A 2019 McKinsey & Co. analysis found that companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity on executive teams were 35% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile, and companies in the top quartile of gender diversity were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than those in the fourth quartile.
“You have people with different backgrounds, viewpoints…If companies are looking to be profitable, being able to make sure that you’re reaching a diverse audience is [key and takes] real intentionality,” said Max Allen, Clemson University vice president and chief of staff, also the school’s interim chief diversity officer. “Diversity comes in a number of ways, not just racial diversity but diversity of thought.”
Allen and others participated in Clemson University’s Men of Color National Summit, an annual conference in its sixth year intended to inspire Black and brown high schoolers to pursue higher education, bettering their lives and fueling a pipeline of diverse talent that their future employers stand to benefit from.
According to the Harvard Business Review, companies with diverse leadership teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets and 45% more likely to report that their firm’s market share grew year-over-year than companies without diverse teams.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances and Outreach Rick Wade looks to his youth for lessons on how to cultivate diverse talent. Growing up in Lancaster, he spent much of his free time fishing in ponds.
“You have to look at diversity the same way,” Wade said. “You have to fish in different ponds and make that investment into a talent pipeline.”
For many companies, a focus on diversity cropped up during the nation’s racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd in summer 2020. For Boeing, which manufactures planes in North Charleston and sponsors the NMOCS, the commitment is institutional: it’s historically black colleges and universities hiring strategy dates back to the 1960s. Boeing Vice President of Ethics Tommy Preston said he believes his company’s success and innovation is rooted in part in its diverse workforce, and he needn’t look any further than the facility building planes right down the road.
“Twelve years ago, people in South Carolina weren’t building twin-aisle airplanes. Now you have employees building one of the most revolutionary products on the face of the earth, and if you walk around our factory, our workforce reflects the demographics of South Carolina,” Preston said.
Boeing participates in Tiger Alliance, a college-access program designed to create pathways to college and build a college-going culture for African American and Hispanic ninth- to 12th-grade high schoolers in and around the Upstate. The company also supports the Clemson-borne Call Me Mister program, which strives to increase the number of diverse schoolteachers.
Companies like Boeing can have a dual role in harboring an ecosystem of diversity. Wade, who was the first person in his family to go to college thanks to a scholarship from textile company Springs Industries, said he’s “always understood the role that companies play — not just with my scholarship, but that they’re job creators.”
Businesses can create mentorship programs for diverse employees as part of their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and Wade noted that mentorship was “an extremely important and integral part” of his own journey. “People do business with people they know and the network that a mentor brings you is extremely valuable. Having the degrees and the ideas is extremely important, but having that mentor is equally important in starting a job or having a business.”
At NMOCS, student attendees rub elbows with such people, and what Allen said they leave with is encouragement.
The biggest thing student attendees get out of it, Allen said, is encouragement.
“They’re empowered…for them to say ‘I see someone who looks like me doing high-profile things’ instills in them a sense of purpose,” he said.
