Years ago I recommended to the CEO of a Japanese company that he hire women graduates from the top Japanese universities for management positions. At the time women college graduates in Japan were only offered positions as a combination maid/secretary. My thinking was that the brightest women graduates would be attracted by the better opportunity and could quickly improve a rather weak management team. The CEO responded that it was "a crazy idea". (Not the first time I have heard this for one of my ideas to a CEO...you get used to it.)
An article from HBS Working Knowledge proves that I was probably correct. Jordan Siegel (HBS), Lynn Pyun (MIT) and B.Y. Cheon (Hanshin) have published a study "Multinational Firms, Labor Market Discrimination, and the Capture of Competitive Advantage by Exploiting the Social Divide". The study basically shows that multi-nationals that encourage women's advancement in countries where discrimination is the norm generate a one percent better return on assets. Hopefully the researchers will do similar studies on class, religious and racial discrimination. A previous writing on this theme is here.
My new book, Billion Dollar Company: An entrepreneur's guide to business models for high growth companies, is available on Amazon. Learn the fourth strategy Michael Porter should have included, how to determine if a market opportunity is large enough to interest venture capitalists and how product differentiation is more than just a feature set. Book website.
