This week we welcome Jarvis Sam founder a leading voice in the world of diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I), CEO & founder of The Rainbow Disruption, and former head of DEI at Nike. In a thought-provoking and wide-ranging conversation we discuss the business imperative behind being more welcoming to various communities and the range and contours of diversity.
This week we welcome Jarvis Sam founder a leading voice in the world of diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I), CEO & founder of The Rainbow Disruption, and former head of DEI at Nike. In a thought-provoking and wide-ranging conversation we discuss the business imperative behind being more welcoming to various communities and the range and contours of diversity. We touch both on the theoretical frameworks and well as the practical realities of driving meaningful change through strategy, operations and optimization. It’s a veritable Masterclass in one of the most important leadership issues of our time.
But first we open with the latest retail news with a discussion of the continued volatility and uncertainty in the wake of gyrations in the banking industry. Then we dip into earnings reports from Nike, Williams-Sonoma, On Running, and Chewy, before turning out attention to Foot Locker’s just announced “Lace Up Strategy.” The latest news from Bed, Bath & Beyond is decidedly mix as their stock sinks below $1, but they are having success re-leasing many of the stores they’ve closed. We wrap up with news from the Great White North as Zeller’s is relaunched and tidbits are released from Nordstrom Canada’s bankruptcy filing.
About Jarvis
Jarvis Sam is the CEO and Founder of the multi-services DEI firm Rainbow Disruption and the former Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer at Nike Inc. He was recently named Forbes 30 Under 30 in Sports class of 2021 as well as Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. In his previous role, he oversaw a team of people focused on driving diverse representation, inclusive leader and social justice education, professional development and the ecosystem of promoting and creating a culture of belonging inside and outside of Nike.
Prior to being named CDEIO at Nike, Jarvis held various roles focused on acquiring new talent capabilities for the company and driving large programs, partnerships and initiatives aimed at impacting representation and accelerating the flow of Nike’s diverse talent pipelines. Additionally, he led Nike’s candidate experience and talent attraction/ employer branding efforts – driving best in class approaches and strategies to amplify the company’s employment voice and obsess the candidate.
Jarvis frequently liaised with the sports marketing function and product teams to execute on key initiatives with signature Nike athletes like Serena Williams and League partners like the WNBA and NFL. Prior to Nike, Sam worked as the first Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Snap, Inc., (Snapchat) where he was accountable for building the company’s first ever D&I strategy, all whilst driving key technology recruiting approaches to scale the company 6x through IPO. Before that, Sam worked at Google as a Diversity Program Manager and led part of the diversity recruitment practice.
Jarvis began his career as a strategy and operations consultant with Deloitte Consulting in Houston, primarily focused on clients in the oil & gas industry. Jarvis is a graduate of Rice University where he studied History, Public Policy, and Sport Management with emphasis in race and gender rhetoric. Jarvis received his MBA from Brown University and IE School of Business.
He is an adjunct faculty member at Brown University and has lectured at numerous universities and institutions of higher learning around the world. Sam has given more than 400 public speeches, fireside chats, keynotes and panels and is considered an expert in the space.
In his spare time, Jarvis does musical theater, most recently acting as Jimmy Early in a production of Dreamgirls. He loves concerts, film, sports, karaoke, and can be frequently seen doing a rendition of Tina Turner’s greatest hits around Portland, OR, where he currently resides.
About Us
Steve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. You can learn more about Steve on his website. The expanded and revised edition of his bestselling book Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption is now available at Amazon or just about anywhere else books are sold. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior contributor and on Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also check out his speaker "sizzle" reel here.
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global eCommerce Leaders podcast, and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Be sure and check out Michael's latest venture for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue, his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!
Michael LeBlanc 00:05
Welcome, Remarkable Retail podcast Season 6. This episode goes to 11. Presented by Market Dial. I'm Michael Leblanc.
Steve Dennis 00:12
And I'm Steve Dennis.
Michael LeBlanc 00:14
Well, Steve, it's an important week for our two great nations. We're recording this on Friday, President Biden and the first lady just arrived in Ottawa for his first official visit as the US President, talking trade security issues. Easy question for you, Mr. Economics, who is America's largest trading partner that doesn't float spy balloons over your country?
Steve Dennis 00:34
Hmm. I mean, I was going to say Mexico, but I guess I'm gonna have to say Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 00:38
Correct. Canada. Canada is the largest trading partner great to have President Biden visiting in Ottawa. So speaking of cross border trade, later on in the show, we'll talk about the unraveling of Nordstrom in Canada, they officially went into protection and now they're being run by their bankruptcy agency. They started their sales in the stores, all their vendors yanked out their stuff in the shop and shops, and the relaunch of a brand bought out by Target in Canada. Zellers. So we'll talk about that a little later in the show. Now our very special guest on the show is Jarvis Sam, Founder CEO, the rainbow disruption. He's at Brown University, adjunct professor, former Chief Diversity Equity inclusion officer at Nike, Forbes, 30 under 30, ex-Snapchat, ex-Google and a fantastic interview.
