What areas of your business knowledge do you need to strengthen?  If you are already in the C-Suite, including the board room, how can you assess and identify the areas of knowledge that need to be added to your board? What are the factors that enhance the advancement of Asians into senior level positions? 

Asians are still underrepresented on boards or within the C-suite of top U.S. corporations:

• Based on a 2006 Spencer Stuart survey of the top 200 S&P 500 companies, Asians only comprised 9% of the total seats held by minority directors when compared to Hispanics (39%) and African Americans (84%). Generally, representation of all minorities groups remains low.
• According to the 2007 Committee of 100 Report Card, overall Asians constitute 1.5% representation of Fortune 500 corporate boards, which is substantially less than the Asian percentages of the U.S. population and workforce.

There is still a lot of deliberate research that needs to be done so that clear answers can be provided for both individuals and organizations as to why Asians are not well represented at the highest corporate levels.  Mainstream arguments frequently involve issues around readiness, leadership styles and visibility as ways to explain rates of advancement.  These views are often proffered without data.  It is important to gather more facts that can make a difference toward enhancing preparedness of those aspiring to the C-Suite, and to those who serve as mentors or coaches. 

The Asian Career Advancement Preparedness (ACAP) Study, conducted by the Duran Group, aims to address the void in Asian American career research, and make a significant contribution in getting to the heart of the issues affecting the advancement of underrepresented groups into key decision making positions. This study goes beyond what we currently know about the career advancement of Asian executives and managers, which is currently mostly demographic data. This contextual information, which includes corporate best practice descriptions, while important, is not enough. With your participation in this research, we seek to build a substantial database of the level of business and strategic knowledge among Asian Americans that can be reliably utilized to guide the professional development efforts of the Asian American business community, organizations, career coaches, and search firms.

The Duran Group invites all Asian and Asian American managers, especially those in middle and senior management, executives and corporate board directors, to participate in this important new study.

Click on the link below to answer the survey.

http://www.zipsurvey.com/LaunchSurvey.aspx?suid=45275&key=7D73F89B

For more information about the study and the survey itself, please contact Dr. Anna Duran, CEO of Duran Group and President of Avatar Research Institute at Globemgt@msn.com.  Or you can contact the project director Dr. Denise Lopez at Alliant International University, (626) 270-3333, dlopez@alliant.edu.

Also, if you are not of Asian descent but would like to participate in the larger study of the multicultural executive workforce, please use the general survey link below

http://www.zipsurvey.com/LaunchSurvey.aspx?suid=46779&key=5FE3481B