Carol Fulp

Using positive, constructive and clear language Carol Fulp, CEO of The Partnership, Inc. describes the problem: Boston has one of the largest income disparity percentages between whites and minorities of any city in the US, because of the historically poor employment and financial situations for African-Americans, Latinos and other minorities in the city. She explains why: the obvious and open reasons: long-held, deep-seated racism, and the concealed reasons: personal and subjective prejudice, and preference to associate, live and work with people similar to ourselves. The results of racism and prejudicial preference have for far too many years maintained the status quo of whites receiving significantly more opportunities for better education, leading to good jobs with better pay, giving them more money to live in better neighborhoods. The virtually all white business owners and executives have seen their roles as continuing to do business as usual.

Fulp illustrates the solution: increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As the US has become more global, and demographics of many neighborhoods, and cities have changed, and will continue changing, some large businesses have been compelled to question if hiring a few minorities here and there to comply with government regulations will cut it. And the answer is no. Slowly, some companies have added internship and hiring programs through their Human Resources departments. Not good enough. A combination of not meeting customers’ expectations, the need for new customer markets and the push from government, and minority and/or women owned small businesses have propelled companies to change their culture. They now search for and interview diverse candidates, and hire younger visionary, intelligent CEO’s and high-level managers.

Fulp explains how small minority-owned employment consultancy groups can and have helped large and mid-size businesses find, train, and hire minority job candidates, not just for low level positions but for responsible roles throughout the company including management and marketing.

Her company is celebrating 30 years of helping match minority candidates with open positions in approximately 300 companies through personalized programs to train, coach, prepare candidates as well as programs for companies to further train new minority hires. The key to companies succeeding is to understand their responsibilities don’t stop with hiring diverse candidates. They need to provide inclusion. That means management must promote a culture of respect, safety, and listening to all its employees. Companies who do this gain customer respect, generate creativity and innovation, and benefit financially.

Additionally, today, CEO’s must also display leadership skills by speaking out against political or social media rants and rhetoric that are inane, inciteful, and inaccurate against any group of people.

While I felt that Success Through Diversity could have been about 50 pages shorter, Fulp's clear writing style allowed me to learned much from it.

I can’t think of anyone who couldn’t benefit from reading it.… (mere)

Carol Fulp draws upon surveys, research studies, personal experience, and examples from business and nonprofits to support her argument that addressing issues of diversity and inclusivity are critical to organizational success. Fulp explains how diversity positively impacts recruitment, innovation, marketing, supply chain, and community relations. According to Fulp and the many executives she quotes, it is crucial for organizations to consider questions of diversity because of America’s changing demographics. Fulp takes a broad view of diversity. It is not only based on race and gender but also refers to differences of age, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion, and more. Fulp examines how numerous organizations are promoting diversity and the lessons that can be learned from their efforts. But this is not a how-to book. Fulp provides general recommendations rather than detailed plans. Her goal with this book is to raise awareness of the need to include considerations of diversity in all aspects of managing a business. Executives and managers can benefit from reading the book.… (mere)