Young Global Leaders, Reuters and Aviva Launch Diversity
The initiative aims to bring attention to current trends shaping the employment landscape, including an ageing workforce, competition for new markets and workforce migration. It seeks to gather further evidence on the business case for diversity, highlighting it as an opportunity to bring about greater workforce equity. This includes an awareness of gender or race issues, and covers all aspects of diversity – disability, sexuality, age, differing economic backgrounds, marital status, religion or simply different ways of thinking.
“The issue of diversity is one that I am passionate about and have struggled with for many years, both in my previous role at Unilever and now at Reuters. Why has this issue preoccupied me for many years? The answer is simple: sustainable advantage. Diversity is not a ‘nice to have’; it is absolutely critical for the success of any business. In my opinion, there are three imperatives that underpin the business case for diversity, each of which has a huge impact on the sustained growth of any business: the consumer opportunity, our adaptive advantage and the ability to engage the best talents and the best in our talents,” reported Niall FitzGerald, Chairman, Reuters, United Kingdom, and Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum.
“As ecosystems need diversity to thrive, so too does business. However, despite a diversity imperative created by an ageing workforce, competition for talent and the Y generation's increasing consumer demands, our real understanding of the benefits has been slow in coming. There now needs to be a focus on the economic dividend of diversity, allowing business to witness concrete evidence of the value proposition, so it can both benefit from diversity and furthermore drive societal change,” added Caroline Casey, Founding Chief Executive Officer, The Aisling Foundation, Ireland.
“We have come up with a strategy that fits within the remit of the World Economic Forum that will leverage the diversity business case and begin a constructive debate and dialogue around the topic,” said Katherine Garrett-Cox, Chief Investment Officer, Alliance Trust, Scotland.
The London launch of the Diversity Initiative, hosted by Niall FitzGerald in conjunction with Aviva, took place on 31 October 2007.
For further information, contact Yann Zopf of the World Economic Forum by e-mail at yzo@weforum.org or by telephone at +41 (0)22 869 1480. For more on The Forum of Young Global Leaders please visit: www.younggloballeaders.org.