Tap the Power of Global Diversity to Reinvent Yourselves, Economy — Urgent Message to Graduating Students
by Andrés T. Tapia –
I recently joined diversity executives from IBM, PepsiCo and Wal-Mart on a panel at Wake Forest University’s Schools of Business. The message to students at the 2010 Marketing Summit was clear: As globalization advances, the old rules in business don’t apply. Your biggest challenge is going to be pushing yourself to see things anew–again and again and again. And that means knowing how to see and capitalize on diversity.
“Diversity goes beyond race and gender,” said PepsiCo’s Chief Global Diversity and Inclusion Officer Ronald C. Parker. “It’s about innovation, collaboration and agility. In our careers we need to press the reset button regularly. Reinvent ourselves every 3 years.” Ronald C. Glover, IBM’s vice president of diversity and workforce programs for IBM took the metaphor even further, telling students to “hit the reset button every 18 months. Maybe every day.”
Esther Silver-Parker, senior vice president of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart, urged students not to make the mistake of staying in a “mirror image” mindset, assuming they can get the job done by gravitating toward those who look like they look and think like they think. Glover agreed: “The talent the world needs is everywhere now,” he said. “The world is less forgiving of those of you who can’t keep up.”
Perhaps one of the most provocative insights business students heard was Ron Parker’s idea that recessions are the economy’s reset buttons–pushed when a stagnant “system mired in excesses, inefficiencies and misaligned priorities” needs to be purged. Visionary business leaders who see and think diversely–who are willing to press their own reset buttons–are needed to help restart the economy and keep it fresh.
The panel was moderated by Wake Forest’s Dean of Business Steve Reinemund, the only former Fortune 100 CEO who currently heads a top business school. During his six years as Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Reinemund implemented a broad range of business strategies that analysts credit for much of the company’s financial success — as exemplified by a 50% increase in Pepsico’s share price during his six-year tenure. But Reinemund, who made diversity and inclusion a key business imperative at Pepsico while CEO, believes that economic success did not just come from the financial and product strategies he implemented. In his final press conference as he retired from Pepsico he answered the question of what he felt would be his greatest legacy for the company: creating a culture of inclusion he answered without skipping a beat. Now he is bringing both his keen business mind and passion for diversity to attract a more diverse body of business students.
Reinemund’s success, as well as the panelists’ insights, underscores the message of The Inclusion Paradox that I shared with students: The world is not flat; it’s upside down. Celebrating and understanding differences is no longer enough. You have to know how to leverage those differences.And in upside down world, where the old rules don’t work anymore, what new solutions can you offer that will hit the reset button in how we do business and engage our talent?
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