Last year, the Black Lives Matter movement gained significant traction in the United States and globally, and helped shed further light on a nagging issue within our own industry — the lack of Black representation and leadership in the automotive sector.
There are a number of reasons why it is problematic, from conscious and subconscious biases regarding race to the social and economic implications, according to Risha Grant, diversity and inclusion expert, and international speaker, consultant and author.
“If you just look around our world, it’s specific: there’s so many industries and you have some that just seriously need to catch up, like the car industry or technology industry, and things of that nature,” said Grant in an interview with Canadian
auto
dealer. “I think that the challenge is that people just have not put an emphasis on it.”
Remember Kodak? A rising star that created the first commercial film for a new mass market, only to lose it years later? Younger millennials and those born after this generation may not be aware of the success and fall of the company, but dealers surely remember.
As the story goes, technology moved in one direction while Kodak eventually reached a plateau. Perhaps it lacked vision — and as the business world well knows, that can be detrimental to any company.
“You have to have vision for your company and you have to see that the world is changing. That’s what leadership is supposed to do,” said Grant. “Their job is to make sure that the company is growing and that it’s moving, and that it’s looking toward the future.”
How does this tie into diversity and inclusion? Vision, as Grant calls it, is part of that process. And businesses that lack vision — that do not understand the importance of diversity and inclusion to their company — may very well end up as the next Kodak.
Businesses that do not have a vision towards greater diversity and inclusion are leaving money on the table when ignoring Black communities, diverse or minority groups. The challenge stems in part from biases, but also a myth that there are no dollars to be made in these types of communities.
“(In the U.S.) we’re at 14 trillion in disposable income and that’s money for people to spend on after they’ve paid (their bills),” said Grant. “This is money to say, ‘Hey, I want to go out and buy a new car.’ Why would you not be going after that market?”
Grant said Black people (and people of colour) have begun to understand some of the power they hold in terms of the economics of purchasing. For example, a consumer that visits a dealership may be looking for someone that looks like them. This may seem trivial to some people, but imagine visiting a business or retail store and rarely, if ever, seeing someone that looks like you.
Some consumers are used to it, but subconsciously, that may be an issue — a turnoff. Because a consumer walking into a dealership, once again discovering there is not a single person that looks like them, may believe there is no value for them at that store. And feelings of undervalue can lead a person to look elsewhere for their product, likely to a competitor.
A similar situation would also occur if that consumer visits the dealership’s website and discovers there are no images of people that look like them. “If you don’t have any people of colour there, that speaks to who works there,” said Grant.
“The problem is, once people start to realize the value that they bring to businesses, these companies will begin to lose money. And you see that here a lot in the U.S., because now it’s become top-of-mind awareness,” said Grant.
She believes dealerships can afford to be more unconventional, and advises looking at the issue in two parts: the first is to hire diverse people so you can reflect the community that you serve. If that community is predominantly white, keep in mind that consumers are also searching for vehicles online, and that the world is more global because of the Internet.
The second part involves the idea that serving anyone that can afford to purchase a vehicle means widening the diversity net. “It makes the biggest difference,” said Grant. “I mean, you’re going to see that in your numbers.”
Business leaders, managers and employees in the automotive industry will also need to assess and identify any conscious and subconscious bias towards Black people or Black and diverse communities.
“You want to own it. You want to confront it, because you don’t want that to be a hindrance towards the success of your company. And then outside of that, go and find what diversity is in your community,” said Grant.
For Grant, being unconventional is key; dealers need to be unconventional in getting out and creating relationships with diverse markets, because many marketing managers still do not earmark the dollars for multicultural advertising.
The companies that do not embrace diversity and inclusion today, she said, are missing out. And the ones that do not embrace it tomorrow will, like Kodak, become obsolete.
