Why Diversity Is the
Whole Organization’s Job
As news events clearly demonstrate, understanding the dynamics of inequality and injustice and taking action to redress them have become priorities not only for individuals, but also for businesses to better serve and reflect the world in which they operate.
In this third episode in the Next Wave series, The Wall Street Journal | Barron’s Group and Betaworks Studios brought together leading thinkers on bias, diversity and racial inequality to discuss why we need to rethink the way we approach, address and start solving this critical issue. Baratunde Thurston, writer, activist, host and comedian; Lee Hawkins, reporter for The Wall Street Journal and author of the forthcoming Nobody’s Slave; Margaret Heffernan, entrepreneur, CEO and author of Willful Blindness; and Adrianne C. Smith, global director of inclusion and diversity at WPP joined hosts from Dow Jones to talk about how to step up.
Among the insights:
“[Systemic racism] is in the water, in the air. It’s an environmental hazard. When it's repeated across economics and politics and health and education, it transcends individual action and responsibility and becomes something more system-wide.”
“The opportunity here is not we with power must help the people without power. We with whiteness must help those without whiteness. That is a charity view. And charity is a discretionary action, it’s optional. We need this to be part of the core product.” — Baratunde Thurston
“The role of racial violence has devastated families through the generations.”
“I feel that this movement is more about white consciousness or white movement than it is about us. Because we’ve been in this movement. We’ve lived the pain. We’ve been to the funerals.” — Lee Hawkins
Diversity is bigger than an HR initiative—it concerns the whole organization.
“Whatever businesses want to achieve, they do. They achieve profit margins to within a penny a share, which is almost statistically impossible. So it’s important that this becomes a business issue, not an HR one. It’s important that money is put behind it, because money is put behind the things that count. And it’s important that everyone takes it personally.” — Margaret Heffernan
Transforming culture means seeking “escape velocity.”
“In the advertising industry, we will have achieved escape velocity when organizations have removed the silo of diversity and inclusion and created an opportunity to weave it into the fabric of their brand. People then automatically think about being inclusive in nature without having someone mandate to them what they have to do.” — Adrianne C. Smith
How will the crisis accelerate the digital revolution?
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Neither The Wall Street Journal news organization nor the Barron’s news department was involved in the creation of this content.
April 16, 2020 12:00pm – 2:00pm EDT
Next Wave:
View Event Highlights
Adaptable Mindsets
for a New Reality
How Business Must Be
Part of the Solution
Writer, Activist
and Comedian
Baratunde Thurston
Entrepreneur, CEO and Writer
Margaret Heffernan
Global Director of Inclusion and Diversity, WPP
Adrianne C. Smith
Next Wave is a virtual event series of monthly talks, interviews and discussions aimed squarely at marketers that tackles the post-coronavirus reality head on and delivers intelligence on how to respond and thrive at this unprecedented time.
The series is a joint production of The Wall Street Journal | Barron’s Group and Betaworks, so expect high-level conversation with a very future-focused bent. Our conversations will help marketers navigate what look like very uncertain times ahead with big picture thinking that is ultimately designed for an audience that wants to evaluate and respond to factors of this crisis and thrive in a reshaped future.
Would you like to be involved in our Next Wave events as a speaker, sponsor or participant? Contact us at trademarketing@wsjbarrons.com for more information.
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Adrianne C. Smith is the first Global Director of Inclusion and Diversity at WPP, the largest multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology and commerce holding company. Adrianne is also the Founder and Visionary of the Cannes Can: Diversity Collective (CC:DC) which provides rising stars in the advertising and creative industry the opportunity to attend and participate in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In 2019, she made history by creating the first stand-alone Equality, Diversity and Inclusion standalone activation Inkwell Beach - Cannes in the festival’s 66 years of existence. CC:DC’s Inkwell Beach Cannes featured over 100 speakers. With more than 20+ years of industry and advocacy experience, including her work as the Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Advertising at Howard University, Adrianne has helped many individuals achieve their personal career goals and organizations achieve their strategic corporate goals. Her training and development programs were the catalyst for the success of several advertising executives. Graduates trained in her program have received numerous awards and accolades including Cannes Lion awards.
FOUNDER AND COO AT MEDIAMONKS
Dr. Margaret Heffernan produced programmes for the BBC for 13 years. She then moved to the US where she spearheaded multimedia productions for Intuit, The Learning Company and Standard&Poors. She was Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and then iCast Corporation, was named one of the "Top 25" by Streaming Media magazine and one of the "Top 100 Media Executives" by The Hollywood Reporter. The author of six books, Margaret’s third book, Willful Blindness : Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times. In 2015, she was awarded the Transmission Prize for A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, described as "meticulously researched... engagingly written... universally relevant and hard to fault." Her TED talks have been seen by over twelve million people and in 2015 TED published Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes. Her most recent book, Uncharted: How to map the future was published in 2020. She is a Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and, through Merryck & Co., mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organizations. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and continues to write for the Financial Times and the Huffington Post.
