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Heineken USA, Starbucks, Google, diversity in tech, Variety and more

Feels like a great morning when you wake up to a Google Doodle honoring Dr. Virginia Apgar for her contributions to neonatology and to read that Heineken USA named Maggie Timoney as its CEO – which as AdAge mentions, shatters the industry’s glass ceiling. This follows the announcement earlier this week that Mellody Hobson, which as Black Enterprise points out, “is one of the most respected and knowledgeable black business leaders” will become  vice chair at Starbucks when Howard Schultz steps down at the end of the month. This is all welcomed news because there is so much work to be done.  

As you may have read, Google employees spoke up about their concerns regarding diversity. Here is this from CNN:  “Google employee confronts execs over diversity: Many of us feel ‘unsafe.” This is an important story to follow, not only about Google but about the tech industry in general. Oh and Google voted the proposal down. Read Fortune’s CEO Daily for more on this. Here is a great read on what needs to happen to drive change, as this LA Times story says, as “diversity fatigue has set in.” There are a number of programs and initiatives trying to address this issue. Thank you Silvina Moschini for sharing this titled “How this coding bootcamp is helping women land tech jobs at Reddit, Facebook and Amazon.”

On the entertainment side, you may have read that Variety’s “A Night in the Writer’s Room” event because of its lack of representation of women. Read more on his this unfolded on Twitter.  You also may have read about The MACRO Episodic Lab Powered by The Black List.

One of my favorite Twitter accounts to follow is @writersofcolor – where opportunities and diverse talent connect because as the twitter bio says “we don’t want to hear *I can’t find any* ever again, okay?”

ICYMI “12 Quotes To Motivate CMOs To Make Diversity A Priority.”

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Puerto Rico, #WhereAreTheChildren Movement, Starbucks, Roseanne, Female CEOs & more

This past week there have been important stories that should not get lost and are focused on Puerto Rico and immigration. These two stories speak to the important role media, academia and organizations play in ensuring the voices of the voiceless are heard and why diversity is important. 

If you missed this important story, here is CBS’s coverage of the Harvard report. I share this story because David Begnaud at CBS has done an outstanding job of covering Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria hit, here is more on his coverage. In fact, he will be honored at the Puerto Rican Day Parade because of his work – he also received The Polk award for his coverage. However, it t is important to note that many reporters have been focused on covering Puerto Rico, on the numbers given by the government and asking for updated numbers for some time, including Julio Varela and Latino Rebels as well as Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism.

The other story that broke last week was regarding the administration’s policy on family separation and the more than 1,400 children that are unaccounted for. There are different issues here. 1) unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S., 2) the  family policy unveiled by this administration in early May and 3) there is the issue of the reports of abuse of these kids in custody. Here is this from Yahoo! that explains the different issues. These are important stories that need to continue to be covered and having diverse journalists that understand the issues will be important.

For me one area of frustration is the lack of Latinos on the Sunday talk shows – this is from 2017 but speaks to the issue…and Latinos need to be invited not only to talk about immigration. As you may recall, last week I wrote about the lack of diversity in media, here is a tweet from Astead Herndon, national politics reporter at the New York Times about why diversity is important. I don’t want to ignore when diversity gets an important platform in media. I missed the “Everyday Racism in America” discussion on MSNBC but hope to watch it later this week. Here’s a link.  Note this is a link from twitter which shows more than 950K viewers on the platform, I wonder what the TV ratings will be?

On Tuesday afternoon Starbucks closed its stores for the diversity training. The WSJ focused on how this potentially helped competitors, while other media like USA Today focused on the training itself. Here is this good piece from the Dallas Morning News, where they invited companies recognized for diversity to talk about their D&I efforts. Unfortunately the story dominating the news yesterday was Roseanne being canceled because of a racist tweet. I am not sure anyone was surprised by her tweet. The surprise was the swift action by ABC, Viacom’s channels and Hulu as they canceled and/or pulled the show.

