Race Reckoning: DEI Gets Serious
I believe history will look back at 2020 as the year business finally got serious about ethnic diversity -- an important legacy of the George Floyd killing.
At Fortune, we see that in our polls of CEOs. 94% report that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has become a top strategic priority for them personally.
Even more encouraging are two new programs that have been created to ensure this new CEO interest in DEI is not fleeting. One is called the OneTen Coalition, and is a group of corporate leaders who have made commitments to upskill, hire and advance one million Black Americans over the next decade into well playing jobs. The other is Measure Up, a partnership between Fortune and data company Refinitiv that is challenging large companies to publicly report their diversity data.
Ellen McGirt and I interviewed founders of both programs this week on our podcast, Leadership Next - former Infor CEO Charles Phillips, who helped start OneTen, and Refinitiv CEO David Craig.
Phillips spoke passionately about the need for corporate change. "There's a much greater number of [Black and brown] people who just have no pathway to building wealth," he told us. "That's the reason why household wealth in the Black community is 10%. In the white community, homeownership is about 41%. Today, it's the same as it was in 1968, when Martin Luther King gave his last speech. The same number. So we have got to do something different."
Craig talked about the need to make data public, so companies can be held to account. "I think courage is being transparent," he said. "I think courage is taking the initiative to measure things. And I think courage is actually recognizing that what gets measured gets managed, as the old adage says."
You can listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify, and catch up on our other interviews here.
Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 100 Women of Impact | Solving your digital marketing and public relations problems so that you can focus on your business | 2023 92NY Women InPower | Founder: Black Women’s Business Collective
3 年Agree 100% that there seems to be no pathway. It takes a village and policy to create the blueprint.
Co-Chair TNFD. Triple Private Equity IC Chair. Founder and former CEO Refinitiv. Financial industry advisor and investor - technology, data, sustainability businesses
3 年Thanks for having me on the show Alan Murray. Great to be working with Fortune in helping companies to be transparent in declaring their diversity numbers - we need more companies to participate, the methodology and taxonomy is well defined and the tools to submit easy to use
Marketing + Media Leader
3 年These guests so perfectly summarized what today's leaders have to be focused on: equity for all stakeholders; deeper responsibility to employee needs; taking a stance on pressing issues; accountability through metrics for the hardest of challenges; and the importance of mentorship for growth and opportunity.