Growing the Diversity Pipeline

You might wonder like I did what Sullivan Cromwell and Goldman Sachs are up to holding their third conference of educators, activists and political leaders this summer on "winning strategies for young black men," as reported in a recent New York Times article by Winnie Hu.

Further digging revealed that the conference is part of these firms' diversity programs. The fundamental business issue that draws the nations largest and most respected law and investment banking firms into this work is growing the diversity pipeline:
"...at the top 20 business schools, blacks and Hispanics represent just 7 percent of the student body. In the current second-year class, that's about 900 people. For companies struggling to diversify their ranks, those numbers make recruiting a little like chasing the only woman at a party of investment bankers. She can have anyone she wants, and just about everybody's going home alone. So what's a diversity officer to do? You can't hire people who aren't there. So you have to find a way to get superstar minorities to go to the top MBA programs, where you can one day woo them."

This is how the diversity pipeline problem is described in a recent Fortune Magazine article by Nadira A. Hira, "An Eye for Talent" in its November 21, 2006 issue

The article features a powerhouse social entrepreneur who sat next to me at Mohunk this year, John Rice, who is doing something about growing the diversity pipeline. John's organization is Management Leadership for Tomorrow , a national nonprofit that focuses on the development of the "next generation of African American, Hispanic and Native American business leaders."

Other organizations doing good work in this area, click on The Pipeline link on this page of the Diversity Pipeline Alliance's web site.

Carla E. Dearing