Other stories from this week, Snapchat’s diversity, this titled “What’s Behind the Decline in Female CEOs,” Revlon naming its first woman CEO and Law.com’s Diversity Scorecard.

Congratulations to the amazing Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo, she was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business – and I could not agree more!

Photo by Dmitry Schemelev on Unsplash

 

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World Day for Cultural Diversity, Election Night, Magdalena Skipper, Barbara Underwood, Stacey Cunningham & more

This past Monday marked the UN’s World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. Michelin released its first diversity and inclusion report for North America that day. The ICC posted this and I found this focused on media and this and this focused on the medical field. I didn’t find too many stories or announcements tied to this day in the U.S. but hope next year we can see a stronger U.S. focused movement to celebrate cultural diversity.

Listen here to The Takeaway on the new report on diversity in U.S. newsrooms. Representation is important, especially in media. A must listen. Look at these charts on political reporters from 2016 elections. As a reminder, here is the New York Times report and here is the Los Angeles Times pay gap report. So as newsrooms plan for this election and for 2020, here are Tanzina’s tips for making newsrooms more inclusive.

Last night was a big night for women running for office: Stacey Abrams became the Democratic nomination for Governor of Georgia, former Sheriff Lupe Valdez won the Democratic nomination for Governor of Texas, Amy McGrath won the Democratic House primary in Kentucky, Gina Ortiz Jones won a runoff in Texas. On the Republican side Vickie Glisson won the GOP nomination for Kentucky’s third congressional district and  Angela Leet won the Republican primary for Louisville mayor. Read more here on yesterday’s elections.

Congratulations to Magdalena Skipper, the first woman editor in chief of Nature Magazine in its “nearly” 150-year history. Here is an interview she did for NPR’s  Lulu Garcia-Navarro. Congratulations to Barbara Underwood who “became the first woman to serve as attorney general in New York after she was appointed to the role in a joint legislative session Tuesday.” Read more here. Also, congratulations to Stacey Cunningham, NYSE’s first female president. Here she talks about the gender diversity problem.

Most of us watched part of, or all, of the Royal Wedding and read about the celebration of black culture we experienced. I had a hard time deciding which story to include about the events this past weekend, but recommend reading “What the presence of Black culture at the royal wedding meant to me.” Oh and yes I’ve now downloaded Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s music and subscribed to his YouTube channel.

ICYMI every week I like to highlight reporters that you should be following. Monica Castillo from The Lily is one I’ve mentioned, here is an April post she did titled “How Figure Skating in Harlem helps black and Latina girls build their confidence.” 

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Allure’s May issue, Dallas Morning News “Questions of Color” series, Sexist AI Bots, new Girl Scouts PSA and More

Let me start with a quick reminder that May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. Allure’s cover this month features “three game-changing Asian models.” Editor in Chief Michelle Lee  talks about the importance of this issue here. Michelle is someone I follow closely because as Rebecca Sun says “She is why representation matters not just on the covers but on the mastheads as well. Happy #APAHM!!”

A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting a sharp reporter who had graduated from my alma mater and was interning at the Wall Street Journal, Cassandra Jaramillo. She is now working at the Dallas Morning News and I’ve included her coverage here before. In other words, you too should you follow her. Here is her most recent work that is part of  the publication’s series “Questions of Color” and titled “How Texas couples navigate race, culture — and resistance.”

I’ll be writing more on AI at a later time but this from Robert LoCascio titled “Thousands of Sexist AI Bots Could Be Coming. Here’s How We Can Stop Them,” is an important read. As he reminds us “The AI of today was developed by predominantly white male engineers in too much of a hurry to challenge their own chauvinism or consider the harm their work could do.”

This week I am following Amazon’s commitment to increasing board diversity, also this from BlackRock’s Diversity Chief  Jonathan McBride and this on Nike’s new diversity initiative  On the board diversity point, here is this great piece from the Harvard Business Review.

ICYMI Queen Latifah narrates Girl Scouts’ new star-studded leadership PSA, watch it here.

