McKinsey & Company: Delivering through Diversity: January 2018

This latest research reaffirms the global relevance of the correlation between diversity (defined here as a greater proportion of women and ethnically/culturally diverse individuals) in the leadership of large companies and financial outperformance. Four imperatives for delivering impact:

• Commit and cascade: CEOs and leaders must articulate a compelling vision, embedded with real accountability for delivery, and cascade down through middle management.
• Link inclusion and diversity to growth strategy: The I&D priorities must be explicitly defined based on what will drive the business growth strategy. Leading companies do this in a data-driven way.
• Craft an initiative portfolio: Initiatives in pursuit of the I&D goals should be targeted based on growth priorities, and investments made to both hard- and soft-wire the programs and culture of inclusion required to capture the intended benefits.
• Tailor for Impact: I&D initiatives should be tailored to the relevant business area or geographic region context to maximize local buy-in and impact.