Leveraging Black Wealth, Power and influence
For more than 30 years, The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), now more than 700 members strong, has been the nation’s premier organization of black senior corporate executives, entrepreneurs and thought leaders. “We’ve always been on the cutting edge of advocating the bottom-line advantage of diversity and inclusion as a competitive advantage, and it is no longer debated,” declares ELC Board Chair and Holland America Line President Orlando Ashford.
He is not exaggerating. The PwC Global CEO Survey (2018), produced annually in conjunction with the Davos World Economic Forum, stated unequivocally: “Talent diversity and inclusion are no longer seen as ‘soft’ issues but rather as crucial business capabilities.”
McKinsey & Company, in its 2018 study “Delivering Through Diversity,” actually quantified the advantage: “Companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 21 percent more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile. For ethnic/cultural diversity, topquartile companies were 33 percent more likely to outperform on profitability.” Further, the study found, “Companies with the most ethnically/culturally diverse boards worldwide are 43 percent more likely to experience higher profits.”
In pursuit of its corporate mission, The ELC has also achieved stellar success for its members and stakeholders:
• Over 240 members have joined boards of directors of major corporations.
• Most black CEOs of major corporations are or have been members.
• Thousands of potential business leaders have been trained in its unique leadership and development programs to advance their careers.
• Hundreds of college and business school students have been inspired to pursue business careers through its scholarships.
“We’ve always been on the cutting edge of advocating the bottom-line advantage of diversity and inclusion as a competitive advantage, and it is no longer debated.”
— ORLANDO ASHFORD ELC Board Chair and Holland America Line President
The ELC celebrated its achievement in the Oct. 31, 2018/Forbes 400 issue, in a special section entitled “The Competitive Advantage of Black Wealth, Power and Influence.” The 13 major corporations that sponsored that celebration are recognized and applauded with a banner of their logos below.
“Our long-term purpose, however, is really to reach further,” explains ELC President and CEO Skip Spriggs, former chief human resources officer of TIAA. “We create pathways of opportunity for the development of black executives so they can then positively impact the communities in which they live and work.” ELC members are leveraging their collective power in an expanded, innovative agenda: to provide leadership, policy direction and lasting success to those in their broader communities and America as a whole.
Last summer, The ELC, in partnership with the Beta Iota Boulé (the Connecticut chapter of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, a national organization that sponsors social action and public policy initiatives) and McKinsey & Company, inaugurated the Black Economic Forum, attended by more than 200 black business and thought leaders. The purpose of the forum was
to explore the opportunity for successful blacks to effect advancement for their whole community, and the in-depth statistical foundation for the two days of discussion. “Snapshot: Black Wealth Journey” is a review of the foundations prepared for the forum.
Robert F. Smith, founder, chair and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, celebrated on the cover of the Forbes 2018 Billionaires issue as “the richest black American,” and Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. opened the forum, summarizing the history of black American exclusion — beginning with slavery — from wealth-building opportunities that set in concrete today’s income and wealth gap.
What are the continuing causes and measurable consequences of the centuries of exclusion?
• Black Americans are still concentrated in states and neighborhoods with higher poverty; inferior schools, healthcare, housing and services; and less economic productivity and business growth.
• Black families are twice as likely to be denied credit, and they hold twice as much unsecured debt.
• They have lower financial literacy and a corresponding adverse attitude toward saving and investment.
• With little short-term savings and other financial support, they are less able to weather periods of financial instability.
• Median white family wealth is greater than median black family wealth by a factor of 10.
• Two-thirds of middle-class black children are likely to become poorer as adults.
What about black Americans’ work experience? Again, they hold the short straw and, because of technological advances, are likely to continue at a disadvantage: • Their employment experience reflects their lesser access to jobs with the most opportunity for advancement, so they realize lower lifetime earnings.
• They are more likely to hold part-time rather than full-time jobs, so they never receive most nonsalary benefits.
• They are underrepresented in growth industries — in seven of the eight highest-paying industries and five of the eight fastest-growing industries — and overrepresented in lower-paying support roles. Support roles face an uncertain future altogether, since they are the ones at higher risk for automation.
A key finding of a 2017 study by the Institute for Policy Studies and Prosperity Now, entitled “The Road to Zero Wealth: How the Racial Wealth Divide Is Hollowing Out America’s Middle Class,” articulates a shocking truth: “… only black and Latino households with an advanced degree have enough wealth to be considered middle class [in the middle quintile], whereas all white households with a high school diploma or higher would be considered middle class.” The cumulative effect of entrenched and institutionalized exclusions, none of which have ever been lasting weights upon almost all voluntary immigrants, already places black Americans at substantial comparative financial disadvantage and predicts continued obstacles to advancement.
The patterns of exclusion and the resulting wealth and income gap will not diminish without concerted intervention, what ELC President and CEO Spriggs defines as “creating avenues for other black Americans to attain their highest potential.” Forum participants coalesced around interventions in wealth creation, social impact, education and philanthropy. Committees are already meeting to draft operational plans to prepare for the second Black Economic Forum next August.
The ELC, through the experience and drive of its members and their relationships with their companies and strategic partners, is a powerhouse of black wealth, power and influence. But its successes are just scratching the surface of “The Power of Inclusive Leadership.”
We invite companies large and small, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and elected officials to join us to increase black representation in executive positions and on corporate boards and then to realize the collective benefits of full participation for all black Americans. Those twin goals — affording millions of Americans real opportunity to achieve the American dream — will ensure the enduring growth of the entire American economy and therefore of all Americans.