PURPOSE, INC.

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EP14: Redefining Diversity and Inclusion with Lesley Slaton Brown of HP, Inc.

Transcript

Participants:

Michael Young

Lesley Slaton Brown, Chief Diversity Officer, HP, Inc.

Michael Young:

Welcome to the Purpose, Inc., the podcast where we discuss corporate purpose and stakeholder capitalism. I'm your host, Michael Young.

I’ve worked in Silicon Valley for almost 20 years and there is a lot of talk here about how culture, Trump's strategy, culture eats strategy for breakfast as it were. The bumper sticker of Silicon Valley would be we're making the world a better place and that shop-worn phrase has been ruthlessly parodied on the HBO series of the same name because it is so rarely true. But there are a handful of companies that have stood the test of time on a foundational bedrock of values and integrity and on that front, all roads lead back to HP.

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were focused on building a company based on values 80 years ago. And so, what does it mean today for a company to actually have and live values as a guiding light? And about a week ago right at the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, an Oakland entrepreneur Brandi Reilly tweeted about BLM social media posts by companies and she said, “Thanks for your Black Lives Matter graphics. Can you please share a photograph of your leadership team and your board of directors?” And Miss Reilly's point is if black lives matter, then why don't you hire black lives and put them in positions of power in your organization?

So, ahead of this podcast, I did exactly that I looked at the HP board of directors and lo and behold, it is one of, if not the most, ethnically and gender diverse boards of any tech company. You can check it out for yourself. I'll put a link in the show notes. And here to talk about HP's diversity and inclusion initiatives is my guest, Lesley Slaton Brown, the chief diversity officer of HP. And I would say without question, Lesley is reinventing the standards for diversity and inclusion at HP but also for all of us. And she is a thought leader and a frequent speaker on the topic of diversity and inclusion. She's been at HP for more than 20 years. She's boomeranged in and out of the company a couple of times.

And on today's podcast, Lesley and I talk about Black Lives Matter, we talk about systemic racism and the role companies play in equalizing historic and systemic inequalities. We talk about how HP backs its words on diversity with action both internally and externally. We talk about how HP measures its D&I initiatives. Lesley shares about just their summer intern program which they scaled from 200 to 1,800 during COVID. And we talk about why none of us are passers-by on the road to racial equality. Lesley's vision, her passion and her faultless clarity on creating a values-based workplace lights the path for all of us to follow.

Without further ado, here's my conversation with Lesley Slaton Brown of HP.

Michael:

Lesley thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Thanks for having me, Michael.

Michael Young:

So, a lot to talk about today and maybe just kind of for our listeners just frame up your 20-year journey at HP over a couple of different tenures and your role in what you do and what you're working on now.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Sounds good. Yeah. So, I'll start and by the way, hit 25 years last year. I’m going into my 26th year with HP. They call me a boomeranger. I've been in and out of the company twice, once at the 10-year mark and back for 11 years and then again at the 11 year mark. And so, I actually started my career in banking. First job out of out of college was banking and was a part of a bank robbery and thought yeah, don't think I want to do that. Don't like to watch people have guns pointed at them. So, I’ll pass on that career. And then went into working in construction and engineering and representing our corporate communications organization there. And then they made way to HP and my world and my life has been changed ever since for better. So, I started by doing some mostly like marketing sales promotion, product marketing, program management and worked from all across from network servers and disk drives to laser jet supplies and printers and graphic arts design and helping with acquisitions and really merging cultures of businesses of companies that were coming together through acquisitions and found my way into what I would say would be my zenith, the joy of my life and that was addressing the digital divide, really looking at the have and have nots in technology and in the world in bringing technology to bear for those that could do more, could do better if given the right technological advances and tools and to make things happen, build sustainable businesses and build more economically and sustainable countries even for that matter.

And so, I did some work out of Senegal, West Africa in really being able to look at how at that time it was around building ecommerce solutions. And so, think conceptually of you go into a third-world country and somebody's selling you trinkets or artifacts, bracelets and they sell them the tourists and they sell them from village to village. We wanted to be able to help enable those folks to build in incredible solutions, ecommerce systems that would allow them to then sell from their village to the world. And then so, did that for many years, in fact, and I always say that was the highlight of my career. But the interesting thing about that, Michael, was I had to step out of the company for about a year and a half and work in a dot-com organization. I was like number eight of what grew to be about 400 or so folks and be able to learn and take the skills that I'd learned and the product marketing and customer segmentation and really building out like the global businesses which was the work that I did at HP in taking that and bringing all of those things into this role and being able to help try to solve for the digital divide. And I did that for, I don't know, four or five years and then we had some changes in organization and shifts in the business and then the internet came on like a like a gang buster. And so, we had to kind of work on some of those things, those advancements that were happening so fast and to be able to keep up with those.

