CEOs Leading with Inclusion and Authenticity | Salesforce

Wow.

Good morning, everybody. I'm so thrilled to be here. As you mentioned, I'm Terry Cooper, the Chief Inclusion Officer for Deloitte. We're really thrilled to be the presenting sponsor for the Dreamforce Equality Summit again this year. I'm thrilled because we have such a close collaborative working relationship with Salesforce. And that's really important because this provides us with an awesome opportunity to share our commitment not only to equality, diversity, but inclusion. As Deloitte's Chief Inclusion Officer, I know the importance of ensuring that we create that inclusive environment. It's really critical not only to bring that diversity of thinking to all of everything that we do and to all of our clients, but it's also important we know that having a truly inclusive environment is really fundamental to be an attraction from a talent perspective. And in addition to that, we know that there's so much that's happening externally that we really need to be cognizant of how we actually create an environment where everybody can truly be their authentic selves. And that's why at Deloitte right now, we're really focusing on the six traits to be an inclusive leader. Ensuring that every individual within our firm recognizes that this is a personal commitment that we need to think about. How do we create a collaborative environment for everybody that we're curious about Individuals, backgrounds, we're curious about their gender, their ethnicity, their religious beliefs, their political beliefs, that we can bring everything that they represent fully to every discussion that we have, that we're aware of cultural intelligence, that we understand everybody's individual differences. Perhaps the two that I'm really most passionate about is really around cognizance. It's really around creating an environment where every one of us is aware of not only our conscious, but also thinking about the unconscious bias that we may exhibit on a day to day basis. And lastly, having the courage to really challenge each other, to challenge behaviors that we know are not right, to actually ensure that everybody has an equal voice in every conversation. So we're on a journey. It's a really fun journey. I'm so privileged to be able to lead that on behalf of Deloitte. But I'm also thrilled this morning because the panel that you have coming up, really looking at inclusion and actually authentic leadership, is really aligned with all of our principles as well. So I'm absolutely delighted to invite Amy Weaver to the stage, who's actually going to be our moderator for the panel coming up, which I'm certainly excited about. Amy is the President, Legal and Corporate affairs and General Counsel for Salesforce So thank you.

Great. Thanks, Terry. Great. Thank you, Terry. And thank you, James Laduca, for that warm welcome. I'm Amy Weaver. I'm the president of legal and Corporate affairs at Salesforce. And I am just thrilled to be here this morning. We have an amazing group of circles, CEOs who are going to come up here. They are from very different companies. The companies are in different industries, different parts of the country for their headquarters and in different stages of their own development. But the one thing that they have in common are amazingly passionate CEOs who care about diversity, inclusion, and leading with authenticity. So please help me welcome them to the stage. Hi, Amy, how are you? Hey, good morning. So, as I said, we have three incredible CEOs here today. Immediately to my right is Geisha Williams. Geisha is the CEO of PG&E, bringing electricity to more than 20 million households in Northern and Central California. So when Geisha became CEO last year, she became not only CEO of a Fortune 200 company, but she became the first Latina to ever be CEO of any Fortune 500 company.

Thank you.

And I have to add one more fun fact on Geisha. So on Monday night, Geisha joined me at the Salesforce Women's Network reception, and I congratulated her on having just been named the 26th most powerful woman by Fortune magazine. And she corrected me very nicely. 24th.

Thank you.

Next we have Oscar Manias as the CEO of United Airlines. United, of course, doesn't need any description. It must be the most iconic airline, certainly in the United States, perhaps anywhere. He took over as CEO in 2015 in what was really the middle of some challenging times for United. And over the last three years, incredible financial success for the company, operational success. He is getting rave reviews from employees on places like Glassdoor, where sometimes it's not easy to. And if you ever want to really see an incredible introduction of Oscar, you need to go to YouTube and Google. His speech that he gave at Duke's business school a couple years ago where he was introduced by his daughter. And I guarantee I cannot match any of this introduction. It was really a beautiful tribute. And then finally, we have Jennifer Hyman. Jennifer is the co founder and CEO of Rent the Runway. If there is anyone in this room who does not know what Rent Runway is, you need to take out your phone and download the app right now. Actually, let me admit that you need to download the app in about 90 minutes from now, after we are done. Do not ruin the WI Fi in here. Jennifer created this company. It is not only a terrific service but she is truly disrupting the fashion and retail industry. You hear a lot about Uber. You hear a lot about Airbnb. I'm convinced what Jennifer is doing doing is even more disruptive. So let's jump in. I told you where these incredible CEOs are now. But what I think is even more interesting is the journeys that they have been on to get where they are. And Geisha, we talked a little bit on Monday, and I keep thinking about what you told me about coming to the United States as an immigrant when you were five years old and how that shaped your experience.

