Name: CEO Initiative 2023: Leveraging Tailwinds To Navigate Headwinds
Uploaded: 2023-10-04
Duration: 20 min 7 s
Description: Debbie Dyson, Chief Executive Officer, OneTen, Ken Frazier, Chairman, Health Assurance Initiatives, General Catalyst; Co-founder and Co-chair, OneTen Moderator: Alan Murray, Chief Executive Officer, FORTUNE

Debbie Dyson, Chief Executive Officer, OneTen, Ken Frazier, Chairman, Health Assurance Initiatives, General Catalyst; Co-founder and Co-chair, OneTen Moderator: Alan Murray, Chief Executive Officer, FORTUNE

CEO Initiative 2023: Leveraging Tailwinds To Navigate Headwinds

Conferences

Debbie Dyson, Chief Executive Officer, OneTen Ken Frazier, Chairman, Health Assurance Initiatives, General Catalyst; Co-founder and Co-chair, OneTen Moderator: Alan Murray, Chief Executive Officer, FORTUNE

Debbie Dyson, OneTen, Ken Frazier, Health Assurance Initiatives, General Catalyst; OneTen Moderator: Alan Murray, FORTUNE

Right. Everyone in this room knows that 2020 started a mass a massive push to bolstering den I and ESG commitments in companies, uh companies working to make public commitments and to live up to those commitments and entities that didn't factor those considerations into their strategies. Felt pressure both from their own employees and from the outside to, to step up. But what we've seen in the last year, year and a half as we've discussed uh earlier today is uh backlash a political backlash and some backsliding. I've seen evidence that some companies are at least pressing pause and saying, wait, hold on. I don't want to talk about this right now. And so that's what we want to spend a little time talking about now. Joining us to talk more about it and the reasons and how leaders can respond are two people who have put themselves at the very forefront of the dei movement. Debbie Dyson, who is CEO of 110 uh the a coalition that aims to bridge the opportunity divide by creating 1 million jobs for Black Americans in 10 years. And Ken Frazier, who is chairman of the health Assurance initiative but was also a co-founder of the 1 10 initiative. So please join me on the stage, Debbie. Thank you so much. You're welcome. It's been since yesterday. Yeah, we, we Ken and I did this this routine yesterday. So I, I have a preview of, of uh his answers for a different audience. Um But, but look, I, I, I'd love for you, Ken first to start about to talk about why you created this initiative. And I'm gonna get Debbie to talk about how it works. So it's sort of amazing how quick the political environment in the country has changed. But if you went back to 2020 in the wake of the tragic murder of George Floyd companies were asking openly in the Business Council and the Business round table, what should we do about these kinds of issues of racial injustice in this country? And Ken and I were in some of those discussions and people were talking about making donations and putting out statements and all the things that normally happen. And we said, you know, what's in the wheelhouse of our companies is to hire people. And we pointed out that the census said that 76% of African Americans at age 26 did not have a four year degree and more than 95% of the jobs in our coalition, which is made up of 70 leading companies required a four year degree for almost any job So what we said is we really ought to look at the question and it reminded me of the discussion we just had about artificial intelligence where you look at the taxonomy of jobs and decide what the real skills are. And we said, what if we took a skills first approach to hiring for certain jobs instead of acquiring the credential of a four year degree. We said we wanted to actually have people be hired because they had certain skills and uh the goal of the coalition, it was initially to hire 1 million African Americans who lacked a four year degree into family sustaining wage jobs. Important. Basically, that's $50,000 a year or more. It's of course adjusted whether you live in Mobile, Alabama or Seattle, Washington. And that was the goal. And for the last two years, we've been active in that area with some success. So Debbie, how's it, how does it work and how is it working? Yeah, let me start with the latter first in terms of how it's working. So as Ken mentioned, we're entering our third year, we've hired to date about 108,000 jobs in terms of hires and promotes. We have over 70 some odd members in our coalition, representing about 65 different types of jobs. We have 23,000 current profiles that sit on what we call our platform, which is where our employers can go look for talent. So simplistically, the way that it works is we meet with our coalition members to try to understand what their human capital management, talent acquisition journey is. What are the types of jobs that they're looking for? What are the location, what are the skills that they're looking for? Based on that criteria, we post the jobs on our platform. We then work with an ecosystem of what we would call talent developers and talent partners that are really sort of dedicated to trying to skill up the talent so that we can make sure that talent is actually work ready by the