Fortune innovation imeme4/25/2023 In 2021, the Athena Technology Acquisition Corporation became the first all-women-led SPAC to take a company public. I sit on the firm’s board–and our dedication to building a diverse expert network of women investors is its core business vision. Eventually, it would make up nearly 25% of Citi’s new checking accounts.Īlso in the financial sector, the investment firm Athena SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) is one of the latest leading faces of what’s possible. With lower barriers to entry, the new product took off. Major financial institutions whose DEI efforts reaped new business opportunities were featured in a 2017 joint report from FSG and PolicyLink, a social change consulting firm and racial equity research institute. In one case study, the report cited a new type of checking account Citibank created after a multi-year inclusion effort to understand the barriers to and reach underbanked areas–often Black and Hispanic/Latine communities–with new financial products.Ĭustomers could sign up for this new type of checking account online, with no overdraft fees and with small or zero monthly charges. ![]() The firm knew this effort was good for business and morale. Goldman needed to build stronger relationships with diverse communities. There, a lack of representation was identified as negatively impacting revenue.įrom hiring more Native and Indigenous private wealth advisors to Spanish-speaking bankers from top MBA programs, there were multiple business cases for attracting underrepresented talent. Goldman Sachs, for example, is one of the most recognizable Wall Street brands to embrace diversity as a core business component. Over my 17-year career as a diversity and people executive, I have seen repeated examples of diversity’s contribution to company value. The same 2022 Research and Markets analysis reported that diverse and inclusive companies earn 2.5 times more per employee and are 35% more productive. ![]() The companies that are committed to DEI are achieving results. DEI market said that the global economy “is opening up rich opportunities for companies to spearhead growth by leveraging their access to a diverse talent pool” which “enhances creativity and drive innovation” and “challenges long-held traditional business ideas and assumptions.” Recently, a major report on the $9.3 billion U.S. Research shows that linking business goals to diversity and inclusion strengthens an organization’s commercial potential. Under America’s rapidly changing demographics and global business competition, diversity has become a business imperative. Today, more than ever, finding the business case for diversity is a competitive advantage. This expendability narrative would be a harder sell to corporate leaders if companies understood the business value of their own DEI efforts. ![]() Despite evidence suggesting that inclusive organizations are more nimble and adaptable to change when the economy sours, DEI is still often considered the fat to be trimmed. ![]() In tighter financial times, DEI is likely to be considered an expendable part of a company. Just a few years earlier in 2020, DEI professionals moved to the forefront of corporate hiring after the George Floyd racial protests, and major companies flush with cash declared their commitments to tackle inequalities in their organizations.
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