Steve Dennis 01:24
Yeah, you know, we've been, it's too bad it's taken this long, really. But we've been wanting to really showcase diversity, equity and inclusion on the podcast for a while. It just took us some time to find the right person and I think, I think we did okay.
Michael LeBlanc 01:41
As folks are listening. We are here in Vegas, at Shop Talk in the Wise Line podcasting studio by the Mandalay Bay Beach, and you're on the stage tomorrow dropping some knowledge, our minds and travel plans now turn to Europe. Our next adventure is in Barcelona at the World Retail Congress.
Steve Dennis 01:59
We're worldwide.
Michael LeBlanc 02:00
Yeah, it's fantastic and you're on the stage there as well but we'll talk about that a little later in future episodes now for the folks who might be interested in joining us and some of the world's top thought leaders, Scott Galloway is there. He's been on the pod and a bunch of other great folks that we're going to be chit chatting with. We're a media sponsor, we got an offer code, we'll put that in the show notes, get yourself a nice discount, to attend the show, if that helps get you over the finish line of coming to such an event.
Michael LeBlanc 02:25
Alright, let's get into the big news. Let's start with the economy. I mean, last episode, very well received and we talked about this, you know, things are starting to settle out, settle in, get more VUCA ish, so to speak and we're starting to see a little bit more of the implications maybe of the chaos that either created or was created by SVB. What, what are you reading in the economic notes and tea leaves?
Steve Dennis 02:47
It's, I guess this just underscores this idea of there being so much volatility and uncertainty when I was first making my notes after the Federal Reserve raised the, the interest rates 25 basis points last week, and the Bank of England also did a similar move a bunch of other countries took the interest rates up. My sense was things were starting to settle down a little bit, maybe the path forward, becoming a bit more clear. But there's still, continued to be a bunch of unsettling news or concerns about where the banking industry stands and the bond markets doing weird things as we record this. And so, who knows, but I think, you know, the overall picture is that credit is going to tighten, which presumably should help with getting inflation down more. But inflation remains high, the job market remains strong.
Steve Dennis 03:46
I think the UK reported 10% inflation a few days ago. So, yeah. So I mean, there's, there's a lot of factors here that are still to be played out and even though interest rates have gone up a lot, I think it's in the US anyway, it's four and a half percent in I think it's nine or 10 months, which is, you know, pretty, pretty significant but it hasn't done a lot to really tamp down demand and take inflation down so we'll see what's going on.
Steve Dennis 04:17
The last thing I just got to mention, as I was watching the news this morning, is they're starting to be this narrative of well, maybe actually, we're going to be pivoting pretty quickly to some rate cuts. So it's just a very dynamic market. So, it's, it's, I don't know, it's really, in a lot of respects, the craziest kind of macro picture. I mean, we've obviously had the financial crisis and post 911 and all that kind of stuff, but in terms of trying to read the tea leaves here. Very difficult.
Michael LeBlanc 04:45
Quick hit on some earnings, Nike, William Sonoma, and Swiss sportswear retailer, On, talk about what you're what you're seeing from those folks.
Steve Dennis 04:54
Yeah, I'll make this, I'll make this really, really quick but you know, Nike is one of these brands we've been watching particularly as they make their, their shift to more direct to consumer, they've got a lot of new format that they've been piloting and expanding. So, I think really fascinating study in general, they reported their earnings, which were surprisingly good, strong sales, better profits than most people thought they've made some progress folks may remember or have read about Nike having a lot of inventory, mainly because of the supply chain disruptions, they made some progress on that, they still got a ways to go on and it hit their gross margin, but the trend is pretty positive and this quarter still includes some real downside pressure from, from China but with China opening back up, I think we will see we'll see that business pick up so surprisingly good earnings. Still a little bit of work to do there.
Steve Dennis 05:52
With a few others, just quick hits. William Sonoma reported very good earnings and what's interesting to me about that, is, you know, the home category has really been tough. They are, people may know, they, they, in addition to the Williams Sonoma specialty concept, they own Pottery Barn and Westone and the fact that they were running sales increases and good profits, I think really defies the, the home category is, is impossible to do well in narrative. So, really strong performance from them on running or on the Swiss sportswear retailer, you know, we talked a lot about the wildly unicorns and some of these disruptor brands that have had challenges well, on is really defining that narrative. Now, they are a relatively new company, and that they started I think, in 2010, but they are on fire. They've almost like taken over the mantle, from Allbirds were all birds was the cool shoe,
Michael LeBlanc 06:53
Cool kid in town, yeah.