Harper Reed
former cTO for the obama 2012 campaign
Baratunde Thurston is an Emmy-nominated writer, activist, and comedian who has worked for The Onion, produced for The Daily Show, advised the Obama White House, and cleaned bathrooms to pay for his Harvard education. He hosts the iHeartMedia podcast Spit, wrote the New York Times bestseller How To Be Black, and serves on the boards of BUILD and the Brooklyn Public Library. Baratunde makes media, delivers keynotes, and promotes action with his unique blend of criticism, humor, and optimism. He’s most invested in topics of race, technology, democracy, and climate because the hard stuff has already been solved.
Anda Gansca
co-founder and ceO of knotch
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Adaptable Mindsets
for a New Reality
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Dr. Margaret Heffernan produced programmes for the BBC for 13 years. She then moved to the US where she spearheaded multimedia productions for Intuit, The Learning Company and Standard&Poors. She was Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and then iCast Corporation, was named one of the "Top 25" by Streaming Media magazine and one of the "Top 100 Media Executives" by The Hollywood Reporter. The author of six books, Margaret’s third book, Willful Blindness : Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times In 2015, she was awarded the Transmission Prize for A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, described as "meticulously researched... engagingly written... universally relevant and hard to fault."
FOUNDER AND Coo AT MEDIAMONKS
Baratunde Thurston is an Emmy-nominated writer, activist, and comedian who has worked for The Onion, produced for The Daily Show, advised the Obama White House, and cleaned bathrooms to pay for his Harvard education. He hosts the iHeartMedia podcast Spit, wrote the New York Times bestseller How To Be Black, and serves on the boards of BUILD and the Brooklyn Public Library. Baratunde makes media, delivers keynotes, and promotes action with his unique blend of criticism, humor, and optimism. He’s most invested in topics of race, technology, democracy, and climate because the hard stuff has already been solved.
Sir Martin Sorrell
Executive Chairman at S4 Capital
Dr. Margaret Heffernan produced programmes for the BBC for 13 years. She then moved to the US where she spearheaded multimedia productions for Intuit, The Learning Company and Standard&Poors. She was Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and then iCast Corporation, was named one of the "Top 25" by Streaming Media magazine and one of the "Top 100 Media Executives" by The Hollywood Reporter. The author of six books, Margaret’s third book, Willful Blindness : Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times In 2015, she was awarded the Transmission Prize for A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, described as "meticulously researched... engagingly written... universally relevant and hard to fault."
Wesley ter Haar
FOUNDER AND Coo AT MEDIAMONKS
Adrianne C. Smith is the first Global Director of Inclusion and Diversity at WPP, the largest multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology and commerce holding company. Adrianne is also the Founder and Visionary of the Cannes Can: Diversity Collective (CC:DC) which provides rising stars in the advertising and creative industry the opportunity to attend and participate in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In 2019, she made history by creating the first stand-alone Equality, Diversity and Inclusion standalone activation Inkwell Beach - Cannes in the festival’s 66 years of existence. CC:DC’s Inkwell Beach Cannes featured over 100 speakers.
Event Recap
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Neither The Wall Street Journal news organization nor the Barron’s news department was involved in the creation of this content.
“A lot of our crisis is due to a lack of empathy and understanding and sensitivity to the humanity and dignity of black people.”
"Racism has achieved pandemic status. It’s been around for a lot longer than the coronavirus and will be around for far long after."
Baratunde Thurston
WRITER, ACTIVIST AND COMEDIAN
REPORTER, The Wall Street Journal
Lee Hawkins
ENTREPRENEUR, CEO AND WRITER
“I don't want to work in an organization that doesn’t look like the society it serves.”
Margaret Heffernan
Global Director of Inclusion
and Diversity, WPP
“We’ve gone through the stages of diversity, inclusion and equity. Now we’re in the state of accountability.”
Adrianne C. Smith
Lee Hawkins is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, where he covers education and general assignment stories. He is also the author of the forthcoming book NOBODY'S SLAVE: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free (HarperCollins, 2021). He recently won the Logan Nonfiction Fellowship from the Carey Institute For Global Good, for in-progress work on the book. He was also a National Fellow for the USC Fund for Journalism on Childhood Well-Being for reporting on the intergenerational effects of racial violence in America.
