The inaugural Senior Multicultural Leaders Conference, a first of its kind Wall Street event, took place last week joined by top executives across industries. I was delighted to welcome the group of 250+ participants of this high-impact forum. The event and discussion could not have come at a better time especially as Multiculturals are rapidly approaching 40% of the total U.S. population and represent an even larger percentage of younger generations. The conference helped underscore the importance of engaging senior multicultural leaders, including board level representation, to help effect change and also the importance of mentorship for young professionals as they develop businesses and enter the work force.
As champions of diversity, representing the communities we serve, it was only fitting to partner with Morgan Stanley to bring the diversity dialogue front and center to key decision makers and drive change. As I shared during the conference, focusing on diversity is not only the right thing to do but it makes compelling business sense. At Univision Communications Inc., 80% of our workforce is multicultural, and key to our success.
Janet Murguía, president and CEO of NCLR, expressed—and other executives shared the sentiment—that beyond qualifications, we need to ensure that there is an understanding and commitment to those consumers that represent the New American mainstream.
As Isaac Lee shared, “We are the mainstream media network,” when the moderator referenced Univision as niche. “The others are adapting.”
Addressing Univision, double disruption – tech and diversity. @isaacleep at #MulticulturalLeaders2016 pic.twitter.com/FQlWwzuTRk
— UCI Public Relations (@UCIPRTeam) June 16, 2016
Among the topics discussed were global business environment and the impact of diversity on the competitiveness of global companies, the economics of the changing demographic of America, the challenges and imperatives of corporate boards, civil rights imperative as well as conversations on disruptive innovation, with young entrepreneurs of colors, and nonprofits as disruptors.
Some takeaways from the different leaders:
– We are encountering and need to address double disruption: technology and diversity.
– Disrupt the value chain by embracing technology platforms and tapping data.
– Corporate leaders need to invest in early education legislation.
– Addressing the changing workforce starts in high school and college.
– We MUST get comfortable with making diversity and inclusion part of our core strategy, it’s an imperative.
Diverse talent drives diversity and the most successful companies leverage diversity to drive innovation, expressed Deborah Gillis, CEO of Catalyst.
As the Futurist said, “let the chase begin.” Special thanks to Carla Harris for leading on this and partnering with us to shed influential light on such an important reality, and to our co-sponsors from Target, Paul Hastings, Deloitte, Catalyst, HACR, LEAP and The Executive Leadership Council.
Closing words by the Futurist. #MulticulturalLeaders2016 pic.twitter.com/k5LT9aOSth
— UCI Public Relations (@UCIPRTeam) June 16, 2016