Steve Dennis 06:54
Whereas, whereas On's become, you know, popular with entrepreneurs and kind of that whole Silicon Valley kind of crowd as well a just more broader,
Michael LeBlanc 07:01
Their horn is more freshly grown, so to speak. The other more grizzled unicorns,
Steve Dennis 07:07
Yes. You know, even though they are a newer company, and even though they've got this hyper growth, because their sales for the fourth quarter were up, like over 90%, I mean, pretty, pretty impressive growth, we just don't see that very often, they have had a more balanced kind of manufacture sort of strategy with a strong mix of both direct to consumer as well as a pretty healthy wholesale business. So I wouldn't necessarily put them in kind of the same category as Warby Parker or Stitch Fix or, you know, some of these other brands, but really more similar to Allbirds but it does, it does prove that you can have a relatively narrow focus newer brand, and actually get to pretty good size and actually make some money, kind of related to that was Chewy, the pet supplies company. They continue to grow pretty nicely, and they also reported, not a ton of profits, but again, you know, one of these newer brands following a more kind of traditional direct-to-consumer strategy that is actually making some money. So, there is hope out there.
Michael LeBlanc 08:15
Right on, right on. Now Footlocker has got a bunch of news, we could have a whole podcast of news about Footlocker, they're closing brands I've never heard of and then what do they call it a lace up strategy. They're closing doors, like, you know, there. It looks like it's all moving in the right direction, but what did you make out of it, like I said, there's a lot of news coming out at Footlocker this week.
Steve Dennis 08:33
Well, yeah, I think the reason this got so much news is that Mary Dillon, who is the relatively new CEO, I guess, she's been there maybe six or seven months, formerly the CEO at Ulta, by the way, Dave Campbell, who's been on the podcast replaced her over there. So, she's starting to make moves, she laid out a strategy to turn around the business, the business has not been performing particularly well but they're going through a bunch of cost reductions, simplification kinds of moves.
Steve Dennis 09:04
I think the thing that really got the most attention is that they've announced their plans to close 400-mile base stores across the next several years in favor of either moving those off the mall, which of course, is probably something that should have happened 10 or 15 years ago, but anyway, better late than never, but also investing in some new newer concepts. They have a thing called House of Play, which they're looking to, to expand and are looking to open in, in New York soon. So, it's definitely a business that's been struggling, but what I thought was interesting, aside from just Mary's pedigree of, of great success, is their aggressiveness of what they're looking to do. So we'll see how that plays out, I'm sure it will take a couple years.
Michael LeBlanc 09:52
I think you can read in your book or listening to reading, your book or listening to the podcast because she's taken.
Steve Dennis 09:55
Most likely, most likely.
Michael LeBlanc 09:56
You know, these aren't, these are not you know, minor tweaks to the strategy. This is a wholesale; we need to do things differently. We can't let the next five years go bias.
Michael LeBlanc 10:07
All right in breaking news, Bed Bath and Beyond news, the stock slips below $1, but it's still above water, I guess is on the positive side, but what make of you of the latest developments?
Steve Dennis 10:20
Well, sort of good news, bad news here on Bed Bath and Beyond. The good news is they've been able to raise some additional funds. The bad news is their stock has sunk so much that their ability to continue with their refinancing turnaround plan has become a bit more questionable. We'll see how that plays out. One of the other things I thought was just really interesting. Some longer-term listeners may recall that when we were first talking about Bed Bath and Beyond potentially filing for Chapter 11, one of the questions was, how are they going to close all these stores without going through bankruptcy, we would be relieved from the liability.
Steve Dennis 10:57
And as it's turned out, they are doing pretty well getting other retailers to snap up their locations apparently because of the demands of folks like TJX or your TJ Maxx Home Goods, Ross, a lot of the off-price guys really like some of those vacated locations. So, that's good news for Bed Bath and Beyond in terms of not having to, to maintain the cost of these, these stores where they can't get out of the leases, it looks like they're having pretty good success getting out. So, that was a bit of a surprise to me, but good news from them.
Michael LeBlanc 11:31
Oh, and of course they took a bit of a stra-, a different strategy up here in Canada, they just went into protection, so they got out of their leases. They just, they just got rid of that. Now, speaking of which, it was kind of an interesting week because Nordstrom went into official protection here which meant all the documents are up on the you know the, the administers site, which are super interesting reading as you know, because we don't often see this right at prestige departments or retailer going into bankruptcy. There's lots of lists of the people they owe money to their vendor lists. The story that they tell, it's super interesting. They, they say in the, in the documents, they never had net cash-, net positive cash flow ever in the country. It's always been underwritten by transfers from the US, so anyway, it's just super interesting reading and they started their, you know, discounting at 5% this week, and people are, you know, in upheaval, that it was only 5%, is nothing anyway, crazy stuff.