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Ageism, Diversity in Tech, James Beard Awards, American Identity & more

One topic I’ve wanted to focus on is ageism and when I read this from Cindy Gallop titled “We need to make ageism in the workplace old news” I decided this was the week. After reading it I did a quick Google search and found several good reads, including this titled “Ageism is becoming a major issue for corporation” and this one “Too young to have an opinion, too old to innovate: lifting the lid on ageism in advertising.” There is this about boardroom diversity and several stories like this one about how Madonna is fighting ageism. 

Everyone agrees that diversity in tech continues to be an issue, which is why the Congressional Black Caucus recently visited Silicon Valley to meet with tech companies. Here are some recommended reads resulting from that recent visit: “Tech’s Race Problem Beyond the Number” and “Diversity in Silicon Valley? Not Much Has Changed.”

Tanzina Vega is the new host of The Takeaway. Listen to this from this week “‘Out of Many, One.’ But Do We Have One American Identity?” 

Here are other stories I have been following this week, “Black and Brown Podcasters Are Creating an Audio World You Won’t Find in The Mainstream,” diversity at the James Beard Awards and this titled “How a Wave of Honest History Museums Is Changing Black Tourism.”  This past weekend The United States of Women 2018 Summit took place, read more here.

ICYMI, the New York Times pulled together eight things to read about Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’ music video.

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Cinco de Mayo, Top Companies for Diversity, New Boy Scouts Name, Girl Scouts response, plus more

As we head into the weekend there will be thousands of Cinco de Mayo celebrations around the country…and when I say country I mean the United States, not Mexico. Because as you can read here, here and here, it is not Mexican Independence Day and not as big a holiday in Mexico. Cassandra Jaramillo wrote this about how activists encouraged Cinco de Mayo to celebrate culture. Marketing, primarily by beer companies, is why the holiday is what it is today.  Companies spend millions, and so do consumers, but you have to be careful to not be offensive, as MSNBC, Golin, GMA and many others have learned.  Some Latinos dread the Holiday because of the stereotypes. Many of us can relate to this tweet from Laura Martinez.  

If you need more backup on why diversity matters, read this from Big Think titled “Diversity is more than a box to tick. It’s a smart business strategy.” Late last month Uber released its diversity report. This week the 2018 DiversityInc Top Companies for Diversity was released – the top three companies are Johnson & Johnson, Marriott International and AT&T.

This week we also saw the Boy Scouts drop “Boys” from its name and it is now being called “Scouts BSA” as they prepare to welcome girls. The Girl Scouts responded by saying they’ll remain the first choice for girls.

Some of the other stories I followed this week include this great read from Remezcla titled “How to Make it in Journalism,” this from MediaPost about what language to use for B2B marketing and the frustration from black lawmakers for the lack of diversity in tech.

This is one of my favorite “feel good stories” of the week, the two men arrested at Starbucks settled with the City of Philadelphia for $1 each and a commitment to create a $200,000 fund for young entrepreneurs. As CNN says here, they are paying it forward.

ICYMI – if you want to see Black Twitter in action, look up the #IfSlaveryWereAChoice hashtag and read more here.

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Diversity in PR, Karen Kahn from HP, #LatinoJobs, Accenture, D&I jobs, and Brookings report on diversity

I had missed this article regarding PR agencies and diversity and the author provides a lot of great insights and information. I do however believe many of the recommendations are already being implemented and that agencies need to rethink their approach as there is still significant work to be done. One point in the research that caught my attention was the lack of consensus on the definition of diversity. So I asked HP Chief Communications Officer Karen Kahn how the Company defines diversity. You see HP has taken a leadership role in this area so I wanted to learn about its approach. Karen said diversity is defined as “underrepresented groups – and as a global organization it differs by country.” What most impressed me about the conversation was the internal focus and how this has been discussed at length internally and that there is consensus. I think HP has gotten it right because for the leadership team diversity is not left to just one person or group within the company and there is a real commitment to look both at how to address internally and with partners and vendors. There’s a reason why it was recognized as company of the year for diversity by CIO magazine last year. I would encourage companies to make sure there is internal consensus and that everyone within the organization understands the definition as well as the approach so that they can engage and recognize their role in this effort.

