17 SDG Principles are Good for Business; Let’s Look at Diversity & Inclusion

I’ve been writing about the business benefits of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since they were adopted by the United Nations in September 2015.

I’m not touting my uniqueness just my alignment with the goals. Unquestionably, sustainability is good for the planet, good for the community, good for you, and good for large and small businesses, as it offers everyone a wide range of benefits and attract consumers.

Linda McMahon, former administrator of the Small Business Administration, had testified before the US Senate Small Business Committee that women flourish more in an environment that has mentoring and counseling, which is why women’s business development centers – like the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers – are so important.

McMahon said the advice and direction provided by the SBA’s district staffs across the country, along with their resource and lending partners, are part of a “very critical ecosystem” that benefit women in business. Her use of the word “ecosystem” is suitable because it conjures up an image of all inhabitants contributing to one another’s welfare. “Every day, this collective effort helps entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of business ownership,” she pointed out.

Small business ownership and growth are complicated undertakings and require entrepreneurs to be skilled jugglers that can simultaneously manage every facet of their companies’ activities. It stands to reason that an astute business owner should assemble the most comprehensive, skilled team of managers and employees possible. This group should include both skilled men and women dispersed horizontally and vertically throughout the company.

Hiring and promoting women offers your business comprehensive benefits that will illuminate its presence and successes locally and globally. Such a business plan supports UN Sustainable Development Goal #5 – Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls. Consequently, by hiring and promoting women, your small business declares itself to be sustainable and you should invest time and money in pursuing this endeavor.

The case for companies to act is compelling. It contributes to your growth, drives your business and adds to your bottom line.

For example, in a recent survey of 366 companies, consultancy McKinsey & Co. found that companies whose leadership roles were most balanced between men and women were more likely to report financial returns above their national industry median. This means that companies with more balanced leadership do a better job recruiting and retaining talented workers, reducing the costs associated with replacing top executives. They also have stronger customer relations because management better reflects the diversity of society, and they tend to make better decisions because a wider array of viewpoints is considered.

Another report, titled “The CS Gender 3000: Women in Senior Management,” shows that companies with more female directors and senior executives tend to have higher returns and dividend payout ratios. The report found the shares of companies with at least one female director outperformed those of firms led by all-male boards by about 3.7% in 2005 and 2013.

While, Sodexo, a leading provider of integrated food, facilities management and other services, which has 419,000 employees in 80 countries, after a company-wide study found that units with equal numbers of men and women in management roles delivered more profits more consistently than those dominated by men.

Successful women are more likely than successful men to own a business so they can pursue a personal passion and to make a positive impact on the world – like fostering the 17 SDGs, according to 2013 U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth. Seventy percent of the women and only 62% of the men are committed to increasing the level of their sustainable activities, according to Cox Conserves, a national sustainability program run by Cox Communications and Media. Ultimately, this benefits women-owned businesses because consumers are drawn to sustainable businesses.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck is another company that has embarked on the road to diversity and inclusion.

Celeste Warren, head of Merck’s diversity and inclusion initiative, was a believer before she was tapped for the position at the 68,000-employee, 126-year-old company. In a recent article in mmm-online.com, she explained that looking at numbers is a myopic approach to diversity and inclusion.

“It was all about percentages: How many women? How many people of color? We needed to go beyond the numbers and understand how to leverage diversity to create a more inclusive environment, but also to drive our business,” Warren explained.

She realized that diversity and inclusion isn’t human resources accounting – two men in this department matched by two women in that department; three white people here coupled with three people of color, and so on. It’s corporate culture. She wanted to create an environment of respect, where employees felt comfortable to work and succeed and contribute to the growth of the company.

Warren’s bottom-line-focused concept, in effect, is what differentiates her concept from the ones taken by her other companies. “As much as we want to believe people embrace D&I because they’re passionate about it and it’s the right thing to do, businesses are in business. They have to drive profits,” she explained. “I try to make an impact with D&I not just from a moral, corporate-responsibility aspect, but also from the standpoint of how it adds value to our business.”

As crass as it sounds, it has been said around large and small corporate tables, if it doesn’t add to the bottom line, why do it? Diversity and inclusion does add to the bottom line.

“I unapologetically believe that, at the intersection of business and diversity and inclusion, you do create a competitive advantage,” she pointed out.

Finding that intersection is key for large and small businesses as well as SDG#5.

Turning inwardly, Warren appreciates that the internal case for more diversity and inclusion is just as easily stated though far from easy to effect. “People of Muslim faith, the person who’s gay in the Asia-Pacific region, the African-American person in the U.S., Latino/Hispanic people who live near the border — people are stressed about their communities,” she observed. “We can’t shut that stress down, so what are we doing to help and allow our employees to be themselves so that they can feel safe and be productive at work? That’s a question we need to ask every day.”

Employees that feel confident about themselves especially inside their companies, are productive and contribute to their businesses’ bottom lines. Human resources departments must strive to create such an environment.

As for SDG #5, it does not merely pertain to hyping equal rights for women and then disregarding what to do once you’ve assumed that status.

Since you, as the executive or owner, support SDG #5, your task is to ensure that women fully participate and are equally represented in all levels of national and local leadership and decision-making in economic, political and social aspects of life. A major reason why women are still lagging behind socially and economically is because they lack political, economic, social and civil support for their plans and goals. Largely due to educational qualification barriers, women representative positions are either given to under-qualified women or even men who have little or no knowledge of what exactly the challenges faced by women are.

You’ve also committed to formulate and execute social reforms to grant women equal ability to access economic resources, financial services, and ownership and control of properties such as lands and homes, in accordance with respective national laws.

As I have written before, according to official predictions, businesses that participate in the Sustainable Development Goals – the goals that pertain to the ecology as well as human being – stand to experience an unbelievable windfall. The SDGs have the potential to unleash innovation, economic growth and development at an unprecedented scale and could be worth at least $12 trillion a year in market opportunities and generate up to 380 million new jobs by 2030.

The SDGs hold great possibilities for all businesses. There are 17 of them. Pick just one.