Diversity is more than a buzzword, it's the wave of the future. It is coming to tech and the industry is ready for it. There are multiple benefits to diversity and inclusion and tech companies are ready to reap the rewards.
We asked members of the Forbes Technology Council about what ideas they think diversity will bring and how companies will benefit from it. The answers varied but they all predicted positive outcomes that will make technology better than ever.
1. The Right Solutions
The value of diverse teams goes well beyond the obvious sentiment that inclusion is the right thing to do. The diversity of thought is crucial in coming up with the right solutions to business challenges, customer success and creative thinking. When team members are too similar, a large part of the innovation spectrum is missed. Quite simply, diverse teams win more often and more consistently. - Wade Burgess, Shiftgig
2. Best Ideas Rule the Day
Simply put, diversity is how we ensure the best ideas rule the day. My company has recently taken the ParityPledge to ensure that we are considering women for leadership roles where they are statistically under-represented today. Not only does that commitment present us with the best possible talent pool as an employer, but it also broadens the perspective and diversity of thought we can leverage in how we best serve our customers and employees. - Jim Higgins, solutionreach.com
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3. Solve Problems Faster
Innovation is crucial for any tech company and diversity plays a significant role in this. A company is much more likely to experience innovative change with a diverse team as they have an array of different knowledge bases. Diverse teams provide different perspectives and new ways of seeing a problem. This way, teams are able to identify, assess and solve it faster than they would as a homogenous group. Therefore, diversity is essential to innovation and delivering better business results. - Sanjay Malhotra, Clearbridge Mobile
4. Build A Product For Everyone
Diversity isn't just about race or gender. It's about background, perspective, age, education and so much more. If you have a homogenous team, then you're going to build a product that serves that team. In order to build a product that serves everyone, you need voices and input from all types of people. - Meetesh Karia, The Zebra
5. Increased Creativity
Teams need to be innovative to be truly valuable today. Innovation happens when teams challenge the status quo, look beyond the obvious and work creatively. If everyone on the team has the same knowledge, the same skills, the same worldview and the same biases, they will inevitably reach the same conclusions. Diversity is the only way to avoid this trap and foster truly creative teams. - Chris Grundemann, Myriad Supply
6. Connect With Customers
Ultimately, it goes back to customer-centricity. The audience for our software is widely diverse, so why wouldn’t we want our team to reflect that level of diversity as well? Teams that are too homogeneous have a challenge in tapping into empathy for customers and being able to reach a wider market. - Alan Price, visioncritical.com
7. Increased Profits
Analysis of a global survey suggests that the more gender diversity there is in a company, the higher the performance and the higher the financial results. In fact, it was proven that it is simply good for your business. The more gender diversity there is, the better the company performed including in the financial profitability, exit price, share price and the return over investment ratio. - Dr. Karin Lachmi, Bioz
8. People Grow Faster
Value to tech team diversity is no different than diversity for any other team in that it makes for better overall people. The advantage for tech versus other industries is speed. Teams are highly specialized and this common training is what helps bond teammates right away (skills matter more in this regard). The diverse backgrounds blend in later making the group more cosmopolitan overall. - Seth Wasserman, Menin Hospitality
9. Expand The Borders
Diverse teams who work cohesively encourage new ways of thinking and problem solving, which naturally enhances creativity and the ability to overcome challenges. More importantly, a diverse approach, not just gender or ethnicity but also diversity within roles, allows the tech community to expand its borders and employ a rich cross-section of people who may not fit "classic" tech profiles. - Ofer Garnett, YouAPPi Inc.
10. Different Work Styles
There are so many different ways of working that can be incorporated just by making your team more diverse. This helps us all learn and put together the best possible way of getting things done. - Chalmers Brown, Due
11. A Better Product
Diversity in your team is important to have a complete product that attracts many customers. If you just have a male team that develops a product, they may do a great job attracting male customers but may be alienating a lot of female customers because they were not present in the ideation and creation of the product. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
12. Culture of Diversity
Diversity in tech is all about building great company culture. There have been many examples in recent years of tech companies where a lack of diversity and empathy were nearly their undoing. Creating culture is a dynamic activity where every choice will shape the outcome. A great culture will attract great talent and a toxic culture could be the end. - Ryan Clark, Company.com
Great article! Inspiring.