Absolutely. Well, first of all, it's great to be here. Great to see so many of you in this room. I'm delighted to be on this panel with Oscar and also with you. Delighted with the work that you do. And also, Amy, I have to say I came to the United States when I was five years old. I came with my parents who were political refugees from Cuba. So I'm an immigrant. My parents are immigrants. English is my second language. And we came here for, really, the promise of a better life. My parents are the typical immigrants, and they worked for me as a child. It felt like day and night. My dad worked three jobs. He worked in a factory during the day, he worked washing dishes at the local restaurant. At night, just the extra money. And then he worked in a grocery store stocking shelves somehow. And my mom, too. My mom did something called piecework, where you get paid by the dozen of little pieces of work that you complete and pennies. But it was all about making it. It was all about figuring out how to make a better life for myself and for my brother, who came shortly thereafter. And so somehow, and I'm so proud of my parents for this, they managed to save enough money to buy a little grocery store, a tiny little grocery store. They're called bodegas or bodeguitas. And that was the family business. And I was part of the family business. I was proud to be part of the family business. So after school, every single day, while other kids maybe were going to ballet or some kind of dance or some kind of after school activity, my after school activity was going to work with my parents at the local grocery store where I was the cashier, because I could make change. And I would tell you that maybe it was one of those early experiences behind the cash register where I had to make change on the spot that maybe made me confident in my math skills, and that's why I studied engineering. But I'll tell you what I learned about those early days. First of all, I was part of the business. There's no question about it. I learned the value of hard work, of customer service, of being part of a community. Little grocery stores are like a social center. And so you know your neighbors, you know their needs. You know, my father was kind. He extended credit. It was part of a community. And those lessons were amazing for me. It was about hard work, absolutely, but also about being part of a community. So my parents, of course, were very successful, and I'm so proud of them. But they also realized that they wanted something better for me and they really stressed education. They stressed that I get a degree and I was good at math, so I studied engineering. So as Amy said, first one in my family to get a college education. I started working right after college at the local utility, Florida Power and Light, where I had the amazing opportunity, wonderful mentors, great people that really helped me become who I am today. And I have one story that I want to share because it was so incredibly important to, I think, where I am today, and that's a mentor I had by the name of Clark Cook. Clark was a Southern gentleman. So mentors come in all walks and shapes of life. You can't just assume anything. And he must have seen something in me. And he asked me one day, his mentors often do, you know, so what are your long term career aspirations? And I think I said something like I wanted to be a supervisor or a manager. And he said, no, Geisha, long term. He says, look, someone has to run this company someday. Why not you? I was 24 and I remember just like a lightning bolt hitting me, why not me? Well, women weren't running companies, certainly Latinas weren't running companies, and immigrants weren't running companies. And yet he inspired me with those three words. Why not you? To maybe go for it, you know, to maybe lean into it. Maybe not CEO. I still wasn't thinking CEO back then, truly. But maybe that I could do better, that I could unleash this drive and this desire to do something maybe bigger than I thought. And that's why I'm such an advocate and such a strong believer in the power of mentorship. And I truly believe I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Clark and others like him. That inspired me along the way.

That was terrific. Thank you, Geisha. Fantastic story, Oscar. I'd love to hear more about your background. One thing that struck me in reading your bio is that you were the oldest, I believe, of nine children.

Yes, I'm technically the oldest. I had a heart transplant a couple years ago, so it's a 30 year old heart. So technically, as our family thread goes, I'm hashtag youngest child. Sticking to that. It's a great story and thanks for allowing me to be here. It's always a wonderful stage to sit and listen to folks talk about what you've done and your accomplishments. It's sometimes a little surreal that you're here and everybody wants to know how that path happened. And I think there's so many similar stories. But what I always reflect upon as an individual is that all the things you hear about me with regards to the business side and the professional and career side, that is certainly what I do. But it isn't who I am. And I remember that from a long period of time. And it's part of our Latino sort of heritage that brings a little humility and understanding that there's so many people around you that assist. And very similar to geisha. I'm an original dreamer from before they had names for it in so many ways. Broken family gathered with somebody else. Came in this country for all those sorts of things. All sorts of things that happen like that. Hard working parents, my brothers and sisters around me. But throughout that whole process, and it shapes who I am today, there was always someone in the process that somewhere somehow pulled you aside, much to Clark and your concept and my first memory of someone that made a memorable experience and it shaped what I do for personal philanthropy. And it was Mrs. Duckworth. She was a high school counselor who caught me in the hallway once in between classes and I turned the corner and she's coming towards me. I'm like, oh God, I'm in trouble. And she goes, I wanted to talk to you and counselors only come talk to you for one reason, right? You're in trouble. She goes, I just saw the PSAT scores and your score was pretty good. Where are you thinking of going to college now? You have to understand this is what's critical in underrepresented environments. My answer, truthfully and honestly as I sit before you, was simply, what's a college? We don't know sometimes what the options are and that's what the inequity and sometimes our society creates. And that's what I again, what shaped me to fix that because I didn't know what a college was. She took it upon herself to take care of me, go through the application process, talk to my parents about what college meant. And for me, that optionality was something I would have never had without somebody intervening and so to this day, I remember that we have a foundation called Pavet Forward. And I literally send kids to colleges free of charge, full four years, because again, that Mrs. Duckworth and I spoke at her. When she passed, I showed up. And what's wonderful is that at that eulogy, in the audience was probably 20, 25 kids from my age in high school that she had also assisted and helped. So it wasn't about me personally. She just helped others. And my mantra personally is my duty to care. It is our duty, once we have these kind of benef, to care for others. And that's what shaped who I am. All the business stuff comes. We can talk about that all you want. That's not who I am. Who I am is what you see in front of you. So this is so great to be able to talk about stuff like this and not the business, because I was on TV yesterday. It's all great. Stakeholders are great. But listen, there's a broader, broader good. And that's why I like coming to these things, because the platform for change is something we can do and affect from the platforms that we. We have. So it's terrific. So thanks for having me.

