CEO-16
.
Moreover, we have not observed any significant
improvement over time (Exhibit 9).
We may assume that the results of this detailed
survey are positively biased, especially at
the CEO level (there are two female CEOs
in the 60-company sample, and four CEOs
in the detailed survey of 23 companies), given
the companies’ voluntary participation in the
survey. As a result, a larger-scale survey would be
likely to show even smaller women’s representa-
tion at the lower levels of companies.
Women accounted for 36 percent of employees
in the surveyed companies’ talent pools. This is
a drop compared to overall women’s representa-
tion in the surveyed companies’ workforce. Talent
pools are their pipelines of future middle manag-
ers, and therefore should be closely watched by
companies.
6 The most senior persons in a given function (e.g., Chief
Financial Office, Chief Operations Officer) reporting directly
to the CEO. These CEO-1 positions can also have full
responsibility for a business unit/geography

We have grouped the companies in our sam-
ple into four quadrants according to women’s
representation in management, and the level of
implementation of measures promoting gender
diversity. For the purposes of this report, we use
the companies that have scored highly on both
axes simultaneously as the role models that other
companies can learn from. These companies
share certain commonalities.
The role models have identified the types
of barriers facing women
The role models have identified the types of bar-
riers facing women in life in general and in their
organizations in particular. Women generally
face three types of barriers. Most companies
in the Czech Republic had identified only lifestyle
challenges, such as lack of support structures in
terms of flexible working environments and taking
care of children, and concerns about the execu-
tive lifestyle. The role models are also aware of
structural challenges, such as a lack of informal
We have identified the practices
that companies in the Czech
Republic can employ in
order to improve women’s
representation
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Percent of women at CEO-1 and CEO-2
Number of key measures
Level of top mgt commitment (on a scale from 1-5, 5 being the highest)
Percentage of measures in place that are well implemented
2.1
65%
3.0
84%
1.7
47%
2.4
50%
Operating
with
a diversity
advantage
Limited
diversity
practices
Investing in
diversity but
no impact yet
Making
progress with
diversity
Exhibit 10
Role models are making progress with diversity through thorough implementation of concrete
measures

25
networks, role models and sponsors, and embed-
ded mindsets, such as cultural stereotypes.
Lifestyle issues
Even though the desire to strike a work-life
balance emerges for both men and women,
their ability to find sustainable solutions differs
considerably.
A detailed comparison shows that the Czech
Republic has the largest difference in the employ-
ment rates of childless women and women with
children7
(Exhibit 11). Some of them opt out and
never return to work, while others consider this
time a mere career break.
Those who want to return find it difficult as part-
time arrangements are not common. This is fur-
ther aggravated for mothers with children aged
7 Aged 0-6
less than 3 due to a lack of early day-care facili-
ties, whose number dropped significantly from
1,030 in 1990 to 47 in 20088
.
The Czech Republic has only 6 percent of the pop-
ulation working part-time. In this respect, the
Czech Republic lags behind, e.g., the Netherlands,
where half of the population and surprising
77 percent of females are part time employees.
(Exhibit 12).
Structural barriers
Unlike lifestyle barriers, these structural barriers
are independent of women having children or not.
In our global survey and interviews, as well as in
the Czech Republic, we found specific factors
that hold women back or that convince women
that their odds of advancement may be better
8 Source: The Institute of Health Information and Statistics
of the Czech Republic
Lithuania
6
Netherlands
5
Italy
4
Cyprus
3
Romania
3
Luxembourg
3
Portugal
2
Belgium
2%
Estonia
26
UK
21
Bulgaria
21
Germany
16
Ireland
16
Latvia
14
Malta
14
Austria
14
EU27
Poland
12
France
6
Greece
8
Spain
CzechRepublic
41%
9
33
Slovakia
33
12
+239%
Hungary
Exhibit 11
The Czech Republic has the largest difference in employment rates1
for childless women and
women with children aged 0–6, 2009
1 Age group 20–49 years
Source: Compendium of indicators for monitoring the Employment Guidelines and employment analysis; EU

