Diversity for competitive advantage

In today’s business landscape, less than 10% of the most successful companies are being led by a female CEO. Diversity is one of the leading challenges for tech companies. By having a bigger pool of points of view, executive discussions are fuller, wider and deeper and result in staying competitive in this business climate. According to Amy Osmond, a female executive at a technology agency, the benefits of incorporating a team comprised of women, minorities and underrepresented communities is a game-changer. At Jonajo Consulting, our team is minority-based with people based in Latin America, Europe, Asia and United States and at least 50% of our team members are women. Learn more on how diversity will add value to your business below:

A diverse perspective can help you understand customers better

Having a diverse team that reflects your customer base creates a deeper understanding of customer needs and can potentially form and increases the opportunities to form a personal connection. Varied backgrounds can improve your company’s ability to serve customers and we all know how important customer service is in staying competitive in the market.

Better interpret the behavior of a global customer base

While information generated by a computer would appear objective, it can never be as objective as from coming from someone who understand that complete context of the situation or case. Personal perspective influences the quality of data you produce.

Recruit cognitive diversity

Tech companies need to consider cognitive diversity. While only 17 percent of computer science graduates are women, recruiters should not only focus on hiring people with skills in tech or in math or other areas but should focus on hiring people that bring new perspectives, new ideas and a varied skill set.

Help set a new profile of business leaders

New generations look up to people that are innovating and making changes in the business landscape. Make sure younger generations see people that come from different backgrounds making the major decisions and having an impact in the industry, this will help young kids know that everyone can achieve major success. Young girls would be motivated by finding that boards with high female representation experience a 53 percent higher return on equity, a 66 percent higher return on invested capital and a 42 percent higher return on sales.

Focus on not only race or gender diversity but also cognitive diversity to achieve differences in perspective and information processing styles.These teams will adapt to change more readily and demonstrate a greater propensity to collaborate when faced with new challenges. They explore ideas and knowledge rather that solely on what they already know. Embrace the uniqueness of all individuals and people will want to belong to an organization that believes in them.