Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO of Ariel Investments and No. 94 on the Forbes Power Women list, wants to “fling” rather than stumble out of the pandemic.
Amy Harris / Invision / AP
With all the many challenges 2020 posed to executives, investors, women – well, everyone – Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO of Ariel Investments, doesn’t want to stumble out of this time.
“Can this time be a time when we are smarter and better at what we do?” Hobson asked during the Forbes Power Women’s Summit 2020 on Wednesday. “And that’s what I keep saying in my company: I want to be thrown out of this time.”
The pandemic and our reality of home are not over yet, but Hobson is arguably on that sling. Hobson is the 94th most powerful woman in the world according to Forbes Power Women 2020 list. She will become chairman of Starbucks’ board of directors in March and the only black woman to chair an S&P 500 company unless one of the other 499 makes a move soon.
The news, first reported Wednesday, concludes a year in which Hobson used her voice and philanthropy dollars to advocate racial justice and push for real, meaningful change. On her accomplishments: In October, she made a donation to Princeton University that will help build a new residential college called Hobson College. It will be the first college house named after a black woman and built on the ground where Wilson College once stood.
“America was born with a birth defect – as my friend Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative says – and the thing about a birth defect that was slavery to us is that a birth defect is not fatal,” Hobson told Moira Forbes. Executive Vice President of Forbes Media during the summit on Wednesday. “But you never get rid of it, and if you pretend it’s not there, it doesn’t go away.”
Hobson believes that we must address the problems that create inequalities in business and society. Here are three pieces of advice she has:
Start counting. Hobson wants companies to tabulate and analyze diversity and representation at all levels of a company’s workforce. “You can’t pat yourself on the back and 90% of your diversity comes from assistants who happen to be black women. It doesn’t work, ”she said. But the counting doesn’t end there. Supply chain managers and procurement directors need to ensure that they are also working with a wide variety of suppliers and suppliers, as the economic opportunities involved can spread to entire communities.
This is not just an issue for the executive team to be concerned about. “In order for us to be true trustees, we need to make sure that the civil rights agenda is taken into account in the boardroom as it is in the best interests of the company,” Hobson said.
Embrace first or only. At the beginning of Hobson’s career, she attended conferences where everyone seemed to already know her name. This surprised her until she realized she was the only black woman in the room.
“Well, I’ll only use this to my advantage,” Hobson recalled the decision. “If Mellody is something that really stands out and I’m the only one, then I’ll be like Cher or Beyonce where I don’t even need a last name because you’ll know that I’m there. And when I’m there, I’ll have original ideas. And I’ll take a stand and be ready to take risks. ”
Have your strength. Hobson says she’ll hear from people who think they don’t have the power to work for change. And to that she says: “No. Rosa Parks decided not to get up. Let’s just start with that. It has fundamentally changed a result for our society. She tore down barriers by refusing to get up on that bus. “
This post was updated on December 9th at 9:51 p.m. to reflect that Hobson’s appointment as Starbucks chairman of the board was reported and not announced on Wednesday.
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