elsewhere. Women in our survey cited familiar fac-
tors that they found discouraging: a lack of access
to informal networks where they can make impor-
tant connections, a lack of female role models
higher up in the organization, and a lack of spon-
sors to provide opportunities, which many male
colleagues have.
A marked gender divide can be identified in this
area. In Europe, a Catalyst-Conference Board
study9
showed that 61 percent of women saw
the lack of mentoring as a barrier to career
development, versus just 31 percent of men.
Furthermore, 70 percent of women cited a lack
of visibly successful senior female role models.
Meanwhile, women also find it harder to find
mentors than men: a survey of MBA graduates
showed that just 33 percent of the women inter-
viewed said that it was easy to find a mentor,
compared with 42 percent of men.
9 Women and the MBA: Gateway to opportunity, Catalyst
Research (2000)
Imbedded mindsets
The third type of barrier for women is imbedded
mindsets, which are insidious because they drive
behaviors. These mindsets can generally mani-
fest themselves at three levels: society, organiza-
tion, and the woman herself. Although they can be
hard to separate at times, in this report we will only
look at the latter two.
Respondents in our international, as well as
our Czech survey indicate that companies are
of the opinion that; flexible working arrange-
ments are not applicable to certain positions
(“You can’t be a manager on part-time.”); women
do not want, or are not made for, the job of top
manager (“There simply are not enough women
for such positions.”); hard managerial skills and
leadership behaviors are always more important
than the others (“When things get tough, you
need a tough person at the helm, and women
are not tough.”); there are enough women in
2
4
3
4
6
9
6
7
9
10
14
13
14
25
5
8
10
10
12
15
29
30
44
46
40
43
61
77
Males Females
27
4
6
6
8
11
15
18
25
26
26
35
49
6Czech Republic
Greece
Poland
Slovenia
Italy
France
Slovakia
Hungary
Austria
Germany
Sweden
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Netherlands
Exhibit 12
The Czech Republic has a very small percentage of the population working part-time, 2010
Source: Eurostat

27
management (“But we have women! Actually,
one woman, but that’s enough.”); and that
women are a threat (“But what would we do with
the men whose jobs would go to women?” or
“It works better without women; we have fewer
conflicts.”). Not-so-subtle differences linger,
even at major corporations; several HR offic-
ers and experts told us that despite their best
efforts, women are often evaluated for promo-
tions primarily on performance, while men are
often promoted on potential.
HR managers and diversity experts told us in our
interviews that the effect of women’s own mind-
sets cannot be discounted: it usually results in
a lack of self-confidence and assertiveness, and
a reluctance to step up. They suggested that many
women struggle in an environment that requires
women to be highly visible and assertive in order
to make their way to the top, because of a natural
tendency to downplay their own contribution and
to hesitate before pushing themselves forward.
As they said, “women think that everyone can see
the hard work they do, so they don’t have to com-
municate it,” “they often seem not to know what
they really want,” and “lack the support at home
for stepping up at work.”
The role models have thoroughly imple-
mented measures spread across the pil-
lars of the gender-diversity ecosystem
Understanding the barriers is, however, not
enough. While most companies in the Czech
Republic have managed to gain the commitment
of the CEO and apply measures mostly on HR pol-
icies, the role models have taken it a step further,
by thoroughly implementing a comprehensive set
of measures designed to address their specific
diversity challenges across the main pillars of
the gender-diversity ecosystem (Exhibit 13).
We have identified 41 possible measures that
companies can take in order to recruit, retain,
promote and develop women (Table 1). Most
Commitment
and culture
Collective enablers
Development
programs
Consistently enforced
by CEO and management
HR policiesIndicators Infrastructure
Mentoring
Networks and
role models
Training and
coaching
McKinsey’s international research has identified a systematic approach to building a successful
gender-diversity ecosystem
Exhibit 13

