(dramatic music)
- We are organizing as
usual, this breakfast
in collaboration with
a number of partners.
So, I want to welcome you, not
only on behalf of Accenture,
but also on behalf of the
partners that are organizing
this breakfast today and
that we've been organizing
breakfasts and other events
with through the years here
at the World Economic Forum.
Because, as you know, we are
a little bit on an agenda
to progress the LGBT subject
in the World Economic Forum.
Not just because of the
World Economic Forum
because we think it is
a very important subject
to be discussed here in
Davos to trickle down then
into the homes and offices
and government buildings
of all the people who are here out there.
So, our partners: Microsoft,
EY, Thompson Riders, Lloyd's,
Salesforce, Deutsch Bank,
HRC, Mastercard, Dow,
and Linkletters all companies
who are very committed
to progressing the LGBT agenda.
We are going to have a great
panel and I am going to
introduce them later to you.
This year's focus will be
inclusiveness of cities
when it comes to LGBT.
And Open for Business
has done some research
on the inclusiveness of cities.
They've even come with a rating for cities
on the LGBT inclusiveness.
The reports are out there.
You can all see that.
A few words on Open for Business.
And, I am going to read this.
Open for Business is a
coalition of global companies
making the case that
inclusive, diverse societies
are better for business and therefore
essential for economic growth.
We have 24 of the
world's leading companies
and just this week, we have Deutsch Bank,
Kim, thank you very much, signing up.
And, earlier this month we
had GSK, Relics and KPMG
also joining up as members.
I am going to open the
stage now for Jon Miller.
Jon, where are you?
- Right here.
- To say a few words about
the phenomenal research
I think I would all
encourage you to read it.
It is a very solid piece of
work making a real case. Jon?
- Thank you very much,
Sander, and hello everybody.
It is really wonderful to be here.
Open for Business is, as Sander says,
exists to promote the economic case for
LGBT inclusion worldwide.
And, we do that by presenting
the data that open,
inclusive, diverse societies
are better for business
and better for economic growth.
And today we're, we published
our first report in 2015
and that laid out the
economic case on three levels.
So, first of all, presenting all the data:
that individual performance
is improved when people
are working in open and
inclusive environments
and interestingly that's
not just LGBT individuals.
The performance of all
individuals working in
an inclusive environment is lifted.
The second level is the business case.
So, the evidence that company
level performance improves
with, alongside LGBT inclusion.
And so, that's things like
attracting and retaining talent,
brand strength, customer preference,
but also financial
measures like, things like
the cost of capital, return
on equity, share price
performance all correlate
with LGBT inclusion.
And then finally, this was the top level,
we have the economic case.
So, this is looking at various
different macroeconomic
indicators and looking at how
they move alongside inclusion.
And so, that really was the
first report that we published
when we were putting this together.
When we were looking
at the economic aspects
we kept noticing some really
interesting connections
between economic performance
at an urban level,
at a city level and inclusion.
So, things like clusters
of creative industries
and high value service
industries and levels of
entrepreneurialism and people
wanting to move to the city.
People wanting to visit cities.
Lots of different metrics.
Lots of different indicators.
And so, we thought, that's got to be worth
exploring further and so we did.
And so, the second
report leads with cities.
So, you can think of it as
almost the economic case
for LGBT inclusion in cities.
And so, we pulled together lots of that,
lots of those metrics.
This is one of a whole bunch
of different correlations
that we present in the report.
It shows the connection
between LGBT inclusion
in a city and GDP per capita.
And, there is a very clear correlation.
And there are about a dozen
similar charts to this.
I am not going to fire them all at you.
We dug into this.
What's driving this
connection, do we think,
and there are several
drivers which we identify
in the report.
Three ones I want to mention quickly now.
One is innovation.
It turns out that those cities
that are most LGBT inclusive
are also the most innovative cities
on a variety of different
innovation indicators.
Another is the concentration
of high talent, high skilled
employees in a city.
Those cities which are
more LGBT inclusive,
again, have higher concentrations
of skills and talent
for a number of reasons.
And, we look at that from a
number of different dimensions.
I mean, LGBT almost seems to
play the role of a signaler
to people from all different
kinds of backgrounds
that this is a place that
will make you feel welcome.
That you can plug in here
and make your contribution
and be economically participating.
And conversely, we look at
brain drain and those cities
which are not tolerant,
which are not open,
they lose their most talented individuals
to those cities that are
and we track that as well.
We present a hypothesis about the economic
development of cities.
So, and this is it.
We show how cities move
from being market towns,
it is where it starts, mainly
agricultural industries.
Production centers, so
manufacturing starts to move in
and then up through to becoming creative
and financial hubs that
are globally integrated.
And, as this movement happens
along the bottom here,
you can see the percentage, the proportion
of economic activity growth value added,
accounted for by high value services grows
and the key relationship
here is with GDP per capita.
The reason for showing
this chart really is,
this is the economic strategy
for pretty much every city
on the planet.
Every city wants to move up
this curve to become a high,
a center for high value industries.
