THE ROLE OF
MINORITY EXECUTIVES IN THE PARKING INDUSTRY 42
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B Y R AY M OND M E NS AH, C A PP OPINION
“Somehow, the term ‘diversity’ got tangled up with affirmative action and became a racial buzzword. Offering a seat at the decisionmaking table to a minority was translated into jerking it away from a capable white person.”
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RAN INTO A GOOD FRIEND at a parking conference in Atlanta, Ga., last summer. He provided marketing support for various departments, including mine, at a university where I used to manage the parking operations. This was his first time attending a parking conference; it was down the street from campus, and he had a day’s pass and invitations to a couple of networking events. After exchanging pleasantries, he looked around and commented, “Man, I’ve never been to a conference where it seems like it is filled with a bunch of white guys.” This was an interesting comment coming from a Caucasian male and led me to reflect on the experiences I’ve had during 15 years in the parking and transportation industry. Indeed, the dozens of executives from parking management companies, vendors, and contractors I have interacted with over the years have largely been white males. It makes me wonder if minorities are well-represented in executive leadership positions within the parking industry. Is the diversity of people in the country we live in today well represented in corporate boardrooms? The Challenge Last June, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) released the results of his 2014 Corporate Diversity Survey, which showed that women and racial or ethnic minorities remain significantly underrepresented at the highest ranks of corporate leadership and among corporate supply chains. Menendez said, “Consider this a wake-up call, corporate America. It is unacceptable that while you’re reaping record profits by marketing goods and services to communities of color, women and minorities are sorely underrepresented on your boards and executive teams and as your suppliers.” He went on to say, “That is not just a glaring gap in equity, representation, and inclusion—it’s a shocking business oversight that will ultimately hurt a company’s bottom dollar.”
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To address this challenge, we first need to understand if there is a genuine concern for or focus on minorities being well-represented on executive boards and leadership positions in general. It is not clear whether there are even sufficient numbers of talented minorities in parking to develop from mid-level management roles into executives or CEOs. Information about similar experiences in other professions and industries can begin to provide initial insights. For example, in controversies surrounding a lack of black nominees during last year’s Oscars, Dahleen Glanton wrote in the Chicago Tribune that black actors Idris Elba and his 15-year-old Ghanaian co-star Abraham Attah were both overlooked by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences: “And for the second year in a row, they released an all-white slate of nominees for the coveted awards. That’s what happens when the decision-makers are 90 percent white and 70 percent male. With a membership consisting primarily of people with the same background, the same life experiences, and the same points of view, it is easy for the academy to ignore films depicting the lives of blacks and Hispanics.” The article provided historical information that showed numbers of black employees and managers rose sharply in the late 1980s and 1990s, but then decreased. According to Glanton, “It appears that many corporations are reverting to their philosophies from a half-century ago. Somehow, the term ‘diversity’ got tangled up with affirmative action and became a racial buzzword. Offering a seat at the decision-making table to a minority was translated into jerking it away from a capable white person. With budget cuts and staff reductions hovering overhead, diversity is the last thing on the minds of most corporate executives these days. It is no longer fashionable to seek out ideas from those with different life experiences. It’s alright once again to shut out the voices of minorities who might upset the status quo. It’s fine to relegate minorities to stereotypical roles that offer no chance of advancement.”
Positive Movement A number of industries are, however, stepping up to the plate to address these challenges and implement changes to improve the situation. In August 2015, the White House organized an event to highlight women and minority founders in technology. This event and President Obama’s push for diversity and inclusion in the technology sector was the catalyst of major tech companies announcing new diversity initiatives. Players such as Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon all jumped in to show their commitment to being inclusive of minorities in their recruiting efforts.