Michael LeBlanc 12:24
And another piece of interesting news, Hudson's Bay Company who I used to work for, they sold their, their Zellers, mass merch business here in Canada to Target many years ago. Some of the listeners may remember Target's misadventures in Canada, well Hudson's Bay just opened this week, Zellers stores again, so it's a super interesting development to watch because I don't think I remember brands being resuscitated back that were gone, they've been gone. It's always been gone for the market for 10 years and they're taking another run at it. So, you know, it's a play on the style show. That's not a bad time to be a value retailer. So, it'll be super interesting to watch.
Michael LeBlanc 13:01
Alright, well, that's a quick wrap on the news, great introduction of the episode and just before we get to our fantastic interview with Jarvis Sam, let's hear from our presenting sponsor.
Michael LeBlanc 13:13
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Michael LeBlanc 13:57
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Michael LeBlanc 14:03
Well, Jarvis welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for joining us. Where are we finding you today?
Jarvis Sam 14:08
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so thrilled to be here and join as part of this incredible conversation. I'm joining you from a surprisingly bright sunny and beautiful Portland Oregon.
Michael LeBlanc 14:19
All right, well, let's, let's jump in and talk about you, tell us about your personal and, and career journey, a bit about yourself and the work you do now at the Rainbow Disruption.
Jarvis Sam 14:26
Thank you. Yeah, I’m originally from Houston, Texas. part of my story that I think is incredibly relevant. I was raised in a single parent household where my mom instilled in us some pretty significant values of topics like freedom, justice, equality, liberation, equity, and it definitely stayed with me throughout my academic career and experiences and certainly in professional careers as well. So I completed my undergrad at, at Rice University in Houston studying history, public policy and sport management, where I became more equipped with some of the academic and sociological limits of topics like race, gender, sexual orientation, religious diversity, etc. and I really thought that I was gonna go to law school for some odd reason I wanted to be a sports and entertainment attorney, and then quickly realized I wanted to do less contracts and less handling of DUI cases for celebrities, and actually, more-
Michael LeBlanc 15:20
Fixer, didn't want to be a fixer, I guess, you didn't want to be a fixer.
Jarvis Sam 15:23
So I actually went into strategy consulting, but I loved my time with the firm that I was with, you know, but some of the clients that we work with, you got deep exposure to the culture and climate of different environments and I found myself seeing a lot of challenges with spaces like the oil and gas industry and the telecommunications industry and so when I got a call from Google to join their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts through talent acquisition, it was a no brainer for me and I wanted to reach out and explore a little bit more around how do you create impeccable experiences from hire to retire for talent within organizations.
Jarvis Sam 16:00
And so I spent some time at Google working in Austin, Texas, the Bay Area, and then as an expat in Sao Paulo, Brazil and upon returning to Brazil, I loved the idea of being an architect of work, as opposed to just working in a system and so I actually moved to Los Angeles and joined Snapchat, where I served as the organization's first ever head of diversity, equity and inclusion and it was groundbreaking territory for them.
Jarvis Sam 16:25
For one, being a Silicon Beach Company and not one of the valley-based companies, and then hiring a DEI leader at only 500 people. It was certainly different than what a lot of the unicorns were doing at the time, but I stayed it for a pretty good tenure through IPO through hyper growth, by the time I left the company, it was about 3200 people and that was making significant inroads in global and international spaces but I left to join Nike in 2018 and it was such an incredible decision. I've always believed in the power of sport to impact communities that age old Mandela quote, that 'Sport has the power to change the world" and over the course of five years, I played a critical role in the development of Nikes dei strategy, most recently serving as the organization's chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.
Jarvis Sam 17:16
There's some incredibly exciting times some pretty tough times in the macro social, economic, political and environmental spaces, but really loved my time there and then in November of last year, I actually made the decision to leave the organization to launch my own firm, I firmly believe in the democratization of DEI, and I don't believe brain trust should necessarily exist just in one place or one institution and so I launched the Rainbow Disruption with that intent in mind. We work with academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, fortune 1000 companies and governmental agencies to help with the development of their approach to DEI across brand, product, and team and talent strategies, all in service of creating congruent get equitable experiences for consumers and employees.
Steve Dennis 18:04
I guess maybe before we get too deep into some of the subject matter. I'm sure many of our listeners are very familiar with DENI initiatives, but maybe you could just help us frame the conversation, big picture. What would you describe as what DENI is really about why you see it as an imperative and, and really kind of how it's evolved over the last few years.
