Best and Worst Minority-Friendly Organizations - MFQ Test Applied!
Any debate on the minority friendliness of certain organizations raises two issues:
1. Whether such an organization is or has been friendly to minorities or not
2. Whether such an entity is patently run by leaders who are either ignorant about diversity needs, or are, simply, bigots/racists who don't believe that minorities have a place in their organizations.
Or is it really that simple? The answer is usually either "probably not" or "it depends"!
But, undoubtedly, both groups deserve to be exposed for their truths!!!
Well, it is never wise to start with generalities or the premises that most or many organizations that don't incude enough minorities are racists and that most minorities that don't feel welcome are prepared or qualified to be included in such corporate cultures. In fact, these two premises are often not 100% the case. However, some companies, which are, historically, not included on the list of minority friendly organizations (based on reputable and empirically valid qualitative research), are either run by leaders that are imcompetent or simply patently racist. In either case, they are run by lousy leaders who are guided mainly by their authority in that company (either as an owner or partner) and not by the best interest of the entity itself or even society at large. In essence, should an organization not fall into any of the minority-fiendly lists, and is a reputable organization, then one can 'rebuttably" assert that such an organization is "RACIST"! Accordingly, leaders of such organizations must be kept "ACCOUNTABLE". Please refer my previous article titled "Let us Keep Our Leaders Acccountable" in order to address this issue. However, this article is about the issue of minority-friendliness.
To put things into perspective, according to Forbes.com,basing its assertion on a survey conducted by Calvert Investments, a mutual fund firm that invests in companies that engage in sustainable and responsible practices, Citigroup and Merck has recently received top ratings for their records on including women, minorities and people with diverse sexual orientation, while Berkshire Hathaway (run by Warren Buffet) and eBay score at the bottom of a new ranking of diversity among companies in the S&P 100. Interesting, huh?
A year or so ago, I came up with a test called a "Minority Friendliness Quotient(MFQ)" to rate/grade a company's minority friendliness. As a multi-degreed intellectual, I have the privilege of being able to, objectively, self-analyze and analyze others concurrently ("metagcognition"), and having done so about many entities, I was able to determing that such a test was needed to keep such entities or their leaders accountable. After all, often, many of these companies became more prosperous because of the very minorities that they fail to include in their entities. Hence, the birth and genesis of the MFQ.
As previously stated, at LorinsPOST, we measure a company's minority friendliness quotient by using the LorinsPOST MFQ 5-prong test: 1. It treats its employees the same way regardless of ethnic or cultural background. And although that does not in of itself imply that such an organization is “minority friendly", it is nonetheless a condition precedent to actually becoming a minority friendly organization. (20 MFQ Points) 2. It acknowledges and respects differences in its employees' ethnic and cultural backgrounds and takes these differences into account when hiring, and promoting them. (20 MFQ Points) 3. It takes steps towards hiring a culturally diverse staff, providing forms and materials in different languages not only for the staff but also any customers that they have from any existing minority populations. (20 MFQ Points) 4. It creates paths towards upward mobility for both existing and prospective minority employees. (20 MFQ Points) 5. It creates incentives to maximize the diversity of their staff members and/or that of their clientele, all while making them feel as comfortable as possible. (20 MFQ Points) An organization's MFQ score is measured as follows:
0 MFQ Points = F = Failure (i.e., failure to provide any indicator of effort towards MF) 20 MFQ Points = D = Poor (minor sign of existing effort to become minority-friendly) 40 MFQ Points = D+ = Fair (reasonable sign of existing effort towards becoming MF) 60 MFQ Points = C = Good (i.e., good indicator of effort towards MF) 80 MFQ Points = B = Very Good (i.e., very good indicator of effort towards MF) 100 MFQ Points = A = Excellent (i.e., excellent effort towards becoming MF)
Great Reader for Those Who Want to Understand the Psychology of Minority-Unfriendly Entities
I have chosen to focus on the minority-friendly organizations in this article because the organizations that aren't included on that list are "rebuttably" unfriendly to minorities. In other words, based on credibly-conducted research, such organizations should retain such a status until proven otherwise by credible and substantiating evidence.