And, the evidence shows, if
that's what you want as a city,
you have to be an environment that's open,
where ideas can flow freely.
Where information can flow freely.
Where people and perspectives from lots
of different backgrounds can integrate.
That's what the evidence shows.
If you want to be a
competitive city in today's
global economy, you
have to be an inclusive,
open for business city.
That's what the report seeks to show.
And so, we present in
here the Open for Business
city ratings, which really
is pulling together all
of those metrics, all of that data,
particularly in these areas
looking at city competitive
and national competitiveness.
So, that's things like
ease of doing business,
digital infrastructure, et cetera.
Also, looking at the rule
of law, civic freedoms,
so transparency, so risk
of corruption, et cetera.
The social and cultural
climate, looking at those
kinds of factors.
And of course, overlaying LGBT inclusion.
So, the legal status of
LGBT people in that city.
The kind of attitudes towards
LGBT people and pulling
all of that together, the Open
for Business city ratings,
it's really a way of saying
how open for business
is your city?
And so, we have published
the ratings today.
We've used the sort of
credit rating style.
If you're a triple A, if
you're an A, you're a city
that's open for business.
If you're a B or a C, you're
partially open for business.
D or E cities are not open for business.
On page 37 of your report,
you can see we've done that
for 121 cities.
And, New York, Amsterdam, triple A.
Cairo, Lagos, E.
A lot of these kind of will
conform to what we might expect
and there are some
interesting positive surprises
in the mix here too.
So, we look at cities like
Guadalajara or Medellin
or Ho Chi Min City or Bangalore and these
are all cities that in the
ratings come up quite a bit
higher than you might expect
given the national context.
And, when you look at these
cities, it turns out that
they've quite proactively
included inclusion
as part of their own economic
transformation story.
And so, we cover cities like
that in quite a lot of depth
too because we think there
is a lot of lessons to learn
for other cities in that.
So, we published that today.
Really, the idea of the ratings
is simply that for people
thinking about moving to
cities, global talent,
it helps think through, how
will I fit in, in this city.
For companies thinking
about relocation or location
it helps compare, provides a way of
comparing between cities.
For city policy makers, the
ratings can find, be a way of
benchmarking performance as
an open for business city
and help to shape policy.
But really, crucially, for all
of us who are interested in
promoting LGBT rights globally,
we hope that this work can be,
can open up a new dimension,
a new perspective in
the global conversation
about the economic case for LGBT rights.
And so, it's really wonderful to be here.
I'm very much looking forward
to hearing the debate.
A real thank you to Sander and
to Accenture for hosting us,
and indeed for sponsoring
the reports alongside
Thompson, Reuters, and Brunswick.
So, looking forward to hearing
what we have to say. Cheers.
(crowd applauds)
- Thank you very much
Jon, and again compliments
for a very thorough report.
It's like 27 indicators that all point
in the same direction.
And, there's hard data
underneath every one of them.
And thank you for confirming
me being right for moving to
Eindhoven where I went to
university which was a bit
of a sleepy town in the
southern part of the Netherlands
to Amsterdam after I graduated.
I was right, that triple
A is absolutely great.
Let me introduce you our panelists.
Let's start with Inga Beale
the CEO of Lloyd's, Inga.
Kim Hammonds the Group Operating Officer
of Deutsche Bank.
Stephanie Linnartz, Global
Chief Commercial Officer
at Marriott International.
And, Zeid Ra'ad Al
Hussein the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Welcome.
- Thank you.
- Thank you so much for joining us.
Every year we try to get a
better panel than last year,
and we have absolutely succeeded.
So, the bar is always high.
Inga, let's maybe start with you.
You're from London, triple A.
Does that mean everything's perfect?
- Oh, triple A, I mean
isn't that fantastic?
Certainly, there's a lot
happening in London for sure.
And, it is a very vibrant
place and it does feel
very inclusive and very, very diverse.
And, I was struck by one
of the comments about this
sort of cluster effect
when cities are successful
and they have this cluster effect.
And, we've got this amazing
stuff going on in London
where you've got real areas
that have different sectors
so that, you know, the creative
sector is all clustered
together, the new tech sector
is all clustered together.
And, it's all encroaching
on the traditional
financial center of London
the city, which isn't
necessarily thought of as
being that progressive.
And, I think that is a
really interesting dynamic
that's happening in London.
However, I must say since
the vote to exit the EU
the sentiments have
changed a little bit around
the entire country.
And unfortunately, for the LGBT community
in the last 12 months one in
five of the LGBT community
have been subjected to
some sort of hate crime.
And, that is a slightly worrying
statistic
- Wow.
- because since that
vote there just seems to,
it just seems to have given
authority for people to,
I don't know, show disdain for
people who are not like them.
And, I think that is a
slightly worrying trend.
Although London's still
is slightly different to
the rest of the country
there is a sentiment there
that doesn't feel quite as positive as it
would have done prior to the Brexit vote.
- Right, so triple A but a
need to stick with the program
so to speak.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Kim, you just joined this
week I heard, Open for Business?
What was your rationale behind that?
- For doing it?
