"Extraordinary opportunity alert! How often do you get to spend part of your day absorbing the perspectives of an individual who not only serves as chief executive officer of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, but also has served in major leadership capacities at Procter & Gamble, Yale University, Boston Scientific and currently as chairman of the board for The Walt Disney Company?
Or how about a child of the ghetto who made her way out of the projects of Chicago to a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Harvard and an influential position with Harley-Davidson?
Former P&G CEO and board chairman and current Disney board chair John Pepper is keynote speaker for the 5th annual Lexington-Bluegrass Minority Business Expo on August 1-2, at the Lexington Convention Center. "People often ask, what's the biggest change that occurred during my career at Proctor & Gamble, over 40 years," he offered while waiting to board a flight at Cincinnati airport. "I say without any intention of trying to be politically correct that it's the dramatically increased diversity of our employees and the strength we gained from that."
"My first commitment to diversity," he added, "really came out of the simple notion that if we didn't hire the best people, no matter what their ethnicity, race or gender, there was no way we were going to be the leader. That was pretty obvious. I knew there would be companies that would become known as being the best for being welcoming and open to diversity. I wanted Proctor & Gamble to be the best."
Pepper, recruited for the Expo by former LFUCG Chief Administrative Officer Milton Dohoney, who now serves as Cincinnati's city manager, has overseen significant change in the diversification of the workforce.
"When I came to P&G just as when I went to Yale," he recalled, "it was basically all white; it was all male in its leadership, had very little ethnic or international diversity. Today, it has all those things. It still could be improved, but there is no way we would have the innovation or be able to serve the diversity of consumers, or have learned as much about life, if we didn't have that diversity."
It's interesting to note that on the Web site of Boston Scientific Corporation, where members of the board of directors are listed along with their respective leadership roles, Pepper chose to identify himself not with Yale, P&G or Disney, but with an organization devoted to one of the darkest periods of American history. "My involvement in the National Underground Freedom Center goes back over 12 years," he noted of the organization he co-founded and headed as CEO. "That was driven by a couple of things — most importantly, the belief in the power and the benefit that individuals can have by understanding and working with one another and yet the ease with which we've failed to do that, due to stereotypes. I felt — and have seen this fulfilled — that, by the telling of history of people fighting for their own freedom and of other people different from them helping them, both in the formation of this country back in the 19th century but also today as the fight for freedom goes on, that we could develop through this history lessons that would be both informing and inspiring to people, particularly young people."
So now you have a taste of what's in store when Pepper takes the lectern during the Expo luncheon.
Earlier that day, participants will have the opportunity to hear from an individual who personifies the struggle to realize the American dream. "My topic will be from G to H: From ghetto to Harvard," offered opening speaker Debra Ashton, Ph.D., director of diversity at famed motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson. "I was born on the south side of Chicago," Ashton explained in a telephone interview from her office in Milwaukee. "We moved up from a cold water flat to the projects. From there, my mom and dad were very strong believers in education and also in fortitude and being tenacious. I got an education and went on from there, to grammar school, high school, college and eventually did my graduate studies and earned by doctorate at Harvard University in a combination of clinical and industrial organizational psychology."
Like Pepper, Ashton has seen tremendous change as more and more minorities and women have entered the executive levels of corporate America.
"They came with their own particular styles, and those styles could be effective. For instance, we have gone from a period in which hierarchy was the way in which one approached management, and we are now more towards the egalitarian and more towards participatory management."
Following Ashton's presentation, the event will feature breakout sessions covering an array of vital topics:
Avoiding the pitfalls of opening your own business
Small business submittal requirements for government
Survival: How to survive the first five years
Certification: Do I really need it?
Franchising: Why we really need to look at the facts
Building relationships with the Hispanic/Latino community
Available lending for opening your business
2010 World Equestrian Games: How do I get a piece of the pie.
To register for the Expo you can download a form from www.lfucg.com/MBExpo/ or call (859) 368-6208.