Inclusion And Equality: We Need To Do Better And Do More

I am extremely pleased to be among a group of 160 Fortune 500 CEOS in launching “CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion.”

All 160 of us have committed to rallying our companies to advance inclusion and equality in our workplaces. And, working together, we can bring our collective resources to bear against persistent inequities within our communities and help address racial, ethnic and other tensions throughout society.

Dow has survived, indeed thrived, for 120 years because as an institution we have always held true to our values. We believe in the rights of all people. We export our values wherever we go. We seek out the best people to work inside our great Company, and we continually raise our standard of conduct, behavior, ethics, safety, and respect and dignity.

First, because it is the right thing to do – which in itself is reason enough. And second, because it is critical to our business model. Put simply, a great, global enterprise needs a lot of different ideas to be as innovative as we are. That means we need a lot of different people who reflect the diverse world we are operating in, not some world of the distant past. And they need the opportunity to contribute their talents fully.

I'm proud of our Company’s support of gay rights, treatment of people with disabilities, progress we've made for the advancement of women, and our programs like Dow Promise that help African-American communities near Dow locations address key economic and educational challenges.

But we haven’t seen enough momentum. We must acknowledge that progress has not always happened in a straight line, most especially when it comes to racial equity. This fact was made abundantly clear during the open and candid discussions with our African American Dow family members last week in Houston.

In many ways, there has been significant positive change since four decades ago when as a young engineer transferring from Australia to Louisiana, I was told I shouldn’t sit at the same table with my friend, because he is black. 

While such overt racism has been increasingly marginalized over the years, implicit racism remains much harder to combat and no less destructive. We see this in educational, housing, criminal justice, and health care systems that place minorities at a structural disadvantage, even if simply by inertia.  We see it in well-meaning people who believe intellectually in equality but have unconscious biases, instilled by lingering institutional racism that shapes the societies where they live.  

We, as a business community, need to do better and do more. We cannot rely on government leaders, activists, or society at large to, for example, ensure that minority employees feel welcome in a new job or make sure they do not get talked over in meetings. Breaking the cycle of inequality does not start with corporate recruiters – though they have a role to play – but with efforts to expand educational opportunities, combat poverty, and deal forthrightly with a host of societal issues that hold people back and leave them behind.

That is why this 160-company-strong collaboration is critically important, because no single person or company can fix momentous societal problems all on their own, though we all have a responsibility to take part in solving them even if we begin within our own enterprises. And that is why I was privileged to remain at that lunch table 40 years ago with my friend, and, today, to sit at the collaboration table with these 160 other companies, and work together to address honestly and head-on inequality and help create more fairness and opportunity for all.