Commitment and culture
 Place on the group CEO’s strategic agenda
 CEO’s commitment
 CEO-1 commitment
 CEO-2 commitment
 Quantitative targets for women’s representation
in leadership positions
 Consistency of company culture with gender
diversity objectives
 Actions to increase men’s awareness of gender
diversity issues
Development programs
 Networking events/programs
 Leadership skill building programs
 Use of external coaches
 Mentoring programs with internal mentors
 Programs to increase proportion of potential
women leaders
Collective enablers
Indicators
 Gender representation overall and at certain
job levels
 Gender distribution at different stages
of the recruitment process
 Salary differences in equal positions
 Gender representation in promotion rounds
 Promotion rates by gender at different levels
of seniority
 Work satisfaction levels by gender
 Participation rates in training programs
by gender
 Participation rates in mobility programs
by gender
 Attrition rates by gender
Collective enablers
HR policies
 Processes that overcome gender biases
in appraisals
 Evaluation systems adapted so that flexible
working is not penalized
 Evaluation systems that recognize different
leadership styles
 Gender-targeted recruiting events
 Actions to improve the share of women
applying for and accepting positions
 Processes that overcome gender biases
in recruiting
 Internal targets for women in managerial
positions
 Processes to retain top performers who may
want to leave
 Logistical flexibility (for example, remote
working)
 Career flexibility (for example, leave of absence,
option to alternate periods of part-time and full-
time work)
 Policy to schedule meetings only during
business hours
 Program to smooth transition before, during,
and after maternity leave
 Guarantee to keep similar position when
returning from leave of absence
 Personalised career paths
Collective enablers
Infrastructure
 Office concierge service
 Office-sponsored home concierge service
 In-house or external childcare facilities
 Services for sick children (for example, nurse
in attendance at home)
 Mobility support (for example, finding schools
for children)
 Job search program for spouse or partner
There are 41 measures behind this approach
Table 1

29
companies take some sort of action because
61 percent of companies have fully implemented
¼–½ of the measures. Even if this topic is not on
the political agenda, most do something.
Our findings10
on the Czech market show
that companies tend to single out certain ele-
ments of the gender ecosystem. Child daycare
centers were quoted intuitively as the most
obvious — even if rarely implemented — lever to
address low women’s representation in business.
Most companies put the highest emphasis on HR
policies and processes (where they fully imple-
mented 43 percent of all the measures) and CEO
commitment11
(37 percent), and almost neglected
the other levers (only 12 percent in women-specif-
ic development programs, 9 percent in indicators,
and 7 percent in infrastructure).
 Commitment and culture. The CEO often lacks
support from management and the company
culture.
– On average, companies report that their
CEOs are committed. Sixty-one percent
of companies had gender diversity as
a top-10 priority of the CEO. We saw that
56 percent of CEOs were perceived by their
organization to be taking action to improve
gender diversity. However, this commitment
dwindles as one moves down in the organi-
zation. Only 31 percent of CEO-1 managers
and 26 percent of CEO-2 managers were
perceived as taking action.
– Only 26 percent of companies reported
consistency of the gender-diversity objective
with company culture. Forty-eight percent
of companies said that their culture was not
consistent.
 Development programs. Analysis of the
three key women-development programs
(i.e., networking, skill-building, and mentor-
10 Based on companies’ self assessment
11 Gender diversity as a top-3 or top-10 item on the CEO’s
agenda
ing) shows that most companies in the sample
(17 of the 23) have not implemented any devel-
opment program focused on women’s needs,
and only one company had fully implemented
all three. This is where the Czech Republic
most significantly lags behind Western Europe,
where more than half of the companies imple-
mented at least one program.
 Collective enablers. Companies in the Czech
Republic generally tend to focus on HR
policies and do very little on indicators and
infrastructure:
– Indicators. The lack of indicators suggests
a major problem as companies generally do
not have a good understanding of their spe-
cific diversity challenges. None could provide
a full data set (e.g., representation of women
in management and talent pools, promotion
rates or attrition rates of women vs. men).
More worrying still, only 15 out of the 23 com-
panies were able to provide us with the
number of women in CEO-1 to CEO-3 levels
over the previous three years.
– HR policies. This is the area with the high-
est percentage of levers fully implemented
in the Czech Republic. Most companies in
our survey (17 out of 23) used HR policies as
the main lever to influence gender diversity.
These levers included control over recruit-
ment and appraisal biases, and a process
to retain top performers who want to leave.
– Infrastructure. Companies in our survey tend
to reduce this lever to kindergartens or omit
this lever altogether. As a result, we have
observed almost no infrastructural initiatives
implemented.
In contrast to these general findings, the
role models in our survey have been able to:
(Exhibits 14–15)
 Identify the most pressing diversity challenge
facing them. Examples include an inability to
attract female talent, an inability to integrate

