More women accountants with short CVs please

What do you have to do to succeed in business? You may get some idea if you keep an eye on the 2008 edition of The Power 100, which is being published by The Times over the course of this week. As it happens, it is a survey I have been involved with for five years now, and although everyone could - and should - argue about what makes a good business leader, I would make three key observations.

1. A long CV ain't necessarily a strong one. It is a fallacy to assume that you need to hop and skip between employers to get on. Some of the biggest talents - although not neccessarily the best known names - prove their worth at a single company or firm. Previous winners such as Sir Robert Wilson, of Rio Tinto fame; Sir Tom McKillop of AstraZeneca, and John Buchanan of BP, did.  This year's winner, to be revealed on Friday, is of a similar ilk. It does no harm to progress to different jobs within the same firm. And the biggest talents often go on to collect a bunch of lucrative non-executive directorships towards the end of their careers. Loyalty, however, has a big role to play. 

2. Bean counters are the business. If you want to maximise your chances of commercial success, get yourself certified - or, at the very least, ensure that you are comfortable with figures. It is not enough to be an accountant. The big talents are imaginative, inspirational, hard working, sociable, and responsible. But you do need to know how to translate all these things into numbers, and you cannot afford to be blinded by the mathematical science, spurious or otherwise, used by those around you.   

3. There are woefully inadequate numbers of women at the top of British business. Perhaps this is because they fulfill the vital roles below the top or hide themselves away. While we have worked hard to ensure that The Power 100 is not just a list of the media-savvy usual suspects, it is possible that women are more content to do, rather than be seen to do. But still, British business would benefit enormously if the fairer sex took greater control of more of the levers of power.