Imperial College Business School has been working with students to devise innovative ways to develop diverse leaders for today and tomorrow, as Joël McConnell finds out
Achieving complete diversity and inclusion has rapidly become one of the key challenges for businesses.
There is now a consensus that having a team which not only comes from a whole host of backgrounds, cultures and experiences, but is also cognitively diverse in their thinking and perspectives, is of great benefit for businesses.
However, many organisations are still struggling to be truly diverse and inclusive, especially in terms of leadership – for example, it was only last year that Land O’Lakes became the first Fortune 500 firm to hire an openly gay female CEO.
Diversity can spread across a vast number of different areas – whether it is in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, socio-economic status and so on. And there are many initiatives which organisations have implemented in order to promote many aspects of diversity.
Whether an organisation is attempting to promote more women in to leadership positions, focusing on recruiting under-represented ethnic groups to the company, or putting in place initiatives to support employees from less-advantaged socio-economic backgrounds – diversity is an area that many companies have implemented initiatives to try and tackle.
However, there is no perfect approach, and to be truly diverse and inclusive in their leadership, businesses should be looking to invest in a vast number of specific, tailored, diversity initiatives.
The role of Business Schools
It is not just businesses who have the responsibility to ensure there is greater diversity in future business leadership. Many of tomorrow’s leaders learn and develop their skills at the world’s elite Business Schools. Therefore, these institutions must play their part in ensuring that the next generation of managers, CEOs and entrepreneurs are more diverse in terms of background and culture and are putting diversity at the centre of their business operations. Business leaders who foster an open and inclusive culture are more likely to generate better financial results and retain employees.
Business Schools have a responsibility to ensure people from more diverse backgrounds have access to leadership and management education and provide opportunities for students to network and connect with others who share their challenges and interests.
Forward-thinking diversity initiatives are something Imperial College Business School has already been implementing and investing in for some time. For instance, the LGBTQ Career Club, founded by a weekend MBA student, was created to provide a means for business students to connect with leading companies which aim to hire more inclusively.
The School also hosts all sorts of new venture creation events, some that are specifically targeted at helping female students develop their business ideas, and to connect them with investors. Recently, the Careers team also recently hosted an event on ‘being black in the corporate world’ to give participants a chance to learn from a panel of black professionals who’ve built successful careers across several industry sectors.
Supporting diverse leaders
One of the latest initiatives that the school has invested in to help support diverse leaders is joining the Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) – the global association for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer MBA students and alumni.
ROMBA was originally set up in 1998 by a Yale and Harvard alumnus, and has grown vastly since. In fact, the last organisation conference had 1,800 LGBTQ+ business professionals attend – a huge growth from its first conference which had 100 attendees.
ROMBA’s aim is to guide its members, which currently comprises more than 50 business schools (five of which are European), in supporting the career advancement of LGBTQ+ professionals and hosting outreach events to build awareness of LGBTQ+ issues in the workplace. Its annual conference connects LGBTQ+ business professionals and allies with leading companies such as Deloitte, PWC, McKinsey & Company, and many more, in order to support the career advancement of LGBTQ+ professionals and encourage positive change.
Joining ROMBA bestows a number of benefits to our school, our students and our relationships with external companies. ROMBA will help Imperial champion greater inclusivity in leadership, provide further support and visibility for LGBTQ+ business school students and encourage more LGBTQ+ students to study business education and take on senior leadership roles at leading organisations.
Through joining ROMBA, Imperial is able to offer the ROMBA Fellowship, a scholarship worth up to £20,000, to an MBA student who has demonstrated leadership in championing LGBTQ+ representation within business education. The ROMBA Fellowship provides the recipient with exclusive mentorship and leadership development programmes alongside students from other participating global Schools, providing an opportunity for LGBTQ+ leaders to network, and build their skills and confidence as business leaders.
The ROMBA Fellowship participant also gets the opportunity to attend a number of ROMBA’s global events and conferences, including the annual ROMBA Conference, MBA Treks, Out Women in Business Summit (OWIB), LGBTQ Club Leadership Summit, and more.
Imperial’s first ever ROMBA Fellowship was recently awarded, but he was not your typical candidate for a top MBA programme. As a fine arts major from the University of Southern California with a dual career in professional figure skating and marketing for his family business, Imperial’s selected fellowship recipient stood out as a creative, tenacious and entrepreneurial leader.
The school awarded Mauro Bruni Imperial’s inaugural Reaching Out MBA Fellowship, in recognition of his professional accomplishments and commitment to promoting LGBT+ equality in education, business and society. His company, House of Mauro LLC, was established to create a collaboration platform and support system for artists in the ice skating industry – and he plans to further developing his career, and those of others, throughout his MBA and beyond.
For Imperial, joining ROMBA is another step forward to tackling issues around diversity and inclusion in business. Unfortunately, achieving diversity in the world of business still remains an important challenge, and LGBTQ+ professionals are still underrepresented in leadership. Not only is championing diversity and inclusion right from a societal perspective, but the benefits of cognitive diversity for business are overwhelming.
This is why initiatives like the ROMBA membership are so important in pushing for greater diversity in the world of business, and ensuring that LGBTQ+ professionals are better represented in global business leadership. For Imperial, this membership will help the school enhance its diverse business school community and connect MBA students with leading companies who actively recruit LGBTQ+ professionals.
Joël McConnell is the Executive Director for Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions at Imperial College Business School.
