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Progress towards gender parity in mid-market firms is moving in the right direction – but not quickly enough. For 21 years, we’ve tracked the ratio of women occupying senior management roles in mid-market firms around the world. In the last five years, we’ve seen sustained growth on this key measure, but the rate of change is still too slow.

For 17 years, Grant Thornton has been tracking the global progress of women in senior management. In the last 12 months, unprecedented events have had an unforeseen and unparalleled impact on that progress.

Over the last 12 months, our women in business research has drilled down into the gender diversity stats of mid-market organisations around the world, looking at how the numbers are changing, and most importantly, what businesses are doing to make them change.

What a trade war means for Asia Pacific businesses

Our 2019 Women in business report: building a blueprint for action shows that progress is being made towards gender parity at the senior management level. The last 12 months have seen increases in both the proportion of senior roles held by women and the proportion of businesses with at least one woman in senior management.

South East Asia is a bright spot in the global economy. The outlook for the region is sustained, healthy growth of more than 5% per year between now and 2022.(i) Against this backdrop, business sentiment has hit a new high. We explore what is driving this positivity and find that infrastructure emerges as a source of real opportunity for ASEAN firms in the coming years. At the same time, however, concerns over climate change loom large. Greater cooperation will be key to overcoming these environmental risks.

Given the slowing rate of economic growth, businesses across Asia Pacific (APAC) region have an appetite for automation. In this article we explore where that support is strongest, and why. We find that amid the rich opportunities, risks are present in the automation revolution. Businesses and policymakers should confront these challenges now, to avoid hampering future growth prospects.

Asia Pacific (APAC) is a region in flux. In 2018, businesses must contend with numerous challenges, not limited to environmental risks and an ageing population. But with disruption comes great opportunity.

Businesses globally have taken one step forward but one step back on women in leadership. Significantly more businesses (75% in 2018 v 66% in 2017) now have at least one woman on the senior management team, but the proportion of the team that is female has slipped from 25% to 24%, according to Grant Thornton International Ltd.’s annual Women in Business report.

Heartiest congratulations to our leaders on their leadership roles in their respective prestigious institutes. We wish our leaders every success and may they bring their institutes to greater success.

The gender diversity issue has been on the business agenda for many years now, yet a third of businesses still have no women at a senior management level. Somewhere there is a disconnect.

The gender diversity issue has been on the business agenda for many years now, yet a third of businesses still have no women at a senior management level. Somewhere there is a disconnect.

Three quarters of business leaders would pay more taxes in exchange for greater clarity from authorities on what is acceptable. And while few expect a global agreement any time soon, the majority would like to see their governments take unilateral action to help achieve this aim.

As the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) meets today (22 July 2015) to discuss the 2017 implementation date for new global revenue recognition rules, Grant Thornton is asking the accounting board to delay implementation, as a global business survey finds that many businesses are not expecting to be ready by 2017.

The European recovery is gaining momentum according to Grant Thornton's International Business Report (IBR). However, drawing on interviews with more than 1,100 regional executives, the report uncovers a number of threats, from Greek debt negotiations to high unemployment, which continue to undermine European stability and long-term business growth prospects.

Almost three months on from the launch of the European Central Bank's quantitative easing programme, new research from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) reveals a jump in business optimism in the eurozone in the first quarter of 2015, with confidence moving back up towards pre-crisis levels.