TOP
50 DIVERSITY
2010
1
THE GLOBAL-ECONOMY
IMPACT ON
DOMESTIC
ISSUES
QUESTION A
How does the global economy
affect business goals?
Christine Cadena
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MULTICULTURAL INITIATIVES,
THE WALT DISNEY CO.
(NO. 33 IN THE DIVERSITYINC TOP 50)
“The global economy is a huge part of our rev-
enue structure—it’s a major part of our strategy
for growth. Our goals are to infuse more local-
ized projects and be much more specific about
our marketing region, really empowering the
regions to be stronger. We drive every-
thing from Burbank (Disney’s California
headquarters) and push product to the
market and push marketing messages.
We’re really trying to change that. We
think that there’s more share to be
had, but moreover, we realize it’s not
as effective. Not everybody wants to
consume what we have to give them
and the way we’re giving it to them.”
Why
They
CARE
Wilson Dunnington
VICE PRESIDENT, INCLUSION &
DIVERSITY, JCPENNEY (NO. 46 IN THE
DIVERSITYINC TOP 50)
“A lot of the goods that we source are
made overseas, so what we’ve had to
do is get further out in projecting our
needs in both the fashion and quantity
of goods right there because of how
the costs of the goods are changing. It
really has become very tricky in trying
to anticipate from a factory side of the
house because over 40 percent of our
products are what we call private-made
products right there. We develop and
make them ourselves.”
Michelle Thomas DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL DIVERSITY, WRIGLEY “Because the price point is really low for most of our products, the economy hasn’t hit us like
it has many others. Our growth
has slowed somewhat in the U.S.,
primarily because we have market
share. But our China business is
growing at 25 percent. China, India
and other emerging markets are a
much bigger focus for us … We are
really adamant about having local
talent run our business. We don’t
take ex-pats from the U.S. and have
them go run the China business.”
Pat Williams
MANAGER, INCLUSION & SUPPLIER
DIVERSITY, BURGER KING CORP.
(ONE OF DIVERSITYINC’S
25 NOTEWORTHY COMPANIES)
Mae Douglas
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF
PEOPLE OFFICER, COX COMMUNICATIONS
(NO. 21 IN THE DIVERSITYINC TOP 50)
“We are doing a lot more outsourc-
ing of the talent in a lot of the
software development for some
of our segments, like our wireless
business.”
“With the economy as it is,
the opportunity for growth
is global. Fast food is … very
well saturated in the U.S. If
you want to grow, you have
to go elsewhere. So we’re
seeing that most of our
growth, most of our oppor-
tunity, most of our new fran-
chisees and new restaurants
are all global. We’re now in
72 countries.”
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