COMPANIES FOR
DIVERSITY
THE 2007 TOP 50
COMPANIES
FOR DIVERSITY®
BY LUKE VISCONTI
The last year has given us remark-
able examples of how important
diversity management is to the
bottom line.
■ Sens. “Macaca” Allen and
“Articulate” Biden learned about the
power of language.
■ CBS learned how diversity helps
decision making by seeing four
DiversityInc Top 50 companies
drop their ads from the
Don Imus show within days after the
“nappy-headed hos” comment.
■ PepsiCo, No. 10 on the 2007
Top 50, and Aetna, one of the 25
Noteworthy Companies for 2007,
demonstrated that a meritocracy can
result in a CEO who looks very different from past CEOs.
■ Print media and broadcast networks, almost none of which are on
our Top 50, felt the impact of
declining audiences in the face of
new alternatives.
■ We continued to learn why the differences between Sunni and Shia
Muslims are important and need to
be respected. Our servicemen and
women continue to pay the butcher’s
bill for that ignorance.
■ Our market has yielded to the
global market, underscored by an
astounding 88 percent of all mutual-fund inflows in the United States in
2006 being invested in international
funds, according to Barron’s
■ Competition for a spot on the
DiversityInc Top 50 became more
difficult this year, with a 24 percent
increase in participants in one year
(to 317 companies), up more than
160 percent from 2003.
What all of these factors have in common is that they’re driven by relationships. It’s often said that “we need to look
like our customers,” but what’s unsaid
and underappreciated in that statement is
the need to “think like our customers.”
“Thinking like your customers”
drives a superior relationship, and that
drives margin. It’s really that simple,
and it’s only possible if you can
demonstrate that you are trustworthy,
that you listen and that you care.
This June issue is a checkpoint in our
ability to measure the effectiveness for
organizations to forge the relationships
that drive effectiveness in a world that has
always been this diverse but whose diversity was not valued for the opportunity it is.