So, Deutsche Bank we have
had a group called DB Pride
for 20 years.
And, it's very active in
10 different countries
around the world.
From our viewpoint it's,
this is an important topic
that makes our business better.
So, we'll continue advocating
and having a presence and
trying to make a difference
on this topic, because
again it's a view that
diversity and inclusion
makes a company better
and supports our customers better.
So, that's why it's important to us.
- Thanks Kim. Stefanie you're a DC woman.
DC got to triple A also?
- Yeah.
- How do you feel about that?
- Yeah, that's exciting.
We were, you know, it's
wonderful that Washington DC
as triple A, a global beacon
in this fantastic work
that was a done.
Washington DC is the headquarters,
right outside of Washington
DC, for Marriott International
which is now the largest
hotel company in the world.
We're in 127 different
countries, 700,000 employees.
So, very globally diverse
customer base, associate base.
And so, being in DC is fantastic, it is.
I think some people were
surprised to see DC on the list.
I think it's more
culturally diverse and open
than some would realize.
I'm born and raised there,
so I've got a special place
in my heart for DC.
Marriott's actually building
our global headquarters,
a brand new global
headquarters, in the DC area.
And, you know, a perfect
place to find diverse talent
and for a global company a great place
for a new corporate headquarters.
- Right. So, proud of DC?
- Very proud of DC.
- Go DC.
- Well some days.
Some days I'm proud of
DC, but in this regard,
I'm proud of DC.
- Okay, yeah.
(laughs)
Zeid, I mean you travel
around the world to triple A
but also to E cities I imagine.
I mean what was your read on the report?
- The report is excellent.
I mean it is really fantastic.
And I was born in a double
D city, so not good.
I live in a triple A city in
New York, in Harlem as well,
which is excellent.
I work in Geneva, and
there's no Geneva Jon here.
But, I can tell you that
our office is a quadruple A
in the middle of Geneva, at least that,
because we are so passionate about this.
When we have corporate
leaders like yourself
and the companies that
are present here fighting
for the rights of LGBT
persons around the world,
some of the most heavily
discriminated communities
in the world, hunted
down in some countries,
and in organized fashion in others.
It is something uplifting
and inspirational to see
the corporate world
taking a progressive step
decisively in this direction.
And, I think it's just wonderful
that we're not just having
these discussions outside
the sort of congress center
but in the congress center now.
And for the World Economic
Forum to also begin
to embrace this I think is really good.
And, we have to get the
message also solidly into
the minds of the world
leaders who do still come from
double D cities or triple D
or E and closed communities.
It's just unacceptable in this
day and age to allow for this
and to turn a blind eye to it as well.
And so, we have to be fighting every day.
And, it's also a matter of
understanding this crucial point
that we can't be complacent.
Every time we do see progress,
we do see a backlash.
We do see homophobia still very present.
And, to root it out and
undo it using a report that
Jon so expertly put together I think is
the mission now for us.
- Thank you.
Inga, I want to pick up on
your point and we'll do a round
of others can chip in but I
mean your stat of one in five
and I mean you're clearly
seeing a bit of backlash.
What's the role of all of us
in dealing with that backlash?
- Well for business leaders
I think it's all about
having the courage to
challenge as you said.
Now, I can remember when I took
over my role four years ago
while I was out and people associated me
with being bisexual,
when it actually came to
going on the sort of front page
in terms of speaking openly
about it, it took me one year into my role
to have the courage to speak out about it.
And now I do, but even now
today it still takes courage
every single time because
I'm concerned about my,
I don't know, any
backlash that could be on
not just me personally but
also on the Lloyd's market
that I represent all around the world.
And, Lloyd's does business
in over 200 countries.
So, every single time almost
I get up and I talk about it,
I have to have that courage to do it.
And, I would just encourage
all business leaders
and in fact it doesn't
have to be a leader.
It is almost incumbent upon all of us,
but and if the more we do it
and the more we feel connected
to each other and the
more we do it together,
the bigger difference we can make.
But it is constant.
It really is an absolutely
constant battle to get out there.
And in the UK at the moment,
the big topic has been
all about trans, transgender.
And you wouldn't believe the
comments on social media,
even some of the
established media outlets,
publications that people have
been thinking of as trusted,
globally minded sources of news,
have been writing the
most despicable things
about transgender, the
transgender community.
So, it's a constant challenge
but it takes courage.
And, I would just ask
everybody, wherever you are
in the organization, have that courage.
- Kim, any, any--
- I would just say, for
me, the learning on this
whole topic of diversity
and inclusion and so,
obviously, I represent women.
That's, so I'm the leader
of the women's group
at Deutsche Bank.
My peer is the leader of the LGBT.
I am representing, obviously, today.
I think it is important that
all the business leaders
and especially the business
leaders that are here,
at the World Economic Forum, actually,
when we see things that are happening that
just aren't right, that we don't like.
So, for us, and we were going
to expand our technology staff
and one of the gifts that I
have is overseeing technology,
is we were going to expand the staff
and carry North Carolina.
And we had planned to
hire another 500 people
and carry North Carolina.
