Even the most progressive companies often show gaps in talent development, especially when it comes to women, Blacks, Latinos and Asians. Both independent research and
DiversityInc’s own research show that formal mentoring
programs with cross-cultural emphasis are the keys to
creating a sustainable level of talent ready to move up to
the highest levels of an organization.
IBM
No. 10 on The 2009
DiversityInc
Top 50 Companies for
Diversity® list
CORPORATE CASE
STUDY NO. 1
At 26, Inhi Cho Suh was a rising star at IBM, the
youngest person on her team and the manager
as well. Fortunately for her—and for IBM—a
mentor showed her how to respectfully supervise
older people and how to flourish in a demanding
corporate culture.
For an analysis of
best practices in talent
development, including
succession planning
and use of employee-
resource groups,
go to
www.DiversityInc
BestPractices.com/
talentdevelopment
To see all of our content
on mentoring,
including the best
metrics to evaluate
success, go to
www.DiversityInc
BestPractices.com/
mentoring
To watch our Feb.
23, 2010, webinar
on mentoring,
featuring IBM and
PricewaterhouseCoopers,
go to
www.DiversityInc.com/
webinars
Today, at 34, Suh has 100 direct
reports and another 100 people
globally for whom she is responsible. She is vice president of information management product strategy
in the IBM Software Group.
Last year, she met Tami
Cannizzaro, who had been working
in IBM’s finance department but was
switching to marketing. She admired
Cannizzaro’s high energy and
positive attitude but felt Cannizzaro
could benefit from some guidance on
how to become a manager.
“I saw she needed a transition
from being a strong individual performer to being a team leader,” Suh
recalls.
What’s interesting about
this mentoring relationship is
that Cannizzaro is actually six
years older than Suh and their
backgrounds are quite differ-
ent. Cannizzaro, who is white,
knew Suh, who is Asian, because
they had worked on a few proj-
ects together. Based in New York,
Cannizzaro is now the director
of IBM Marketing’s Smart Work
Technology.
28 DiversityInc
