DiversityInc - January/February 2009

Publishers’ Letter

BY LUKE VISCONTI

Civil Rights,
Wealth & Business

The average American is 55 times wealthier than the average person in China, according to a research report from the World Bank. The Chinese civilization is at least 5,000 years old. America’s Constitution was adopted in 1787. How did we surpass them?

Superior Human
and Civil Rights
As oppression is lowered, wealth
is created. George Washington
noted that the value of an acre
of land in Pennsylvania was
higher than an acre of land in
Virginia—even though the land
in Virginia was more fertile—and
he pegged the reason to the fact
that Pennsylvania was on its way
to abolishing slavery. A book
self-published in 1857 by Hinton

purpose was not to “display any special friendliness or sympathy for the Blacks.”

“Liberation” builds wealth for corporations as well. Companies that have superior diversity-management practices—in essence, maximizing human and civil rights within their corporate actions—build wealth more quickly than companies that do not. They attract and retain better talent, accrete better suppliers (both majority and WMBEs) and cultivate better customers.

For example, Sodexo (No. 12 in The 2008 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity®), which provides food services for corporations and schools, has a regular schedule of diversity seminars for their current and prospective customers. This makes

“When we veer from

our values, we
endanger ourselves”.
good business sense; aside from
being a differentiator (neither
of its two major competitors is a
DiversityInc Top 50 company), if
its customers do better, they will
need more services from Sodexo.
Human and civil rights
are core values. Where most

Rowan Helper (a Southerner) titled “The Impending Crisis in the South” described how Southern states were not only less wealthy than Northern states but were becoming less wealthy. He laid the blame on slavery—even though in the first page of the book, his

successful, they are clearly defined and communicated clearly and regularly. I think clear values are also a critical factor in sustainability. There are no examples of evil sustaining itself over the long haul; in fact, I’d say that the opposite is true. The only sustainable examples are ones that promote values of freedom and opportunity. For example, our Constitution is the longest-lived constitution on the planet.

When we veer from our values, we endanger ourselves. There is a direct connection between torturing prisoners, denying them both a trial and Geneva Convention rights—and the subprime crisis. It’s all predatory behavior, the exact opposite of what our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are all about.

When we go against the grain of what made us great, we stumble. But the good news is that human and civil rights—clearly expressed values—and good governance (free elections, for example) build a resilient culture.

The economy will come back— and I predict it will be led by those organizations that demonstrate the best values and enforce human and civil rights to the maximum extent possible.