And, I remember reading
about the situation
with the law that was
being passed in Cary about
bathroom rights and all of
this and just reading this
and saying this just isn't right.
So, we are not going to expand
and carry North Carolina.
And do we as a firm, have
the courage to stand up
and say no?
And so, I talked to the CEO.
I happened to be in a car
riding with him one day,
the day that this was
happening and I just said,
this just isn't right.
Like, we need to take a stand
on this but we also need
to be sensitive to we do
business in many countries
around the world that
also have circumstances
and issues around this topic but we need
to just take a position.
So, we decided, as a company,
to just take a position.
We've done that kind
of multiple times and,
I think it is important to, when you see
these things, as business
leaders, to just have the courage
to say, you know what, this
just isn't right because
unless we all stand up
and start doing that,
this will continue.
This topic will continue to be pervasive.
So, I think every single
day when we see these things
we need to you know, follow
the, I call it the gut
of doing what's right.
- Yeah, I am going to throw
a little complexity here
in the mix.
Not specifically for anyone of you.
But in Accenture we have
those, first of all,
I am absolutely agreeing with you.
But now let's imagine your
best and biggest customer
was in North Carolina
and because that is not
to put you on the spot but
because I am going to ask,
you feel free to chip in
because that's sort of where
the tension comes in.
Also, in Accenture, so we
have those discussions,
how do you go about those?
- I mean, I'd echo, first
of all, you said that
diversity and inclusion
is good for business.
It is good for Marriott business
and we believe in it to,
welcome people around the world.
But, it's easy to have
values and core values
on a piece of paper but it really counts
when they get tested, right.
Your ethics and your values
and I think the situation
in North Carolina was an example where
our company got tested.
We have a lot of hotels there,
we've got a lot of business,
but our CEO also spoke out
very loudly against that
discriminatory legislation
that was bad for our business,
bad for our associates and
bad for travel, bad for
the mobility of people.
And so, I think it takes
courage and the businesses
really need to step up and speak out.
And, our CEO did the same
thing with the legislation
in Indiana which he called
madness, which I think was
a good way to describe it.
It was very, you know,
and not just speaking out
once but doing it multiple
times over in his blogs
and op-eds and et cetera.
And, it takes courage and
it may hurt your business
in some regards or in some
areas but I think it's the right
long-term, not only moral thing to do but
the long-term business decision as well.
- Since you've been working
on the Standards of Conduct
and I think this is a
theme that sort of you can
read throughout the standards, any.
- When listening to the
panel, I was thinking
about the UN because we are not a company.
We are a global international organization
but my office is the office that is
most outspoken about this.
And, there are other
parts of the UN who are
really quite silent.
They should be speaking out.
They should really be
speaking out forcefully,
I mean especially when we look
at adolescents and children
who go through the stages
of identity formation.
And, in many countries it
is a perilous experience
because of the consequences
you're likely to feel.
And yet, the rest of the UN
seems to be so quiet about it.
And, for us we said okay,
we're prepared to go toe-to-toe
with many of these
countries that are abusive,
openly abusive but you
know, you should yourselves,
not just worry about whether it is that
you're going to have
your budget squared away
or whether there is going
to be a damnation in terms
of the support, the financial
support because ultimately
it is all about principles
and standing up for something.
And, if you start and
allow for discrimination,
even on the, at the
level of one individual,
it becomes a slippery slope after that.
So, it is something, it is,
it does require courage.
Some people have it and
some human rights defenders,
who defend the LGBT agenda, I
mean, have enormous courage.
The rest of us, you can build it up.
You can actually become
courageous even if you're not
by just acting it in
the beginning and then
you suddenly fall into it.
But it is something that
we need to keep sort of
actively stirring up.
One of the points also
if you allow me, Sander,
I was in Guatemala City
a couple of months ago.
And I was meeting civil society
and normally what happens
is each component of the rights
movement speaks on behalf
of its own constituencies.
So, the persons of
disabilities are represented by
the NGO that's most
prominent in that field
and the same for the indigenous persons,
same for LGBT and so forth.
What was so fascinating,
what I really enjoyed is that
each community spoke
on behalf of the other.
So, the representative of
indigenous communities spoke
on behalf of the LGBT.
The person who is representing
Women's Rights issues
spoke on behalf of
persons with disabilities.
And the more we can think like that,
we have our constituencies
to defend but we should also
defend the rights of other
constituencies and there
should be no discrimination
on any grounds whatsoever.
And that's what we have
to keep fighting for.
- And that principle, we've
started in Lloyd's actually
in the insurance market
in the UK because we had
all the employee resource
groups focusing on
their own individual areas
and they have all started
to come together and they've
seen the power in that
that it is very, very powerful
when you get different groups
speaking on behalf of others.
And of course, it's that,
it's because we all come from,
our view point, it is not
until you start having
discussions with people who
have a different experience,
that's the only way we are going to have
an inclusive society, isn't it?
We've got to understand
other people's positions
and that's been a wonderful,
wonderful happening.
