‘Mixtocracy’: Encouraging diversity of thinking
Australia needs a diversity of ideas, capabilities and cultural intelligence to navigate technological, social, economic and geopolitical changes.
Discussing the importance of diversity, our CEO, Mukund Narayanamurti, participated in a Fisher Leadership boardroom breakfast on ‘mixtocracy,’ alongside Vijaya Vaidyanath, CEO, Yarra City Council and Fisher Leadership, Managing Director, Jo Fisher.
The event explored how boards and leadership teams can break the cycle of uniformity to reflect the broader diversity of our community, and achieve stronger performance.
Speaking at the boardroom breakfast, Ms Vaidyanath set the scene on the need to understand diversity:
“Diversity, is absolutely an important topic, but like leadership was some years back: Much googled, much talked about, much written about, but least understood.”
Ms Vaidyanath presented the case for greater representation of our communities in senior leadership positions:
“Your community is no longer just white Anglo-Saxon, they are different. And how you respond to that community requires a lot of engagement, understanding and perspective.”
Highlighting a recent McKinsey & Company report, Mukund noted the importance of investing in the right team, to generate stronger returns.
“The business performance angle is really compelling. McKinsey & Company found that for senior executive teams and boards that represented greater levels of cultural diversity – the top quartile out-performed the bottom quartile, quite significantly. By 33% [leadership teams] compared with 43% [boards]. And this is financial performance.”
Referencing a 2018 Australian Human Rights Commission report 'Leading Change', Mukund observed:
“In the context of ASX200 companies, you find that only about 3% of CEOs have a non-European background. This is a dismal statistic for a society that prides itself on its multiculturalism.”
Asialink Business' 2017 Match Fit report underlined the low level of Asia capability in board members and senior executive teams on the ASX200. The report found that the senior leadership of 90% of ASX 200 companies and 82% of the top 30 private companies were not adequately equipped to do business with Asia.
For more, watch the event highlights here: