Diversity and Business Succession

Friday, May 12 2023

With our rapidly changing multicultural society, expect diversity and business succession to become interdependent factors that will add value to your business.

Diversity and Business Succession

Diverse businesses are becoming more common, having enlightened leadership, therefore could garner a higher valuation. Many organizations that have a strategy for diversity are already reaping the rewards that it offers. Shareholders and buyers appreciate:

  • They are hiring the best and the brightest without concern for race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender or age. Taking a liberal approach, they are winning the war on talent, attracting and retaining top people from many walks of life. A large part of a company’s success is the collective minds, abilities and skills that have made the business prosper.
  • Innovation is enhanced when you have a multiplicity of people. Like Einstein said, We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. To get different thinking, you need to look at the problem from different perspectives.

Attraction and Retention

An inclusive workforce tends to be a more engaged workforce. Engagement is an antidote to carelessness, low morale, poor productivity, and a dysfunctional business. As an example:

  • Diversity at the executive level will attract different people to your organizations. Whether it’s true or not, perception will send a message that some groups have an unfair advantage so they won’t even apply for the job.
  • Members of diverse groups can help you gain access to new markets because these markets may be growing faster than traditional markets. According to Statistics Canada, the Indigenous population increased by 9.4% compared to 5.3% of non-Indigenous population from 2016-2021.
  • In Canada, 75% of our population growth comes from immigration who will keep our economy growing.
  • 22% of Canadians are disabled, for whom we can continue to do more for them in the workforce.
  • Estimates put the buying power of the LGBTQ2S+ community at over $800 billion annually in the US, so members of these groups will help you relate respectfully to those growing markets.

Take a strategic approach to diversity within your succession plan then make a commitment from the top. Done well, it will help your company to continue to grow, flourish and become more valuable.

To find out how your employees feel about important topics like diversity, contact TAC to learn about our employee survey tools.

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