- I would just say, again,
another learning for me
is that if you look at
studies for decades,
companies, cities, countries
that are more diverse
and inclusive are higher
performing, and at all levels.
So, you know, everyone
from the entry level intern
all the way up to the board
of directors in a corporation,
you're going to have better
business performance.
So, being sensitive to
creating that diverse,
inclusive work environment
in the corporate world,
you're going to have
better company performance.
So, that's why this is
important other than
what I said before which is
just the right thing to do.
- And, it is not just for the
individuals who may associate
or think of themselves as LGBT.
When we started, our pride
at Lloyd's group which was
the LGBT community getting
together, and we had the launch
and I can remember a guy coming up to me.
He'd been working in Lloyd's
for over 30 years and he said,
"oh Inga, this is the best day
of my life here at Lloyd's."
And I assumed he was going
to say, "I've been able to
"come out as being gay today."
And then he said. "My son is
gay and for the first time,
"I feel like I can talk
about my son at work."
So, it is the impact you
can have on everybody
in the organization, not
just the LGBT community.
Other people open up and now
suddenly he's got a weight
off his shoulder, he can talk openly.
He is going to be more productive.
He is going to be more engaged at work.
- That's right.
- Yes, absolutely.
- I mean, we need to
allow employees to bring
their true self to work.
I mean that's the important--
- What's the biggest thing
holding us all back in this?
Just to take a bit of a--
- The reptilian brain maybe.
(laughs)
The reptilian brain.
I mean we, if we are the
product of evolutionary biology
and our genes have been modified
by prejudice and bigotry
over the successive centuries
and this is from our
forebearers, you know,
we have to actively fight
this fight within us.
We all recognize it that we
come to quick conclusions
about someone on the basis of appearance
or on the basis of what they say.
And, we just have to fight
it everyday within ourselves
and recognize that there is a demon there
that has to be dismantled.
Those who allow the prejudice
to flow and the bigotry
to flow and the racism to flow,
are not trying to do that.
They are not fighting the internal battle.
And so, they allow the tweets to just
be a vehicle for, a window
into this and this is what
separates sort of progressive
minds, open minds,
creative minds from those
that are dull and reptilian.
And, we need to move away
from that as human beings
of the 21st century.
- And this fear.
I mean, Ijust remember
myself, for years, I had,
I was in a same sex relationship
and I was not out at work.
I was not out for years and
I look back at that time
and I just think, what on earth was it?
I mean, I worked in a very
open company and yet I didn't
have the, I was fearful of
something, some repercussion.
And, somehow, we've got to
help people get over that.
- Get over the little hump.
- Or the big hump.
- Well, the hump that is little
but gets bigger every day.
I think that's, maybe back to the report.
Is there an opportunity for
business to engage with cities?
- Yeah, absolutely, I mean, I
think the key for businesses
is to partner with,
with cities, with NGOs,
with other organizations
that bridge, you know,
with all sorts of different communities
including the LGBT community
and that makes a big,
that will make a big difference.
I mean, you know, as an
example, we've been very, worked
with the International Gay
and Lesbian Travel Association
which works globally
and is one of the oldest
travel associations out
there, is just one example.
But I think that's where
businesses can work together again,
across these various organizations
to move things forward.
But, back to your question about something
that's challenging, I think
for Marriott to be very candid,
it's always a balancing
act when you operate in
so many different countries, right?
We have hotels in countries
where it is against the law
to be LGBT and how do you
make sure that you stay true
to your core values and
operate a business in a country
like that, that stands
really in many ways against
everything that your company stands for.
And, I think it has been, we've
kind of had to navigate that
very carefully with making sure
that our hotels are kind of
like the embassy theory, right,
like inside the four walls
of our hotels, how we treat
people is very, our associates,
our customers, our guests, is
very true to our core values
while we're operating
in countries that are,
have laws on the books that
are counter to our core values?
I think that is really hard
for, I mean I know it's hard
for our company to navigate.
- Yeah, I am just thinking
of the check-in experience
that I have every now and then.
- Well, that's a good example.
We've had to train people, right?
Part of it is we do a lot of
marketing to the LGBT community
that's very inclusive, right
and hashtag love travels
and we'll show the LGBT community in a
fantastic and real and authentic way.
Well, then, what happens
at the property, right?
You have to pull that through
to training on the property
so that when a same sex
couple comes to the front desk
and has a king size bed the
front desk person doesn't say,
"do you really want that?"
Make sure that they, you know, no kidding,
they are able to say to all customers,
we have you in a king size
bed, does that meet your needs,
right, to anybody who is checking in so.
But, we do a lot of training,
a lot of hourly employees
of 700,000 employees, 96
percent of them are at a hotel
so you're going to do a lot of training at
the property level on cultural competency
and to be inclusive.
And, that's really challenging
too when you've got
so many people to train.
But it is critically important
to really bring it home
at the experience level at the hotel.
- I think for in terms of
cities, what Sadiq Khan,
who is the current mayor
of London, is doing is
reaching out to business leaders.
So, he's got an advisory
board of business leaders
and he is really pushing
the inclusion agenda.
