Yahoo Finance

When the HRC started the corporate equality index in, what, 20 years ago, 18, 19 years ago? Elizabeth Birch was the CEO at the time, um, very few companies in the 4500, I think it was 60% had nondiscrimination policies. Now, 98% of the companies do, um, which has been amazing and a direct result of the CEI, um, and the results that they've gotten from that and the business impact, the market impact, etc. Do I think that, by the way, Jack Daniels is a great example, so is Coors, but, for Jack Daniels has a hundred percent on the corporate equality index right now. That means that they support trans rights, they have trans medical benefits, they've done all the right things. Right. Do I actually think they're going to repeal those policies? Do I actually think they're going to start discriminating against LGBT people? Are they going to repeal their non-discrimination policies? Yeah. No. Right. They're not. They may not report to the corporate equality index any longer, but I'm not sure that's the worst thing. Yeah. I'm much more concerned about what they actually do, right? Right, right. And so there's there's this interesting opportunity, I think that we as a community have to look at DEI broadly. First of all, DEI has now has legal risk that did not have 18 months ago. So, to force companies to do the same thing that they've done for 30 years, some of which has delivered amazing results, not all of which has, and that's an uncomfortable conversation that people don't like to talk about. But now, those policies and those structures have legal risk. The opportunity is to innovate. How do we say, okay, what do we need now? Yes. Right. There's a guy named Martin Davidson at UVA Darden School who talks about leveraging difference versus managing diversity. If you're managing diversity, it's a problem. It's only focused on six areas of visible difference, it's only HR driven, it's not connected to business, and it fails because you say, I have too many of this and not enough of that. Right. And what's the this? Straight white men. You have too many of them. And that is women, people of color, LGBT, you name it. And what message does that send? The straight white males doesn't matter. Right. And the people you don't have enough of, only matter because of an immutable characteristic, not their talent. Right. Yeah. Leveraging difference is the exact opposite. It's business focused, opportunity focused, all differences matter, and everybody has a part of it, and that actually works. Yeah. So, I think the opportunity for us to think differently and innovate. So, do you think then that's going to call on companies to actually be more visible in the way in which they are actually living it, doing it? My whole philosophy is how do we help companies do better. Right. I'm never going to be in the business of calling people out. I want to call people in and bring them along. I'm going to take them where they are and bring them to where we want them to be. And backing companies into a corner and naming and shaming them is not the way to get them to change. Right. But helping them see the opportunity of why it matters because they will do what's in their bottom line sustainable best interest on an ongoing basis and that's what you want them to do, not just get some award that they can point to. Right. Focus on the return on equality. Yes. Well, we always say like, people say, oh, people do it during Pride month, and it's not real. Yes. Right? So, in the same way, why would we only say that the C, because you can game any of these things? Right. Not just the CEI, the Working Mother list, there are all these lists. Right. I mean, it's it's not, the policy doesn't equal culture.

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