According to a sound survey conducted by Diversityinc.com, which is in its 16th year and in which more than 1,600 companies participated in 2015, the following companies fall in its top 50 of its list of minority friendly organizations:
1. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation 2. Kaiser Permanente 3. PricewaterhouseCoopers 4. EY 5. Sodexo 6. MasterCard 7. AT&T 8. Prudential Financial 9. Johnson & Johnson 10. Procter & Gamble 11. Wells Fargo 12. Deloitte 13. Marriott International 14. Abbott 15. Accenture 16. Merck & Co. 17. Cox Communications 18. KPMG 19. General Mills 20. ADP 21. Cummins 22. IBM 23. Anthem 24. Eli Lilly and Company 26. Kellogg Company 25. Target 27. New York Life 28. BASF 29. Wyndham Worldwide 30. Comcast NBCUniversal 31. Dell 32. Aetna 33. Allstate Insurance Company 34. The Walt Disney Company 35. Northrop Grumman 36. Toyota Motor North America 37. TIAA-CREF 38. Colgate-Palmolive 39. TD Bank 40. Intentionally Left Blank 41. Time Warner 42. Nielsen 43. Monsanto 44. AbbVie 45. Kraft Foods 46. MassMutual Financial Group 47. Hilton Worldwide 48. Rockwell Collins 49. KeyCorp 50. Verizon Communications
In a separate survey conducted by Forbes.com, in which many companies failed to surface, the following stats were gathered:
Merck and CitiGroup were tied at first place for minority-friendliness (earning 100 points each)
JP Morgan Chase, and Coca-Cola were tied at second place (earning 95 points each)
For instance, at CitiGroup, there were minorities in top jobs as of August 2012, CEO Vikram Pandit (he left in October) and co-president Manuel Medina-Morra. Three women and three minorities on board of 12. Citi provides a publicly available diversity report, available on its website. It was the only company to score 100 in Calvert’s 2010 survey; and at Merck, there are two minorities in the C-suite including Kenneth Frazier, an African-American, and Executive Vice President Peter S. Kim. On a board of 12, two women and two minorities. At Coca-Cola, there were two minority executives as of August 2012 and two minority women on 17-member board plus two minority men; and at JP Morgan Chase, two women executives, Mary Callahan Erdoes, Chief Executive Officer of Asset & Wealth Management and Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake, and two women and one minority male on 11-member board.
In the same Forbes.com survey, there were only 11 companies that earned 90 points, which included 'PepsiCo", the only company in the S&P 100 list, which has a minority woman as its CEO, namely, Indra Nooyi. These 11 companies are listed below, because they, all, essentially SHARED-THIRD-PLACE at 90 points:
Abbott Laboratories Accenture American Express Bristol-Myers Squibb Comcast Dell Kraft Foods McDonald’s Nike PepsiCo Pfizer.
On the other hand, the following companies were listed at the BOTTOM OF THE MINORITY-FRIENDLINESS LIST:
Berkshire-Hathaway – 5 points (out of 100) No women or minorities in the C-suite, two women on the board of 12.
Simon Property Group – 10 points (out of 100) No women top executives, did not respond to survey, no evidence of diversity programs, though it does address sexual orientation as part of its equal opportunity program. One woman on board of 10.
National Oilwell Varco – 15 points (out of 100) No women or minorities on the board or in the C-suite, but the company addresses sexual orientation in its equal employment policy. Its director selection criteria say it seeks women and minorities.
TIE AT 30 POINTS (OUT OF 100):
EBay No women or minority top executives, two women on board of 12. The company offers domestic partner benefits to LGBT employees. And Apache One woman in the C-suite, no women or minorities on the board.
According to the same survey, Four companies tied for NEXT-WORSE:
1. Philip Morris International,
2 .Halliburton (formerly headed by Richard "Dick" Cheney, the former Vice President)
3. Gilead Sciences
4. Emerson Electric.
There was a rather alarming news/statistics for women and minorities from the same survey:
1) Though women are hired as frequently as men, 56% of S&P 100 companies have no women or minorities in senior executive positions.
2) Women have 19% of board positions but they have only 8% of senior executive slots.
3) Though 98 companies have women directors and 86 have minority directors, only 37 have minority women on their boards.
According to Forbes.com, when it came to what LorinsPOST calls the rebuttably MINORITY UNFRIENDLY ORGANIZATIONS (i.e., patently racist organizations) diversity is so lacking in so many areas, that there neds to be a complete overhaul of their corporate diversity programs and disclosures.
SILVER LINING - it is said that there is always one, thus, is there any in this situation?
