Quotas are always controversial.  So Deutsche Telekom’s announcement on Monday that it is introducing a target to have 30 per cent of its top and middle management drawn from women by 2015 is likely to provoke a big debate.

But, quota or not, the German telecom group’s move makes far more sense than competing quotas in countries such as Norway.

That is because it focuses on executives, not non-executives. To recap, Norway has led the way with imposing a 40 per cent quota of female non-executive directors on its biggest companies. Read more