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Research has shown that diversity in the workplace drives innovation, makes recruitment easier, avoids high turnover, captures more of the market, increases adaptability, provides a broader service range, offers a variety of viewpoints, and tends to be more effective in execution. What about Parking? Corporations in the parking industry face similar challenges. Why has this not been a dominant conversation at conferences, from professional organizations within the parking realm, or the focus of companies? It’s important to start the conversation because of the nature of our business and the diverse makeup of our customer base. We need diversity in leadership positions to be more effective at meeting the needs of our clients. Diversity has to start at the top to be successful at creating a diverse and inclusive culture. In my quest to find answers to these questions, I contacted the International Parking Institute—the world’s largest and leading association of professionals in parking—and researched similar organizations to obtain data and demographics surrounding leadership positions in the industry. There was no data or research available for this, indicating a lack of specific focus on diversity within the industry. My next step was to conduct unofficial research at numerous websites of vendors, parking operators, suppliers, software companies, etc. An immediate observation was that unlike large corporations elsewhere, parking organizations had limited and, in some cases, no information. After countless searches on the web I found a marketing document for one of the major parking operators tailored for government services/operations. In the ad, the company mentioned its dedication to
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building business partnerships with minority and disadvantaged businesses and included this statement: “With over 75 percent of our employees in minority categories, we are proud to say that we are a diverse employer.” Ironically, when I reviewed the company’s executive profiles, only two of 35 executives listed were minorities. I am assuming the 75 percent mentioned are primarily frontline, low-wage employees. Three out of four major parking management companies’ websites I visited listed the profiles of their executive teams. A total of 75 executives were listed but only four (.05 percent) in my estimation were minorities; all four were African Americans. Companies that supply equipment and software specific to the parking industry listed 24 executives, but none were minorities. In the non-private sector of the industry—parking operations within municipalities, airports, and universities—there was some diversity and inclusivity in executive levels. Parking operations within these organizations seem to have benefited from academia and governmental organizations’ focus on diversity. They appear to be more in tune with diversity challenges in the workplace, with a focus on diversity and inclusion especially as it relates to recruiting.
The Benefits Research has shown that diversity in the workplace drives innovation, makes recruitment easier, avoids high turnover, captures more of the market, increases adaptability, provides a broader service range, offers a variety of viewpoints, and tends to be more effective in execution. Sylvia Hewlett, Melinda Marshall, and Laura Sherbin from the Center for Talent Innovation indicate in their article in the Harvard Business Review that there are two dimensions to diversity: “Inherent diversity, which involves traits you are born with, such as gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation; and acquired diversity, which refers to traits you gain from experience.” According to the authors’ study on two-dimensional (2-D) diversity, companies with 2-D diversity in leadership tend to out-innovate and outperform others when correlated with market outcomes. Employees at these companies were 45 percent likelier to report that their firm’s market share grew during the previous year and 70 percent likelier to report that the firm captured a new market. The research found 2-D diversity unlocks innovation by creating an environment where outside-the-box ideas are heard. “We’ve found that when at least one member of a team has traits in common with the end user, the entire team better understands that user. A team with a member who shares a client’s ethnicity is 152 percent likelier than another team to understand that client.” parking.org/tpp
For every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior executive team, earnings before interest and taxes rose 0.8 percent. This is one of several reasons companies in the parking industry should embrace ethnic and racial diversity in their top ranks. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company recently conducted research on diversity in which 366 companies were examined globally. They found that those with the most women at the top of the corporate ladder were 15 percent more likely to have operating earnings above the median in their industry. However, companies that had more racially and ethnically diverse executives fared even better. Companies in the top 25 percent for racial and ethnic diversity were 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. The report revealed that for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior executive team, earnings before interest and taxes rose 0.8 percent. This is one of several reasons companies in the parking industry should embrace ethnic and racial diversity in their top ranks.
Increasing Diversity So what are some things that can be done in the parking industry? There is not much industry-specific information available. Therefore, a key step would be to improve research and data collection. This would allow companies to assess where they stand in terms of diversity in the industry. The results of the assessment would provide helpful information to organizations interested in implementing changes to their policies and practices to improve. Implementing diversity changes does not come without inherent challenges, and as such, issues like communication, resistance to change, and successful management of diversity in the workplace will need to be considered as well. It would be great to see the parking industry take a leading role in improving the minority representation at executive-level positions throughout corporate America. I look forward to a culture shift where there is an emphasis on attracting, developing, and mentoring minorities in to leadership positions. As we continue to operate in a global and diverse world, it is important to embrace diversity and take advantage of the returns provided by diverse leadership teams. We should take advantage of all the talent out there and not just a specific group.
RAYMOND MENSAH, CAPP, is director of parking and transportation services at the University of South Florida. He can be reached at rmensah@ usf.edu.
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