69%
50%
36%
63%
17%
29%
2%
38%
5%
HR policies
Indicators
Infrastructure
Collective
enablers
Commitment and culture
Development programs
Role models Other companies
2%
Exhibit 14
Role models have fully implemented measures across all levers of the gender-diversity
ecosystem
programs
Degree of implementationCategory
Other companies
Role models
Commitment
and culture
Indicators
Development
HR policies
Infrastructure
Examples of measures
Low High
CEO commitment
CEO-1 commitment
CEO-2 commitment
Networking
Leadership skill building
Mentoring programs
Gender representation, overall at certain job levels
Gender representation in promotion rounds
Attrition by gender
Evaluation systems that recognize different leadership styles
Logistical flexibility
Career flexibility
Personalized career paths
In-house or external childcare facilities
Exhibit 15
Role models implemented measures more thoroughly across all levers

31
mothers returning from maternity leave, and
an inability to work with and promote female
talent.
 Translate the CEO’s dedication and measures
into management dedication12
, implement at
least one of the three key women’s develop-
ment programs (60 percent have introduced
two measures, and 20 percent all three), meas-
ure their progress on gender representation
at very granular level with results discussed
at executive committee meetings, and imple-
ment flexible working conditions and personal-
ized career plans for women.
 Thoroughly implement their measures tailored
to their challenges. We asked the participants
in our survey to rate the effectiveness of the var-
ious gender-diversity initiatives in place at their
12 At lower management levels, however, action is rarer
(31 percent and 26 percent at CEO-1 and CEO-2,
respectively), and this statement holds true also for the role
models (80 percent and 40 percent, respectively). Similarly,
20 percent of the role models report only partial consi-
stency of their company culture with the gender-diversity
objectives.
companies in terms of how broadly they were
applied across the organization, how carefully
they were monitored, and how well they were com-
municated. For example, the management may be
committed to the topic of gender diversity, but it
takes no specific action to foster it, or foster com-
mitment with specific actions and communicate
on the results achieved. Similarly, remote work-
ing arrangements may be formally in place, but
nobody uses them, or they may be in place and
be used by a majority of employees, which makes
them a natural part of the company’s culture.

Future directions
Our work to understand corporate transforma-
tions, as well as our current gender research both
in the Czech Republic and at the European level
have allowed us to formulate three action themes
for companies that are serious about building
a successful gender-diversity ecosystem. First,
is visible CEO commitment to help make sure
gender diversity is a part of company strategy,
clearly communicated and visibly lived up to by
top management. Second, is an analytical under-
standing of women’s representation at every
level within the organization as well as an under-
standing of the attitudes and beliefs that block
women’s progress. This is important, both to
track progress, and as a precondition for the third
imperative: the tailoring of initiatives to address
the specific challenges that an individual organi-
zation has to overcome.
Make senior management commitment
more visible
Companies are in no doubt as to the importance
of CEO commitment. But CEO intent alone will not
suffice. The CEO needs to convince others of the
need for change to help make sure gender diver-
sity objectives are not the concern of top manage-
ment alone, but are embraced throughout the
organization. To flag their commitment, leaders
should:
 Make a compelling business case for why gen-
der diversity is important. The need to hire and
retain the best can be reason enough, but there
are others. One company in our survey felt it
needed more women to sustain better client
relationships, given the number of women in
the organizations it served. Another felt that
although its product was mainly consumed by
men, women often made the buying decisions,
so more women employees would deliver
better consumer insights. A third saw gender-
diversity as key to its reputation as an employer.
 Lead by example. Most companies we spoke
to felt momentum for change took hold when
the management’s support for women was
made visible. This should take place on two
levels:
– Executive committee. This transformation
cannot be driven by HR. For example, have
each board member define his/her own
quantified objectives and action plan on
gender diversity. A major beverage producer
in the Czech Republic let high-potential
women play a role in strategic projects with
hands-on support from the top management
in order to give them visibility and help them
succeed. Each board member could also act
as a mentor to high-potential female talents
(for examples, see the women’s development
programs below).
– Middle managers. Build belief in the busi-
ness priority of diversity amongst middle
managers. In our research, middle manag-
ers were much less committed than the top
management. For example, top managers
can signal the importance of diversity to mid-
dle management in the way they commit their
time, and in the conversations they have with
middle managers on the topic.