Jarvis Sam 18:30
DEI really is the intentional effort to foster a space of psychological safety in the creation of a sentiment in space of belonging for all stakeholders that are a part of an organization's landscape, and this can be consumers in your retail stores. This can be employees working in your manufacturing or distribution centers, all the way to executive leaders within a culture of an organization. It is the intentional assessment of the various contours of diversity. Diversity is more than just gender identity, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, religious identity, socio economic status, it's all of those. It's all of those combined, and more.
Jarvis Sam 19:10
Its understanding of experiences with neuro diversity. It's navigating, advancement of approaches for communities with disabilities, its veteran status, and the intersectionality that's built upon all of those different contours coming together, that create our experience. Equity is so critical in this regard, though, because for years, we as a global community, but particularly here in the United States, obsessed this concept of equality and we see it in in legal literature especially from services this concept of separate but equal, we saw that challenge through Brown versus Board of Education through this lens of what equality truly is.
Jarvis Sam 19:50
The challenge though is equality represents this true north of sameness, whereas equity forces us to consider both the different starting points of individuals, how these contours of diversity play out as a collective and where we, as individuals and organizations have been complicit with the marginalization of these communities. That's so critical, because it aligns to that angel sentiment famously highlighted by Valerie Jarrett and that governments can set the stage and the baseline, the floor, if you will, for what diversity, equity and inclusion is or could be, but it's up to organizations and nonprofits to push that ceiling even higher and so DEI, at its core are all of those efforts that we take on through the lens of accountability, transparency, empowerment and visibility, to show up and support communities that needed the most.
Steve Dennis 20:44
You know, I'm curious, because it seems that, and I think this is a great thing, that DENI initiatives have become a priority for so many organizations but the cynic in me sometimes wonders, what's the motivation behind doing it, what's your what's your thought around whether DENI is just and I think I probably have a guess as to what you're gonna say, but whether DENI is, you know, just kind of the right thing to do, is more of a kind of a PR investor relations focused Initiative, or fundamentally, it's just really good business?
Jarvis Sam 21:17
You know, I think when we craft the binary of the moral imperative versus the business imperative, I think the substance of impact is often lost. You know, there are numerous organizations too, oftentimes don't act in service of doing the right thing and so the moral imperative seems to position this idea of reparatory sentiment that has to be provided to communities. I'm a firm believer in the work in practice, such as that that was rolled out, following periods of apartheid in South Africa, truth, truth and reconciliation, but that's gonna require businesses to actually understand where they have been at fault, where they are at fault in the present, and where their future actions might impact that.
Jarvis Sam 21:59
By 2015 though, when McKinsey released their fame, diversity matters study and then subsequent data was used to corroborate that in 2017 and 2018 by McKinsey by Deloitte and by Korn Ferry, people latched on to this idea of the business case for diversity, because it started to show what financial outperformance and gains could look like. Here's the challenge, if you purely land your approach in the business case, every time you don't see an immediate result from the perceived outcomes of the study, you believe that it failed, and so it forces you even further back on the spectrum. So, for example, when McKinsey outlines the impact of organizations dedication to diversity for women or people of color, and they talk about 27% and 35%, greater likelihood of financial outperformance it led to a number of companies simply going out and hiring more black and brown bodies and more women into their spaces.
Jarvis Sam 22:55
The problem is, the companies hadn't taken the systemic approach to understanding their own culture and How can their culture receive these people, of understanding where bias both in perception confirmation, [inaudible] continues to impact the way these communities show up and so in a lot of cases, it developed a revolving door, where the communities were either not retained, they were given a seat at the table, and yet not a voice in the conversation that people took seriously and so you couldn't maximize the impact of the business imperative. Furthermore, you know, I often critique this idea of the commodification of the human body. We've seen what happens when we do that. It was called American enslavement and so I don't like this idea of simply tying the presence of an individual based off their lived identity and experience to financial goals and outcomes.
Jarvis Sam 23:46
What's more, is, I think, focusing on this concept of inclusive mindsets and inclusive behaviors. If we think about the environments for which we're crafting that individual step into, and obsess, how do we make those a space where people can show up with a level of authenticity, aligned to the values that they seek to espouse within the organization and we give them the opportunity and freedom that is to be decision makers autonomously, and what their careers are, we support through investment in topics like career development, and career management. That's why we do the work. We invest in inclusion, so that it can create spaces whereas we recruit and retain the various contours of diversity that I described earlier, it becomes impactful for the organization from an innovation standpoint through brand innovation and product innovation, and enables these communities to show up and operate through the lens of optimal performance. So, it's a bit of a hybrid of the two imperatives, and yet a whole new context that I think we have to get to, to do the work effectively.
