- The speaker believes that the role of businesses is to be inclusive and value all employees for who they are.
- They want everyone to aspire to be inclusive, not just their company.
- They acknowledge the need to listen and learn from employees in order to improve diversity and inclusion.
- They are working on various areas of the company and are open to feedback and perspectives.
- They believe that the journey to being the most inclusive company is ongoing and will never end.

General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra spoke with Fuqua School of Business Dean Bill Boulding in a virtual interview on April 29, 2021.

The discussion was part of the school’s Distinguished Speakers Series.
More information about the series can be found at https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/dss

What is the role of the platform of business in addressing these issues in society?

Well, there's so many things we need to do, but I think it starts with, and what we look at is we aspire to be the most inclusive company in the world, but it's not a title we want to hold by ourselves.

We want everyone to aspire because that's the world we want to live in.

And when I get people who kind of challenge me on it, I say, look, at its core, it means that when everyone comes to work, they're valued for who they are.

They can be their true self and they can feel valued for the contribution they make.

And when you take it down to that basic level of valuing everybody, valuing their differences, making them feel welcomed and that they have a sense of belonging, so they can do their best work, you know, And I look at people and say, why would we want it any other way?

And if we don't have that, and we after the George Floyd, the whole environment that followed so many other people but came to, I think, a tipping point or an awakening with George Floyd stuff.

I think that's when we looked and said, okay, we've got to look at ourselves and say, I'm very proud of all the different places where General Motors has led from a diversity and inclusion perspective, but we realized we had more to do if we wanted that environment where everyone felt like they belonged.

We had listening sessions with many different employees, and we learned we had a way to go.

And we're now systematically working in many different areas of the company and learning and listening.

And there's times where we think we're doing it right, and then we get some pushback.

And we're like, OK, help me understand what your perspective is.

We need to look at how we're doing this, how we're awarding this business, how we're enabling small versus large, because we're such a big company.

And so we feel that's on the journey to being the most inclusive, which frankly we think is a journey that will never end.


Speaker 0: What is the role of the platform of business in addressing these issues in society? Well, there's so many things we need to do, but I think it starts with, and what we look at is we aspire to be the most inclusive company in the world, but it's not a title we want to hold by ourselves. We want everyone to aspire because that's the world we want to live in. And when I get people who kind of challenge me on it, I say, look, at its core, it means that when everyone comes to work, they're valued for who they are. They can be their true self and they can feel valued for the contribution they make.

And when you take it down to that basic level of valuing everybody, valuing their differences, making them feel welcomed and that they have a sense of belonging, so they can do their best work, you know, And I look at people and say, why would we want it any other way? And if we don't have that, and we after the George Floyd, the whole environment that followed so many other people but came to, I think, a tipping point or an awakening with George Floyd stuff. I think that's when we looked and said, okay, we've got to look at ourselves and say, I'm very proud of all the different places where General Motors has led from a diversity and inclusion perspective, but we realized we had more to do if we wanted that environment where everyone felt like they belonged. And we started by listening. We had listening sessions with many different employees, and we learned we had a way to go.

And we're now systematically working in many different areas of the company and learning and listening. And there's times where we think we're doing it right, and then we get some pushback. And we're like, OK, help me understand what your perspective is. Yeah, you're right. We need to look at how we're doing this, how we're awarding this business, how we're enabling small versus large, because we're such a big company.

And so we feel that's on the journey to being the most inclusive, which frankly we think is a journey that will never end.

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CEO Mary Barra on Building Inclusion at GM