Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. The backstory on
Speaker 1: our next guest company's name will tell you a lot
Speaker 1: about what they hope to be doing, and that is
Speaker 1: creating a safer workplace for employees, just like Canaries did
Speaker 1: in the coal mines. Let's bring in Mandy Price. She's
Speaker 1: CEO and co founder of Canaries. It's a platform for
Speaker 1: compiling and tracking demographic demographic data for companies. It's also
Speaker 1: pulling in together data on employees, executive leadership, and governing boards.
Speaker 1: Her company works with the likes of Young Brands and
Speaker 1: even Marcus and the Dallas Mavericks, among others, and many
Speaker 1: joins us on the phone in Dallas. Mandy, Welcome to Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: Hi Carol, how are you. I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Um,
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about your company and
Speaker 1: what you are doing and really what you've set out
Speaker 1: to do. I'm curious how you got there in the
Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, sure so. Um. As a woman of color,
Speaker 1: I had challenges in the workplace like many represented employees space,
Speaker 1: but I have to also unique perspective and experience of
Speaker 1: helping to drive my organization's diversity initiatives. So I designed
Speaker 1: UM my law firm. Before Canaries, I was a practicing
Speaker 1: attorney and UH as far as with the Women's Task Force,
Speaker 1: the Hiring Committee, and and also leading up the Black
Speaker 1: of r G group. So I knew the unique challenges
Speaker 1: that organizations had really trying to movies initiative sports and
Speaker 1: knew that there needed to be away for organizations to
Speaker 1: really measure and track their progress. What we see is
Speaker 1: that a lot of organizations are measuring diversity in tracking that,
Speaker 1: but we have to go beyond that. We have to
Speaker 1: really be able to have a measurement tool for equity
Speaker 1: and inclusion and ensure that we're creating that workplace where
Speaker 1: everyone's arrived. How do you measure that? So we do
Speaker 1: all kinds of assessments. We do assus that's not only
Speaker 1: with respect to the employees, but also assessments with respect
Speaker 1: to the company UH policies, practices, the way the organization
Speaker 1: is operating. We know that the systems we put in
Speaker 1: place to perpetuate in equity and so that's one of
Speaker 1: the first things we do when we're working with a
Speaker 1: client is sit down and really looking at not only
Speaker 1: their talent acquisition, the performance management, the way their pay
Speaker 1: structures are set up, to ensure that we're putting in
Speaker 1: research best practices, to ensure we are reducing those in
Speaker 1: equities that are with within the workplace. Well, because it's
Speaker 1: interesting and I am curious in your own personal experience. Um,
Speaker 1: when you're working at the law firm and then you know,
Speaker 1: maybe putting your company together raising money. I mean, what
Speaker 1: are the structural problems that you see that currently exists
Speaker 1: in our system that that really prevent equality and diversity
Speaker 1: and inclusion to its fullest extent. Carol, will be your
Speaker 1: aug day? Yeah, there's an easy question. Well, but but
Speaker 1: I love talking to leaders like you because I get
Speaker 1: a better on understanding, especially if you see something firsthand,
Speaker 1: like because we've been you listen, you know this better
Speaker 1: than I do. Mandy. We've been talking about this four decades,
Speaker 1: and I do hope that things are changing in the
Speaker 1: past year. That it's not just about talking, it's about actions,
Speaker 1: being deliberate, being intentional, so that the systems changed and
Speaker 1: that we do create a much more equal society. You know,
Speaker 1: your your spot on and I think what we're starting
Speaker 1: to see if that organizations understand that you have to
Speaker 1: have a system based approach, because for so long, what
Speaker 1: we heard and what the organization's focus was was on
Speaker 1: increasing the pipeline. They felt that, you know, the the
Speaker 1: entire issue is really around the pipe on the talent
Speaker 1: acquisition system. But that's just one uh piece of the pie.
Speaker 1: And so what we need to do and what research
Speaker 1: has shown, right when we look at McKenzie in Sport
Speaker 1: every year they've been doing it for five I believe
Speaker 1: it's going to be the sixth year, they see that
Speaker 1: only a handful of the organizations have the systems and
Speaker 1: structures in place to you actually reduce the inequities that
Speaker 1: we see from an organizational standpoint. So I think the
Speaker 1: fact that we're starting to think about this from an
Speaker 1: organizational intervention perspective as opposed to rely on only on
Speaker 1: those individual interventions, which we have typically seen instance of
Speaker 1: um UH some type of unconscious biased training or other
Speaker 1: d I compliance training is really based off reducing discrimination,
Speaker 1: which really doesn't get to the heart of the issue
Speaker 1: as far as our systems and our policies. Now, Carol,
Speaker 1: I'm going to highlight just a couple of things, Like
Speaker 1: I said that organizations can do from a structural standpoint. So, Mandy,
Speaker 1: I kind of asked you a loaded question and a
Speaker 1: big question, And as you said, we could probably talk
Speaker 1: for hours about it, uh in terms of how do
Speaker 1: we really get two changes when it comes to D
Speaker 1: and I UH and equities within the workplace? And you
Speaker 1: said you had some some points that you wanted to make,
Speaker 1: so let me let me toss it back to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So some of these things we do when we're working
Speaker 1: with our client, right because, UM, what you hit on
Speaker 1: exactly the problem that a lot of organizations and leaders have,
Speaker 1: which is where do I even start right? How do
Speaker 1: we even start thinking about this from a systems and
Speaker 1: organizational perspective? And so some of the things we do
Speaker 1: is help them with that diagnosis. So we're looking at
Speaker 1: things like, UM, when we when we look at your
Speaker 1: pay practices, are you by seeing UH pay in someone's salary,
Speaker 1: are you looking at prior salary history to determine their
Speaker 1: current salaries or are you looking at just the job
