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Our Plan: Strategic Initiatives
Initiative III: Lead in Diversity and Inclusion
Follow our progress on this initiative.
Business is, at its very core, a human endeavor. In the tradition of Ezra Cornell, the Johnson School must lead the 21st century phase of the revolution for diversity and inclusion.
While organizations have become increasingly diverse, the mix of individuals in business leadership does not yet mirror the mix of individuals in society. One of the key challenges of the next decade is to help managers learn how to turn their organizations' differences into competitive strengths.
We declared our leadership on diversity and inclusion in 1999, when the Johnson School formed the Office for Women and Minorities in Business. The only leading business school with a dedicated diversity organization, we have recently renamed it the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to reflect our evolution of thought and action.
We are actively pursuing Pipeline for the 21st Century, our four-pronged strategy that includes:
- outreach to pre-college and undergraduate students,
- targeted recruiting of women and minorities,
- cultivation of a climate of inclusion, and
- dissemination of knowledge on critical diversity issues.
Our primary focus, to date, has been recruiting a diverse student body. Through alliances with corporate partners, we have developed several high-impact programs to attract women and minorities to the Johnson School, an effort that we are determined to expand.
The next immediate phases of the Pipeline call for (1) a new Diversity Action Group to expand our efforts to make the environment within the Johnson School a model for inclusiveness, and (2) attracting and hiring more women and minorities on our faculty and staff. Further out, we are considering an initiative to create and disseminate new information to the business community about the issues and best approaches involved in creating diverse work cultures. All of our aggressive efforts are aimed at adding to the pipeline of business leaders who are highly effective operating in increasingly diverse workplaces.
The first three initiatives of our Five-Year Plan focus on factors that directly and critically impact the quality of research and learning at the Johnson School. Strategies four and five align our programs with the anticipated market for MBAs, provide financial support for our growth, and directly build a positive perception of the school in the business and academic communities.
