In our 10 years of providing a standardized measurement of diversity-management practices and outcomes, we’ve been able to see how “diversity” is much more than a simple management practice. It’s a value—supported, nurtured and enforced by the CEO.
The CEOs I’ve met—mostly white men—have had an epiphany about people. They personally see the connection between equity and quality, profitability and sustainability.
There are huge differences between CEOs and industries. Consider the chain of shortcuts, errors and public-relations disasters that BP has committed as the worst environmental disaster to hit our country unfolded. Not one oil company, including BP, has ever made the Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 list. Also consider the subprime-mortgage crisis, which destroyed more household wealth in Black and Latino families than any other factor—and the stinginess of Wall Street companies such as Goldman Sachs, which profited from this disaster but whose philanthropic spend was 1 percent of the average Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 company (relative to gross revenue) in 2008.
