It's time to reinvent diversity

The UK’s FTSE 100 is the pinnacle of innovation, best practice and corporate governance. We celebrate the fact that, within its 20 largest companies, 55% of chairmen, 70% of chief executives and 55% of directors are not British born. Yet we also bemoan the fact that these companies fail to outperform overseas rivals built on home-grown talent. There seems to be a misconception that internationalism and diversity are one and the same thing. It is of course diversity that can improve company performance, but the term ‘diversity’ is itself becoming a misnomer.

Diversity must have purpose

Diversity is not exclusively about race. Middle aged, Caucasian, university-educated males are much of a muchness, whether they hail from the UK, USA, Germany or even Singapore. So, a board with an international dimension does not necessarily reflect the diversity of the societies it serves. An increase in female representation is not the sole answer either – the women need to reflect the real world too. Just as we can overestimate the importance of race and gender, we should not get hung up on age, ethnicity, sexuality and disability. Yes, these are pertinent to the diversity debate, but tend to be about diversity for its own sake.

Time for a new word