50
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS
No. 6
Business Type: Accounting
Corporate Headquarters: New York, N.Y.
Number of U.S. Employees: 30,000
Annual Worldwide Revenues: $20.3 billion
The Oscar-winning film “Crash,” which examines race
relations in Los Angeles, has made its way from the
multiplex to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The
diversity team, led by Chief Diversity Officer Chris
Simmons, has distributed copies to company leaders and
human-resources staffers. The goal, says Simmons, is to
Dennis M. Nally
U.S. Senior Partner
and Chairman
Chris Simmons
Chief Diversity Officer
prompt a “self-review of how you
think and how others may think.”
The pop-culture approach is
working. It led one staffer to reevaluate her commuting behavior.
After watching the film, the
woman got on a crowded train and
looked for an empty row. “She said
she finally sat down next to a black
business man,” Simmons recalls.
“He made a comment to her about
the fact that he could count on having an empty seat next to him.”
The woman decided that whenever the train was crowded, she
would sit next to a black man,
Simmons says. “If you can cause
that kind of personal introspection
and get people to step outside
themselves and see how little daily
actions on their part can make a difference, we’re making real progress.”
That is just one example of PwC
pushing itself to be honest about its
diversity management. One of the
company’s strengths, Simmons says,
is leaders’ willingness to “deal with
the hard stuff.” He points to one of
U.S. Senior Partner and Chairman
Dennis M. Nally’s recent commu-
niqués to partners. Usually tackling
several issues, this one focused
exclusively on diversity. In it, Nally
told partners that bias remains reality. “I think the thing minorities
resent is white leaders who give lip
service to diversity needs, but if you
ask them if minorities have real
challenges, they’re not sure bias is a
reality,” says Simmons.
Retention is unbiased and almost
level across race/ethnicity and gender. Retention rates were 86 percent
for whites, 85 percent for blacks, 86
percent for Latinos, 83 percent for
Asian Americans and 86 percent for
women. People of color made up
one-third of management, compared with a Top 50 average of 24
percent, and 28 percent more
women in management received
promotions than the Top 50 average ( 46 percent vs. 36 percent).
It all goes back to leadership,
says Simmons, who reports directly
to Nally. “If what we want to do
around diversity is not driven by the
same people we get our other orders
from, it’s not going to work.”