And so, you can really
make a difference in a city
with a mayor, whoever is governing a city,
when they connect with business.
And, we almost give them,
or him the support he needs
to be able to go and challenge the norms.
I mean, he is from a
different ethnic background
so he talks a lot about that.
He is now supporting women.
He has actually, he has
given me the inspiration
about panel participation.
He said, "I am no longer
going to sit on a panel unless
"there is a 50/50 gender split."
And so, I said, right
I am going to do that.
(applauds)
So, but things like that,
he is getting that courage
to move the city forwards
because he's got all of the,
he is connecting with
the business leaders.
And, he has chosen
specifically business leaders
who are the new, the new face of business.
Friendly, open, inclusive
rather than maybe
the old traditional ones.
- Yeah, I would just say
the LGBT community makes up,
I think it is 3.7 billion market
share or market capability.
And so, it's a business imperative
as much as it just is
and I think I have said
that a couple of times.
And, cities creating an environment
in cities where people can
thrive and be productive
is extremely important.
And so again, whether it is
New York City, it's Cary,
it's Jacksonville, it is
Australia, we've been very actively
involved in advocating at
kind of the right moment
because we think that's
important to do that.
But the other, as I was doing
some fact gathering before
today, the other thing
that was shocking is that
38% of countries are,
it's criminal if you are LGBT.
And, I was surprised that it was so high,
as I was looking at some of the facts.
And so, there is just a ton of work to do.
- No, I think, Zeid, I will
let you comment on it because.
- No, this is, I mean it is a
very good point and it raises
another issue and that
is yes, about that number
of countries have
criminalized this behavior.
And, of course, they can
use prosecutorial discretion
whether to press cases or
not so you can have a benign
environment or you could have
a very hostile environment.
I think what's important
for companies to do is
to sort of set a threshold
because if you have an employee
who is arrested and prosecuted,
does the company defend that employee?
Now, the company may say,
look, we have no liability.
They knew that these are
the laws of the country
and so forth but the morale
of the rest of the employees
must just plummet because
they realize the company
doesn't stand up for its employees.
And so, the leadership of the
company must take a position
at some point.
You don't want to be the frog
in the pot that just begins
to see one employee, two,
three and then what stage
are you going to speak.
And, when it becomes a
senior sales executive
who is traveling in the
region and so on principle,
these are hard decisions
but they have to be taken
and when they are taken in the right way,
the sense of liberation
that you've stood up
for your employees no matter
what the cost ultimately is,
it has to provide some sort
of sense of stimulation
because it will have an
effect on the country.
I can tell you having
represented a country that's not,
sort of open for business,
so to speak, when it comes to
acceptance of LGBTI persons.
When you see companies
sort of put pressure on
the government, it has an effect.
It has an effect.
And companies need to realize that.
- Yeah, so for anyone who
runs into Mody this week,
377 of the table.
- Yeah, it's a target rich environment.
(laughs)
- Absolutely true.
Anthony, I think we are
going to open it up for
some questions from the audience.
I see your hand there in the back.
- Hi Justin Blake from Ed-le-man.
I just want to pick up on the
point that you finished with
and maybe Jon, this is a question for you.
This, the ability for
multinationals to put pressure on
governments where they are operating
and they are persecuting LGBT,
they have restrictions against LGBT,
Jon, I'm curious when you did
the research and looked at
all the different metrics for the cities,
are there insights when
you look at the bottom
of the ratings or even in
the middle of the ratings
that could kind of add
to this dialogue that
we've been having over
the years here at Davos
over what can multinationals
be doing about this issue?
- Can I take that?
- Yeah sure.
- I think that the simple
answer to that, because
there are many non-simple
answers to that question
is in the local business community.
So, many of the conversations
that we've been having
in the couple years since we've
launched Open for Business,
have been with leaders in
countries, like the countries
like you're mentioning.
And, we often find a surprising
level of understanding
of the economic arguments
and of add on support
for inclusion amongst very senior leaders
in the local business community.
Now, they might not currently
have quite the level
of motivation or feel
empowered to start having
those conversations and making that case
to policy makers but for
us it is the single biggest
source of optimism is that
support is latent but quite clear
amongst senior leaders
in countries like this.
And so, maybe a thing we
could all do is be connecting
with those leaders in those countries.
- Any other questions from the audience?
- Great report. Jerry
Catoty from (mumbles).
The data shines a light on so many things.
I was really struck at
the cadre of triple A's,
at least there's one exception you noted
in the report for Singapore.
I am wondering, what do
you see as the role of
the business community in
maybe changing something
that's an exception like
that where you've got a city
that's otherwise creative, inclusive.
I've been to Singapore
many times and never felt
threatened there but still
has laws in the books and so
has the environment that is
superficially challenging.
And yet, so I am hesitant
to reward a place like that,
but what can we do to say
"hey look, we recognize
"what you're good at, but
there is still a black mark
"that you've got to solve."
What's the role of the business community
in kind of helping the
best even get better?
- Well, we've got, three
years ago, we had a first
dive in festival we call it.
