WILLIAM CAVANAUGH

The only way you'll stay ahead of the rapid changes in the business environment is to demonstrate your commitment to diversity.

Competition is a springboard for opportunities, but before you can pursue and capitalize on opportunities you have to be a good competitor. And to be a good competitor, you have to attract and retain the basic components of the market. And that goes beyond capturing and holding market share. It also means working with the best suppliers and attracting and retaining the best employees.

Companies can make great strides in a business environment stoked by competition and innovation because entire new customer segments pop up in a superheated economy. That's what happened in the home electronics market in the 1970s. But sustaining an early success requires keen business sense. And for that you must have people with vision; people who are capable of taking an early impression—an often subtle sense of the right thing to do—and shaping it into a functional strategy that builds on the initial success.

So, surround yourself with a workforce that executes at a level of excellence that ensures you can compete, and capture the opportunities you identify. Andrew Carnegie, who made his money in the steel industry, knew that his success wasn't about steel. “Take away my factories, but leave my people—and soon we will have a new and better factory.”

That idea maybe even truer today when you consider that we're in an age where you no longer earn your pay by your physical labor. Today, your value is measured by the strength of your intellect, your initiative, and your innovation. You may not work in Silicon Valley, but that doesn't mean the Internet does not impact the way you do business. Today business is done at the speed of electrons. So every industry needs people who think and work that fast.

A Broad Definition of Diversity

One attribute that will help companies perform at that pace involves the level of diversity present in key positions. And the quality of that diversity will directly influence the innovations and flexibility any company develops.

The idea is to work together. Do what you can to get the absolute best from all of your people. If you're going to meet—and hopefully surpass your goals—your people need to be motivated. There needs to be a broad range of ideas, freely expressed, from every perspective available. Such openness can mean the difference between being seen as a “market leader” and being the subject of a “where are they now?” piece on the History channel.

The keyword in this quest is “inclusiveness.” And that goes to the heart of the diversity issue and the fact that the old definitions are antiquated and obsolete. Today's diversity definition is far broader than race and gender. Diversity also encompasses age, ethnic origin, culture, and even personal style.

At Carolina Power and Light, we embrace that broader definition of diversity, and we use it to help optimize the performance of all our people. At CP&L, diversity means maximizing the potential of our workforce by creating an environment of respect, acceptance, understanding, and communication—a place where new ideas and new perspectives are encouraged, along with a commitment to serve diverse communities.

The vision we've created for CP&L's diversity initiative recognizes our competitive, multi-cultural world. In our vision, we see an environment where all people are valued and respected. Utilizing our differences will create and sustain a competitive advantage for our company and a productive workplace for all.

CP&L has a very active supplier diversity program in place. We encourage minority businesses to pursue contracts with us. We are also committed to the diversity of our workforce. And we're extending that effort to the marketplace and our communities.

You have to keep the lines open. Listen to what's being said. Show respect for the differences you see and mine the advantages they provide. Make sure your competitive edge is not being dulled by your inherent drive to adapt and assimilate. Talk about the value you place on workforce diversity.

All too often the essence of diversity becomes lost, diluted, eroded, or undermined over time by an almost inevitable gravitation toward the mainstream.And so the edge you once had—the perspective that might have produced a slightly different answer or an alternative approach to a problem—doesn't bubble up to the surface. So we are trying to encourage and preserve the diversity that we see as our strength.

From where we are today, we can see many opportunities before us. And we have the benefit of evaluating them through the prism of diversity. We have more innovative ideas to draw from. We benefit from shades of interpretation that less diverse organizations might not see. We have different points of view that result in different ideas. We identify alternate ways to reach the same conclusion. We place trust in our decisions because we know they are grounded in the strength of our diversity. EE

William Cavanaugh is President and CEO of Carolina Power & Light. This article is adapted from his speech to the American Association of Blacks at the Energy 23rd National Conference.

Excellence in Action: Sharpen your competitive edge by strengthening your diversity.