GC Diversity and Inclusion interview
Lawson Crawford manages and co-ordinates the variety of business and legal issues facing University College London’s wholly owned subsidiary UCL Business PLC, which works to commercialise the technology emanating from the university including by way of making connections between academic research and innovation carried out in the bio-pharm and non-bio-pharm sciences, the arts and the market. In 2012 he was named as a rising star on Powerful Media’s Powerlist.
By diversity I mean all characteristics of identity including age, sex, race, gender and ability. It is strategically beneficial to have a diverse workforce, because people have different life stories and experience, and this broadens the perspective of the entity for which they work. This is especially important where we interface in a global market both within and outside of the UK. The benefit of diversity can become evident when an organisation learns from these experiences – what people like and don’t like, the differences and similarities between people – and allow them to influence how its members work with each other and with persons outside.
Another aspect of diversity is that clients and stakeholders often like interacting with people who have similar life experiences – people with whom they can identify. This often lubricates the business discussions; it is easier for people to be at ease where there is that initial recognition of familiarity.
