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Speaker 1: Today marks the three year anniversary of George Floyd's death.

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Speaker 1: It was a moment that led to one of the

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Speaker 1: largest series of protests in US history and an uptick

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Speaker 1: in corporate interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Now three

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Speaker 1: years later, Bloomberg's Justin Milliner takes a closer look at

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Speaker 1: the state of DEI and corporations across the country.

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Speaker 2: For many, the death of George Floyd was a jarn

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Speaker 2: reminder of some of the deep rooted issues in our

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Speaker 2: society surrounding race. It led to broader conversations on police brutality,

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Speaker 2: systemic racism, and inequality. The business community also responded, many

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Speaker 2: with marketing campaigns and slogans to show solidarity and to

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Speaker 2: support ending systemic racism. Still more companies made promises to

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Speaker 2: address inequalities within their own ranks and a push for diversity, equity,

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Speaker 2: and inclusion. But where do we stand today three years out?

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Speaker 2: It seems like there are a lot of examples of

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Speaker 2: companies that overpromised and underdelivered. Billionaire entrepreneur and Beet co

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Speaker 2: founder Bob Johnson certainly agrees.

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Speaker 1: The black community entrepreneurs I know are very disappointed with

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Speaker 1: these what I call press release announcements with no results.

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Speaker 2: The tech industry was one sector that made a lot

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Speaker 2: of those press release announcements. Tech companies are more likely

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Speaker 2: to have a younger employee base and tend to do

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Speaker 2: business with consumers that also skew younger, a demographic that

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Speaker 2: takes DEI very seriously. So it's no surprise that some

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Speaker 2: of the biggest names in the sector dove headlong into

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Speaker 2: making changes. They doubled down on DEI everywhere they could,

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Speaker 2: from hiring to in some cases, creating new DEI departments altogether.

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Speaker 2: But the economy hasn't been kind of big tech lately.

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Speaker 2: In the last six months, we've seen some of the

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Speaker 2: industries headline companies like Google and Amazon make big job cuts.

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg Quality Report or Kelsey Butler tells me that some

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Speaker 2: of those newly reinforced DEI departments were the first to

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Speaker 2: take a hit.

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Speaker 3: It's still early days and we're seeing exactly how things

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Speaker 3: play out, but initial sign they're not really encouraging, And

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Speaker 3: I definitely want to point out that this is maybe

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Speaker 3: the first real pest of a lot of these pledges

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Speaker 3: that were made after the murder of George Floyd in

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Speaker 3: the three months right after that, DEI job postings jumped

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Speaker 3: over one hundred percent. So we saw this huge explosion

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Speaker 3: and this kind of expansion of departments that focus on

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Speaker 3: these kinds of initiatives that companies and now we're really

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Speaker 3: seeing the cuts come.

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Speaker 2: In the tech industry could serve as a microcosm of

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Speaker 2: how quickly the groundswell of DEI support can fall to

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Speaker 2: the wayside when the going gets tough. But there's good

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Speaker 2: reason for companies to hold firm to DEI goals across industries,

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Speaker 2: and it goes well beyond just because it's the right

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Speaker 2: thing to do. Research is showing that a diverse workforce

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Speaker 2: in leadership can make a big difference where it matters

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Speaker 2: most companies their bottom line. Marcus Shaw is founder and

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Speaker 2: CEO of alt Finance. That's an organization seeking to empower

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Speaker 2: young black people in business and finance, and he talked

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Speaker 2: to us about how companies that fall behind in diversity

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Speaker 2: are missing out and losing money.

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Speaker 4: Basic tenon of capitalism, more people doing good work creates

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Speaker 4: more profit. It's to the benefit of these companies is

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Speaker 4: to the benefit of this country that every man, woman

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Speaker 4: and child that's in this country operates at their highest

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Speaker 4: potential in their highest place of potential.

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Speaker 2: In the marketing and advertising sector. This is proving true.

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Speaker 2: A Nielsen report found that black and diverse audiences overwhelmingly

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Speaker 2: want to engage with diverse content if they feel that

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Speaker 2: content is authentic. I spoke with Neilsen's Vice president of

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Speaker 2: Diverse Insights and Partnerships, Charlene Polite Corley, and she says

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Speaker 2: ad agencies with diverse workforces are doing a better job

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Speaker 2: appealing to black audiences.

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Speaker 5: One of the most important things that advertisers can do

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Speaker 5: is to consider black expertise black talent at every level

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Speaker 5: of the marketing funnel. It's not just enough to show

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Speaker 5: up in representative content and think that that's enough. We

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Speaker 5: know that black audiences are looking for representation in the

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Speaker 5: ad campaign itself, and when a black expert agency is

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Speaker 5: behind that campaign, they performed better. So having those experts

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Speaker 5: at the table from jump really does make a difference.

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Speaker 2: Companies making authentic efforts to focus on diversity can tangible rewards.

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Speaker 2: The Selling Center for Economic Growth projects black buying power

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Speaker 2: in the US to grow to nearly two trillion dollars

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Speaker 2: by twenty twenty five. Data like that can serve as

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Speaker 2: a carrot for companies that might not see the benefit

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Speaker 2: in heavy DEI investment. And it should be noted that

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Speaker 2: for all the examples of companies and businesses that are

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Speaker 2: falling short on diversity, there are examples of businesses that

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Speaker 2: are doing well. Turning back to tech, Google recently beat

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Speaker 2: a self imposed diversity and leadership goal by nearly three years,

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Speaker 2: and that's despite all those job cuts three years after

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Speaker 2: George Floyd's death. Diversity progress in the corporate world has

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Speaker 2: had fits and starts, but Morgan Stanley's global head of Talent,

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Speaker 2: Susan Reed, says progress doesn't have to be linear.

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Speaker 6: Some instances, we're gonna do well and we're gonna show

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Speaker 6: progress for a year, and then there are gonna be

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Speaker 6: times when you might be flat or you might even

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Speaker 6: take a step back. And I think that's part of

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Speaker 6: the journey, and I think everybody has to be ready

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Speaker 6: to embrace that and not accept it, but embrace that

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Speaker 6: as part of the journey while continuing to push forward.

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Speaker 2: It'll take a long time for a lot of these

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Speaker 2: disparities and inequities to be rooted out, but work has started,

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Speaker 2: largely due to the impact of George Floyd, Justin Milliner,

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg Daybreak