Michael LeBlanc 24:53
You know, as I as I listened to you, describing the scope and the scale of what you're talking about stuff fundamental elements to society and to business. So, let's see if we can, we can narrow the lens a bit. So you, you've had this experience of landing and a couple organizations, one startup, onenote and how do you approach driving the DENI agenda like, like from a structure perspective, how do you get your arms around that, like, what's your, what's your first 90 days that you do and do you set up a team around you or do you adopt a team and, you know, what's the framework that you kind of lay on top of, and in the work you do today, that you, you figure out where to start in these organizations to build traction and, and get these goals accomplished?
Jarvis Sam 25:35
Yeah. So you know, in addition to my work with the rainbow disruption, actually, I'm very proud to serve in adjunct professorial roles with both Brown University and the University of California Berkeley, and in the business schools for both, because I think this is so part and parcel to the work of business leaders and I really view a leader as anyone within the organization that has capacity to influence and so this can be an individual contributor, this can be an expert leader, this can be a people manager, but it's really important to equip them with the skills to do the work and so as I'm entering either client engagements or even in roles where I've taken on the full time, head of our chief role in an organization, there's three key areas, it's the strategy, the operations, and then the optimization. To do great strategy work, we have to consider DEI through the same lens and rigor, with which we do corporate strategy development, strategic planning and kickoff processes.
Jarvis Sam 26:33
And ensure that it's integrated across the board into those various areas a lot of DEI work in practice can be incredibly programmatic in nature, things like established employee resource groups, teach an unconscious bias awareness training, recruit from HBCUs or HSI while those are all amazing approaches and tactics that help us to achieve our goals. It's not aligned around a strategy and so the first piece that I do the first 90 days is actually understand the corporate strategy of the organization, understand the brand strategy of the organization, the product strategy, and then the team and talent strategy. This helps you to understand how does this organization do strategic planning in general, and then cross reference all of those to figure out some of the core themes that are important to the organization.
Jarvis Sam 27:23
For example, if one of the value drivers are hyper vested areas for an organization is growth in their international business, you better be thinking about the creation of inclusive mindsets with a sharp focus on cultural intelligence, the way business is conducted in Japan versus Mexico, versus the UK versus the United States versus Canada are very different and so there's a level of cultural nuance that people who are operating in those spaces in a deeply multicultural and globalized society need to position to think about the impact and influence of diversity. If your organization has its digital business as a big area of growth, you better be considering elements of digital accessibility, to ensure that individuals from a variety of different abilities and disabilities can be part of the conversation and can actively engage in digital access to your platform, whether it's a dot com consumer side in a b2c manner, or professional services offerings that may be more positioned b2b.
Jarvis Sam 28:23
To do that, then, once I understand that, I can effectively outline the DEI strategy for the organization, because I'm going to constantly be tying all of the core principles, objectives, value drivers and activities back to that corporate strategy, brand, strategy, product strategy, and team and talent strategy. When I talk about something like representation, we can't just start or stop the conversation with representation matters. Rather, it's how do I drive representation and connection to the team and talent strategy, but how do I make sure that where our brand is positioned, and the consumers that we're supporting, and the platforms with which we show our content, either in the form of television or radio commercials, or otherwise, are all linked to that core driver that's positioned in the corporate strategy.
Jarvis Sam 29:11
This is where I think organizations that I've worked with have really seen such impeccable success and unfortunately, though, it's why I think organizations, particularly now during periods of impending economic recession, are scaling back with DEI organizations because it has not been tied to the commercial practice of the business. It has not been reflected in its connection to corporate strategy and so you see it as an afterthought, or an add-on as opposed to fully embedded and integrated. We then move into operations, which is really the establishment of the team, the defining of the budget necessary to do it, the defining of what standards of accountability look like for all parties at the organization and then optimization. That's where we consider every three months. How do we measure and monitor the impact and influence this work and then pivot where necessary.
Michael LeBlanc 30:01
So, when you think about these programs, very comprehensive approach, is there ones that we should look to that you're working with, you know, for the, not everyone has the resources of these large organizations, is there ones, models that we can look to and the listeners can say I should kind of model after at least turn tools as examples, any, any ones come to mind, if, of course, the ones you're working with, but anything broadly come to your mind?
Jarvis Sam 30:25
Yeah, absolutely. I think that I'll be at the sides of an organization. There are several elements that organizations can do intentionally, to foster those sources of engagement, one of which, helping leaders to educate themselves. There's a variety of free resources that are online to support this work. The amazing work that's done by groups like the 1619 project, the work of Bryan Stevenson and his work to elevate, amplify conversations around the black community in the criminal justice system. The work that's being done by organizations like [inaudible] for the advancement of Hispanic voices and Latino perspectives in corporate.
Jarvis Sam 31:05
The work that's being done by organizations like LGBT Sports Safe and Gender cool. For the advocacy of trans and non-binary youth in sport. There's a plethora of organizations who not only provide resources, but provide ongoing support, aligned to this work, the University of Southern California has center for race and equity, and their executive director, Dr. Shaun Harper, who's a good friend of mine, they have free coaching for organizations to support in this space. There's just so much that organizations can tap into, I'll be at their sides. I find a lot of organizations really venerating some of the big companies and big firms and I think some of them are doing great work. I think some of them have opportunities for development.
