The Diversity Edge

Trend by Mary Kier

With the recent presidential election highlighting diversity as one of America's greatest strengths, investing in diversity is no longer a matter of political correctness. Instead, diversity has become a necessary competitive advantage for businesses worldwide. This is particularly true because diverse elements are being shown in research to inspire, stimulate and increase innovation. More than ever, premier corporations are seeking individuals with cultural knowledge and awareness skill-sets, multi-lingual ability, and talent in working with people from other cultures, to drive top- and bottom-line growth.

According to Mary Kier, Vice Chairman for Cook Associates, Inc., "Diverse employees' expertise can help companies enter new markets, build profitable relationships and develop credibility across cultures." Kier oversees the Diversity Practice of the executive search division at the firm's Chicago headquarters, and has been in the industry for more than twenty years. "Wise companies build diverse reservoirs of talent and use diversity as an organizational culture initiative. There is a need globally to find the best and brightest talent and those companies that leverage diverse hiring practices will be better positioned to compete globally and will have a stronger advantage than their competitors who do not."

The poster child for building diverse reservoirs of talented teams is also one of America's most recognizable businesses - Google. The company is well-known for creating a culture and hiring process that encourages and values diversity. The outcome of this initiative is tangible and can be seen in the vast array of products offered by Google, such as cloud computing and Gmail. The company has seen that a global perspective aids teams in developing creative solutions. To that end, Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, heads an initiative to recruit and mentor diverse teams.

The majority of new Google products originate from employees recruited into the Associate Product Marketing Management (APM) program, lead by Mayer. Since 2002, when the first hire entered the program, product innovations have been abundant. Brian Rakowski was APM's first recruit nearly seven years ago, and was given the assignment to launch an email product designed for tens of millions of users, now known as Gmail. Prem Ramaswami, also in the APM program, was in charge of launching an online-payment application - Google Checkout - now a household name. Another member, Nick Baum lead development for Google Reader, which organizes feeds from users' favorite Web sites and blogs. Another recently-launched product provides a personal healthcare data storage service, called Google Health, and is overseen by Jini Kim.

Google employees Rakowski, Ramaswami, Baum, and Kim reflect a rising trend in the United States. Demographics clearly illustrate a rapid pace of change in America as it relates to diversity in the general population. Census data reports that by 2050 nearly half of all those in the United States will have non-white, non-Anglo families of origin. Academics, practitioners and politicians alike agree that to strengthen America's competitiveness, a new generation of leaders must be recruited by investing in diversity.

Throughout the years Cook Executive Search has found in its Diversity Practice that increasing employee engagement, especially in a global environment, requires the customization of recruiting approaches for broad appeal. In the global workplace any employer seeking to attract and retain the most engaged workforce needs to understand what motivates the professional. Kier maintains that, "Companies need to work across cultures and engage diverse employees. It takes exceptionally talented leaders to lead global companies, not just technically proficient [leaders], but those able to navigate the cultural nuances and adept at operating in multiple time zones. The truly global company will select the best people regardless of national origin to help them succeed."

In recent years gender, racial, and ethnic diversity in business practices have been the subject of much attention and scrutiny. According to Harvard Business School professors Robin Ely and David Thomas, the benefit of racial diversity reaps dividends through a better company, both in cultural terms, as well as in increased productivity. In their research the authors focused specifically on racial diversity, and Ely asserts they found measurable performance benefits when work groups chose to learn from members' different experiences.
In their experiment the researchers compared 450 bank branches of a single organization, and found when workers actively engaged with different members in a way that fostered learning, diversity in work groups contributed to better overall team performance. This effect, sometimes referred to as ‘cross-pollination' in a team environment, is valuable because it increases the knowledge embodied by workers and leads to innovation. Firms that plan to compete globally must continue to infuse fresh experiences and perspectives into their workforce, and one of the best ways to do that is through diverse hiring practices.

Kier agrees with the findings of Ely and Thomas, and commented further on the value of diversity hiring in the marketplace today, "Companies seek individuals who will make themselves available for relocation, no matter the location, and that includes outside the boundaries of their native country. Cross-pollination is critical to a company's growth. Companies that want to grow their businesses need to become very proficient at working across borders, as there is no ‘rest of the world' anymore as it relates to business growth in the economic landscape."

Kier also notes that there is a silver lining during times of economic uncertainty, in that talented people are often available and open to new, challenging positions. Kier advises companies to spend dollars on acquiring truly unique employees who can contribute to global expansion and prepare the company for an upturn, "Unfortunately there are no true strong economies right now so it's hard to say which employees will help in the next upturn. I always advise clients to get strong performers who will be tomorrow's leaders, and certainly those that are more diverse and more global will be the high potential leaders any firm would need."

Mary Kier is Vice Chairman of Cook Associates, Inc. and a senior consultant within the firm's executive search division. With over 20 years of experience delivering exceptional search services in consumer related markets, Mary is well-positioned to comment on industry trends. She can be reached at 312.755.5614 or via email at mkier@cookassociates.com.