There were three buzzwords this year among politicians and business leaders at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland: diversity, equity and inclusion.
It’s no surprise that DEI is also on the minds of business leaders, as it’s also front and center in the White House.
“My administration has taken action to dismantle all the discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense,” Donald Trump said during a virtual appearance in Davos on Thursday. “America will do it again. Become a performance-based nation.”
Trump signs executive order on his first day in office Dismantling the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. The written order only applies to federal government employers, but he also mentioned comments extending his executive order to Davos.
In accordance with his executive order, his administration also Targeted Affirmative Action in Federal Contracting and All federal DEI workers ordered to take leave.
On the ground at Davos, Dei has been the subject of conversations behind the scenes and behind closed doors, including the potential for ditching common acronyms and changing external communications around certain policies.
Most company leaders who spoke to CNBC in the four days leading up to the summit reiterated that while the language may change and internal policies may be tweaked, company values will remain the same.
Here’s what executives had to say:
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMORGAN CHASE
“We’re going to continue to engage with the black community and the Hispanic community, the LGBT community and the veteran community. … Everywhere I go – red states, blue states – mayors, governors love what we do. “If you point us out I will not try either side or any side of anything that is the wrong thing to do. We’ve done it, all we’ve done is lift up cities, schools, states, hospitals, countries, companies, and we’re going to do more. “
Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman
“For Nasdaq, we do continue to look at everything we do in terms of building the right culture. We do believe in a place where we feel like people can be themselves and reach their highest potential and have a diversity of perspectives , and diversity in the background, actually makes us a better company, so we’ll continue to operate that way, and at the same time, I believe there’s an undercurrent that still has support.”
Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest
“People on our platform come from all walks of life and from all backgrounds, so we’re very focused on how we can drive things like inclusive AI on the platform and using things like diversity in our feed . . . We didn’t (change anything) because we saw that it was actually leading to better engagement and consumer demand for it was good for our business.”
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins
“I think what happened was that part of the program under the Dei brand was particularly disliked. And I think the whole thing blew up because of that… If I’m sitting in a room trying to solve a complex problem or, I want to be in that room There’s a lot of different brains in there, and I don’t care if it’s gender, or nationality, or it’s just the diversity of diversity that’s turning the pendulum, and I think that really triggers it all.”
Robert Smith, CEO of Vista Equity Partners
“I think diversity is a great thing in business. How do I know? Because I look at the data, I look at the facts. When we have a diverse team, our team is more productive. Our risk Lower. We are our risk. In fact, those who don’t have diverse teams show this, thinking about diversity in the products they offer and in the markets they serve. To benefit the long term… we’re going to have to navigate this and there may be some laws that need to be changed, but people will do the right thing.”
Alexandr Wang, Chief Executive Officer Scale
“We are in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving industry in AI, and I have no choice but to hire the best, brightest, and most capable people for every job within the company. So we have no choice, It can only be a meritocracy…and in the process, we achieve diversity.”
