The Good News is that Diversity and
Inclusion is good for business and will make you money. This was the opening line of the panel
celebrating diversity and titled ‘Think
outside the block’ at the Washington Elite Vienna blockchain summit
organised by Bruce Porter.
The panel was
hosted by Jillian Godsil, award winning journalist and broadcaster, and she was
joined by CEO of Coras, a crypto algor trading platform Erin Grover and privacy
and investment fund solicitor Ash Costello.
The panel first
looked at the soft benefits of diversity – and while we know women are always
right, including them in decision-making actually backs this up. There are a
number of studies which look at decision making from different angles –
including pitching a group of mediocre thinkers against one uber smart person –
and the results come firmly down to cooperative diverse groups of people making
better decisions.
Then providing
better work balance regimes specifically to suit parents and mostly mothers of
course has the knock-on effect of benefitting all employees providing more
flexible working conditions whether employees have children or just enjoy
time-intensive leisure activities outside of work.
Jillian had an
experience of speaking with a diversity officer of a major hardware
manufacturer. He argued against gender quotas as he said – ‘why promote a women
to fail.’ Of course this is the exact opposite of what should happen, promote
diversity and support it is the obvious course of action.
Erin quoted an
example of the NYSE looking for female traders for its male dominated trading
floor. The chair received an application from a smart woman of colour but with
no trading experience. They hired her and trained her – and she is now one of
their top performing traders proving that with support, diversity can and will
succeed.
Ash then
brought in the big guns. In recent studies by Credit Suisse, Nordia and
McKinsey diversity and inclusion has been measured and proven to directly and
positively impact on the bottom line.
Having gender diversity – namely having women in a decision making roles
– ups the profits by 21%. Include
greater ethnic and cultural diversity and that profitability increase jumps to
33%.
Given it was a
blockchain conference, it felt right to finish with a quote from Jack Ma, CEO
of Alibaba. He reckons his secret sauce was to hire women. Last century people
compared muscle, this century it is all about wisdom.
