Why diversity is good for selfish, old-fashioned, upper class white men

There are many arguments in favour of diversity in the workforce in terms of freedom, liberalism and equality (mix in varying measures according to your political viewpoint).

But my colleague at MHP Communications, our Chair Gay Collins, has also written a strong piece pointing out how diversity in the boardroom also makes for more successful companies:

The McKinsey study also looked at performance comparative to a number of women in senior management functions. This clearly showed, out of nine pre-determined organisational criteria, companies with three or more women in senior management functions scored much more highly than companies without women on their management teams. A second study concluded, unequivocally, that companies with a higher proportion of women on their management teams not only had the best overall performance but also significantly higher return on equity and stock price growth compared to their male only counterparts.

Further support comes from a study of Fortune 500 companies which found that return on equity for companies with more female board directors outperform those with the least by 53%, return on sales by 42% and return on invested capital by 66%. Stronger than average results prevail at companies where at least three women serve.

Better run companies make for more jobs and more tax revenues that we all benefit from – even selfish, old-fashioned, upper class white men who snort in derision at the idea that there are any sorts of problems about discrimination that they might want to care about.