Happy Monday!
Our first webinar last week was a great success. A big thanks to all who participated. We have Hope Kahan sharing job search tips tomorrow, so please register to join us. More information on the events may be found here. Please note that we will be charging a nominal fee to attend and as always our profits go to the Young Women’s Preparatory Network to support the life-changing work they do across Texas. The schools were featured in a recent Washington Post article that can be found here.
The first article this week deals with the challenge that is working from home. On the positive side, folks are finally seeing that it is about output and not certain hours at your desk. On the flip side, working remotely demands overcommunication and initiative on all our parts. The full article can be found here.
From the bad news file, Morgan Stanley’s former diversity chief has sued the bank over racial bias after more than 25 years at the firm. The article notes “the challenge is acute on Wall Street, which remains largely white and male despite changes to recruiting practices in recent years meant to diversify their ranks.” The full article can be found here.
I also want to call your attention to a recent op ed in Pensions & Investments written by 20+ year industry veteran Carrie Pickett. Ms. Pickett notes that after years of the asset management industry’s focus on diversity, inclusion and emerging managers, minority firms manage less than 1% of the assets in a trillion-dollar industry. For a sector that focuses on performance, those results are pretty dismal no matter how you count. The full article can be found here.
And for those that wonder why this all matters, McKinsey published its third report in a series on why diversity matters, and it seems it is all about making money. To quote from the report: “our latest analysis reaffirms the strong business case for both gender diversity and ethnic and cultural diversity in corporate leadership—and shows that this business case continues to strengthen. The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability. Our 2019 analysis finds that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile—up from 21 percent in 2017 and 15 percent in 2014.” The full report can be found here.
I would ask each of you to consider corporate sponsorship of TXWSW. Benefits include attendance at our flagship events and recognition for your firm. And most importantly, you help us support the life-changing work of the Young Women’s Preparatory Network. To learn more about YWPN, you can find a short video here. To learn more and sponsorship, you may find our sponsor information here. Additionally, we would be happy to create a custom sponsorship for you. Please contact Bianca King at developmentdirector@txwsw.com
All my best to you and yours.
Kind regards
Christine
