My favorite neighborhood restaurant is owned and operated by a woman who immigrated to Denver. She started as a cook and saved enough to buy the place.
It is a thriving community gathering place, where she employs many of her family and friends. It is part of a neighborhood that has numerous diverse, family-run enterprises. I often wonder what we lose without that rich diversity and culture. For me and most of us who live in the neighborhood, diversity is not a choice — it’s a fact of life and makes us all better citizens.
Based on this experience, and as CEO of one of the largest Colorado-based medtech businesses and a woman leader in STEM, I can’t help but wonder how businesses like these would fare if women weren’t in the mix. For the variety and balance of perspectives and ideas it brings, diversity is vital to an organization’s overall success.
Women deserve much more than a day of celebration or even a month celebrating their history.
Recent research from Morgan Stanley found that in terms of share price, North American companies with greater gender diversity outperformed less gender-diverse firms. My company serves the front line of health care — wherever there is a need for blood or cells. Health care organizations in the top quartile for gender-diverse executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than those in the bottom quartile, according to research from the management consulting firm McKinsey.
My own experience supports what the data suggests: seeking many perspectives — gender, racial, cultural, generational — yields more insightful decisions and better outcomes for all those you serve. A company that embeds diversity into its culture and systems is simply practical and connects to all people. It’s good for the head, the heart and business success. Today, more than ever, people seek to work with, work for and support organizations that value the whole self.
While there’s no single blueprint to build a diverse culture where people feel they are valued and their voices are heard, there are practical things employers and leaders should do to evolve culture.
1. Replace “diversity language” with pursuit of people who reflect the customers and communities you serve. Companies thrive when all voices are heard and incorporated into decision-making. It is part of operating norms, not an initiative. My company has a treatment for sickle cell disease, a genetic disorder primarily affecting those of African descent. It is difficult to understand that patient experience if none of my employees know anyone living with this disease. Women’s health issues often fall into that same category.
2. Eliminate unconscious bias in your recruiting and talent development processes. Require transparency. Post all jobs and solicit from a variety of sources. Ensure you have a mix of candidates and a diverse interviewing team. Formalize the interviews and debriefs — and the best talent will emerge.
3. Make mentoring part of your expectations. Encourage affinity groups so that those of similar interests and backgrounds can convene to learn about the unique aspects of their journey. Our groups focus on everything from young professionals and those adapting to work with disabilities to subgroups that provide mentoring specifically for women and Spanish-speaking employees.
4. Quantify where you are. Data helps eliminate opinion. Start with the basics and share data on composition and retention. When I joined Terumo in 2016, there was little diversity among our top 150 executives, with a handful of women. Now, our leadership team is globally diverse and approximately 40% female — simply through recruiting transparently and applying a process that helps mitigate unconscious biases.
5. Be clear. Lay out your vision and the reason behind it. Reinforce that your business will grow if it reflects the people, customers and all aspects of the communities where you operate.
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we are called to celebrate the progress we’ve made in ensuring women’s voices are heard at all levels of decision-making. This is key to building a high-impact business and contributing as a global citizen.
Antoinette Gawin lives in Denver and is president and chief executive officer at Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies, a medical technology company based in Lakewood that operates in 150 countries.
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