Brand Identity vs Brand Image
Brand Identity Brand Image 1 Brand identity develops from the source or the company. Brand image is perceived by the receiver or the consumer. 2 Brand message is tied together in terms of brand identity. Brand message is untied by the consumer in the form of brand image. 3 The general meaning of brand […]
The Startup Game: Why Do Startups Fail ?
The term “startup” and the ecosystem surrounding it is a relatively recent invention! Although the technical definition encompasses any business that has recently set up shop, the working definition refers to venture capital funded organizations. In this article, we will look at the good old startups. The “mom and pop stores” that have a high […]
Non Random Patterns – Part 1
Cyclical Pattern: A cyclical pattern is defined as a predictive situation in which data points increase and decrease the process mean in a manner which is repetitive. While this may sound like a mouthful, we are all intuitively aware of what a cycle means. In the case of control charts, cyclical patterns signify special cause […]
How Cutting Edge Technology has Transformed the Sales and Marketing Function
Cutting Edge Technologies Have Revolutionized Sales and Marketing It would be an understatement to state that the use of cutting-edge technology has transformed the Sales and Marketing Function. Indeed, one can go as far as to say that the use of advanced technologies such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Analytics have revolutionized the […]
What is Big Data and its Importance to Businesses as a Game Changer
What is Big Data? If marketers had all the data about consumers that they can then use to predict consumer behavior, which would be the marketers dream come true. Until now, marketers had enough data about consumers that they then modeled to arrive at probable consumer behavior decisions. This data culled from marketing research was […]
The articles in this module so far have focused on how organizational diversity makes eminent sense from legal compliance and value based perspectives. The discussion so far was about how organizations must embrace diversity as a value based imperative and for furthering corporate social responsibility.
This article examines the business case for diversity and finds that not only do organizations have to pursue values they also have a strong business case for encouraging diversity. The reasons for this are to do with the increasingly heterogeneous nature of the customer base, the globalization imperative that makes diversity a precursor to growth, the looming talent crunch which translates into recruiting diverse teams as a way of avoiding it, and finally the changing imperatives of corporate leadership that confronts decision making in an increasingly uncertain world.
It is no longer the case that the customers are made up of monolithic wholes that exhibit consistent and uniform patterns of behavior. On the other hand, the customer base for many companies has splintered into ethnic, racial, gender and other segmentations which means that organizations have to encourage diversity in their workforce to tackle the aspirations of the fragmented customer bases.
The fact that many companies are growing at scorching pace outside of the developed markets means that these companies need to have culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse employees in the target markets and hence they need to encourage diversity.
The point here is that there is a premium on employees who can understand these markets better and hence there is a need for these employees to be recruited.
We had previously discussed how diversity casts the net wide and results in better talent. Combined with the looming talent crunch among the traditional employee segments, companies would be left with no choice but to recruit a workforce that is as diverse as possible and which results in the companies gaining competitive advantage over their rivals.
The point here is that it is no longer values or CSR imperatives that drive diversity based practices. Instead, there is a compelling case to be made for economic and business imperatives as the drivers to encourage diversity.
Given the global odds that corporate leaders face in these times, decision-making is no longer linear or sequential and hence, the corporate leaders need to have as diverse a team as possible to ensure that they intuit and sense the market better than their competitors’ sense. The need of the hour is to go beyond traditional notions of corporate leadership and instead, draw upon a set of diverse inputs and suggestions that encourage multiple viewpoints and multiple perspectives.
Finally, diversity is not only needed from legal and ethical or social expectations and instead, as this article discussed; there are compelling business reasons for encouraging diversity.
The point to be noted is that diversity makes for eminent business sense and hence, it must be hardwired into the organizational DNA. We shall discuss this in detail in subsequent articles.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
