Making Diversity Work

We know that diversity can improve the strength of an organization. But in the recent BCG article “Diversity at Work,” we make the point that achieving more of a gender and minority balance does not necessarily translate to better performance. In other words, achieving compositional diversity is only a first step. To reap its benefits, organizations must also create an adaptive system in which the voices coming from diverse perspectives can be heard and the best ideas can be amplified throughout the organization.

When I talk to CEOs in my client work, whether in Japan or the US, no one is satisfied with the amount of diversity they have. No matter their starting points, they want more. If you’re an engineering company on the West Coast of the US, you want more women and more non-engineers. If you’re in Japan as I am, you want more international diversity. And if you’re in a corporate boardroom most anywhere in the world, you want more women and minorities at the table.

This is not to say that every leader of every organization is pushing hard for diversity. There may be some who feel that their leadership team is effective precisely because it is a homogeneous group, where everyone is familiar with the ideas and perspectives of everyone else and can communicate with ease. And there are other leaders who understand the need for diversity but become complacent in pushing for progress because the pipeline just feels too thin and tapped out for the time being. But the fact of the matter is that without diversity, organizations will eventually fail. If there are CEOs out there who are happy with the balance they have, they shouldn’t be.

An Outsider on the Inside

As I think about my own professional career, I have never, ever been in the “majority.” When I started with BCG in Japan as a young post-college associate, I was the second foreign-university graduate the firm had hired, and women were a clear minority. Then at Harvard Business School, out of 800 people, there were about a dozen Japanese students and women made up less than 30% of the student population. When I came to BCG in New York in 1988, we had Sandy Moose, a woman, as the head of the office and we had more women in our group than I was used to, but I didn’t look like any of my clients. And in those early days, it was like working at a startup. We had just 20 consultants at the time, which made us feel a bit like outsiders among the big New York consulting firms.

In other words, I am accustomed to being the outsider—and to the difficulties such a position presents, as well as the advantages it can bring. This perspective has made me particularly conscious of the fact that there often isn’t a lot of diversity in many of the conversations I’ve participated in. And when you’re the one person in the room who’s different, you realize that just having diversity isn’t enough. The organization has to make a conscious effort to ensure that you have the opportunity to express your unique perspective and that your best ideas are heard.

The BCG Mantra: Look Outside the Room

At BCG, we always tell our clients and ourselves that survival and success depend on looking externally, seeking the voice of the person who’s not sitting next to you, who’s outside the walls of the company (like your ultimate consumer)—and then actively bringing those voices inside.

The result? Everyone learns. When the CEO of a consumer company walks out of the boardroom on the 30th floor, there is so much to learn if he or she takes the time to follow the customer journey: drive from home, go into the store (or shop online), get the product, use the product, and so on. Observing these real moments of truth can provide invaluable lessons about consumer needs and pain points—and offer meaningful insights into how to run the business.

Keeping Diversity Initiatives on the Front Burner

Last April, I participated in a panel at the Women in the World summit. The discussion was the corporate glass ceiling—the continued underrepresentation of women at the top—and it was an important and inspirational discussion. But during the three days of that summit, we heard many personal stories of sacrifice and courage that women have made around the world. Figuring out how to fill more boardroom chairs and corner offices with women, in comparison, begins to feel like a problem we are lucky to have.

But it’s precisely for that reason that it’s easy to become complacent in the push for diversity. There will be no urgent call to action; it’s not life or death. As leaders, we have to keep up this work because no one will force it to happen.

And when are you done? Never. You’re never done looking for the voices of the people who aren’t in the room—the universe of consumers you’re serving and the leaders who aren’t there. As the one in the room who is “different” from others, I feel a social responsibility—but just as much a business responsibility—to actively seek out the voices that are outside the inner circle and build a rich conversation that is enhanced by having people with different points of view and backgrounds. Why not? It just makes good business sense.