How to create and build diversity and inclusion.

How you can foster diversity, inclusion and understanding to build collaboration, creativity and productivity.

“Frankly we don’t hire women for positions other than tellers and receptionists at our bank”, the recruiter of the prominent Oregonian bank said to me after my on-campus interview. It was sobering to hear that from a recruiter since I was armed with a master’s degree in Economics and Business and have excellent summer and school year work experience and recommendations. Then he added, “besides, you originally came from another country, so we definitely won’t hire you”.

The situation has somewhat improved now a few decades later, but truly not anywhere near enough. Not when according to Stanford University research, racially diverse executives hold only 16 percent of total C-suite positions and only 16 out of 500 companies are being led by a non-white CEO. In 26 of the Fortune 100, there is no ethnic diversity at the C+1 level [direct reports]. Women, at 50% of the population, hold 25 percent of the C-suite positions. Only 7 of the companies have a female CEO. Even more disturbing, women hold only 13 percent of positions with high potential for CEO promotion and board recruitment (CEO, CFO, and P&L leaders). So even in the cases where there is a woman in the C-suites, she is generally slotted into positions with lower potential for advancement (general counsel, human resources, chief risk officer, etc. The future for…