sure that once we hire and train
our diverse staff, they stay and
grow their careers with us. So we
have created robust professional-development programs to ensure
that high-performing women and
minorities receive the support they
need to reach their career goals.
Programs like Diverse Perspectives,
Common Goals, Women as Buyers, the Breakthrough Leadership
Program, efficacy training, and our
Business Resource Groups offer a
range of assistance, from networking opportunities to one-on-one
coaching to our employees from
diverse backgrounds.
KEN CHENAULT, CHAIRMAN AND
CEO, AMERICAN EXPRESS: Not
only do our employees benefit
when people of different talents,
perspectives and backgrounds are
able to thrive in the workplace, the
business benefits as a whole—
especially as we serve more customers
in different markets. We have also
found that our partnerships with
different organizations have helped
us to grow our card business.
A great example is our national
“Make mine a $million” program
with Count Me In for Women’s
Economic Independence, a not-for-profit organization. The program is
committed to growing post-start-up, women-owned businesses and
has not only helped many women
across the company but has helped
to build our business and our profile
among women business owners.
DENNIS NALLY, U.S. CHAIRMAN
AND SENIOR PARTNER, PRICEWATER-
HOUSECOOPERS (PWC): Results
from our recent global CEO survey
point out that the ability to attract,
develop and retain a work force
from a shifting demographic will
be essential to meet the demands
of an increasingly diverse customer
base, be it domestic or global.
That’s where their future revenue
growth is going to come from, and
CEOs recognize that they need
diverse thinking in the way they
approach their target markets in
order to be successful.
of our top priorities. It is critical to being a high-performance
business … and there is a direct
connection between the diversity
of our work force and our ability
to grow our business and generate
revenue. This is because our clients
expect diversity—in our teams,
“BEING A VALUES-DRIVEN, ETHICAL
COMPANY IS ESSENTIAL TO COMPETE AS
A HIGH-PERFORMANCE BUSINESS IN
TODAY’S WORLD.”
In order for us to be viewed as
distinctive and credible profes-sional-service providers, when our
clients are thinking with a global
mindset, we need to have credentialed and experienced professionals to match those business plans.
DR. DANIEL VASELLA, CHAIRMAN
AND CEO, NOVARTIS AG: Having
a diverse work force enables us to
better understand and better meet
the unique healthcare needs of
our global customer base, which is
made up of people from a variety
of cultures, races, religions and age
groups. Our patients and customers are diverse; therefore, our work
force should reflect this diversity.
By attracting, developing and
retaining the top talent who understand these unique needs, we are
able to better serve our customers,
which in turn generates sales and
profits for our company. A corporate culture that values heterogeneity
and incorporates it in decision-mak-ing processes promotes innovation
and customer closeness.
BILL GREEN, CHAIRMAN AND CEO,
ACCENTURE: Our commitment
to inclusion and diversity is one
WILLIAM D. GREEN, ACCENTURE
our people and our points of view.
Our mission is to help our clients
become high-performance businesses and governments, and we
cannot accomplish that without
the ideas and creativity that come
from a diverse and inclusive global
work force.
What are the greatest differences
you see between diversity in the
United States and abroad?
VASELLA: In the U.S., diversity is
commonly thought of in relation
to race and gender. In Europe and
other countries, diversity is often
thought more in terms of gender,
generational and religious diversity, although even within Europe
there are significant differences …
It is important to realize that we
cannot impose a centralized diversity strategy across the board as
there are many local [and] cultural
factors to consider. This is why we
require each group company to set
a diversity strategy that is comprehensive, sensitive to local issues
and consistent with local law.
SALZBERG: It’s not just a matter
of comparing countries. Diversity