Jarvis Sam 31:52
Many of them, though, have big PR budgets, and so they can talk about these programs that they've built or run. And yet the follow up and follow through is often not there. You know, I'm so proud to see the commitment that organizations made and 2020 to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic serving institutions, but by 2021, how many of them actually reported on where the money went, what students were beneficiaries of that money and what's more, how many of those students actually have an equitable likelihood of getting a job in that organization.
Jarvis Sam 32:26
I got a quick question for you, just with your, with your sports background. If the work that you're doing can be thought of as a baseball game, what inning are we in here?
Jarvis Sam 32:26
It's not enough to scholarship a kid to go to an HBCU. If your people's processes are still so broken, that once that individual applies for even an internship, they're automatically rejected by a recruiter or through your standard processing system. It's incongruent. It's a farce. It's performative in nature and so when you ask, you know, where should people be turning to, you know, obviously, I have to say, my work with the Rainbow Disruption and in the team that I'm building and have built, we do bring a level of expertise across a variety of different dimensions of diversity across the different landscapes, from executive coaching, to listening sections and focus groups to strategy development across bringing team and talent and product and you know what, I think it's more for me, because I do truly believe in the democratization of this work. Even if my firm is not the right fit for an organization. I'm happy to refer them to either nonprofit or even for-profit partnerships that can help them to advance their own work in this space. For when one organization sets the stage to grow. I believe that it can help others grow together, particularly those orgs that are either industry movers or sector movers are real big culture changers in the space.
Jarvis Sam 33:55
As much as I would hope we'd be singing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' by the seventh, ninth stretch. I can't help but say we're probably in the fourth inning and here's why. A good friend of mine, Dr. Alvin Tillery, from Northwestern University frequently says we're as far along the journey as we've ever been in the pursuit of racial and social equity and yet we still have so far to go. When I think about teams in baseball, the fourth inning is one of those spaces where you're just far enough from the end of the game, that you can still take risks. You can launch an iterate, you can make an impact that will be so valuable to the likelihood of winning to the likelihood of an incredible fan experience and more.
Jarvis Sam 34:42
But you're also still so close to the beginning of the game, that you're still working out kinks. Players are still finding their way. You're still learning the way the pitcher is throwing tonight. You're still learning if the fans are engaged or connected or not and it's the same in this space. Some companies are still operating, come from such an elementary or rudimentary space with growing and elevating knowledge of this and there's not been a ton of collective action, where we all come together and for me, I want to see this done at an industry level.
Jarvis Sam 35:14
I want to see the entire sports industry come together and say we are all going to commit to insisting and assert, and assisting the NFL and its greater development of black coaching staffs, we're going to assist the NBA in their development and elevation of more women coaches in the league, we are going to assist brands like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, with the establishment of sports careers, for black and brown youth. For trans youth, we're going to provide platforms and spaces where they can equitably engage in sport, by coming together as a coalition to challenge the politics of, of the status quo that's attempting to deny them access and rights. I want to see retail communities come together that say we as a community are going to provide resourcing for these folks to grow into positions of retail leadership, and or be able to make an effective transition into key opportunities in corporate, albeit what their educational background and experience is. We can't just operate in silos as singular companies trying to do or move this work. It's incumbent on us to think about it at the broader industry level.
Steve Dennis 36:27
It's so, so interesting and inspiring and by the way, we'll be sure to put links to some of the resources you mentioned, I think that would be a terrific gift to our audience. I'm wondering, as we're coming up on our time, maybe two fairly quick questions, I guess we'll see if the answers are quick. They may not be but one is, are there any, I guess, kind of barriers that you run into pretty consistently or maybe misperceptions people have about what DENI is about that get in the way of progress?
Jarvis Sam 37:00
Absolutely. For so many years, DEI has been positioned largely through the lens of race and gender and so we haven't really considered the other contours of it. Specifically, around the topic of race. While we've made great progress with our ability to have discussions about race in workplaces, there is still so far to go and so even with some of the organizations that I have the great privilege of working with, as the topic comes up, you can tell leaders shying away from it or feeling uncomfortable about their navigation of it and you'll even hear people make statements like well, can we discuss other topics of diversity without race and the raw reality is, the US was built largely on a racial hierarchy, I would even venture to say a racial dictatorship, wherein we cannot assess the other constructs of diversity without considering the lens of race.