And, it's basically a celebration of
diversity and inclusion.
And, the first time we ran it in London,
I was actually really
worried because I was taking
the Lloyd's building
and the Lloyd's market
is a very traditional market
and I was putting colored
banners and posters all over the building
and I was really worried
about the negative impact.
However, it was so well,
it went down so well
that the next year, we went global.
And then, last year we
went even more global.
We had 92 events all happening
in the same week across
17 different countries
all about different types
of diversity and inclusion.
And Singapore, a group in Singapore said,
"we are going to have an LGBT event."
I said, "oh, are you?"
They said, "Yes, we can do it."
And, they did it and there
were no negative repercussions
and it was done in a
non-confrontational way.
It was done in a celebration.
And, that's how we've
tried to have the dialogue
open up in different countries.
And, we have events in
Brazil and South Africa.
We really went global but it
was done about celebrating
rather than confronting.
And, I think maybe that's
one way of doing it.
Not to sort of reward them
but also try and do it
in a celebratory way.
Say, "Look how great it can
be," rather than confrontational
and that's how we've done it.
Maybe it is a bit
cowardice, but that's how
we've approached it
certainly in Singapore.
- There are many--
- About Singapore, or?
- Well, there are many
techniques one can employ to try.
I like the celebratory route.
I think that's excellent.
We can also look at cases where, people,
nationals of a country are discriminated
in other communities and
then point out to them
just as they find it egregious
that their own nationals,
their own expatriate community
and country X, Y and Z
are the object of harassment
and discrimination,
well, then they should
understand that that applies
to their LGBT community within country.
And, we try and use any means
available to lean on them
and convince them but where
the celebratory sort of route
yields dividends then I
think it should be pursued
and I find it's very
intriguing and something
we need to support.
- I'm sorry, yes he asked, but
we'll get to you next, Beth.
- Thank you, my name is David
Pressman and until recently,
I served as the United
States Ambassador to
the United Nations for Political Affairs.
One of the things that struck
me and I'd be interested
in your reaction, is
that in terms of engaging
multinationals, and this relates
to the previous question,
to actually engage politically
with foreign leaders
with respect to policies
or laws that are pending
in their jurisdiction, we've
made enormous progress with
respect to internal facing
reforms, employee facing reforms.
But, when you actually have
a situation whether it's
in Nigeria, in Kenya, and you
call a government or whoever
calls your office and says,
"hey can you pick up the phone
"and call the president, call
the speaker, call whoever
"it is and say this is bad for business,"
I think we are still at a
point where the overwhelming
response from the business
community is the way
we contribute is by promoting
rule of law and transparency
through our commerce, we
don't engage in the politics.
And, the North Carolina
example is an interesting one
because in the United
States, it is an exception.
In the United States, we
obviously have a relatively
empowered LGBT political
constituency but in those
jurisdictions where that
doesn't exist, I'd be interested
in your perspective on how
we do better in getting
corporations to engage at
political levels to seek reform.
- I mean, from my vantage
point, it's extremely important.
So, what's the method to actually do that?
Do you do that through the politicians?
Do the countries that
are not in the 38% list
that I mentioned become,
create advisory groups
of politically, to companies that support
this effort that have been very vocal?
You know, many companies around
the world including in Asia,
have been extremely vocal about supporting
diversity and inclusion.
And I think actually, someone
in your seat could actually
take a, what's the initiative
that you could take
in this sphere of influence that you have
to make a difference on the topic.
And, I think it is our
responsibility as executives
of these companies to reach out to
the political person that
we may or may not know
and communicate our stand on these topics.
But I think it kind of
goes both ways as well,
which is the political
environment as well as
the corporations have to work together
to address this topic.
- And, I think from a
business leader's perspective,
of course, we don't want
to become overly political.
So, for us, there would
be the it's got to have
a positive impact on the bottom line.
So, it has got to be
increasing your profits.
And then, I think you've
got a really valid case
to go and lobby governments
around the issue.
And, I know there are
lots of stats out there
and research that is
being done to show that
the more inclusive you are,
the better it is for business.
And that's how we would possibly use it,
but just to go in in a political angle
is really challenging,
I think for business.
- One last question from Beth.
I'm sorry, we will take
Beth first and then
we'll take you as the last.
- Thanks Sander.
Just quick I want to go back,
Inga, to the London situation
because I worry that
it's maybe a front runner
to something we may be seeing
which the one in five, you've
got an overly supportive
mayor, you've got great
business leaders, yet you've got
a media that's gotten
more and more aggressive.
You and Stephanie both
mentioned courage is necessary
but it's also, you have to
evaluate the risk to do business.
Just perspective on the London situation
of why is that happening?
- Right, so the stats
are for the UK as a whole
and therefore, not necessarily London.
I would say London is
a little bit different
but it still is also happening in London.
But it's across the
entire UK the sentiment.
And I don't know, it
is almost as though we,
because of this feeling that
people haven't been included
in the past, all types
of people, the somehow,
and I don't know whether it
was really the Brexit vote
or whether it is all the
other things that are going on
with the rise in populism,
but the Brexit vote triggered
a whole host of hate activities.
