TOP50 DIVERSITY
2010
3TRANSLATING CORPORATE VALUES
Do your values impact how you do business in
other countries that don’t treat all people equally?
QUESTION A
Kristin Johnson KPMG “It’s got to be the tone at the top that we hear about all the time. It’s got to be the lead- ership setting the stage for what expectations are of leaders for the various countries where we operate. It’s being brave and drawing the line in the sand about what you’ll accept from behaviors that you know take place in the countries where you operate versus what you will accept and what you won’t accept. It’s the core values of the firm. It’s not that there’s one-size-fits-all across the global entity, but, bottom line, you have to have core values. These are the things that we believe. These are the initiatives that we want you to drive, and how you do that can be a local decision.”
Kerrie Peraino
AMERICAN EXPRESS
“Our values drive how we
treat people, both employees and customers, in
every country. We have
something we call Blue
Box Values and it talks
about how we interact
internally, treating people
with respect and dignity,
that we value teamwork.
Integrity is held to a
high level but so is good
citizenship in the communities in which we live
and work, regardless of
where that is. A practical
application is even in a
country that doesn’t treat
folks equally, like in India.
India is one of our top
two locations of employee base for American
Express. We have about
6,000 American Express
employees in India and
the laws are changing
there now, but we don’t,
for example, have an LGBT
affinity group in India. We
would, however, absolutely respect and honor
someone who was openly
lesbian, gay or transgender
in our workforce because
it’s part of our values.
The expectation from a
company perspective is
very clear. In the code of
conduct, what you’re actually signing might speak
to accepting a government
bribe in a country where
it’s perfectly acceptable
to accept a government
bribe. You can’t if you work
for us, and if you violate
it, then that’s grounds for
termination.”
Why
They
CARE
Maruiel Perkins-Chavis
MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL
“There’s a need to understand your own values and your own beliefs because whether we realize it or not, how we grew up, what we engaged, and what we experienced
really does influence how we proceed and how we treat others. It’s a combination
of understanding your own beliefs and then understanding the beliefs of others. It’s
almost like when you’re managing a team—it’s different from just yourself. Once you
have your views, once you understand their views, then there’s that opportunity to
really collaborate, negotiate and figure out what it is that you need to do to generate
business results because it’s all about going into the global marketplace and figuring
out how you can do business.”
r
Ara Shepard ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF DIVERSITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, ALTRIA (NO. 5 IN THE DIVERSITYINC TOP 10 COMPANIES FOR BLACKS) “Treating people with dignity and respect is universal. And we most likely all have that embedded in our values or specifically stated in our values. And that relationship and that association transports itself no matter where your business is.”
116 DiversityInc
