Addressing diversity: the three disconnects

DISRUPTION and diversity are two issues that are most critical to the future of industries and organisations today. By treating these as separate, leaders often fail to realise the nexus between the two. Disruption demands innovation, and new ideas will more likely flourish in organisations with diversity of ideas and experiences borne from different perspectives.

Among the different types of diversity that corporations should seek, gender diversity is of contemporary interest and need. Situations abound of how greater gender diversity would have made a positive difference to projects and organisations. For example, when voice recognition software for the car industry was launched, it had a fundamental problem - the software barely recognised women's voices. The male-dominated design team had calibrated the systems to their own voices and speech patterns. The value of their innovation was diminished as a result.

As Singapore gears itself up for the future economy backed by robust corporate capabilities, there is a growing urgency to promote diversity as an enabler of innovation and competitive growth.