Speaker 1: uh and and the experience required for the job. Because
Speaker 1: we know that these pay disparities and equities exist within
Speaker 1: our society so when we do that common practice that
Speaker 1: most organizations do, which is using salary history and the
Speaker 1: interviewing hiring process process, what we see is that organizations
Speaker 1: have these disparities that are coming into their own workplace
Speaker 1: that they didn't intend just because of the disparity that
Speaker 1: existence in society. And so those are the types of
Speaker 1: analysis and and reviews that we do to ensure that
Speaker 1: we're having a sound structure and policy within our organization
Speaker 1: to reduce an eliminate even equities as much as possible. Now,
Speaker 1: I have to say in planning for this interview, um
Speaker 1: our producer Donnie who was involved in it, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know what's interesting too, is they've got this platform
Speaker 1: that basically let's you know, various employees. From what I
Speaker 1: understand is, you know, if they want to post something
Speaker 1: on their employer, they can do it anonymously. And that
Speaker 1: is I think even on your is pretty fairly prominent
Speaker 1: on your website. Talk to us about why this is
Speaker 1: such an important ability to be able to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's critical because unless employees have a safe way to
Speaker 1: provide feedback, organizations don't know the and opportunities that exist
Speaker 1: within their workplace. That safe mechanism to allow employees to
Speaker 1: provide that feedback so that organizations can make the need
Speaker 1: to change. One of the things that also uh really
Speaker 1: uh we've had our our systems set up is because
Speaker 1: Talent says that looking for an employee that value diversity,
Speaker 1: equity inclusion is one of the most important things for
Speaker 1: a potential employer. So we have a lot of potential
Speaker 1: applicants that come to our platforms looking companies diversity equity
Speaker 1: inclusion initiatives, which we all track on our platform as
Speaker 1: well to really learn what are the employers of choice
Speaker 1: in the companies that values really reflect their own values,
Speaker 1: you know. One of the other things, and I am
Speaker 1: curious when you start working with the company is like,
Speaker 1: what is the first thing that you want to look
Speaker 1: at and what is the kind of most common problem
Speaker 1: that you find when it comes to these issues at
Speaker 1: a company. So the most common problem that we see
Speaker 1: is that organizations haven't been measuring and tracking this at all. Um,
Speaker 1: we measure diversity, but they're not measuring equity and inclusion.
Speaker 1: Are looking at their systems from this kind of equity
Speaker 1: and inclusion lens and so uh, which is really baffling, right,
Speaker 1: UM and they're different, right, they're different. Yeah, they're different.
Speaker 1: You know, when we think about diversity, diversity is you know,
Speaker 1: individual's identity, that's gender, that's raised, that's you know, your
Speaker 1: religious background. Those are all diversity factors. When we think
Speaker 1: about inclusion, that is, I feel like I belong in
Speaker 1: this workplace no matter what my identity is. And then
Speaker 1: when we think about equity, that is, I have the
Speaker 1: same access and opportunities no matter what my identity is either.
Speaker 1: And so it's important for organizations to not only look at, uh,
Speaker 1: diversity and to have that measurement around diversity, but to
Speaker 1: really make sure that they're measuring inclusion and equity within
Speaker 1: the organization as well. Okay, one of the things I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you your own experience in creating a
Speaker 1: company raising funding for that company? What was it like?
Speaker 1: How hard was it as as a black a woman?
Speaker 1: So it was difficult. I mean when we look at
Speaker 1: the funding disparities that exist for women and then also
Speaker 1: women of color, Um, it's fast. You know. Uh, we
Speaker 1: women of color only received point six percent of venture
Speaker 1: capital funding, so not even one and um, when you
Speaker 1: look at the amount of funding received, it's at much
Speaker 1: lower rate. So um, you know, we we encountered a
Speaker 1: lot of challenges and one of the things just why
Speaker 1: you know, diversity so important in the corporate perspective studying
Speaker 1: is to ensure that we're getting that diversity of opinion
Speaker 1: and perspectives and experiences. But what we've seen in venture
Speaker 1: capital is the same, is that there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of diversity with respect to venture capitalists, and so it's
Speaker 1: hard sometimes to see the opportunity that exists within various markets.
Speaker 1: So I know, when we first started Canaries, it was
Speaker 1: three years ago. It was before the emphasis that we're
Speaker 1: seeing now on corporate diversity equally inclusion initiatives, and we
Speaker 1: had a lot of venture capitalists that couldn't see the
Speaker 1: potential in the company and didn't really uh understand the
Speaker 1: market potential. And so I think that's why it's so
Speaker 1: key and critical that we have diversity, not with only
Speaker 1: within a corporate study, but within every ecosystem, including the
Speaker 1: venture capital ecosystem. Right, I feel like from all the
Speaker 1: conversations I've had, it's gonna be you know, we talked
Speaker 1: about pipelines, but it's going to be everywhere and and
Speaker 1: getting entrepreneurs certainly into the investment world and having the
Speaker 1: ability to bring especially minority and entrepreneurs to bring their
Speaker 1: ideas out is really really key. Um quickly twenty seconds.
Speaker 1: A piece of advice for entrepreneurs who are looking to
Speaker 1: to fund who might be coming up against closed doors,
Speaker 1: I would say to never give up. You have to
Speaker 1: be tenacious to be an entrepreneur. You got to have
Speaker 1: a lot of grid and you gotta believe in yourself.
Speaker 1: So uh, that would be my My key word of
Speaker 1: advice is to keep going. Yeah, it's a good one.
Speaker 1: It's a simple one, but it's a good one, no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. Many thank you so much, and I
Speaker 1: hope we can check in again down the road. She's
Speaker 1: co founder and chief executive officer of Canaries. On a
Speaker 1: phone from Dallas, Texas.