time that they're presented. And so, you know, call it a little bit like a match making. So it's, here's the job, here's the talent and hopefully there's a match and then from there we go. And is it explicit? And you know why I'm asking this question? Is it explicitly for Black workers? So at its inception, we, we had a mission of attempting to close the talent gap explicitly for Black talent. But I know why you're asking the question and we've addressed that recently, you know, with the Supreme Court's opinion and the change in the atmosphere, we've been very clear that while that was indeed the initial reason for it, it's open to anybody who needs help. So it's not exclusionary in any way. Um It's really more and more about getting companies to focus on skills first because if they change systemically, how they think about jobs. I mean, again, 76% of African Americans lack a four year degree, but 50% of all Americans lack a four year degree. So the 1 10 goal is 1 million jobs in, in 10 years. Right. Not necessarily just for blacks, but for people without college degrees. Absolutely. And, you know, just to add on to what Ken said, what's been kind of fascinating is as we've been putting together and sort of identifying talent, we are seeing a wide range, it's not just black talent, it is every range. And many of our coalition members have said, once we sort of put this thinking into the mindset of our coalition, they've actually see the benefits that they're opening up the opportunities for others to apply that do not have a four year degree as well. But Ken, let's go back to the race issue because as you know, there's, there's not only the Supreme Court decision, there's been a real backlash. We have a member of this group, Elizabeth Gore who runs an outfit called Hello Alice to help small businesses who is being sued for having a program that pro provide explicitly provides help to black owned businesses. The Fearless Fund is another example which is being sued uh in the wake of the Supreme Court decision for providing grants explicitly uh uh to black owned businesses. What's going on here? I mean, is there a legal case? You must think there's at least some legal risk or you wouldn't have made the change with 1 10. And how do you explain what's happening? So, first of all, I think it's pretty clear that there is a movement afoot in our country against some of these programs and the lawsuits have started to build before the Supreme Court case. I think it's important to point that out. Um, you know, the way that I look at this situation is in our country, we have a couple of challenges. Number one is we want to be a country where we don't judge people by extraneous factors like gender and sex and things of that nature, right? So as an organizing and governing principle, most people would agree that race neutrality or color blindness, whatever you want to call, it is a good thing for a multicultural and multi racial society. On the other hand, I think most people would acknowledge that there are still continuing vestiges of the way this country is run for 400 years that explain why the unemployment rate for African Americans is so much worse. Why life expectancy is so much worse? Why after years and years of red lining neighborhoods are segregated? So the question becomes, how can we deal with those issues? You know, which of course people were worried about when people were in the streets about George Floyd. How do we deal with those issues in a way that balances our need to treat people fairly. But at the same time, acknowledging, not everybody has had the same life experience. If I'll just use one autobiographical example, I'm the eighth of my dad's nine Children, my younger sister and I came along in a birth order where the social engineers in Philadelphia decided to make race conscious decisions about who went to what school he called that school desegregation. So the youngest two of my dad's Children were bused out of the ghetto to better schools. Because if you lived in my neighborhood, your parents didn't, couldn't afford real estate, that was proximate to where the good public schools were. I happen to think that that obviously it benefited me, think it might have benefited Merck at some point. But the fact of the matter is, I don't think that that actually hurts somebody. Creating that opportunity for me wasn't at the expense of somebody else. And so the question becomes, how do we keep these two seemingly inconsistent goals in mind? That is to say, treating people fairly. On the other hand, creating opportunity for people whose lack of opportunity in some ways relates to the history of this country on race. So can't let me, let's push this a little bit further because I, I spend a lot of time talking to CEO S different CEO S different industries, I would guess. And I'm, I, I don't have the data on this, but I would guess 90% of them would agree with what you just said. But I can also tell you 90% of them say, but please, please, please keep me out of politics. I don't want to have anything to do with it. I, I it's, it's, it's broken, it's pernicious, it's polluting everything you, you played a really