Black Enterprise Rates Best Companies

Reprinted from FRIDAY JUNE 29, 2007 St. Louis American

Not one of top 40 is based in Missouri

In its July 2007 cover story, Black Enterprise announces its third annual list of the best companies for diversity, and not one is headquartered in Missouri.

In selecting the top 40, the magazine conducted a comprehensive outreach effort to the CEOs and diversity executives of the top-grossing 1,000 publicly traded companies and the 50 leading global companies with significant U.S. operations.
Its corporate diversity survey focused primarily on activities related to the participation of African Americans and other ethnic minority groups in four key areas: supplier diversity, senior management, board involvement, and employee base. As procurement and senior management are the most clearly measurable variables, these two categories were weighed most heavily.

“You can measure senior leadership and its impact on the policies and programs that affect minority issues, such as mentorship and talent management, and the understanding of new, emerging markets,” said Marlon Cousin, managing partner of The Marquin Group, a diverse executive recruiting firm based in Atlanta.

“You can measure the outreach effect that supplier diversity has on communities in the jobs and opportunities it creates. When a minority supplier employs 25 or more people because of a contract with a large corporation, it creates economic stability and educational growth within families.”

For some companies, a shift in focus made a difference in their making the list. This year, the magazine saw a 19 percent increase in survey participation from 2006, along with several newcomers: WGL Holdings Inc., TIAA-CREF, Starbucks Coffee Co., Johnson Controls Inc., Ryder System Inc., Comcast, Texas Instruments, State Farm Insurance, Exelon Corp., Eli Lilly and Co., and General Mills.

“We wanted to make sure we identified companies that viewed diversity as a business imperative,” says Black Enterprise Careers and Lifestyle Editor Sonia Alleyne. “In fact, several of the 40 Best Companies for Diversity excel in all four categories we surveyed, including Denny’s Corp., Fannie Mae, McDonald’s Corp. and WGL Holdings Inc. A varied pool of senior managers and suppliers at these companies, along with their strengths in developing a diverse workforce and corporate board, will enable them to be even more competitive on a global scale.”

With the number of U.S. ethnic or racial minorities having risen to more than 100 million, around one third of the population, Black Enterprise seized the opportunity within its diversity report to examine companies on a secondary category: marketing and outreach. Criteria included advertising, promotions, community outreach, and scholarships.

The Black Enterprise 40 Best Companies for Diversity list includes the following:

1. Aetna - Hartford, CT
2. Marriott International Inc. - Washington, D.C.
3. Aflac Inc. - Columbus, GA
4. McDonald’s Corp. - Oak Brook, IL
5. ARAMARK - Philadelphia, PA
6. MGM MIRAGE - Las Vegas, NV
7. AT&T Inc. - San Antonio, TX
8. Pepco Holdings, Inc. - Washington, D.C.
9. Bank of America - Charlotte, NC
10. Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. - Somers, NY
11. The Coca-Cola Co. - Atlanta, GA
12. PepsiCo - Purchase, NY
13. Comcast - Philadelphia, PA
14. PG&E Corp. - San Francisco, CA
15. DaimlerChrysler Corp. - Auburn Hills, MI
16. Pitney Bowes - Stamford, CT
17. Denny’s Corp. - Spartanburg, SC
18. Ryder System Inc. - Miami, FL
19. Eastman Kodak - Rochester, NY
20. Starbucks Coffee Co. - Seattle, WA
21. Eli Lilly & Co. - Indianapolis, IN
22. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. - White Plains, NY
23. Exelon Corp. - Chicago, IL
24. State Farm Insurance - Bloomington, IL
25. Fannie Mae - Washington, D.C.
26. Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX
27. FedEx Corp. - Memphis, TN
28. TIAA-CREF, New York, NY
29. Ford Motor Co. - Dearborn, MI
30. Toyota Motor North America Inc. - New York, NY
31. General Mills, Minneapolis, MN
32. UPS - Atlanta, GA
33. General Motors - Detroit, MI
34. Wachovia Corp. - Charlotte, NC
35. IBM Corp. - Armonk, NY
36. WGL Holdings Inc. - Washington, D.C.
37. Johnson Controls Inc. - Milwaukee, WI
38. Xerox Corp. - Stamford, CT
39. Kellogg Co. - Battle Creek, MI
40. Yum! Brands Inc. - Louisville, KY

The Black Enterprise 15 Best Companies in Marketing Diversity include the following:

1. Allstate Corp. - Northbrook, IL
2. Procter & Gamble - Cincinnati, OK
3. American Airlines Inc. - Ft. Worth, TX
4. State Farm Insurance - Bloomington, IL
5. DaimlerChrysler - Auburn Hills, MI
6. Time Warner Inc. - New York, NY
7. Ford Motor Co. - Dearborn, MI
8. Toyota Motor North America Inc. - New York, NY
9. General Motors - Detroit, MI
10. Tyson Foods Inc. - Springdale, AR
11. McDonald’s Corp. - Oak Brook, IL
12. Verizon - Basking Ridge, NJ
13. Nike Inc. - Beaverton, OR
14. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. - Bentonville, AR
15. PepsiCo Inc. - Purchase, NY