Sir Martin Sorrell
Executive Chairman at S4 Capital
Lee Hawkins is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, where he covers education and general assignment stories. He is also the author of the forthcoming book NOBODY'S SLAVE: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free (HarperCollins, 2021). He recently won the Logan Nonfiction Fellowship from the Carey Institute For Global Good, for in-progress work on the book. He was also a National Fellow for the USC Fund for Journalism on Childhood Well-Being for reporting on the intergenerational effects of racial violence in America.
Anda Gansca
co-founder and ceO of knotch
Respond & Thrive
Prepare for a Radically
Digitized Future
Next Wave:
Entrepreneur, CEO and Writer
Margaret Heffernan
Read Bio
WRITER, ACTIVIST AND COMEDIAN
Baratunde Thurston
REPORTER, The Wall Street Journal
Lee Hawkins
Read Bio
Read Bio
Global Director of Inclusion and Diversity, WPP
Adrianne C. Smith
View Event Highlights
Respond & Thrive
Next Wave:
How Business Must Be
Part of the Solution
How Business Must Be
Part of the Solution
Next Wave:
Respond & Thrive
Respond & Thrive
Next Wave:
Adaptable Mindsets
for a New Reality
Event 2: Adaptable
Mindsets for a New Reality
Event 2: Adaptable
Mindsets for a New Reality
Event 3: How Business
Must Be Part of the Solution
Event 3: How Business
Must Be Part of the Solution
Event 4: Coming Soon
Event 4: Coming Soon
Register for Next Event:
Coming Soon
Register for Next Event:
Coming Soon
Event Series:
Respond & Thrive
Event Series:
Respond & Thrive
Event 1: Responding to a
Radically Digitized Future
Event 1: Responding to a Radically Digitized Future
Respond & Thrive
How Business Must Be
Part of the Solution
Next Wave
Event 1: Responding to a Radically Digitized Future
Respond & Thrive
Event Series:
Respond & Thrive
Event 3: How Business
Must Be Part of the Solution
Coming Soon
Event 4: Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Discover More From Next Wave
Event 2: Adaptable
Mindsets for a New Reality
Respond & Thrive
Event Series:
Respond & Thrive
Event 1: Responding to a Radically Digitized Future
Event 3: How Business
Must Be Part of the Solution
Coming Soon
Event 4: Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Discover More From Next Wave
REPORTER, The Wall Street Journal
Lee Hawkins
Read Bio
Read Bio
“I don’t want to work in an organization that doesn’t look like the society it serves.”
Margaret Heffernan
ENTREPRENEUR, CEO AND WRITER
“A lot of our crisis is due to a lack of empathy and understanding and sensitivity to the humanity and dignity of black people.”
Lee Hawkins
REPORTER, The Wall Street Journal
Watch the Inaugural April 16 Event
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“We’ve gone through the stages of diversity, inclusion and equity. Now we’re in the state of accountability.”
Adrianne C. Smith
Global Director of Inclusion
and Diversity, WPP
Event Highlights
Event 2: Adaptable
Mindsets for a New Reality
Her TED talks have been seen by over twelve million people and in 2015 TED published Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes. Her most recent book, Uncharted: How to map the future was published in 2020. She is a Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and, through Merryck & Co., mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organizations. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and continues to write for the Financial Times and the Huffington Post.
Adrianne C. Smith is the first Global Director of Inclusion and Diversity at WPP, the largest multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology and commerce holding company. Adrianne is also the Founder and Visionary of the Cannes Can: Diversity Collective (CC:DC) which provides rising stars in the advertising and creative industry the opportunity to attend and participate in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In 2019, she made history by creating the first stand-alone Equality, Diversity and Inclusion standalone activation Inkwell Beach - Cannes in the festival’s 66 years of existence. CC:DC’s Inkwell Beach Cannes featured over 100 speakers.
With more than 20+ years of industry and advocacy experience, including her work as the Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Advertising at Howard University, Adrianne has helped many individuals achieve their personal career goals and organizations achieve their strategic corporate goals. Her training and development programs were the catalyst for the success of several advertising executives. Graduates trained in her program have received numerous awards and accolades including Cannes Lion awards.
FOUNDER AND Coo AT MEDIAMONKS
Her TED talks have been seen by over twelve million people and in 2015 TED published Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes. Her most recent book, Uncharted: How to map the future was published in 2020. She is a Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and, through Merryck & Co., mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organizations. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and continues to write for the Financial Times and the Huffington Post.
With more than 20+ years of industry and advocacy experience, including her work as the Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Advertising at Howard University, Adrianne has helped many individuals achieve their personal career goals and organizations achieve their strategic corporate goals. Her training and development programs were the catalyst for the success of several advertising executives. Graduates trained in her program have received numerous awards and accolades including Cannes Lion awards.