for, for, for whether intentionally or unintentionally. You played a really critical role in the politics of the last five or six years in, in 2017, you were the one after Charlottesville when the president made ambivalent comments about that, unite the right uh rally. You were the one who said I have to resign from his committees and all the other CEO S and I know this from talking to him and the other CEO S who resigned, resigned because you resigned. So you led that movement. It was a critical point. A lot of backlash 2020 after the election when the Georgia State uh legislature, the Republicans adopted a Voting Rights Act. You and Ken were the ones who called Ed Bastian at Delta Airlines, uh called the CEO of Coca Cola, convinced them to get involved, which prompted a huge political backlash. Um So how do you, how do you think about your role as a CEO versus your role as a citizen in politics? Because I can tell you and I think, you know what I'm saying is correct. Most CEO S don't want to have anything to do with it. So let me just say that while I found myself in a lot of those situations, it wasn't my goal to be a political person. It seems to me that businesses and CEO S don't want to get in the middle of every political dispute, especially given how divided our country is right now. But at the same time, I firmly believe that there are a series of principles and conditions that make our democracy what it is and they are conducive to human beings and they are conducive to commerce. And there are situations where people in elected office, either neglect or abandon those principles, you know, free and fair elections is one rule of law is respect for private property, equal treatment. All of those things that we were taught in grade school are the fundamental principles of this country. It is my view that while I don't want to drag my company into every political dispute that when those kinds of principles are not being upheld by our elected officials, it becomes the responsibility of the citizenss really, it is the government of us to take a position on those things. And I think ceos obviously are among the most influential citizens. So my whole thing is pick your spots. Ask yourself, do you have a right to speak to this issue? Does your company's values speak to this issue? And if so, I think ceos should not be cowed into not speaking because at the end of the day. If it is, in fact, a principle like the right to vote, the fact that someone else politicizes that principle doesn't make that principle intrinsically political. And I'll just make the point that came up this morning. The US business community has acted in unison around democracy in Ukraine. It strikes me as a mildly amusing. I'll say that we have a hard time talking about democracy in these United States. Yeah. No, it's so your message to this group is pick your spots but get involved when you have to get involved. But by the way, and I say to people don't allow your company to be pushed to one way or the other by the left or the right. Do what your company's values say that you're supposed to do. Because at the end of the day, there are a lot of young people in our companies and they're watching us and when we give up on the things that we've said were our values for decades, why would they believe us about anything else you did? I just want to stick with this for a second because you're in a regulated industry, obviously resigning from a government advisory council when you're in a regulated industry. And by the way, the president was already talking about legislation to increase or to control over drug prices is pretty significant. Did you talk to your board about this? Was this this a decision you made by yourself or I'm gonna get back to you, Debbie. I haven't forgotten you, but did, did you talk to your board about this or how, how, how did you handle it? I had an obligation to talk to my board. I mean, the fact of the matter is, is a company that is regulated in that way, not necessarily by the president's tweets though. I want to point that out. Uh, I did call my board and I said to them as a person of conscience, I cannot remain after these comments. Um But when I put out a statement and I intended to withdraw in a public way, I want the board to opine on whether I should speak to my personal conscience and values or should I speak to the company's values? And I can tell you unanimously, they said we want you to speak to the company's values. Every one of every, everyone back you up on it. Anyone have any questions on this before I want to go. Yeah, go ahead, please. I like Wilson Hispanic Association on corporate responsibility. My, my question, um Ken is, can you, um, give guidance to many of the CEO S here in the room who um sometimes on one ear, they may getting guidance from their uh Chief Diversity Officer on the other ear. Their general General general counsel, I used to be a general, you know, and in this environment where, you know, G CS who are not as willing to lean in, um, and stand by those principles out of fear that doing that, I can tell you. So my bottom line is you have to uphold your values. I'm, I'm a lawyer