The CEOs Insights Paper – The role of ExCo in Driving Change
It’s time to shift the dial
Since May 2020, businesses and business leaders have made statements of intent to make progress and talked publicly about the need to take action to improve racial and ethnic minority participation in leadership roles.
The question being asked inside and outside of the boardroom is when and how will the change start to happen.
It starts with the CEO. The CEO has the power to drive change. If the CEO, the Board and ExCo are aligned in their commitment, change will happen and it will cascade right down through the organisation.
A Co-created plan of action
At an Executive Sponsorship Forum, hosted jointly by Change the Race Ratio and KPMG, we brought together an audience of CEOs and senior executives to discuss how the momentum can be driven even harder in the quest for fairness, opportunity and equality for all.
Delegates heard updates from leading business figures including event chair Richard Iferenta, Vice Chair and Partner at KPMG and Campaign Ambassador; Lord Karan Bilimoria, President (at the time) of the CBI and our Campaign Chair; Bina Mehta, Chair at KPMG and Campaign Ambassador; and David Tyler, Co-Chair of the Parker Review and Campaign Ambassador.
Through a facilitated discussion, the group of leading CEOs identified six clear actions to take to turn the dial.
- CEOs need to take personal ownership
- Clear targets need to be created to benchmark progress
- Data is needed to get the full picture on representation
- Calculate and publish your ethnicity pay gap data needs to be calculated – and published
- There needs to be investment in initiatives that work; shadow boards, sponsorship, reverse mentoring
- The leadership needs to lead by example; normalise and champion diversity in all its form
