Interview
Farrah Qureshi is an award-winning pioneer in the D&I field. She discusses the evolution of diversity and inclusion within business in Europe, and what in-house lawyers can contribute to the debate.
ln Europe, diversity and inclusion takes on a cultural dimension – around identity, national culture, and languages. In the early years of the diversity and inclusion profession, issues of ethnicity and ethnic groups were less in the frame in Europe, whereas gender was much higher on the radar screen. The whole conversation, which had up until that pointbeen very North America-centric and historically more focused on compliance and race and ethnicity, had to be reconfigured. I think that the evolution of the strong business case for D&I has been very useful, and another useful idea that has leverage and currency is: who is the ‘other’? The conversation is around inclusion in particular.
We linked that idea to shrinking national populations, worldwide balance, and migration, and then I saw the focus evolve to include global leadership competencies, global conduct and international mindset. I had a client who said that they’d got 70 nationalities in their business, so they didn’t need to think about international mindset. They were looking to expand globally, into Asia and Africa. So my next conversation was: tell me about your leadership team. And they were all white, all male, and all British. So then we had a very different conversation about the message to local leaders about what it takes to get ahead. You need to have an international mindset to help you penetrate the local market, produce relevant products and connect with your clients.
