Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUN 2019年6月 亞博匯 58 IN FOCUS Ben Blaschke: Why is diversity so important? Jan Jones Blackhurst: Better operating outcomes. The data is very clear that when you have more diverse leadership teams you have higher performance – higher revenues, higher EBITDA, higher return on sales. And I’m not speculating – this is data that has been pulled together by some of the biggest business data analytics groups in the world, so by failing to recognise the benefits of diversity at the highest levels of the organization you are limiting your business success. BB: What do the numbers say about the ratio of women currently rising through the ranks of gaming firms to take on leadership roles? JJB: Well the numbers are all misleading. The gaming industry will tell you, “50% of our workforce are women”. Well they are, but they’re not senior executives so crying victory because you have 50% women is a bit rich – 50% of the population are women so you should have 50% – if you’re not moving that forward. What Caesars found internally when we really made a commitment to achieve 50-50 by 2025 was yes, we had 42% female representation at director and manager level, but then it falls off above that. You need to be very definite about the programs you put in place to bring about change because it’s a cultural issue. It’s how you’re recruiting, how you’re sponsoring, how you’re giving performance reviews, how you’re taking your talented women and moving them forward. I hear men say, “They’re going to take my job”. Note to self: it’s not your job, it’s a job, and that job should be filled by the best talent. BB: How do you go about changing the ingrained culture of a company? JJB: The way we did it was very scientific. I hired Mackenzie Corporation and I hired them for a reason – they are in every corporate boardroom around the country and they speak corporate. So first you need to have the language right, second you need to have buy-in from the CEO and we had that with Mark Frissora. He supported the initiative which sent a message through the organization.