35
Know where the obstacles lie
Companies that begin with a robust, fact-
based understanding of their starting point are
2.4 times13
more likely to successfully transform
their companies than those that are less well
prepared. It helps them to detect the obstacles
they need to tackle, to set realistic but challenging
goals, and to track progress. Companies need
to be well-informed on two fronts: numbers and
mindsets:
 Numbers are critical if you want to understand
your diversity challenge. Women drop out
of the career pipeline for different reasons
13 What successful transformations share: McKinsey Global
Survey results, https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/
What_successful_transformations_share_McKinsey
_Global_Survey_results_2550
at different stages. Knowing the numbers is
an essential starting point. Exhibit 16 shows
the potential areas for a company to look into
and respective questions for it to ask to identify
its specific challenge through numbers.
 Mindsets are often an important root cause
of the challenge. We know that transforma-
tions which address underlying mindsets are
four times more likely to succeed14
. Companies
should, therefore, run diagnostic interviews
with managers across management levels to
identify mindsets that are rarely acknowledged.
A sufficient level of detail is critical. For example,
when a bank started to measure promotion
14 What successful transformations share: McKinsey Global
Survey results, https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/
What_successful_transformations_share_McKinsey
_Global_Survey_results_2550
Understanding the root cause is critical
Exhibit 16
Source: McKinsey
Departures
Areas to look into Questions to ask
Internal
promotion
External
recruiting
 Why did each of these talented women leave?
 Could these departures have been prevented? How?
 What were the capability gaps?
 What could have made these women more successful?
 Is our pipeline sufficiently robust to support our aspirations?
 Why aren’t more women in the talent pool?
 Is our talent pool a good source of promotions?
 Do our head hunters deliver high-caliber women candidates?
 Are we attracting high-quality women applicants?
 Could the role be made more attractive for those seeking flexibility?
 Are our recruiting processes unbiased?
 Are we looking at our role requirements flexibly (e.g., broad
interpretations of experience)?
 Is our employee value proposition sufficiently compelling
for women?
Unwanted
Managed
Number of women next
level down
Percentage in the talent
pool
Percentage promoted
from the talent pool
Number of women
candidates presented
Percentage of women
candidates offered roles
Percentage of women
accepting offers

rates for men and women, they discovered
that women were promoted four times less
frequently than men. This was driven by man-
agers’ unconsciously preferring leadership
behaviors similar to their own.
Target a set of initiatives at the particular
challenges your company faces
Knowing the numbers and prevailing mindsets will
help companies understand just where they need
to focus their efforts. While companies may face
challenges on multiple fronts, they should choose
just one to start with.
For the challenge they select, they should set con-
crete, measurable, and aspirational targets. It is
critical to understand the role of targets in trans-
formations.
 Contrary to general belief, such targets do not
necessarily need to take the form of a fixed pro-
portion of women, e.g., women shall account
for x percent of managers15
, and may be set at
different levels. Examples of targets that have
worked for companies in the Czech Republic
include a “+1” target set by a telecommunica-
tion company. Every manager should add
one woman to his/her team in the next year.
A media company searching for candidates
for senior management roles communicated
new expectations to its head hunters, including
a policy that shortlists for senior management
roles must include at least one woman of suf-
ficient quality/suitability to be recommended for
interview. If such a candidate is not presented,
a written explanation is required each time.
 For companies reluctant to implement targets,
perhaps a regular report on progress and
an explanation in the absence of any, can be
an option.
15 It would be a mistake to think that adding women to teams
would, by itself, result in increased performance. Instead,
targets should be understood as being part of a reinforcing
mechanism in creating a corporate culture that will
encourage diversity.
Thereafter, they should define and implement
a set of initiatives across the genderdiversity
ecosystem that best fit their needs:
 Ensure management commitment, as
discussed in the section; Making senior
management commitment more visible.
 Run women development programs. These
programs help companies transform their
female talent into successful middle and senior
managers. Indeed, we continue to see that
women’s development programs appear to
have a strong impact on results and are often
under the radar. Key pillars of such programs
include:
– Tailored mentoring and sponsorship pro-
grams (i.e., allowing women to obtain advice
and development opportunities from senior
managers). While many companies in the
Czech Republic demonstrably use mentoring,
we did not see any that had a sponsorship
program. Yet mentoring (empowering) is
only a pre-requisite to sponsorship (creating
opportunities). That sponsorship programs
have been successfully implemented abroad
is demonstrated by the example of an invest-
ment bank. Here, women were less frequently
promoted simply because they lacked strong
advocates. The bank put in place a formal
sponsorship program whereby sponsors
were required to provide coaching focused
on impact, profile and platform. Feedback
was then sought from sponsors regarding
candidates’ responsiveness to feedback and
their suitability for promotion. This sponsor-
ship program provided exposure for lead-
ers to women that they might not have had
otherwise.
– Women leadership skill-building programs.
For example, a telecommunication company
put in place a program for women returning
from maternity leave not only to refresh tech-
nical skills but also to build self-confidence.