Jarvis Sam 37:55
Given that even if we look to an individual who may be trans or non-binary identified, black trans women represent the most marginalized amongst us, they are being murdered in cities like New York, Dallas, Atlanta, DC and Houston, at rates that no one is talking about are watching. They are being impacted through lack of health equity, housing, equity, and so much more that literally the law seeks to protect against, and yet no one knows their names. No one knows their narratives. No one knows their stories or their experiences and so her experience in that regard was definitely more impacted. When you look at rates of harassment based on your research in the workplace.
Jarvis Sam 38:34
Black identified individuals with disabilities face far greater harassment than even their white identified counterparts and similarly, when you talk about neurodiversity versus neurotypical identified individuals, the likelihood of a black neurodivergent individual finding that job relative to their counterparts, is substantially lower and so we have to consider it through this lens in the spirit of the promotion of progress. So that remains one big roadblock.
Jarvis Sam 39:00
The other piece is oftentimes cisgendered straight white men in organizations may not understand the role that they play in the space and so it's either rooted in fear of saying the wrong thing, or an abject refusal to be a part of the conversation, we inherently begin to other-ize communities. When we say diverse people, diverse populations, diverse groups, the reality is, our diversity is an element of our identity and yet we are not monolithic. There are so many differences and distinctions and what it means to be LGBTQ and what it means to be black and what it means to be latino or native and indigenous, etc. and so when leaders choose to operate out of fear and truly exercise colorblindness over color braveness it leads to a lack of ability to engage effectively and that roadblock can cause a ton of issues in our ability to actually promote the advancement of this work more collectively.
Jarvis Sam 39:58
So last question before we let you go, I noticed that you will be on stage along with Mr. Leblanc, here, at the Retail Council of Canada annual store conference in Toronto in a couple of months and I'm wondering beyond some of the things you've, you've been generous enough to share with us today, if there's anything else you might add to kind of preview and whet the appetite of, of the people that might be attending.
Jarvis Sam 40:24
Absolutely, retail employees and organizations represent the first line, they have the closest connection to consumers. Their understanding of the products within our organizations is so powerful and so strong. The rigor, practice and passion that they bring to the table is oftentimes unmatched and yet they are often subjected to what I call the preposition or dilemma, where corporate employees may obsess the fact that they work at an organization. Retail employees often position themselves as working for an organization or in service of, this creates a dichotomy of experience, where we begin to view retail employees and retail teammates as somewhat dispensable, when the reality is, their work is what keeps our businesses and organizations moving and flowing every day.
Jarvis Sam 41:14
Simply look to the navigation of the COVID-19 pandemic, when retail stores weren't open, and almost every organization tried to grow their digital and dot com business, they may have seen some lifts in some areas, but it was tangibly felt that without the support of retail teaming in the creation of retail environments, to create consumer experience, you lose out on a lot of abilities to be successful and so for my lecture at the conference coming up, I'm super excited to walk through the contours of impact for how to effectively operationalize diversity, equity and inclusion in retail environments. Looking at both stores context, digital context, and obsessing the idea of how do we ensure that our employees feel that they can work both in service of and enjoy the great benefits for advancement as part of an organization because put simply, many of our employees are consumers of retail, many of our consumers might desire to be our employees.
Steve Dennis 42:10
Absolutely. Well, that's, that's a great way to end things, I may have to get myself on a plane up to Toronto to hear you speak.
Michael LeBlanc 42:19
Join us.
Steve Dennis 42:19
This definitely captured my imagination. This has been such a great talk. I really appreciate you taking the time to meet with us. I hope everyone will go check out what the Rainbow Coalition is up to and as mentioned, we'll put some links in the show notes such an important conversation and I hope we'll be coming back to tackle these issues in the future some more but thank you Jarvis so much. By the way, I should have pointed out that with the name Steve Dennis, you know, and Jarvis Sam, we got the two first names thing going, and I managed not to screw up your name. So, I feel really privileged in that as well. So, but thank you so much for joining us.
Jarvis Sam 42:57
Thank you so much with deepest appreciation. Thanks for having me.
Michael LeBlanc 43:02
If you like what you heard, please follow us on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, and be sure to drop us that five-star review. New episodes of Season 6, presented by Market Dial will show up each and every Tuesday. Be sure to tell your friends and colleagues in the retail industry, all about us.
Steve Dennis 43:17
And I'm Steve Dennis, author of the bestselling book Remarkable Retail, How to Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. You can learn more about me my consulting and keynote speaking at stevenpdennis.com
Michael LeBlanc 43:31
And I'm Michael LeBlanc, consumer retail growth consultant keynote speaker. You can learn more about me on LinkedIn and you can catch up with Steve and me at the World Retail Congress, April 25 in Barcelona. Until then, safe travels everyone.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
organization, dei, people, business, diversity, space, equity, communities, brand, strategy, impact, retail, stores, positioned, work, sport, contours, canada, disruption, consumer