Why diversity matters?

Hey, we are Ramón Rodrigá?ez and Andrea Marino, Co-Founders at Nova, the Global Top Talent Network.

Welcome to Talent First, our newsletter where those who believe that talent is the most important resource in the economy get together.

Every week, we cover a new topic related to attracting, hiring, developing, and retaining talent, as well as the learnings from our journey building Nova.

Summary:

Here’s what we’re covering this week:

• Why diversity is more than a moral cause—it’s a performance driver.
• What research says about age, ethnicity, gender, and educational diversity in teams.
• How companies unlock diversity’s benefits—or suffer its downsides.
• Actionable strategies to turn team diversity into a competitive advantage.

Diversity is not just a “nice to have” but critical for performance

In the last few weeks diversity has come under scrutiny as more and more global employers, predominantly US-based, have decided to scrap their Diversity and Inclusion programs. What seemed to be an urgent matter and priority suddenly was taken out of the company’s objectives.

To some extent, when diversity and inclusion are meaningless quotas imposed on hiring teams so the board can be happy and the company can get a flashy certificate, the results will not be positive and will not last in the long term. Furthermore, if pursuing diversity targets means lowering the bar on hiring decisions, you have definitely created the basis for disaster.

At Nova we stand for merit above all, this is why we ask ourselves, why is diversity important and does it lead to better outcomes?

We dive deeper into this and break down diversity into different dimensions. Diverse teams don’t just feel good; they perform better. They make smarter decisions, develop more innovative products, and better understand customers. But (and this is critical), diversity works only when managed well. Without inclusion and effective leadership, diversity can backfire—leading to friction, miscommunication, and even lower performance.

Let’s break it down, dimension by dimension.

1. Age diversity: when experience meets fresh perspectives

The first dimension we looked at is age and seniority, curious to see how different generations interplay and impact companies’ performance.

1.1. Performance upsides

The modern workplace spans up to five generations. Done right, this is a goldmine of complementary strengths. Older employees bring deep institutional knowledge and mentorship, while younger employees offer fresh thinking and tech fluency.

In one study of 147 German companies, age-diverse teams showed higher productivity, profitability, and growth expectations. Diverse-age teams also tend to make more balanced decisions—combining tried-and-true approaches with bold innovation.

1.2. The friction factor

However wide age gaps also mean different communication styles, work preferences, and values. Research indicates that age-diverse teams can benefit from complementary skills and perspectives spanning different generations, but this advantage is contingent on team dynamics. A key moderating factor is the agreeableness of team members. Studies reveal that age-diverse teams will not perform well if the least agreeable team member has low levels of cooperation. This finding highlights the importance of personality factors in determining whether age diversity translates into positive outcomes. In teams where the minimum level of agreeableness is high, age diversity can foster better relational team functioning and improved performance.

1.3. Real-world case

At IBM, they tackled this head-on with a reverse mentoring program: junior employees teach senior leaders about emerging tech, while seniors mentor juniors on leadership and industry insight. This kind of two-way learning turns potential friction into a collaborative advantage. This is an area where with Nova we have also supported organizations in creating reverse mentoring programs not only inside the organization but also letting senior executives mentor young Nova members, not only creating a learning loop but also potentially attracting top talent as future employees.

2. Ethnic and nationalities: the cognitive advantage

While at Nova we employ people from 8 nationalities, they tend to have strong similarities as most of them belong to the Southern European or Souther American cluster. As we expand to new markets we start to question ourselves about how to improve our talent acquisition processes to allow for higher diversity, not because it is nice but because the more perspectives we can include as we shape our B2C and B2C value proposition the better we will perform in the market. In fact, the research is quite clear on this.

2.1. Performance upsides

Ethnically and nationally diverse teams think differently—and that’s their superpower. They avoid groupthink, bring wider market insights and fuel innovation. McKinsey’s global data shows that companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are 36% more likely to outperform financially.

One striking example comes from a classic experiment: ethnically diverse teams were far better at solving a murder mystery than homogenous teams. Why? They shared clues more openly, avoiding the assumption trap of “we all know the same thing.”

2.2. The communication gap

Yet, cultural differences can also slow teams down initially—misunderstandings, different decision-making norms, and even unintended microaggressions. Studies show that highly diverse teams sometimes see a short-term performance dip before delivering long-term gains.