37
– Networking programs. These programs cre-
ate conditions for women to interact with their
peers — female role models and male senior
managers. For example, a professional serv-
ices firm designed a networking program to
create a women’s community. The members
meet four times a year in an informal set-
ting to discuss professional challenges and
improvements to working conditions in the
firm, share best practices, and listen to role
models from the firm and outside. Some of
the meetings are attended by the firm’s CEO.
– Initiatives to increase the share of women
in the talent pool (e.g., a program to remove
entrance barriers to a talent pool, such as
an age criterion, or to motivate managers
to encourage women’s willingness to join
a talent pool). For example, a major Czech
bank found that their female talent often
dropped off their radar screen as the women
were leaving for maternity leave. By keeping
the women on their list of talent (i.e., inviting
them to training programs, events, etc.) they
managed to increase the rate of high-poten-
tial women returning to the bank. In another
example, an automotive company increased
the number of women in their talent pool by
simply setting an aspirational target.
Companies that have increased women’s
representation in management teams have
implemented a number of such programs
simultaneously. Table 2 shows an example
of a comprehensive women’s development
program in a bank.
 Employ collective enablers. Collective enablers
comprise HR policies, indicators, and infra-
structure:
– HR policies include policies providing for
gender-neutral and performance-focused
appraisal systems; recruitment, promotion
and retention, flexibility, and personalized
career paths for potential female leaders:
Appraisal systems. In appraisal systems,
it is critical to ensure control over gender
appraisal biases and to adapt the system
to different flexibility choices and leader-
ship styles. The best way to start is by
raising awareness about potential biases.
These include looking for similarities (evalu-
ators may subconsciously look for and pre-
fer similarities between their own and the
evaluee’s leadership styles, i.e., potentially
disregarding some of the evaluee’s quali-
ties), giving preference to full-time evaluees
(evaluators may tend to underestimate
evaluees with part-time arrangements and/
or working from home), and disregard-
ing women’s potential because of pos-
sible future maternity (evaluators may be
tempted not to invest in evaluees whom
they think are likely to go on maternity leave
in the future). For example, a technology
company made managers explain their
employees’ evaluations during evalua-
tion committees as a way of suppressing
biases. Similarly, in promotion discussions,
managers were required to provide expla-
nations for decisions to promote as well as
not to promote.
Recruitment. Recruitment is especially
critical for companies which do not natu-
rally attract women (e.g., energy and tech-
nology companies). These companies
should typically adjust their employee
value proposition. This means tailoring
their recruitment messages and job and
industry relevance to suit women, and
also using appropriate communication
channels (e.g., social media targeting
female university graduates, magazines
for women on maternity leave, etc.). For
example, a technology company devel-
oped a women-focused employee value
proposition “Connecting women with real
opportunities” by building on an existing
employment brand and by focusing on
female role models at all levels of the busi-
ness, on individual stories and on support
for flexibility and work-life balance.