Talking about HP, last week at Hispanicize the Company unveiled  the latest in the “Reinvent Mindsets” campaign. Created by Miami based agency Alma and it is titled #LatinoJobs.

Other news I am following, this Indeed report on the growth of D&I jobs, Accenture CEO discussing gender equality goals, watch what Adweek describes as “Maltesers’ Wonderfully Awkward Diversity Ads,” this Brookings Institution report titled “Black and Hispanic underrepresentation in tech: It’s time to change the equation” and  this from the Chicago Tribune titled “Black art spurs gold rush as collector stampede drives up prices,”

ICYMI, here is this week’s Black Panther update from Business Insider: ‘Black Panther’ has made 5 times as much money in the US as any other movie in 2018.

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Starbucks, Beyoncé, Cardi B, Morgan Stanley, the Pulitzer Prizes, Desiree Linden, Hispanicize & more

We continue to see the controversy of what happened at a Starbucks in Philadelphia play out, and the CEO will meet with the two men who were arrested. Here is this great piece from The Root that speaks to one of the themes that gained traction on social, why more voices need to speak up. Starbucks is now taking action but it seemed slow to respond, at least if you were following on social, and the first statement did not help. Here is a good piece on how it’s been managed. Most importantly, this from Melissa DePino who took the original video. Her closing is key: “People keep asking me what I hope will happen now, and I do have something to say about that. I hope that many more of us will say something when we see something, educate ourselves and join in an honest — even if it’s painful or uncomfortable — conversation about race, a conversation that needs to happen and is long overdue.” UPDATE: Starbucks announced that it is closing 8,000 U.S. stores temporarily on May 29 for racial-bias training.

Here is this from last year on why cultural perspective, including black twitter, is important.  So on that note, this weekend Coachella became Baychella. Beyoncé played a two hour set which from what I’ve seen was incredible and a celebration of black culture. The reviews say it all, read New York Times and Rolling Stone. She became the first black woman to headline the event and she also  announced $100,000 scholarship fund to black colleges. Here is one tweet that speaks to why we push back when we hear that there is no diverse talent. This weekend Cardi B also performed at Coachella and following her newest release is now “just the fifth female hip-hop musician to sore a No. 1 album.”  

Yesterday the Pulitzer prize winners were announced and Kendrik Lamar won for music and all I could think of was the GRAMMYs…and I wasn’t the only one. In addition, both the New York Times and The New Yorker were recognized for their coverage of the #MeToo Movement.

Morgan Stanley announced the second cohort of the its Multicultural Innovation Lab. Here is Carla Harris speaking about investing in diversity.

Other news I am following, The Collage Group released this report titled “The Big Shift: Multicultural Consumers Had a Strong Positive Impact on Most Industries over the Past Decade;” Nike’s diversity lead departs during review of corporate culture, Arianna Huffington talked about everyone needing to speak about diversity. Campaign US announced Campaign I&C Top 20  which “honors the brands and creative teams behind a new wave of advertising that reflects the richness and diversity of 21st century America.” Here is the site to nominate your ad. 

Yesterday was the Boston Marathon and  I am now a Desiree Linden fan, Not only because she is the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon since 1985 or because she is Latina. It is because she won after slowing down to wait for another American because she did not think she (Landen) would finish. A selfless act that speaks to leadership and teamwork.

Today is the first day of Hispanicize, follow online with the hashtag #Hispz18.

Congratulations to Shuronda Robinson for the 23rd anniversary of her agency Adisa Communications. Read her post here reflecting on her journey.  

ICYMI Heinz promoted its mayo-ketchup sauce, causing a twitter debate. I tasted it many years ago during a trip to Venezuela. I don’t like mayo so not my thing but I loved Goya’s response.

