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Ask HN: Can you name a “truly” diverse company?

3 points by zxienin ↗ HN
Companies, startups, organizations, non profits - each manage "diversity" to varying extent.

Is there really a truly diverse company, or even close? One that weighs color, gender, ethnicity a naught.

Since ~4yrs, I have markedly noticed serious attention on increased female presence, across the leadership, board and in general. (at least, amongst companies housed in western developed countries)

Yet, I find this shortsighted. For instance, in a global company operating in 50+ countries, with non trivial growth and revenues coming from US, EU and Asian markets - key leadership is always rooted in country of origin.

A German global company never lets power quorum go non-German. Leadership needed in a fast growth asian market? Send a German leader to China for 4 years, instead of hiring a local talent. 40% asian workforce? In 10 years, 0% representation in board, or even corporate executive leadership.

3 comments

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uberman
Part of the trick is that no matter what definition one picks for "diversity" it is sure to conflict with what many others think the term "should" mean

For example, many would argue that your definition (color, gender, ethnicity blind) would not be diversity at all.

zxienin
is it really that fuzzy?

if so, I'd like to hear how divergent the views are on what diversity means in first place.

uberman
It could easily be argued that the diversity you describe (one where color, gender, ethnicity is not considered) is better described as a meritocracy. Some believe that a meritocracy leads naturally to a diverse workforce, while others oppose this viewpoint believing that a meritocracy inherently privileges some select group. I don't see a way to reconcile these perspectives.

Some believe that members of selected groups should be privileged over others to make up for historic/systemic biases and that is diversity. Others see this as hypocritical new form of *-ism.

Some believe that diversity is achieved when your pool of talent is reflective of, and represents the community, but what community? Is it the community that represents your clients, the community that represents your job applicants, the community that represents the region you do business in? Some believe that diversity is achieved when your pool of talent is reflective of all possible communities.

Some believe that diversity means "not the privileged class" (however they want to define it). Some believe a predominantly white college is not diverse, while a predominantly black college is, others will say neither college is diverse as they don't have the requisite representation of some other community of interest.

Finally, I believe it is not possible at the moment to pick a universal definition for diversity given the diametrically opposed views surrounding "affirmative action" and "meritocracy". Each camp believes their perspective leads to diversity while the other's lead to oppression. These are just the various (potentially conflicting) interpretations of diversity that come to mind. I want to be clear here that I am not taking a stand on any definition of "diversity" just that this term clearly means different things to different people. I also want to be clear that I believe companies can pick a definition and strive to actualize it. Even giant multi-nationals. In the end, any objective to promote diversity is probably better than no objective to do so.

For what it is worth, Forbes maintains a list of the "Best Workplaces for Diversity".

https://fortune.com/best-workplaces-for-diversity/

That seems as good a place to start as any.