2.3. Case in point

Coca-Cola’s diverse leadership team (5 of its last 6 CEOs were born outside the US) is often cited as a secret to their global success. Meanwhile, tech companies that lacked diversity—like early facial recognition teams—produced flawed products with built-in racial bias. Diverse teams don’t just perform better—they fail less spectacularly.

3. Gender diversity: smarter teams, better decisions

At Nova we are proud to say that we have a very good gender representation in the company with a 50/50 split while we acknowledge our challenge on the management team level, where Maria, our head of B2C, is the only woman in the room, running the risk highlighted below.

3.1. Performance upsides

Gender diversity is one of the most studied dimensions, and the verdict is clear: more women in leadership equals better performance. McKinsey found that companies with >30% female executives significantly outperform those with fewer women.

Diverse-gender teams bring broader risk assessments, richer ideas, and sharper customer insights. Research in banking shows that banks with more women on boards were far less likely to engage in reckless lending. There are many studies and examples.

3.2. Critical mass and social acceptance matters

But—and this is key—tokenism doesn’t work. One woman on a 10-person team won’t unlock the benefits. Research shows the magic happens when women comprise at least 20-30% of leadership. A longitudinal sample of 1,069 leading public firms around the world found that the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance measured by market valuation and revenue, depends significantly on its normative acceptance in the institutional environment.

In contexts where gender diversity has been normatively accepted, gender-diverse firms experience positive market valuation and increased revenue. This contextual variation helps explain why some studies show stronger positive effects than others. It also suggests that as societies continue to evolve toward greater gender equality, the performance benefits of gender diversity may become more consistently observable across different settings.

Beyond financial metrics, gender diversity contributes to qualitative aspects of organizational functioning. Diverse teams demonstrate enhanced problem-solving capabilities and are more adept at avoiding cognitive biases in decision-making processes

3.3. The Apple oversight example

Remember when Apple launched its Health app without a menstrual tracking feature? That’s what happens when teams lack gender diversity. On the flip side, mixed-gender design teams have driven some of the biggest product wins—from safer car designs to athletic gear designed with women in mind.

4. Educational diversity: cognitive range fuels innovation

When we decided to let the Nova network open to all sorts of educational backgrounds we did so out of intuition. We fundamentally believed that talent from different educational backgrounds and walks of life could add significant value when building a global network. When today we look at some of the member’s stories like the one from Alberto, an architect, who started an energy company and brought it to the next level when meeting Sebastian, from a business background, we know we made the right decision.

4.1. Performance upsides

When you mix engineers, designers, and marketers on the same team, you get cognitive diversity—different problem-solving approaches feeding into richer solutions. Research shows educationally diverse teams innovate more and make better decisions.

4.2. Lost in Translation

The flip side? Different educational backgrounds also mean different jargon, priorities, and problem-solving methods. Without deliberate integration, teams can talk past each other—leading to frustration instead of creativity.

4.3. IDEO’s Formula

Design powerhouse IDEO is famous for its intentionally diverse teams—pairing anthropologists with food scientists and writers with engineers. Their radical cross-pollination method is why IDEO consistently produces groundbreaking innovations.

5. The inclusion imperative

Across all these dimensions, one truth stands out: diversity only works if inclusion is present. Diversity is about who’s in the room. Inclusion is about who feels heard, valued, and empowered to contribute. Research confirms that diverse teams in inclusive cultures outperform, while those in exclusive cultures underperform—sometimes badly. This is why, back to our opening statement, if companies do not move comprehensively towards a diverse organization, the limited effort to hit their yearly quotas will be in vain, and risk only lower the standards on hiring decisions.

5.1. What do some of our greatest partners do?

• They train managers to lead diverse teams well. Diverse perspectives mean more potential conflict—but also better solutions, if conflict is managed constructively.
• They build inclusive climates where difference is celebrated, not tolerated.
• They avoid tokenism by aiming for meaningful representation (critical mass) across every dimension.
• They invest in communication training—helping diverse teams find common ground.
• They deliberately leverage diversity —soliciting diverse perspectives on key decisions, not just at the team level but at the strategy level.
• They still choose merit above all else—the best companies do not solve the diversity gap at the end of the process but make sure they address it at the top of the funnel.

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