Now it's, and it goes
beyond the LGBT community.
I have a guy who, in
the first week following
the Brexit vote, he and
his wife, they're from
another country in Europe,
they've been living in
the UK for years.
For the first time, they
were walking their dog
along the river and
they get verbally abused
and told to get back to their country.
The first time ever
they've experienced it.
So, it triggered a whole
host, somehow it let
these demons out of people.
So, it goes way beyond the LGBT community
but those statistics for the
LGBT community are horrific.
And, we also know that about 25 percent of
the homeless people,
which is a growing issue
in the UK as well, are
from the LGBT community.
- One last question.
- My name is Narcia
Beluciano and I am Director
of Corporate Responsibility
for Relics Group.
One of our business units
is reed exhibitions.
And, I should say that we are signatory
to Open for Business,
is going to be having
the first travel show, which
is called Products Variances
running in June of this year.
So, there's work that
we can do within our,
for what we do for our
bread and then there are the
LGBT working groups and there's
the special one-off activities.
There's the training that
we can do for our employees
but what else should we be
doing day in and day out
to create a culture of inclusion?
Are we missing something that
we should be focusing on?
- I think that's the perfect question
to just make a round of.
What's the one thing
we could be doing more?
It is a perfect question to end.
Inga. Sorry, or Zeid.
(laughs)
- Oh, um gosh.
- Shall I start?
- Go ahead.
- Well, I was discussing this
with Dan Bross yesterday.
It seems that most companies,
if maybe not you could say
maybe all companies,
need to do Human Rights
impact assessments
throughout their complete,
all the supply chains, up
and down their company.
And then, once you've
mapped out your exposure,
the gaps, the blind spots
and you see where you need
to do work, then heavy
investment by the leadership
of the company, as we see
Sander, outstanding leader
in this field.
You begin to change the
character and the image
and the reputation if the
reputation was suffering
damage in the past.
And so, to do a complete Human
Rights impact assessment,
I think it is something
that needs to be done
by most companies.
- Now, just look for something we could do
and the inspiration came
from what happened in the UK
in 2016 which was an investigation
into the lack of women
in financial services in senior roles
and the government commissioned this.
There was a charter produced
launched by the Bank of England
so, serious stuff and they
asked financial services firms
to sign up to this charter.
And importantly, signing
up to this charter meant
setting targets for women at the top and
publicly declaring those
targets and then monitoring
and reporting against them
and impacting executive pay
if they don't hit them.
So, if we've now got this
United Nations Code of Conduct
whatever we're calling
it, Standards of Business,
Standards of Conduct
for the LGBT community,
that is an idea that you
can actually get businesses
to sign up, start to have
targets, publicly report
against them, and effect executive pay.
- And Cisco yesterday
joined the 47 companies
that have already signed up so
we are moving slowly upward.
- Just to build on that,
leading by example is key
and I think having measurable targets that
you're held accountable for
is an important part of it.
You know, at Marriott,
we are making sure too,
that we think about this
holistically targets,
not just around associates and training,
but around consumers and
around our hotel ownership
'cause we manage and
franchise on behalf of others
on our supply chain and our vendors.
Are we being inclusive there and including
in the LGBT community?
But, we have a subcommittee
of our board that has,
we have a scorecard every
quarter where my boss,
our CEO and me each
have a component of it.
We have to report out to our board on how
are we doing against various segments
including the LGBT segment.
How are we doing against
various stakeholder groups
and it is part of our compensation.
And, it is a big focus area.
So, this idea of what
gets measured gets done
and has focus, there is a
real degree of truth to that.
- I just, I totally echo what
everyone has said so far.
You know, one of the things
that I am really proud of
about Deutsche Bank is
we've had a perfect score
for 15 years on the Human
Rights Equality Index.
And, we're just behind
one other bank, global
bank, which I won't name.
But, I think that it's education,
training, we have what's called an allies.
Are you an ally of DB pride?
Are you an ally in support of DB go,
which is the women's initiative group?
I think it is education, training,
measuring but also what I said before
which is taking a stand for
making your business better.
And, this topic of
diversity and inclusion,
not being discriminatory,
creating a good work environment
for your employees, creating
a company where your customers
actually trust you and
want to work with you
and you have the right kind
of ethical ethos is important
and this is an important topic.
I'd like to see the
diversity and inclusion topic
get more pronounced actually
in the congress center.
And, we were talking about that earlier.
This is a topic that
makes companies better
and it will make the world better.
- No, I think that would be absolutely
the right thing to do.
I mean, because from
this panel, it's clear,
thanks to Open for Business,
there is a very clear case
for LGBT inclusiveness in
cities and in business.
I mean, there is a dialogue to be had
between business and cities.
And, in that dialogue,
businesses and you all said it
very well, need to stand
by their values, speak up.
Have the courage to speak up
and not be the frog in the pot.
- Not be the frog in the pot.
- Thank you very much panel.
Thank you Inga, thank you Kim,
thank you Stephanie.
(crowd applauds)
(crowd applauds)
