Delivering through Diversity

Companies with diverse members in leadership positions are more than 20 percent likely to outperform on profitability and have superior value creation. Delivering through Diversity from McKinsey & Company discusses the relationship between diversity and business success and describes the inclusion and diversity (I&D) initiatives that seem to accelerate business performance. This report draws on public annual reports and websites of more than 1,000 companies worldwide and financial data from the Corporate Performance Analytics database of McKinsey and S&P Global. The authors also highlight the I&D efforts of 17 companies across multiple industries. Results show that companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity and ethnic/cultural diversity in their executive teams have better than predicted return on investments, outperform on profitability and are more likely to have superior value creation. Companies in the top-quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity in their executive teams, for example, were 33 percent more likely to lead industry profitability. Additionally, the report reveals that bottom-quartile companies are lagging in comparison to their competitors. The authors suggest that all levels of leadership commit to I&D goals, that managers connect I&D initiatives to growth strategies and company culture, and that I&D strategies should be tailored to local conditions to maximize their impact. (Samantha Jones for The Immigrant Learning Center's Public Education Institute)

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