Chicago United President Gloria Castillo

In August 2008, Today’s Chicago Woman featured Chicago United President Gloria Castillo on the cover of our inaugural Diversity Issue. Following is the interview.

Forty years ago, in the wake of the riots that followed the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., a diverse group of Chicago executives came together with the goal of creating solutions to economic instability and racial turbulence; the group born of their efforts was called Chicago United. In the early 2000s, the organization, now with a prestigious corporate membership ranging from Fortune 500 companies to emerging Chicago businesses, shifted its main priority to creating multi-racial diversity across the three key areas of executive management, corporate governance and diverse business partnerships. To that end, the group has created an impressive range of initiatives, including the Corporate Diversity Profile, a bi-annual survey that measures corporate diversity across two focus areas, and the Bridge Award, a national award that honors a CEO who is an advocate for corporate diversity.

The woman leading these efforts since 2003 is Gloria Castillo, the organization’s president. Having served as president of her family’s Monarch Marketing Group from 1992 to 2002, Gloria grabbed the reigns with the intent of applying her business management skills to the non-profit world. But her current position is far from merely a business proposition; even “passion” seems too small a word to sum up Gloria’s commitment to the goals and ideals of Chicago United. Diversity today, Gloria says, is marked by a shift from compliance to inclusion to cultural competence. “When we start to move in that direction, companies see even greater value because they start to see new leadership styles,” she explains. “That’s when we start to see real value of diverse teams.” We turned to Gloria to learn more about how Chicago United is reaching its goal of creating a more diverse and inclusive corporate landscape in Chicago.
 

Tell us about Chicago United’s current platform.

Multi-racial leadership in business is our platform; underneath that platform we look at corporate governance, executive level management and significant business partners – what you might call supplier diversity or business diversity. To have a company that leverages diversity to its maximum benefits, those three areas absolutely must be integrated. If you have a diverse board who understands how the corporation’s talent is developed, that can be critically important to supporting the areas of greater diversity in executive level management. When you have executive level managers who are more diverse, they’re more likely to take what might be perceived risks with minority-owned and women-owned firms.
 

What are some of the greatest barriers to achieving those goals?

One is the talent pool. We all know there’s essentially a talent war going on as baby boomers retire – there are just not enough people to fill their ranks. Clearly we’ve got some issues in the educational pipeline. That being said, the other barriers can be internal. If we see leadership as having a typical ‘white male’ attribute, you might not see an Asian female as a leader, because she’ll have a very different style. And so we automatically start to lose part of our access and ability to leverage that talent because we’re not recognizing that as a different kind of leadership style.
 

Have you examined how this talent pool will be affected as minority populations in the U.S. continue to grow?

I’m not yet in the position to talk about the results, but we’ve just finished our survey for our 2008 Corporate Diversity Profile. We’re working with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to project what management of Chicago’s corporations will look like over the next 10, 20, 50 years. We take into consideration what the workforce will look like based on the changing demographics. We’re also looking at, based on the percentage of change we’ve seen in the past in terms of adding people of color into management, where those two lines will intersect. When will we kind of see full representation? I’m very safe in saying it’s not going to be in the next 50 years and it’s not going to be in the next 75 years – if we don’t make changes to the way we develop talent.
 

What have been the most important topics to emerge at Chicago United’s Changing Color of Leadership Conference?

We have sessions that talk about, how do we bring more diversity to boards of directors? The challenge is that when it comes to people of color, we get fixed on certain individuals as being the board member to represent African-American women or to represent Latinos or Asians. The big challenge is identifying that next level of board members. It’s a real challenge, because very often they’re looking for, for example, someone who has been a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Well, if you look at that pool in terms of who is a person of color who’s been running a Fortune 500 company, that’s a very small universe! So part of the challenge we’re addressing is, what might those directors look like? What skill sets might those directors need to bring? In terms of building the pipeline to executive level management, we discuss the findings of our Corporate Diversity Profile, but we also work very hard at having focused discussions with chief diversity officers on real strategies.

  

What else do you discuss?

We’ll also look at tactical work. We have a product called BoardLink, and that is intended, via the Internet, to match emerging leaders of color with non-profit boards. It serves two purposes: As (the nonprofit boards) serve their markets with changing demographics, adding leaders of color is a great value to the non-profit community. At the same time, those emerging leaders create their own stretch assignments in terms of advancing one’s career by serving on a board of directors. The final piece is the development of minority businesses of scale. Chicago has a wonderful history of developing a lot of minority businesses; what we’re not seeing is Chicago accelerating in terms of minority businesses of scale. If you look at the Crain’s list, for example, there are six minority firms in Chicago whose revenues are in excess of $100 million. Six. In all of the Chicago region.

  

How are you approaching this problem?

Chicago United’s focus is to work with our corporate members. We’re (also) expanding beyond our corporate members in an initiative we call Five Forward, in which our corporations commit to selecting five minority firms they can contract with in a significant way over the next five years so those firms can build scale. The value to a local economy becomes apparent when you understand that minority businesses tend to hire from minority communities. As you change that employment dynamic in the minority community, it creates a different environment from which we all pull talent. You step up the local economy; you have better infrastructure in the neighborhoods; you have the opportunities to support the smaller businesses. The larger majority firms not only benefit from building great relationships with qualified minority firms who can add value to the supply chain, but they actually enhance the entire business environment in which they operate.