According to Forbes, the only meager silver lining is that the most frequently awarded score seemed to have increase from 70 points to 85, indicating that some level of progress appears to be taking place, albeit rather slowly.
LorinsPOST Minority-friendly Report Card
Based on the totality of the circumstances, the followings grades have been given according to the LorinsPOst.com MFQ test:
A+ Companies:
Merck CitiGroup
A- Companies:
JP Morgan Chase Coca-Cola Abbott Laboratories Wells Fargo ADP Marriott International Allstate Insurance Company
B+ Companies:
AbbVie Accenture Anthem AT&T American Express BASF Bristol-Myers Squibb Colgate-Palmolive Comcast Cox Communications Cummins Dell Deloitte Eli Lilly and Company Aetna EY General Mills IBM Johnson & Johnson Kaiser Permanente Kellogg Company KPMG Kraft Foods MasterCard McDonald’s Monsanto NBC New York Life Nike Nielsen Northrop Grumman Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation PepsiCo Pfizer. PricewaterhouseCooper Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial Sodexo Target TD Bank Time Warner TIAA-CREF Toyota Motor North America The Walt Disney Company Universal Wyndham Worldwide
B or Better Companies: (Based on MFQ application to quality research conducted by DiversityInc.com and Fortune.com)
Baptist Health South Florida Four Seasons Hotels The Methodist Hospital System Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants Marriott International Qualcomm Men's Wearhouse Stew Leonard's Scripps Health Brocade Communications Systems Camden Property Trust Genentech Cisco Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Whole Foods Market USAA Darden Restaurants CarMax Nordstrom Atlantic Health Intel Aflac St. Jude Children's Research Hospital TDIndustries Bright Horizons Family Solutions Publix Super Markets Nugget Market Aéropostale American Express NetApp Goldman Sachs Intuit Microsoft Deloitte Rackspace Hosting Salesforce.com Teach For America Mattel Zappos.com Starbucks QuikTrip Bingham McCutchen Morningstar JM Family Enterprises Ernst & Young Booz Allen Hamilton Adobe Systems Build-A-Bear Workshop Alston & Bird Arkansas Children's Hospital KPMG Boston Consulting Group Container Store PricewaterhouseCoopers Meridian Health W. W. Grainger FactSet Research Systems Scottrade National Instruments Mercedes-Benz USA DreamWorks Animation SKG NuStar Energy Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company Novo Nordisk Balfour Beatty Construction Stryker Perkins Coie General Mills W. L. Gore & Associates American Fidelity Assurance DPR Construction Shared Technologies Quicken Loans MITRE SAS Wegmans Food Markets EOG Resources OhioHealth J. M. Smucker S.C. Johnson & Son CH2M Hill PCL Construction The Everett Clinic Umpqua Bank Gilbane CHG Healthcare Services Hasbro Devon Energy Recreational Equipment (REI) Chesapeake Energy Mayo Clinic Baker Donelson SRC/SRCTec Johnson Financial Group Edward Jones Plante & Moran Robert W. Baird Southern Ohio Medical Center
D or Less Companies:
GRADE FOR MINORITY-UNFRIENDLY (RACIST/SEXIST) ORGANIZATIONS (or WORST MiNORITY-FRIENDLY ORGANIZATIONS):
Berkshire-Hathaway (5 Points)
Rebuttably Patently Racist Companies
Philip Morris International Halliburton (formerly headed by Richard "Dick" Cheney, the former Vice President, remember the Iraq War? this is the company that got most of the contracts in Iraq. How coincidental?) Gilead Sciences Emerson Electric.
Can somebody tell me how the Donal Trump Enterpresises rated? As much as I am entertained by "The Donald" feel free to take a very WILD GUESS!!!
The shareholders and stakeholders of companies that are deemed to be unfriendly/racist to minorities have a duty to keep such leaders "ACCOUNTABLE". Should they fail to do so, it will have been their faults and not that of such leaders. It is the duty of the shareholders and consumers to demand that leaders show the same kind of respect to all members of society. LorinsPOST.com published an article entitled "Let Us Keep Our Leaders Accountable" to that end.
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This article was written by Dr. Pete Lorins and sponsored by www.RapidGigsPlus.com. Dr. Lorins is the Senior editor at LORINSPOST.com All concerns/inquiries of feedbacks can be directed at: snirol.consultants@gmail.com ...LOOKING FOR A JOB? NEED HELP AT YOUR COMPANY? Visit www.RapidGigsPlus.com Today!