Dec 29, 2017 By Michelle Roberts

Bridging the Equality Gap from the C-Suite

in Equality

One city mayor who attended a Fortune CEO Series discussion challenged CEOs to look beyond philanthropy and start looking at equity — equal access to good education and training so people everywhere can access the jobs created by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As he said: “You can’t guarantee equal outcomes, but you can at least guarantee equal inputs.”

The Fourth Industrial Revolution can be a force for equality

In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, rapid evolution of technologies and disruption of regional job markets have the potential to either widen equality gaps or bridge them. As a result, equality becomes an increasingly important consideration in how we design our technology products, develop our workforce and educate our future generations. With half a million open jobs in computer science alone, there is great potential to create wider access to opportunities for more people. CEOs can employ creative approaches to cultivating diverse and inclusive workplaces through mentorship, training, and equitable recruitment practices. One CEO spoke to the increasing importance of skills training: “I think we’ve really got to build in the concept of knowledge transfer — finding the people out there that can do the work and training them ourselves.”

A new role for the CEO

In recent years CEOs have been thrust into a newfound role as advocate, champion, and Trailblazer on social issues ranging from marriage equality to refugee rights. One CEO said, “Business is actually a force for good in the world. It pays for everything, pays for all the philanthropy, all the tax receipts. Even government activities that are commercial are paid for by business.”In that sense, pursuing equality isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing. Speaking about a piece of Texas legislature regarding regulation of transgender students’ bathroom usage, which did not pass after CEOs including Marc Benioff publicly opposed it, an elected official stated, “Because business leaders spoke up early, we were able to avoid that catastrophe. It would have been very damaging to our economy and our reputation.”