The Diversity leader’s job is ever more complex. Originally sequestered in human resources, today’s role is much more expansive, touching on just about every aspect of the business including marketing, manufacturing, global operations, mergers and acquisitions, governance and everything in between. The recognition of the need for diversity to play in the larger business realm has caused many companies to position the chief diversity officer (CDO) position in the “C” suite reporting directly to the CEO.
But it is not enough to upgrade the reporting relationship and give CDO’s the latitude to venture outside of the confines of the human resources world, CDO’s must think differently about how diversity relates to every other aspect of the business. CDO’s must become systems thinkers.
