The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was founded on the belief more than 50 years ago that the best answers for clients came through diversity of thought. Our founder Bruce Henderson encouraged all consultants—even the most junior members on a team—to engage in vigorous debate and exploration.
We quickly realized that we could not truly have diversity of thought without diversity of people. “When we staff a team with different backgrounds and experiences, we leverage that diversity to bring insight to the table. If you only have people who are similar in mindset and background, you will only get a subset of the best ideas,” said Michael Sherman, a Dallas-based partner in BCG’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications practice, whom Savoy Magazine has named as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America”.
BCG is proud to be recognized as a great place to work for LGBT employees and women by the Human Rights Campaign and Working Mother Magazine, respectively, and as one of the “50 Best Places Workplaces for Diversity” by Fortune Magazine.
While these honors are gratifying, we also recognize that we have more to do to be truly diverse and inclusive. In the U.S., women represent 45 percent of BCG employees, 44 percent of management positions, and 26 percent of executive positions. Ethnic minorities represent 28 percent of employees, 23 percent of management positions, and 15 percent of executive positions in the U.S.
Compared to many other organizations, these are laudable numbers. But we are continuously working to improve. In the past year, we have provided unconscious bias training for all managers including partners. We have also broadened our recruiting efforts and strengthened internal mentorship and affiliation programs (see http://www.bcg.com/diversity).
Diversity and inclusion are hard work for not only consulting firms. Following last year’s release of diversity data, Silicon Valley companies acknowledged that they need to do better. We recently studied diversity in Silicon Valley and