Flexibility. There is a significant gap
between the implementation of flexibility
measures in companies in the Czech
Republic and abroad. Although some
companies offer flexible working pro-
grams, working less than full time is still
often seen as a risky career move that
can deter women from making it. Using
an international example, a technology
company has worked over the last decade
to foster a culture where remote-working
flexibility is viewed as a positive work
choice with individual, team, organization
and client benefits. To this end, it highlights
successful role models, and provides
education, tools and support for employ-
ees who wish to consider a flexible work
arrangement, as well as for managers.
It also monitors flexible work arrange-
ments for impact (there’s a clear process
for the application and reviewal of flexible
work arrangements and regular reviews
are recommended to ensure the arrange-
ment is working). Last but not least, the
company has invested in hardware, soft-
ware and collaborative tools and resources
to support remote-working flexibility, with
the focus being on results rather than time
spent in the office.
Personalized career plans. Anticipating
women’s career needs and planning for
them can encourage women to return
to work after maternity leave or take on
A case example of a women’s development program at an international bank
Leadership modules focused on women
Accelerated development program for high-potential
women with the objective of accelerating their careers
before they have children. Women in higher positions
tend to return earlier from maternity leave and are less
likely to opt out
 Allowed high-potential women to play a role in
strategic projects with visibility and the support
of top management
 Developed curriculum focused on confidence and
communication
 Provided coaching focused on achieving specific
personal or professional results
Personalized career paths
The objective was to define personalized career paths
(e.g., having line role, after maternity switching to
project role and then back to line) and provide support
in realizing career goals
 Defining overall career ambition and aligning it
to personal needs
 High potential women on maternity leave stayed
in the talent pool and on succession plan lists
Mentoring high-potential women
Provided mentoring opportunities with executive
committee members or the level below
Later added 2 more elements
 “Shadowing” — provided a mentor from a different
division whom the mentee could “shadow” over
period of time to learn more about that division
which could help with cross-functional moves
 Provided mentoring opportunities with well-known
women leaders from outside the bank
Metrics monitoring
HR regularly collected feedback from women
and managers and closely monitored metrics
(e.g., promotion rates)
Table 2

39
the challenge of a promotion. The aim is
to make the most of a woman’s talent at
every stage of her career, be it when she is
working full or part time, when on maternity
leave or newly returned, or when she is
more, or less able to travel. For example,
a telecommunication company has a com-
prehensive program for high-potential
mothers. High-potential women who origi-
nally had a line manager’s responsibilities
are usually assigned to project work upon
returning from maternity leave so they can
better balance work and life, and become
line managers again when the next suitable
opening appears. This way, the company
has a list of high-potential women which
is the first source of candidates for new
line management openings. In another
example, a bank motivates high-potential
women to return early (when their child is
between 6 months and 3 years of the age)
by offering higher compensation, as it
knows from experience that earlier return-
ers tend to be more successful later in their
careers. However, a personalized career
plan is critical in such cases.
– Indicators have a two-fold role: they can be
usedtodiagnosesituations,asmentionedpre-
viously, but also to measure progress made.
– A lack of infrastructure supporting private life
is often a major obstacle to women’s progress
at work. To compensate for the lack of day-
care facilities in the Czech Republic, several
banks have established their own nurseries/
kindergartens, and pay a contribution to work-
ing mothers to alleviate the burden of the cost
of private day-care centers, and/or hired third
parties to provide emergency nursing to senior
female managers with children.
Conclusion
In our conversations with CEOs in the Czech
Republic, we often hear about the scarcity of tal-
ent. As women represent half of the available talent
pool, companies should ensure that the very best
minds, male and female, are brought together.
Both Czech and international research clearly
shows that such a change cannot be achieved
with individual initiatives — the change calls for
a systematic approach. We sincerely hope we
have demonstrated that the payoff will be well
worth the effort.

Acknowledgements
This report could not have been compiled without the assistance of the management of the 23 firms
which took part in our research. We would like to thank them for their cooperation.
We would, similarly, like to thank the heads of the Human Resources departments, the company
psychologists, the members of boards and the diversity experts for the consultations they provided.
We would also like to thank Andrea Mele from the Odyssey mentoring program and Muriel Anton from
Vodafone, who generously gave us the opportunity to present the initial results of our research at our
joint conference in October 2011.

Tomáš Víšek
Partner and Managing Director
McKinsey Company
Na Rybníčku 5
120 00 Praha 2
tomas_visek@mckinsey.com
Radka Dohnalová
Consultant
McKinsey Company
Na Rybníčku 5
120 00 Praha 2
radka_dohnalova@mckinsey.com
This English version is a translation from the Czech original. As such, certain minor differences
and discrepancies might exist.
All rights reserved. Copyright 2012 by McKinsey Company, Inc. This publication is copyrighted material in its entirety. Any use of
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conset of McKinsey Company, Inc. This especially applies to reporoductions, translations, transfer to microfilm, and storage and
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unlocking the full potential of women in Czech business

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