Photo by Autumn Goodman on Unsplash

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Men as Allies, Tony Robbins and #MeToo, Workforce Diversity Success Tips, Adweek, Variety, First Latina CEO & more

Last week I attended an event in which the importance of men as allies was discussed and then I read this in the Wall Street Journal titled “Men Learn How to Be ‘Allies,’ Without Fear, to Female Colleagues.” It includes research that says that 55% of men in the U.S. said they found it “harder for them to know how to interact with women at work, according to a new Pew Research Center Poll of more than 6,000 adults.”  That is why the example Tony Robbins gave this weekend about his high profile client is so disturbing. Why would Mr. Robbins not stop his client and call him on how wrong not hiring the female candidate was, the more qualified candidate, because she was attractive? He blamed the #MeToo movement. Mr. Robbins has apologized but my bigger question is what is he telling clients now? Maybe as a coach he could help him address his concerns in a way where women are not negatively impacted by HIS issues? He could become an ally. 

We will continue to see the theme of men as allies as an important part of positive change. In this post Melinda Gates  (which talks about much more and is an important read) she says, “Men, this is your invitation to be an ally.” For those interested in learning and doing more, I did find the Forté Men as Allies Initiative. The site includes research and resources and encourages men to create ally groups. You can find information here. Maybe Tony Robbins should look them up….

In other news, The Harvard Business Review recently published two interesting pieces: “5 Things We Learned About Creating a Successful Workplace Diversity Program” and  “How to Use Employee Referrals Without Giving Up Workplace Diversity.” Both include good tips as you continue to work to foster diversity in your organizations. Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO, also shared some good tips here for tech companies and Susan Giles wrote about why diversity is essential for innovation. This week CNN profiled Geisha Williams, CEO and President of PG&E Corp, who is the first Latina CEO of a major U.S. company.  

Congratulations to the incredible leaders celebrated in AdWeek’s “11 Inspiring Women Who Have Broken Down Advertising’s Most Persistent Barriers.” Variety also released its 2018 Power of Women New York Impact List. Here is the weekly update on the record breaking Black Panther, this past week it passed “The Titanic.’

ICYMI this by Julio Ricardo Varela titled “The trouble with being the ‘only Latino in the room’’ is another recommended read for the week.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 50 Years Later plus updates on the Tech Industry, Black Panther, Zara, Spotify, Pew Spanish Use Insights & more

This month is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s final speech and his assassination.  There has been extensive coverage on broadcast, print and digital media  – just do a quick Google search.  Per USA Today, “Thousands of people are expected to rally in the nation’s capital Wednesday to mark 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, all with the hope of finishing his work to end racism in the U.S.” Here is a list of five speeches written by Dr. King and that, as this article states, we should all read. Here is this interview from this weekend with Ambassador Andrew Young in which he reminds us that  “Martin Luther King Jr. ‘never lost faith in the American dream’.”

On the tech front, Jesse Jackson sent a letter to tech companies asking that they redouble their diversity efforts. Fast Company profiled Arlan Hamilton’s VC which is focused on funding inclusive companies.  D Magazine had a good recap of a conversation on diversity during Dallas Startup Week. Freddy Vaca from the Pinnacle Group had some good advice: “Be unique. Every company has its own story. Create yours.”

At this point I feel like I should just do a weekly update on which milestone Black Panther has achieved – this week it topped Jurassic Park as fourth-highest grossing movie of all time in the U.S.

Spotify is looking for women of color podcasters, learn more here; Pew Hispanic released new research on Hispanic parents use of Spanish read more here and according to news reports, Zara is using a diversity algorithm to scan clothing.

Congratulations to the inductees of its first-ever DiversityInc Top 50 Hall of Fame, to the 26 Women of Color Diversifying Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, Media & Beyond – proud to see Cheryl Contee on the list; and to the 2018 PRWeek Hall of Femme inductees.

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