And so, I then found myself doing kind of, which I always was kind of that person at the table of like well, what about, like have we thought about marketing to this this segment of people, do we know anything more about what motivates and what drives to purchase. And so, really looking at value chain systems and really building out the segmentation in the real profile of our customers and those things kind of just merged and it kind of came to a point of being able to say hey, when you think about customer or business acquisitions and a company from Israel and a company from the U.S. merging together, what are the different cultural nuances that you need to be able to really understand and how do you bring those things together? And so, and then when you go to a country like Senegal, West Africa as a first world country working with a third world country, what are the things that you need to do not to drive them and lead them but to listen, to learn and then enable them with the right tools and solutions and guidance in order to build? And so, that's been much the work that I've been doing. Yeah, so I’ll pause there.

Michael Young:

Yeah, okay. No, that’s great. And sounds like from the beginning, a focus on closing gaps. When we started talking three weeks ago, we were going to have a look at the effect of COVID on what you're doing in the business and society and we've just had an incredible tragic sad but amazingly in a way hopeful couple of weeks since then as the result of a tragedy and the murder of George Floyd in particular. And I want to get your thoughts on and largely pivoting off of I think this time feels different and it feels like finally maybe Americans are ready for brands and corporations to step up and play a more central role in addressing inequality and systemic racism and indeed, police brutality. And so, let's start on that and see where we get.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Yeah. So, first and foremost, I mean my heart just goes out to George Floyd's family, Breonna Taylor's family, Ahmaud Arbery’s family and there's a whole list, a whole list of others, right? And I will be very honest with you, very candid. There's a part of me that's dumbfounded as to the things that have gone on for so long and now and why now. And to your point, I do feel like this is different. As much as I hurt and even honestly as angry as I've been, I also have a lot of optimism and hope as a result of seeing not only corporations and people and different races galvanize and come together to be able to protest and to be able to have their voices heard and the demands being made for change to occur. It is done. It's like enough is enough and this can't happen anymore. And so, we have to be able to put the right policies, the right laws. We have to dismantle a structure and a system that has been—and this is really hard for people to understand and I kind of laugh because when you don't understand, it's like well the joke's on you. Kind of like that's an example of what white privilege is, right? You don't have to deal with it. You can choose where you want to or not insert yourself and I cannot believe that you've gone through your entire life without seeing injustices happen to black people but people of color, to people with disabilities, to women, to you fill in the blank. And so, the optimism that I have is and what we've stepped into at HP is the learning, the understanding of we have a business model that states very clearly that we stand on equal and human rights. We also know that within HP our foundation, the foundation, the DNA of HP, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard was built on values being our guiding light and these things we bring together and say that as a company with these values, there's no way we can turn our heads. And so, I think and what's unfortunate is we had to see this live on video, a death to occur, a murder to occur in order for us to get to this place. But I will also say that there's been so much work that has been done previously in the diversity and inclusion space and belonging who helped kind of right and level if you will some of the wrongs that exist within corporate, within the system quite honestly. And so, I'm hopeful. I'm feeling optimistic that this isn't going to be just a moment but we really have ignited a movement out of the rage, the fear, the anger, all of those things that we've emoted over these lasts few weeks, few months and actually few years.

Michael Young:

Yeah, yeah. No. There were a lot of things at least that shifted in me too and I can speak for myself. I was actually just before we got on, I was talking to my dad who's 81 and lives in Nashville and he went to Nashville as a newly minted PhD from the University of California at Davis in the early 70s to teach at Meharry Medical College and being one of two schools, historically black colleges and universities that taught doctors and we were talking about his journey and what it meant for him to be there for five years. And for me, I'll just say this. I looked at my employees today and I said we are going to change, right? So, and I don't think it was not indifference on my part but it almost felt like that somebody else is going to take care of that and this time, Al Sharpton said in his eulogy, none of us are passers-by and I think that's the change I think that we're seeing is that everyone everywhere are finally getting the message that we all have a part to play.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Absolutely.

Michael Young:

Wherever we sit, wherever we stand, everyone has the part to play. It's not I'm going to leave it to those BLM pros, Black Lives Matters protesters. They're doing a great job. Keep it up. No, we all have a part and I think that to me is what is profound and everybody I'm talking to, they're not like hey let's jump on this bandwagon. It's like a lot of introspection going on. So, and HP has a ton of legacy and a ton of ethics to the core, right? Was always one of those companies that was just hey, we're doing this from a place of standards and quality and ethics.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Absolutely.

Michael Young:

And that continues and then today it's okay, closing the gap between tone and deed.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Yeah.

