While diversity has been top of mind for many
With 86% of Fortune 500 CEOs being white men, there is little room for anyone else to share influence over a company’s mission and direction. And yet, McKinsey found that companies that scored in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies that scored towards the bottom. Meanwhile, those at the top for ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed by 36% in profitability.
Robert Petrarca, co-founder and CEO of Maxine’s Heavenly, a natural, homemade-style cookie company, knows firsthand what diverse leadership looks like in action, since over half of his executive team identifies as LGBTQ or BIPOC. Petrarca, who personally identifies as queer, knew at the company’s conception how crucial it would be to embed diversity and inclusion early on.
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“You have to push for diversity at the executive level,” says Petrarca. “But it's incredibly important because leadership ultimately dictates the direction and the values of the company.”
Petrarca admits that his company had access to personal networks of talent with diverse backgrounds to begin with. But Maxine’s filled out their leadership staff with intention. They diversified where they would post job positions, instead of sticking to a singular outlet like LinkedIn. Petrarca also refused to accept that everyone they interviewed just happens to look the same or come from similar backgrounds.
“We would have an active conversation around whether we were getting a diverse subset of candidates and if not, what are some other ways to find a more unique collection of people?” says Petrarca. “We really tried to make sure that the candidates we were interviewing and talking to looked different constantly.”
It paid off, with Maxine’s executive team 60% women, 50% LGBTQ and 40% BIPOC talent. Petrarca notes that the executive team’s makeup has made it easier for the company to not only prioritize diversity within their organization, but make it the basis of their brand messaging and outreach, whether that is reflected in the influencers they choose, who they sponsor, or the causes they are involved in as a company.
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“In the consumer goods industry, where you're trying to reach a larger audience of people, a diverse team gives you a different perspective of who's out there, how they think and what their priorities are,” he says. “In any leadership environment, you should have the same set of diversity we see in our own world.”
Maxine’s Heavenly has sponsored ‘Brown Vegan,’ a podcast for the Black and vegan community, and executives volunteer with StartOut, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ-identifying entrepreneurs. Petrarca is currently a mentor for StartOut but had once been a mentee when Maxine’s was first coming together. When raising money for their company, it became clear how little queer representation there was on the executive level.
“During the capitalization process, it was so shocking to me how most of the conversations were always with straight white men,” says Petrarca. “I didn’t really see other LGBTQ leaders around me. So, I mentor a couple of LGBTQ founders building a business in the food space — it’s important to me to stay actively involved in that conversation and that community.”
Still, Petrarca acknowledges that emerging companies may find themselves struggling to recruit diverse talent, underestimating how challenging the process can be and then giving up. He encourages companies to think of diversity as their north star; it guides the company even if they run into bumps in the road.
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“You're trying to disrupt the status quo, so don’t be afraid of it being a sloppy, messy process,” says Petrarca. “It's not gonna always be straightforward, but if you really are committed and just push through that sloppiness, you will get to the other end.”
