The demographics of this country are changing dramatically, with white people projected to be the minority by 2042. Even beyond that, people--especially younger people--want a work force that is inclusive of everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, orientation or disability. By relating to the evolving marketplace and devising new customer strategies, you can make yourself invaluable.
"The customers in any part of our business--entertainment services, wireless services--are incredibly diverse and are expecting diverse responses from us," says Magda Yrizarry, vice president of workplace culture, diversity and compliance in corporate human resources at Verizon Communications, No. 1 in the DiversityInc Top 50.
"Customization has never been greater, so our customers do not want one-size-fits-all approaches. Diversity becomes increasingly important to understand a whole different set of norms, lifestyles and needs."
This goes for business-to-business companies as well. "Increasingly, clients are talking and asking for both supplier diversity and work-force diversity, and not about what your policies are and what you're doing, but about diverse teams--but it's not just that they want a diverse team, they want the best teams at the end of the day, and the best teams are diverse, especially in a global environment," says Allan Mark, America's director, diversity strategy and involvement at Ernst & Young, No. 17 in the DiversityInc Top 50.
http://www.diversityinc.com/public/4786.cf...?utm_content=DI+Newsletter+02-20-09
Oh, so it's all marketing. Nifty.
