World's 10 most women-friendly companies

US-based Working Mother magazine has recently evaluated the presence and prominence of coloured women in the US corporate world and has drawn up a list of the best companies. The list has been made primarily on the basis of diversity programmes for such employees. The companies were chosen mainly on factors like representation, recruitment and retention of women of colour.

The magazine said it noticed a dramatic increase in the number of women of colour, who are senior managers. The list includes two big American conglomerates -- PepsiCo and Citigroup. According to the magazine, PepsiCo has about 10 per cent employees who are 'women of colour', with seven per cent of them being executives/managers.

Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup has a higher representation of women of colour in its ranks, making up 22 per cent of the total employees. However, when it comes to executives or managers, there are only about four per cent of such people. Other prominent names in the '2008 Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women' list include Colgate-Palmolive (13 per cent), Credit Suisse (14 per cent), Deloitte (16 per cent), Ernst & Young (17 per cent), IBM (8 per cent), MetLife (14 per cent), PricewaterhouseCoopers (16 per cent) and Wal-Mart (20 per cent).

To know more about these companies, read on. . . .

Pepsico (10% employees are women with colour)
PepsiCo is a conglomerate that manufactures markets and sells a wide variety of carbonated and non-carbonated beverages and snacks. The company is headquartered in Purchase, New York while its research and development headquarters are at Valhalla, New York. The Pepsi Cola Company began in 1898, but it only became known as PepsiCo when it merged with Frito Lay in 1965.Indra Nooyi is the conglomerate's chief executive officer since 2006.PepsiCo owns five different billion-dollar brands. These are Pepsi, Tropicana, Frito-Lay, Quaker, and Gatorade. The company owns many other brands as well. The company's net revenue as on March 22, 2008, stood at $8,333 million as against $7,350 million in March 24, 2007.

Citigroup (28% employees are women of 'colour')
Citigroup Inc. operating as Citi, is a major American financial services company based in New York City.Citigroup was formed on October 8, 1998 following the $140 billion merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group. The company employs 358,000 staff around the world, and holds over 200 million customer accounts in more than 100 countries.
On December 11, 2007, Vikram Pandit was named Citigroup's CEO, while Sir Win Bischoff was named chairman. On April 18, 2008, Citi reported first quarter net loss of $5.1 billion, loss per share of $1.02.

Colgate-Palmolive (13%)
The $9.9-billion FMCG major operates in more than 200 countries and handles production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products (including toothpaste and toothbrushes). In 1806, William Colgate, himself a soap and candle maker, opened up a starch, soap, and candle factory in New York City under the name of William Colgate & Company. In 1857, William Colgate died and the company was reorganized as Colgate & Company under the management of Samuel Colgate, his son. In 1928, Palmolive-Peet bought the Colgate Company to create the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. In 1953 the company was rechristened Colgate-Palmolive Company. The Indian arm of the company announced a net profit of Rs 55.62 crore (Rs 556.2 million) for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, a 10 per cent growth over the corresponding period a year-ago. Its total revenue rose to Rs 412.73 crore (Rs 4.12 billion) for the latest quarter from Rs 360.6 crore (Rs 3.6 billion) in the same period a year-ago.

Credit Suisse (14%)
The Credit Suisse Group is a financial services company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the second-largest Swiss bank after UBS AG.The Credit Suisse Group is structured in three divisions -- investment banking, private banking and asset management. Credit Suisse was founded by Alfred Escher in 1856 under the name Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA, Swiss Credit Institution). Credit Suisse was recognized as the Global Investment Bank of the Year in The Banker magazine's annual Global Investment Banking Awards published in the October 2007 issue.

Deloitte (16%)
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, often referred to as Deloitte & Touche, is one of the largest professional services firms in the world. Branded as Deloitte, the company is one of the big four auditors, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG. As of 2007, Deloitte has approximately 150,000 employees in 142 countries, delivering audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services. While the full name of the firm is Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu, in 1989 it initially branded itself Deloitte & Touché and then simply Deloitte.The company's revenues for fiscal year 2007 was $23.1 billion, up 15.5 per cent from the previous year

Ernst & Young (17%)
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services firms in the world and one of the big four auditors, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte) and KPMG. According to Forbes magazine, as of year 2007 it emerged as the 7th largest private company in the US. Ernst & Young is based in London, UK and the US firm is headquartered at Times Square, New York. The company (partnership) is the result of a series of mergers of ancestor organizations. The oldest originating partnership was founded in 1849 in England as Harding & Pullein. The company's revenue in 2007 stood at $21.1 billion.

IBM (8%)
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services. With over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest information technology employer in the world. The company is nicknamed 'Big Blue’. The company was originally known as Tabulating Machine Company. It was founded by Heman Hollerith in Broome County, New York.
The company's first quarter revenue for 2008 stood at $24.5 billion, up 11 per cent and its diluted earnings stood at $1.65 per share, up 36 per cent.

MetLife (14%)
MetLife is the short name for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The firm was founded on March 24, 1868. The company, which was a mutual organization, went public in 2000.MetLife is the largest life insurer in the US, with more than $2 trillion of life insurance in force. MetLife serves 88 of the largest Fortune 100 companies. It has a market in more than 12 countries. The company reported first quarter 2008 net income of $615 million, or $0.84 per diluted common share, compared with $983 million, or $1.28 per diluted common share, for the first quarter of 2007. Operating earnings for the first quarter of 2008 were $1,111 million, or $1.52 per diluted common share, compared with $1,082 million, or $1.41 per diluted common share, for the prior period.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (16%)
PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the world's largest professional services firms. It is one of the big four auditors, alongside KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu.
The company originated in 1998 after merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, both formed in London. PricewaterhouseCoopers earned aggregated worldwide revenues of $25 billion for fiscal 2007, and employed over 146,000 people in 150 countries.

Wal-Mart (20%)
Wal-Mart Stores, an US public corporation, runs a chain of large, discount department stores. Wal-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the United States. It also owns and operates the North American company of Sam's Club.

It is the largest private employer in the world and the fourth largest utility or commercial employer, trailing the British National Health Service, and the Indian Railways. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962.

Wal-Mart operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the UK as ASDA, and in Japan as Seiyu. It has wholly-owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the UK. Wal-Mart has been criticized by some community groups, women's rights groups, grassroots organizations, and labour unions, specifically for its extensive foreign product sourcing, low rates of employee health insurance enrollment, resistance to union representation, and alleged sexism. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. Wal-Mart's net sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 were approximately $94.1 billion, an increase of 10.2 per cent over the first quarter of fiscal year 2008. Net income for the quarter was $3.0 billion, which is 6.9 per cent above the first quarter of fiscal year 2008. - (Source - Rediff)