Michael Young:

Right? That's really and that personally is what's happened for me is like I'm going to close the gap. Tone is right. Deeds now have to stack up and stand up. So, you’re head of DNI there. What's changed I guess? It may be nothing but how are you thinking about it now versus a couple weeks ago?

LesleySlaton Brown:

That's a really good question and I will admit the demands are really, really high right now. But there's something I want to like tune you into. You heard me say I’m a boomeranger. There's a reason I've left HP and there's reasons I've come back and the fundamental reasons what you just stated. We're a company on principle, on values. And so, although we've been working especially since our separation in this realm of diversity and inclusion and being very intentional about embedding it into everything that we do, we've been very intentional about standing up our board of directors and creating thus, the most diverse board of directors in the tech industry which we're very proud of. More than being proud of that though, we've seen the impact that that board has on our leadership. We have a very culturally diverse leadership. I think they represent over like, I don't know, seven or eight different countries. And so, the thing that I find is different that I'm stepping into right now is as the head of global diversity and inclusion around this particular time that we're in with Black Lives Matter and the police brutality and the civic unrest and COVID and all of those things is the understanding that these things have disproportionately impacted communities of color and even more so African-Americans more than other groups.

And so, yes, I’m over DNI and yes, I care about all of our marginalized groups and underserved groups and the programs that we've put in place—and by the way, these programs are sticking. We're building relationships with business deans from the HBCUs. There are 111 in the country and 85 of them are a part of a roundtable that we're a part of. We're using our corporate power to be able to unite HBCUs with the New York Stock Exchange which by the way, they want to be able to recruit from those schools. We make deliberate efforts in mentorship and sponsorship programs and we see great promotions and development happen as a result of that. So, all of those things are wonderful. But the thing that is different right now and the thing that people have to I think really understand and I've spent these last few weeks explaining, this is about humanity, right? And all of the diversity and goals and targets are wonderful and all the inclusion and engagement opportunities and people's sense of belonging and bringing whole selves to work are just so important and we've done I think a really good job and yes, there's more work for us to do. We're now at a really, really pivotal point in time in that we're not transitioning because those things are still important but we’re focusing more on now the systems and the structures that have been put in place that have held these groups back and in particular, African-Americans in the U.S.

And so, I had a conversation with somebody today and they just said I'm struggling with systemic racism and I don't consider myself a racist and you probably don't, that's great. But when you think about—and part of it is as I said to this individual, so part of it is this and I'll use myself as an example: You know there's something wrong with the system when, Michael, you can go for a loan and get the loan or a home and my husband and I can go and get a loan for the home but the interest rate that we pay somehow is higher because we're deemed a higher risk because we checked African-American on the application. And so, that's something wrong in the system and ultimately, said business had to pay out to folks. And so, when you start looking at that at all angles about the educational system, why is it within Palo Alto you have right across the bridge one mile away one of the richest school systems in Palo Alto and one of the poorest just a mile away? And why does that divide exist? Why do those students, those brown students, predominantly brown students and black students not have access to technology? Why haven’t we taken care of those communities?

And so, I can kind of go on and on about property ownership leads to opportunity to take out a loan and be able to start a business or to send your child to college. And so, all of these things have come to a head under this social and racial injustice that we see happening. And so, a lot of what we're working on right now is how do we mobilize as individuals? And by the way, it's not for the black people to have to fix the problem in the system that's been set up to keep you back and hold you back. And so, it is education around that. And by the way, it's not for me to have to educate you either, right? But we do have to be able to have the hard conversations and that's where we started was convening a town hall and bringing in our executive leadership team to listen and to hear the stories of the people that by day we do this and when we walk out those doors, the things that happen as a result of just the color of our skin, those things don't happen to everyone. And so, it is where we've gone through this listening exercise of being able to hear and to share and now we're moving into now that people are quote-unquote woke, let's now get to that place of understanding that there have been an unmerited privilege that's been given out to a group of people. Don't feel guilty about it. Do something about it. And the do is now what we're focusing on. How do you become a better ally? How do you become an ally, a better ally and/or advocate for black people, for people of color, for different groups, for marginalized groups? We're starting in this place around and galvanizing around Black Lives Matter because if you can fix this for black lives, then all lives can be impacted.

Michael Young:

Yeah, yeah. That's really powerful. Thank you. And I think you started talking about HBCUs and recruitment and I think the one thing I have seen in Cornel West was on with Anderson Cooper and he said I'm buoyed up by the depth and the breadth of the change and I was talking to someone and it feels in the sense the way that marriage equality once was this marginal yeah, okay, everyone should be able to marry at one point and then one day it just changed. And I believe and I hope and I want to be buoyed up by this idea that we have crossed this line and we're not going back. And that to me feels powerful and important. But I think that is just the beginning. We haven't achieved anything. We've just saved an acknowledgement that the problem is catastrophic.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Yeah.

