Did diverse companies perform better during the pandemic?

3 years ago

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July 14, 2021

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Emmy nominations are in, France’s antitrust enforcer comes down on Google, and companies with more diversity at the top fared better during the pandemic. Have a great Wednesday.
– Money talks. There are plenty of arguments for why companies should make diversity—at every level, but especially at the top—a priority. But since we live in a capitalist society, the rationales that really get executives’ attention tend have something in common: money.
With that in mind, I thought I’d flag the results of a couple studies that crossed my desk this week. The first is from a nonprofit called BoardReady and zeros in on corporate boards. According to its new analysis of data from S&P 500 companies, there’s a strong correlation between board diversity and revenue growth during the pandemic. Here are a couple of the top-line findings, which compare revenue from 2019 and 2020:
— Companies where women held more than 30% of board seats outperformed their peers in 11 of 15 sectors.
— Companies with at least 30% of seats held by non-white directors saw year-over-year revenue grow by 4%. Those with less racially diverse boards had a revenue decline. (Read more here.)
Still not convinced? The Pipeline, a U.K. consultancy, took a look at a different set of companies—the FTSE 350. It found that over the past year, companies where women make up at least half of the executive committee delivered a profit margin of 21.2%. Meanwhile, those with zero women on their executive committees saw profits drop by almost 18%. And while the pandemic seems to have made that divide all the starker, that general trend is nothing new: Going back to 2017, the Pipeline found that companies with more women on their executive committees have outperformed those with fewer—which in turn bested those with none—every single year. (Read more here.)
If you’re reading this, you probably didn’t need any additional analysis to convince you of the value of bringing more women and people color into positions of corporate power. But you probably know or work with some people who do, and these types of stats might be just what you need to convince them that diversity is actually about profit—as well as purpose.
Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee
The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.

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