Author Archives: Stan

Once again – Corporations are Called to Lead on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

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Businesses understand that diversity managed well can drive increased profitability

Our fragmented US government can’t really lead for diversity, equity, inclusion and fairness for our society; in fact, a huge swath of political leaders are promoting just the opposite – hate, division, white supremacy, anti-trans actions, denial of racism and sexism, and more.

Our houses of faith really are not providing leadership in this area either. There are far too many so-called churches focused on judging others not like themselves, and propagating the false gospel that the prosperity of white people is God’s blessing upon those following the true path of God (and God’s anointed leader the former president)

So who can fill the gap and promote doing the right things for all people? Who can lead around driving fairness and equity for all in our country? It’s got to be US businesses! US businesses for the most part understand the compelling business case for diversity, equity and inclusion. They understand that a well managed diverse workforce will deliver better results and provide more opportunities and prosperity for all. And most companies employ and serve a wide range of diverse people who all deserve to be affirmed and valued.

But at the same time while more and more companies are getting on the “diversity bandwagon,” there is still the element of corporate greed that works against fairness. Too often companies make financial political contributions to lawmakers who are passing laws to benefit their profitability. But frequently, those same law makers are making laws that harm the very same diverse people the companies employ and serve

So let’s look at some examples:

• Companies that support politicians who oppose common sense gun laws are complicit and must share the blame for the recent mass murders of Black Americans at the grocery store in Buffalo and children at the elementary school in Texas.

• Companies that support politicians who are trying to outlaw the teaching of the honest and realistic history of racism in our country are harming their Black and Brown employees even if they claim to be providing advancement opportunities and skills development for them.

• Companies that support politicians who are passing anti-gay and anti-trans laws are complicit in harming their LGBTQ+ employees and their families, as well as their LGBTQ+ customers. (See my recent blog about Florida and the Disney conundrum.)

About 1,000 registered Black voters waited in line on May 3, 1966 in Birmingham, Ala., to cast ballots in the Democratic primary, the first major southern election after the 1965 Federal Voting Rights Act took effect. Are we now going to go backwards to create roadblocks to voting? Credit…Associated Press

• Companies who support politicians passing voting restrictions targeted primarily at Black voters so that they can hold onto their power, are harming Black communities and democracy as a whole.

• Companies that support politicians who are attempting to totally deprive a woman of choice in regards to her pregnancy in all situations is endangering the health and livelihood of their female employees.

And we should not only focus on companies not supporting politicians who harm diverse communities, but companies should consider supporting politicians who are working to advance equity and fairness for all Americans.

Bottom line, a robust and central part of any organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion commitments has to be influencing public policy in such a way that supports the rights and betterment of all diverse people. And since our other national institutions are failing to provide this leadership, it just may have to be business that steps up pt take the lead in this area.

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Also see my other recent corporate social responsibility blog – “Large Corporations – Acting Like Entitled Bullies with us Entrepreneurs” where I expose the hypocritical behavior of some large companies that claim they are supporting small business and entrepreneurs.

Large Corporations – Acting Like Entitled Bullies with us Entrepreneurs? Two Real Examples.

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Too often large corporations tend to bully and step on their small suppliers.

Some times I do like to vent, step out and address a topic that may ruffle some feathers. Having now owned my own career development and diversity consulting firm for 11 years, I have had some bad experiences with Fortune 500 very large companies. Yes, I have also had a good number of wonderful large company clients, but overall the ones that tend to act like entitled bullies are some of the mega-firms. Meanwhile almost all my smaller clients are easy to deal with and truly appreciate the value I bring them.

Without naming names, let me share bad experiences with two Fortune 500 enterprises.

Experience One – I go through the whole RFP process, make the short list and pay my own way to travel to their corporate headquarters to present my proposal and answer questions. I eventually win the contract and then go though signing all the paperwork which of course is totally one-sided in the large company’s favor. Then I spend a few hours preparing for the project kickoff meeting phone call and get on line 15 minutes early and no one shows up. Then I find out it was cancelled 5 minutes before the meeting start time!

The project kickoff gets rescheduled a month later and then again it gets cancelled, at this time with 2 hours notice. Then the project gets delayed indefinitely and finally nothing ever happens. And no offer to pay me for the time I spent preparing the detailed project plan and getting ready for the aborted kick off meetings.

Experience Two – I get asked to prepare a bid to develop and deliver some training around a particular topic that the company tells me is urgent and needs to be delivered within a few months. I go through 3 meetings with three different groups of people and told I am selected and the contract paper work begins.

Large corporations love to give us entrepreneurs pages of legal crap to review that is all written in their favor.

Again I review 20 pages of totally one-sided legal crap and asked if it is OK to sign or if I desire any changes. Since the training is needed ASAP and while the legal team reviews the paperwork, they ask me to prepare some of the initial training material to review with a dozen leaders who will be rolling out the training to their teams. The meeting goes well and I was told that the team loved my content.

Then instead of the contract coming back to sign, I am told that some other people wanted to “revisit” the training and consider some other approaches. After no word for 2 months, I reach out I am told that they are now using someone else. This time I e-mailed my contact there and asked “Do you ethically feel that your company should offer some compensation to the me since I did prepare the materials and did the initial run through with your extended team in good faith that the contract was in process of getting signed?”

GOOD NEWS – this company did respond and offer compensation for our time spent on this project. BAD NEWS – Three months after sending the invoice still no payment.  BETTER NEWS – After a few phone calls and two more months, payment was received.

Some closing thoughts.

• These same companies that act this way spend a lot of time promoting how they support small businesses and have programs to assist entrepreneurs. How they actually act is in total conflict with what they are saying.

• These large companies most often have horrible payment terms like Net 75 or even Net 90, that is they will pay me 90 days after I do the work and submit an invoice. These firms have billions of dollars yet hold their cash to make interest while they squeeze entrepreneurs, many who are trying to survive month to month.

So thank you for reading this vent and I would especially welcome any thoughts from entrepreneurs who have had similar experiences and from large company leaders sharing their reaction to this blog.