Michael Young:

And it's at every level and you were talking about income disparities and access to credit and redlining and on and on and on and on and on. And I was just reading a piece about African-Americans having to spend much more for college, being much more likely to take out loans of much higher value and on and on and on. And you just see it. The numbers are just overwhelming and catastrophic. But I want to maybe just dip into intergenerational move, your company that recruits. How will this change your recruiting strategy? And I think Gen Z kids coming out of school—assuming we're still going to have college post-COVID, I think we will—are saying overwhelmingly that they want to work for organizations that have a purpose, that have values and that those values reflect their values. And I think that I feel is a very powerful pressure moving organizations to not just say but to do.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Yeah. It's interesting when you think about corporate citizenship. One of the things and when we think of—so first of all, HP is hosting 200 interns this year within the U.S. and I'm excited about that. But I'm proud of my company because when COVID came and quarantine happened, many companies pulled out. Many companies said you know what? We're not going to be able host you this year as an intern. Thanks but we'll see you. Some of the companies, great, said well, we'll give you partial payment of what we said. So, if you think about that. So, one, the students aren't getting the experience and two, when you think about the impact that COVID had alone on students of color in particular, then the loss of income is catastrophic in some way. So, it's loss of income and loss of experience to be able to kind of come and be ushered into real world corporate. And so, one of the things that I'm so proud of HP for doing is identifying you know what? We want to give these students an opportunity. So, we're now hosting 1,800 students—and climbing by the way, I don't think that it's tipped off—but we’re hosting about 1,800 students in what we're calling the HP Summer Scholars Program. And it's not a paid internship but it is an opportunity to get a certification at the end of a six-week period. And so, for four hours a day for four days a week and on the fifth day is optional to be able to participate in hackathons and in business challenges and different things will these 1,800 students be able to get a deeply immersed experience in supply chain management, business strategy, sustainable impact, PCs and printers and understand what and how we how we do things at HP.

And so, leadership skills, leadership and development skills, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, all of those different things and at the end of that, you get a certification and you'll be able to say although you didn't get the hands-on experience, you got the learning. So, it eliminates that gap in in the resume for 2020 and that's big. We opened it up to, we first started with HP families. Our kids are impacted by this too. And so, we started there and then we built, we opened it up to HBCUs and some of the diverse talent organizations that we work with, Society of Women Engineers and National Society of Black Engineers and so on and other schools and our partner schools. And so, we were able to, as I said, 1,800 students and more than that, you got leaders, you got business leaders that said I will invest my time in helping you and educating you. And so, that's something to be proud of as an employee of the company and as a leader of the company that we care and it is again a great example of going back to we stand on equal and human rights. We want to be able to provide that because our people are our beating heart for the company. And so, I don't know. That's why I say I'm hopeful and those are the things that I hope that this new generation that's coming in sees and evaluates companies on. And yes, I'm proud of HP and yes, there other companies out there doing great things. But when I think about the representation of HP, the priorities that we have in place in order to really align our values, our principles and our business together, people really need to look at that and they need to make decisions, they are making decisions on the companies that they will either purchase from or want to work for or be in partnership with. And so, those things are important to note.

Michael Young:

Yeah, categorically. I think that last point about that perceptions about brands are being made now that will last a generation, right? It's sort of what did you do during the war, right? Who were you? How did you show up? What did you do? It's very much, it's going to be a stamp and I think that there are going to be companies that really embrace change and transformation and those who are just like well, we're going to check the box and I think the days of checking the box are—

LesleySlaton Brown:

Are over.

Michael Young:

Are behind us. They’re in the rearview.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Yeah, yeah. But and that’s why I said and that's why it builds on yeah, so diversity and inclusion is still going to be important because people, this new generation will still care about it and I often tell students you should care about the culture of the company that you that you work for. And proudly in HP, the culture is our differentiator and that was Bill and Dave years ago. They were very progressive 80 years ago. But those things have collided—or I shouldn't say collided—they've intersected and it's like we'll never be ever back to the pre-COVID normalcy. It's moving forward what will that be and how will you be and as a result of it.

Michael Young:

Yeah, yeah. All right. Lesley, there's literally so much to talk about it and we could I know talk the rest of the day.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

I enjoyed talking with you, Michael.

Michael Young:

I feel like we could go on for the rest of the day. But we're going to leave it there and it's been a great time with you and I really, really appreciate your time and your insights on this topic at this very important and pivotal time for everyone.

Lesley Slaton Brown:

Thank you, Michael. I appreciate you taking the time with us today.

Michael Young:

The Purpose, Inc. Podcast is a production of Actual Agency, helping innovators communicate in a changing world. More at www.Actual.Agency.