  

This is clearly a topic you’re very passionate about.

Having been a business owner, I know how hard it is. I have tremendous respect for entrepreneurs. I really believe that when I’ve seen women- and minority-owned businesses succeed, they disproportionately give back to the community. You see Ariel Capital and Cabrera Capital Markets supporting education initiatives so our kids can have financial literacy. I think it’s critically important that we build more companies who have that kind of commitment to our local communities.

  

When it comes to identifying potential board leaders, is that where Chicago United’s Business Leaders of Color publications come in?

Absolutely. When you look at the Business Leaders of Color publications, you have individuals who are absolutely qualified to sit on Fortune 100 boards. But you also have people who are appropriate for Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 boards. It’s a very soft advocacy piece, because we’re not beating people over the head. We actually send that publication to the Fortune 1000 CEOs along with a letter from our board chairman and the mayor saying, “The next time you’re looking for board talent, look to Chicago. Here it is.’

 

What changes have you been able to measure through Chicago United’s bi-annual Corporate Diversity Profiles?

Unfortunately what I would report is that the needle is moving in a glacial fashion. If you look at the raw numbers in terms of the change in leadership, the raw numbers have moved, but the percentages have not moved much. And if I look at what’s going on in the pipeline, there’s been very little change. I am hopeful with the 2008 study, as we start to look at the pipeline, that we’ll start to see some change, but I wouldn’t be looking for drama.

  

How did you settle on the topic for this year’s Race and Business Forum, The Convergence of Race, Business & Politics?

We’ve had this series for a very long time, and I think we’ve been very fortunate to have a candidate like Barack Obama make it clear it’s time to have an open discussion and to have some paradigm shifts about what leadership looks like. I’m convinced that with (Obama’s) candidacy we’ll be able to continue this conversation in a very positive way. I don’t think all of it will be positive, but what it does allow us to say is, we may have 80 years before we’re fully represented in senior leadership, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for everyone to step back and say, ‘What does that mean in terms of leadership styles?’ The fact that Barack and Michelle (Obama) do a knuckle bump has become fodder for right-wing media. It gives us an opportunity to say, ‘Wait a minute, is that a communication style? Or is it a signal?’ They’re reading it as a signal; I’m reading it as a communication style. It’s positive for us to see them do a knuckle bump and say, that’s a different kind of communication style than George and Laura Bush have, and neither one is right. It’s just different.
 

What advice would you give to companies looking to enact change in the diversity of their leadership positions?

I would recommend first that they engage a good consulting firm in this area that is, itself, diverse. The second thing I would say is, if the CEO and the president are not willing to engage personally in the effort, to monitor it, to become part of the process, they shouldn’t even bother to spend their money. Because they will not be successful if there isn’t that passion at the head of the firm.
 

Chicago United focuses solely on diversity in terms of race. Have you found this to intersect with other groups that are focused on a broader definition?

Absolutely. Our mission, at our core, is to ensure the inclusion of people of color in the economic vitality of the Chicago region. But if you open someone’s mind to thinking differently about race, you are opening their mind, and they’re not going to snap it closed once that door opens. We have a wonderful relationship with the Women’s Business Development Center and The Chicago Network, for example. When we have our employee network group summit, sexual identity groups are welcome. We welcome all groups to help us think through, how do we, in our network, support each other, support our personal goals, corporate goals, group goals? They do start to intersect and I really believe that…if we help companies think about where their challenges are with race and ethnicity, they expand beyond that.

 

In the early 2000s, Chicago United shifted its focus to gaining multi-racial diversity in boards and executive positions. What do you see as the next logical outgrowth of this goal?

Ultimately, I think I’m like everyone. I’m hoping for the day Chicago United isn’t necessary in the way it is today. I’m hoping for the day we are seeing full representation of people of color in every strata of the business community and we see stronger neighborhoods and communities of color. Based on the trajectories I see now, I think I’m going to be doing this work for a while! I think the most important thing Chicago United can do over the next decade is stay very focused on accelerating our path, because if the projections are accurate and it stays at this rate of change, it’s going to take us 80 years to be fully represented in the business community. That’s just not acceptable. The programs may change, the way we approach it may change, but I think it is our responsibility to remain focused there.

  

At the end of the day, is full representation what would make you feel you’ve fulfilled Chicago United’s goal?

Certainly, that would be nice, but I don’t think I’ll be around for that. If 10 years from now I look back on the 50^th anniversary of Chicago United and Crain’s no longer has a minority business list, but instead the minority-owned businesses are [in the] industry categories, that would be a big success for me. If pick up a magazine and it shows the top CEOs in the city and there’s great diversity on the cover, that would be a major score. And do I expect it to be perfect? It’s not a perfect world, so I don’t expect perfect representation. But I have the opportunity to increase our participation, to increase our visibility and to have greater parity. I think 10 years from now I could see a Latina, an African-American, an Asian woman, an Anglo man, all on the cover of Crain’s Chicago Business. Absolutely.