By Mrs. Danny Leinders

Senior Client Partner, Korn Ferry

WHILE the ambition of Vision 2030 to open new paths for more women to enter the workforce can contribute significantly to Saudi Arabia’s economic development and diversification agenda, the nation has a unique opportunity to take its strategy a step further and ultimately leapfrog others in the region and around the world as a true champion of women in the workplace.

Vision 2030 has a specific objective to increase female participation in the workforce from 22% today to 30% in all sectors by 2030. While that number is below the global average of 49% reported by The World Bank, great progress is being made every day.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Development recently reported updated numbers of 600,000 Saudi women working for the private sector, with 30,000 new entries last September and October alone. The government is opening new doors for women to enter the private sector workforce seemingly every day. For the first time, women can now take on positions at border crossings, work as prosecutors, join the military and open their own businesses without consent of a guardian or male relative.

Bold moves, indeed. The question, though: is that reaching high enough, particularly for a government with such ambitious economic development plans (see Neom as a prime example)? The fundamental goal should be to enable more women to get into the C-suite and diversify their functional areas of expertise, expanding beyond the already strong female talent pool of heads of marketing, communications and human resources roles. The ambition should be to enable female to become future business unit CEOs.

There are two realities we must address as we build the KSA workforce to prepare for the economy of the future. Preparing women not just to enter the workforce, but creating a pathway for them to reach the upper echelon of boardrooms, can help address both.

Firstly, women can and are already participating in decision making at the C-suite. Saudi Arabia’s Lubna Olayan, who runs Saudi conglomerate the Olayan Group, tops the Forbes Middle East Most Powerful Arab Business Women 2017 list. Saudi Arabia also took the lead in high-level appoints of women in the banking sector, with senior female executives making the list from organizations such as Samba Financial Group, which has the first women heading a commercial bank in the Kingdom, Arab National Bank and NCB Capital, whose CEO, Sarah Al Suhaimi, was appointed as chair of Tadawul, the national stock market.

The fact is there is plenty of research that shows female-led businesses deliver greater shareholder value than those led by men. But there remains a long-held societal imbalance that is well past its time and unnecessarily limits the impact some of our greatest potential leaders can have on economic growth. The fact that in 2017 only 6% of Fortune 500 companies had women in the top job is evidence of that imbalance.

Secondly, there’s a major talent gap on the horizon, according to soon-to-be-released research from Korn Ferry on the Future of Work that projects talent needs and shortfalls in markets around the world up to 2030. Saudi Arabia doesn’t have enough people with the right skills to sustain its ambition and economic growth. The development of complete new industries such as defense manufacturing and the proliferation of advanced technology, coupled with the drive behind the National Digitation Unit to make the Kingdom the new tech hub of the modern Arab world, is game changing for both the level of talent and skill sets needed today as well as how to prepare the next generation of leaders.

Tackling this talent gap will require continued changes in the national education system that are currently underway with an increased focus on STEM education. In the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS), a global ranking taking place every four years, Saudi students ranked in the lowest 10th percentile in both mathematics and science.

That presents a real challenge for sustained economic diversification in a country where half the population will be under 25 by 2030. While KAUST has achieved global recognition for science and engineering leadership, new reports are that the Kingdom is open to the idea of foreign branch campuses entering the country. Coupling a greater focus on STEM education with those new market entries and encouraging women to enter STEM studies could help set a path for a new generation of female executives.

Korn Ferry found a direct correlation of STEM education and the success of women in business, with a specific link to women rising up to the CEO level. In a new research report on women who have already succeeded at becoming CEOs, “Women CEOs Speak: Strategies for the Next Generation of Female Executives and How Companies Can Pave the Road”, Korn Ferry found that more than 40% started out with college degrees in science, engineering, or math—twice as many as those with a background in the arts and humanities or business and finance.

Entering the business world with a background and expertise in STEM-related areas also creates a better pathway to the CEO seat. The road to the top requires experience running a business unit and managing a P&L besides functional expertise.

We have an opportunity to use International Women’s Day to send a powerful message to young professionals that the C-Suite in Saudi Arabia is open to all. May the best talent win. That’s an important message to send. Another interesting finding from “Women CEOs Speak” was that the majority of female CEOs studied gave no thought to being CEO until someone explicitly told them they had it in them. Only 5 CEOs studied actually identified becoming CEO as a personal goal.

The government should be applauded for encouraging and inspiring young female professionals to set their sights high from the start. The private sector needs to continue to step up to open more doors for women to take on leadership roles and give them the mentorship at every stop along the way to enable them to reach their full potential. Then we can truly achieve the ambitions of Vision 2030 and help ensure we have a strong, growing and diversified economy that supports the nation’s people for generations to come.