Building diverse teams

There are endless research showing that diversity is good for business. As well as it is good for innovation and for creativity.

Financial outerperformance

The Harvard Business School study found that teams with colleagues from different backgrounds and experiences come up with more creative ideas and methods of solving problems. Another study by the London Business School found that more gender-balanced teams better promote an environment where innovation can flourish. And the list goes on! In the end, if we’re all the same, how can we think differently?, asks Pip Jamieson, the founder of Dots.

The latest report issued on diversity and inclusion in 2020 by McKinsey and Company, global management consulting firm, shows not only that the business case remains robust but also that the relationship between diversity on executive teams and the likelihood of financial outperformance has strengthened over time. These findings emerge from the data set, encompassing 15 countries and more than 1,000 large companies. 

Women executives

By incorporating a “social listening” analysis of employee sentiment in online reviews, the report also provides new insights into how inclusion matters. It shows that companies should pay much greater attention to inclusion, even when they are relatively diverse. Latest analysis reaffirms the strong business case for both gender diversity and ethnic and cultural diversity in corporate leadership. This business case continues to strengthen. The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability.

Moreover, the report shows that the greater the representation, the higher the likelihood of outperformance. Companies with more than 30 percent women executives were more likely to outperform companies where this percentage ranged from 10 to 30. In turn, these companies were more likely to outperform those with even fewer women executives, or none at all. 

The same conclusions come from different sources. Diverse and inclusive cultures are providing companies with a competitive edge over their peers, states The Wall Street Journal’s first corporate ranking. It examined diversity and inclusion among 500 companies. This research joins an ever-growing list of studies by economists, demographers, and research firms confirming that socially diverse groups are more innovative and productive than homogeneous groups.