Why is diversity important? by Noah Bruins

 After a well deserved break it is time to focus on the second half of the semester. This week's topic is in my opinion the most interesting topic of culture; diversity and inclusion. A topic that many organizations deals correctly with. However, there are still many organizations, companies, schools or clubs that have to study the benefits of being diverse and inclusive. In this blog I will write about the advantages of having a diverse team and being recognized as a diverse company. 

Diversity can be seen as a difference in characteristics between people. Firstly for human characteristics, for example: gender, age, skin colour, race, sexual orientation etc. Secondly, diversity can also be: work background, geographical situation, hobbies or education. 

Building a diverse team means a person has to be inclusive. Being inclusive means accepting each others characteristics and their norms and values. Being inclusive starts with seeing yourself as equal as the others, meaning that you do not differentiate based on either human characteristics or other aspects. In order to accomplish diversity I created a list of tips on how to be inclusive.

1. Avoid assumptions

2. Communicate: listen more and speak carefully 

3. Ask the right questions

4. Be aware of your own privileges 

5. Challenge stereotypes

If a person is able to use these tips, a person can be seen as inclusive. Now I will explain why being inclusive in order to reach diversity is so important. 

Diversity brings new ideas. An example: six Spanish business men working at Zara want to operate in the Dutch market, but they have not studied the culture and uses the same approach as they would do in Spain. In the end it goes wrong, why? Because the lack of input. Six men, similar characteristics and all from the same country do not know the way of doing business in the Netherlands. Now imagine, the same six business men hire five more employees. These employees come from all different continents, North and South America, Afrika, Asia and Oceania. The new employees bring in new ideas, from different perspectives and do have different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, there is a higher change that it is going to be a success, because you become more aware of consumer needs. Thus, diversity leads to quicker problem solving skills, more creativity and innovation, increase in skills, increase productivity, and a massive boost to the reputation of a company. Being diverse is modern, so not being diverse leads to receiving less credits for the delivered work. 

To conclude, investing in inclusiveness and diversity will lead to more educated employees which may lead to higher profits for the company. Remember, it is a long and difficult process, but it is really important to show your desire to improve the diversity in a workplace. 

The link between the cases and the chapters. How does this connect to real life experiences? by Noah Bruins

 The phase of discovering and observing is over. Six weeks have been passed already and the pace is rapid. This block of two weeks have been different than the previous four weeks, since we are covering cases in the form of workshops. In addition, we still cover more theory and to be honest each week it becomes more interesting. The past two weeks we have covered culture and style of management and leadership. 

The first case about Gucci and LVMH was very interesting since these are worldwide famous brands and everyone knows their status. Beforehand, I read the case but it was very hard to understand while reading it for the first time. Therefore, I decided to read it for the second time and it became more clear than before. Gucci lost a huge amount of stocks by one of their biggest competitors in the market: Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy. The hosts of the workshop explained how this had negative effect on Gucci. Thereafter, Gucci used different styles of management in order to make sure LVMH is not taking advantage of the profitability and revenue of Gucci. In all honesty, it was a good workshop with a very interesting topic. However, the questions asked were really hard to answer, even though I read the case more than once. After the case, I learned how to distinguish different types of management and how to recognize a "problem" in a case. 

The second case about Jesus Fernandez and the premium lingerie export. This case was about how external governmental regulations had huge impact on a company. Due to the changed regulations in Argentina it was not possible for Jesus Fernandez to import raw materials from that country, which had impact on the whole business model. The change in the business model led to a loss of international customers, hence a decrease in profitability. The new business model also led to a lack of quality control, which made the international customers even more angry than before. The quality control check led to an increase in costs and thus a loss of competitive pricing advantage. The leadership decisions of both Jesus Fernandez and Maria Jesus led to a new focus on the domestic market. This was essential in order to keep the company profitably. This workshop was given with more enthusiasm and therefore, I liked it more than the other one. Also, the questions were more clear and the activities were fun to do. I actually enjoyed watching and attending this workshop. 

Before this workshop started, we talked about leadership in general. Mrs Carita had a beautiful quote: "A person can be a cocktail of multiple cultural characteristics". I learned how to look at the cultural values and leadership characteristics such as: Hierarchy Acceptance, Gender Association, Uncertainty Avoidance, Time Orientation and Group Attachment. 

Lastly, we discussed the ingredients to lead a diverse team. This leader should have the following characteristics: 

- Create safe atmosphere and make teamwork challenging

- Be inclusive

- Seek synergy

- Promote positive changes

- Cultivate multicultural mind

In my opinion, men and women lead differently. From my experience, men are mainly focus on business. Remember, this is just my personal experience and is not an insult to anyone! My female manager often talks a lot more with me about my personal life and is showing a Weak Hierarchy Acceptance, since she is helping me with my tasks. While my male manager is not helping me with cleaning or some other tasks, since he is showing Strong Hierarchy Acceptance. 

Week 5 and 6 were really challenging, but fun and I am looking forward to the rest. 

To be honest, I am not really a leader. I do not like to take the lead, however, I would like to have my opinion when decisions are going to made. Not being a leader does not mean a person does not have leadership characteristics. To all young professionals, do not be afraid to take the lead when needed. Leadership is important in order to succeed, even though you do not have to be the "pure leader" in a group, you can still make decisions or have a strong opinion in a discussion. What I have learned during my time at International Business is that you have to step out of your comfort zone. For example: I am not a leader, but when I felt that something needs to be done I was afraid to step up and take the lead where needed.