A report card on diversity: lessons for business from higher education

Institutions of higher learning in the United States have long played a disproportionate role in supplying leadership talent to the world's business and professional organizations. For 30 years, the most selective schools have been working to increase diversity in their student bodies. New research by the former presidents of Princeton and Harvard suggests that the experiences and initiatives of these academic institutions can provide business leaders with insight into how to create diverse organizations that succeed. The first insight has to do with clarity of mission. It is not enough to pursue diversity because it is "the right thing to do." In an insert, Raymond Gilmartin, the CEO of Merck, echoes that view, discussing the relationship between diversity and Merck's competitiveness. The second insight concerns recruiting. The authors challenge what they call "the myth of pure merit," the notion that recruiting is a precise science based only on grades and test scores. Instead, they argue, merit is about assembling a team by deciding which applicants, considered individually and collectively, will contribute most to achieving the company's goals. The third insight concerns how organizations help employees perform to their potential. Of the factors contributing to high graduation rates at the most selective schools, higher expectations and the efforts of mentors stand out as most important. Finally, the fourth insight is about how to achieve accountability in a corporate setting. Boards must ask: Are our recruiting policies working? and How are recruited employees doing?