but not in the pejorative sense of the word. And the fact of the matter is that lawyers often feel their job is to protect the company from being criticized or sued. I think when you look at what the law is, by the way, the law did not change around race and hiring the Supreme Court brought the law around education into compliance with title seven. I think there's still a lot of maneuverability here and I think it's a mistake to overcorrect because you might be criticized. At the end of the day, I think ceos ought not be pushed around. If we have values, we ought to uphold those values, but we ought to do them sensibly. That's why we made the change in 110 to make sure that while we originally did it to close the talent gap for Black Americans, we say, but no, we want to help anybody who needs our help. That doesn't stop us from helping a lot of people. Let's get back to, let's get back to 110 because it is important work. And, and you know, we know we've seen the data inequality in our society has increased. The, the there's a sense that the escalator of mobility has slowed or stopped. You have a program to address that. What can the people in this room do to help? Yeah, I mean, a couple of things that I want to make sure just from something that Ken said. So I was retired, I had retired after 34 years at a company called ADP and in, I guess it was November. I had an opportunity and obviously you're all enthralled with Ken as I am every single day. It's like a gift. No, seriously, it's like a gift, brownie points. So why I say that is the case. So this is sort of a long winded way to get to the answer your question. But it was really just through the conversation with him and Ken and the other members of the board that honestly pulled me out of retirement. I could have stayed out of retirement. And my, my answer is it was important for me to, I wanted to say something. I wanted to be something and I wanted to do something. And so when we're meeting with the CEO S and we had a call just recently to talk about the whole scotus, it was probably one of the most inspirational discussions because we talked exactly about this. And what was rewarding was this resiliency and almost like, um and anger to, to be honest with you, of wanting to really lean in further of what can we do as a coalition to spread the word of impact. I mean, we're sitting here as the numbers that Ken sort of mentioned with excellent opportunity of untapped and underestimated potential of talent that is in the workforce today that has just been unseen, unheard and unappreciated. And so how do we as a nation sort of start to see that talent that for whatever the reasons were, didn't have the opportunities to go down a collegiate path for all the reasons that I think we know. And here is an alternative path to say, put the four year degree to the side and look at the skills and the potential of the talent in front of you and offer them the opportunity. So that's the, that's the, it's also a really important collective action effort. Uh because we know what's happened in the past, even with very well intentioned companies have had de i efforts and changed the way they hire a lot of times you end up just competing for the same group of educated people and, and bidding up their wages, but not addressing the problem you're trying to address. So, so kudos for you, uh both uh for doing it. Um by the way, if you're interested in, in, uh if you're as enthralled with Ken as Debbie is, and you're interested and you're interested in hearing uh uh more on what we were talking about earlier. The, the conversation that we had yesterday was for Fortune's Leadership next podcast and that'll be out in a week or so. You can get it on, on Apple or Spotify. It was really a fascinating uh 30 minutes and I would urge you to listen and dig in more and I would urge you to reach out to Debbie uh and get involved in 1 10, any contact information you want to give this 1 10 spelled out as it is dot org. So just, just feel free can make closing comments. We're talking about leadership. You know, I think leadership is about upholding what we think our values are ultimately and we can't let people outside our companies tell us what our values are. You know, my dad worked for United Parcel in the early 19 sixties and the company made a decision that it was no longer going to have segregated facilities. The law and the custom in many American states was that segregation was the right thing to do today. When we look back at that, we can all pretend that we would have been brave enough to make that decision. That was the right thing to do before the law caught up with it. And I think we can ask ourselves, do we think it's the right thing to create opportunities for talented people, irrespective of their race because we know that they can do jobs without regard to their four year degree credentials or not. I think that's the right thing in a country where our working age population is not growing at all in terms of the overall size and it's becoming more diverse here here. Thank you very much for what you're both doing and appreciate you being here. Thank you for having us here.