5 inspirational quotes on workplace diversity and business
Many companies have realized the advantages of multicultural teams in the office. Diverse work environments foster innovation, a good atmosphere, and productivity at their finest. Well-known business leaders have spread the word: an important part of their success relies on working with professionals who come from many different backgrounds, places, and cultures.
In this post, I will comment on some well-known business personalities and their views on multicultural work teams. Quotes included here feature Sundar Pichai (Google), Inga Beale (Lloyds), Verna Myers (Netflix), Jack Welch (General Electric), and Tim Berners-Lee.
5 inspirational business quotes about diversity are listed below:
Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, about diversity
“A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone.”
Can you imagine Google without being a global work team? This popular search engine company was started by Russian mathematician Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin and American computer engineer Larry Page back in 1998. We can say that their business was a merge of two cultures right from the start.
In 2015, Indian-American engineer Sundar Pichai became the CEO of Google. Google's approach was always diverse and global: they had a grand vision of the future, and they knew they needed the best talent from all over the world.
Inga Beale, former Lloyds CEO, about diversity
“The Business case speaks for itself — diverse teams are more innovative and successful in going after new markets.”
British businesswoman Dame Inga Kristine Beale is the former CEO of the renowned insurance firm Lloyd’s of London. She was instrumental in the development of Pride@Lloyds initiative, an internal LGBT employee resource group. Of course, she is an outspoken advocate of human rights and diversity.
During her career, Beale has actively worked to bring diverse voices to the ventures she is involved in. As a former leader of a famous transnational firm such as Lloyds, she embraces working with new countries and cultures as a way to expand human values and improve business ethics.
Verna Myers, VP of Inclusion Strategy at Netflix, about diversity
“Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.”
Verna Myers is the VP of Inclusion Strategy of video streaming platform giant Netflix. As you surely already know, Netflix's global business has been expanding consistently in many countries of the world. They knew right from the start that they had to be multicultural. The company’s initiatives include video localization, working on content creation in many countries, and engaging with their customers in various languages all over the world.
None of this would have been possible if it was not for an inclusive HR policy. Fresh ideas come from fresh teams, and Verna Myers knows this. Her focus is to curate and implement work strategies that integrate cultural diversity and equity in all of Netflix's operations.
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, about diversity
“Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital — the world’s best talents and greatest ideas.”
John Francis Welch Jr. was an American business executive, and chemical engineer, who served as chairman and CEO of General Electric. He was especially interested in innovation and inspiring creativity in others, in such a way that he is credited for coining the term “boundaryless organization” to express that traditional barriers between the company’s roles were removed.
Welch’s approach, in fact, increased productivity in the organization’s “fragmented, geographically dispersed” patterns. His horizontal work philosophy was aimed to improve communication between suppliers and customers. But not only that, it resulted in much better coordination of workforces that are located in many cities around the globe.
Tim Berners-Lee: Computer Engineer, credited as one of the fathers of the Internet
“We need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges.”
The father of the internet himself, English computer engineer Tim Berners-Lee, said this. His work aimed to connect different people from different places. He dreamed about changing the way cultures interacted. He certainly achieved his goal.
Berners-Lee has spoken on several occasions about how the Internet changed the way governments must act, how businesses are conducted and how cultures relate to each other. He is an outspoken and active advocate of the open source movement, information access, and web accessibility.
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Hopefully, these quotes on work and diversity can inspire you for your business or project. After all, it doesn’t matter if you are working alone or as part of a team, sharing what you do is always the best way to go.