Winner: HP Inc. - Bringing HP's Culture of Diversity and Innovation to Life
Women, who will control two thirds of consumer wealth over the next decade, continue to face challenges around equality in the workforce—especially in the marketing industry, which has a significant under-representation of women. More than 60 percent of all purchasing decisions are made by women, yet only 11 percent of creative directors at marketing agencies are women. While great progress has been made, HP decided to work to close the remaining gap of women and minorities in leadership roles. HP issued a call to action to its five agencies to “radically improve” diversity in its leadership to include more women and people of color, which required agencies to deliver formal diversification plans within 30 days. In addition, HP championed programs designed to ensure that more than half of HP’s top marketing jobs are held by women.
Antonio Lucio, CMO of HP Inc., laid out the objective to diversify the agency workforce in order to push for change. In doing so, the initiative turned into a global push for agencies to think more about how they do business, with change and diversity at the forefront. In the past 12 months, HP helped increase women leaders in HP marketing from 20 to 50 percent and is working with partner agencies to execute plans to correct under-representation of women and people of color in marketing globally. Lucio’s call to action was covered in key publications like The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, The New York Times and Campaign Magazine. As a result, HP continues to be recognized as a leader in diversity for the company’s steps to drive change.