Very interesting paper from McKinsey.
Top findings:
*Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
*Companies in the bottom quartile both for gender and for ethnicity and race are statistically less likely to achieve above-average financial returns than the average companies in the data set (that is, bottom-quartile companies are lagging rather than merely not leading).
*In the United States, there is a linear relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and better financial performance: for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior-executive team, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rise 0.8 percent.
For the full read, please go to http://www.mckinsey.com/...
We should pursue equality of opportunity simply because it's the right way to treat other human beings, but in case that's not enough (ahem, tea party, I'm talkin' to you!) McKinsey provides a dollars and cents reason for doing so. The paper doesn't get into why they do better, which is a shame.
We live in a (somewhat) capitalist economy. When its leaders and acolytes speak, we should at least give them a listen.
We still haven't had the conversation that should have started when Greenspan said he'd found a flaw in our poltiical-economic system. Here's hoping!