The late 1960’s will forever be remembered as the era that birthed feminism. As women all over the world demanded their emancipation, challenged the patriarchy and fought for equality – a basic human right – something was happening at the headquarters of the French carmaker Renault.
Inspired by the movement, the company saw an opportunity to get more women to drive its cars. So in 1972 it released the Renault 5, which became the first of its vehicles targeted specifically at the female driver. The R5 went on to achieve iconic status, becoming France’s best-selling car between 1972 and 1986.
Since the beginning of time, men have been telling women what to do and how to do it – bar that time in the Garden of Eden. And as with many other things designed for, and with, the woman in mind: the Renault 5 was designed by a man. To be fair, Renault probably didn’t purposely lock out women from the design and production process, the automotive industry was dominated by men. It still is.
But a lot has changed at Renault since then. Today, the 120-year old car manufacturer is rewriting the rules, with women making up close to 25 per cent of its workforce and Executive Committee, as well as 43.7 per cent of the Board of Directors as of last year. These gains can largely be attributed to the company’s Women@Renault initiative, which was launched in 2010 with the aim of increasing the number of women at all levels within the company. The result: diversity, inclusion, some really nice-looking cars, and impressive sales.
Research has shown that diversity in the workplace leads to better quality decisions and products. It extends beyond gender equality to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability, bringing with it diversity of opinion that is a key ingredient of any successful organisation.
Let’s face it: working alongside people with mindsets similar to ours is comfortable, but a little discomfort, a little difference of opinion is much healthier in the long term, and it’s good for business.
Embracing diversity is not just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do. It’s the human resource version of investment. Just like smart investors spread their risk by diversifying their portfolios to increase returns, smart businesses benefit greatly from diverse workforces that bring different skills, opinions, experiences and ideas to the table.
In today’s fast-paced world, where businesses are expected to innovate, and to do so quickly and consistently, diversity is hot. In fact, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Diversity and Innovation Survey 2017, “increasing the diversity of leadership teams leads to more and better innovation and improved fi犀利士
nancial performance.”
The study, which surveyed 1,700 companies in eight countries, revealed that those with above average diversity scores reported 45 per cent average innovation revenue and overall better financial performance, compared to the 26 per cent innovation revenue reported by companies with below average scores.
But diversity isn’t just hiring more women, or people with disabilities or different ethnicities: it’s allowing them to participate. When diversity and inclusion mix, that’s when the magic happens.
Take Safaricom’s own experience for example. In December last year, we launched the M-PESA Interactive Voice Response (IVR), a solution designed to protect the dignity of our visually impaired customers.
The service allows them to query balances in their mobile wallets using their voices, therefore reducing reliance on others and safeguarding them against risks associated with sharing of personal information, such as fraud.
The launch of the M-PESA IVR boosted brand trust among this customer segment, and is just one of a number of improvements we intend to make in order to allow this segment of the population to enjoy the same level of access to our products and services as the rest of our customers. But there’s a chance it wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have the visually impaired represented among us.
Diana Yatich, a blind member of staff and one of 100 people with various forms of disability working at Safaricom, was instrumental in helping us design the M-PESA IVR user journey. By involving her in the process, we were able to distill insights that were reinforced by a focus group made up of other visually impaired customers, and to take the product to market.
While it’s still too early to report the commercial gains from this, the launch of the M-PESA IVR was the first step towards innovating for the unique needs of Kenya’s blind, who make up approximately two per cent of the country’s population. It’s about inclusion, which one can argue is also responsible for M-PESA’s success.
So you see, diversity is not just a nice thing to have, it makes business sense. By embracing diversity and inclusion businesses can tap into a wealth of knowledge, experiences and ideas that will help them innovate, find unconventional yet sustainable solutions to everyday challenges and at the same time shore up their bottom lines.
Diversity is inviting someone to the ball; inclusion is asking that person to dance. Businesses need to do both if they are to truly succeed in an increasingly dynamic and demanding marketplace.
