Although the evening was chilly and rainy, and traversing the campus grounds to Benson University Center was somewhat reminiscent of being inside a giant slushy machine, the Marketing Summit’s “Diversity in Corporate America” roundtable went on fantastically. The university’s Pugh Auditorium was packed with teams, executives from various companies, and Wake Forest faculty and staff that included Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch. Starting off the evening, Dean Steve Reinemund introduced each of the panelists; Ronald Glover from IBM, Andrés Tapia from Hewitt Associates, Esther Silver-Parker from Wal-Mart, and Ronald Parker from PepsiCo. Dean Reinemund moderated the event and afterwards, Andrés Tapia signed copies of his book, The Inclusion Paradox. Here are a few notes from the four questions asked:
Q1. Dean Reinemund asked the panelists to describe what leadership attributes in the next generation of leaders are desired? And how have these changed over the years?
Silver-Parker: Candidates with an uncompromising adherence to honesty, who care passionately about people, who understand the value of people and their differences, who can manage ambiguity and who understand their strengths, weaknesses and can regulate themselves. This has changed over the years in that the command and control personality is no longer the way to go, but the personality who can build alliances, lead teams, and who vision to look beyond.
Parker: Growth, empowerment, responsibility, trust, and integrity. The desired attributes have changed over the years, in that leaders must have balance strategically, practically, socially – and most importantly, the next generation of leaders must have a global mindset that is constantly reflected in everything they do.
Glover: The next generation must have competencies in the notion of global collaboration, embracing challenges, and partnerships not just within their particular organizations but across the world.
Tapia: “Truisms have gone out the window.” Leaders must have creative problem-solving competencies (“be able to write the new book”), interdisciplinary synergetic energy, cross-cultural competencies to manage the varying differences among us, and be above all, and value-driven leaders.
Q2. How can we in higher education help prepare the next generation of business leaders better? What are you seeing or not seeing?
Parker: Developing stronger partnerships with the private sector, finding out what the emerging trends are, knowing that the solution to today’s problems are not the solutions to tomorrow’s problems, developing intellectual curiosities, and even having professors do ‘internships’ so that they can also have first-hand knowledge of what is going on in the surrounding world.
Glover: Developing business leaders who can work across multiple disciplines and continue to be knowledgeable of analysis and the business process but of it is of ever-increasing importance is to be innovative, creative and have the ability to think outside of the box. Allow students to have “experiential learning.”
Tapia: Develop students who are self-aware and who better understand how others are alike and different. Develop a strong partnership between the business world and academia.
Silver-Parker: Teach cultural-competence, create the debate and then find the solution. We are still facing the tough issues including race, gender, sexuality, etc.
Parker: Yes, have the debate but structure it and have it so that people do not become judgmental.
Glover: If the debate does not happen in academia, it may not happen anywhere. Students have to be aware of the ‘way’ they think about things. As an executive, “I am the customer and the products are the students that are produced from the schools.”
Q3. What effects has the financial downturn had on diversity?
Silver-Parker: The recession “has been good” for Wal-Mart. We are finding new challenges because we have new customers; it is finding out how to keep those customers once the economy improves.
Parker: There are new metrics, built around innovation, collaboration and agility, and we need to know what the return on our investment is within the diversity arena. Diversity is now defined in a much broader context.
Glover: It is important within a recession to go back to the values that made the organization successful in the first place and then redefine and revive them. (Cited the “Smarter Planet” T-shirts that the teams were wearing) The definition of diversity is expanding and the challenge lies in the opportunity…the book isn’t written on how to do this yet.
Tapia: It is the company that didn’t shut down during the recession, but narrowed its priorities and focused on those few … that is surviving and even finding success.
Q4. What is one piece of advice that you would like to leave with us?
Tapia: Be steely, prepared and self-aware of the ways that you think differently than your future organization. Be savvy and know how they think, and be savvy in how you present yourself and your ideas.
Parker: Discover your personal reset button; be courageous to re-invent yourself when the winds of change blow against you. There are new models in this world, the recession is resetting the market, and we need a recleansing of the way we think.
Silver-Parker: Think a lot about your value-system. Learn to express yourself with the written word. Spend more time building your skill sets than your resume.
Glover: The world is resetting and is unforgiving to those who do not keep up; it is not limited to this nation. KEEP UP; be brutally honest with yourself about your skills and what the world requires of you. Be willing, apart from your values, to change with the world.
-Molly Nunn