Terrific, Jennifer.

So I grew up in a family as the oldest of four kids in the New York suburbs. And one of my younger sisters is severely autistic and had a lot of trouble communicating. She's in her 30s today and still is not able to live independently. She can't read, she can't do math. And I think that one of the things that guided me from the time I was young was, you know, in the 80s, when I was growing up, it was still a source of huge embarrassment for a lot of families to have someone in their own family who was severely disabled. So there was a culture that was omnipresent where you would often keep your family member who was disabled at home. You would try to hide it from the world. And my parents had a point of view and a philosophy that Sherry is just as an important part of our family as everyone else. And we're going to go live our lives and go to restaurants and go on vacations and be who we are, and no matter what the reaction is from other people. So some of my earliest memories are being laughed at at restaurants by other people or often adults would come up to my family's table and say, why did you bring her there? And my parents kind of reinforcing to all of us that, you know, to be proud of who we are and that there would often be unexpected, spontaneous Hilarious or sometimes painful things that would happen with Sherry, but that we would just love who we are and laugh and not take every single moment so seriously. And I think that that was a huge guiding principle for me to be authentic from the very beginning and to not pay as much attention to what the rest of the world might think, but do what you know is right. The other thing that happened that was palpable to me from a very young age was that it was expected at the time that it was my mother who would stay home and care for Sherry, 24 7. And my mother at the time had graduated number one from college, you know, Phi Beta Kappa from her business school, had a very promising career in finance. And there wasn't even a conversation as to who was going to be the primary caregiver. And I just remember thinking my mom was a genius growing up. And I didn't understand why that was necessarily the assumption why she had to be the one to give up her career. And of course, if you spoke to her, she would just say, you know, I love my family and this is. I love my life. But I really believe that my own ambition in life to create a company that is female led and female owned, really comes from paying it forward to all of the women who have made decisions on behalf of their families, to kind of be the leaders in their families and do the majority of the housework and the majority of the childcare and to have that work, you know, often in society, it's not been as appreciated. And I think that we've all made choices and I hope that we're moving towards a society where, you know, married couples as a team can determine what is the best route for their family and that gender roles could become more fluid and more equal. So I think under that guide of just a really loving family, A Both of my parents were incredible feminists from the very beginning, especially my dad, you know, giving me confidence to believe, of course, you know, I should be off running the world from a very young age. So I think the confluence of all of those factors led to me very early on becoming an entrepreneur. I started Rent the Runway when I was 28 years old and have since raised several hundred million dollars and have built the team over the last 10 years. So it's been quite an adventure.

She's a great marketer, by the way. We are sitting back there. We already have a new thing we're going to do together, so we're kind of excited about that.

Stay tuned.

I love it.

I think I left the green room for two minutes. I came back and the deal was already on the table.

I was feeling kind of left out. Gotcha.

Okay, we're gonna work this out.

I just don't know what the partnership opportunities are yet, but I kind of.

Like what you do.

I have missed out that there is something sort of maybe customer relationship management package. Let's see.

We gotta figure that out. We gotta figure that out.

So I love the fact that you all immediately talked about authenticity and where it comes from, why you lead with it, but that's actually also not always easy. It's counterintuitive. You would think being authentic makes your job easier, but it does mean that there's some vulnerability there. And, you know, Oscar, I believe it was within just a few weeks, maybe a few months of taking the job, you know, very serious heart condition. How did that affect your ability to be authentic? And how has that affected your leadership at United?

Well, that was authentic. I didn't believe. I don't think it's changed me and everyone around me. I've always been the person I am. It certainly helps you appreciate a lot of things. I was sick, and I'd only been on the job for 37 days. And so that was kind of the difference. And why I knew I had to stay with United. I know we had a great path to the future, because after only being there for 37 days while I was in the hospital and coming out of all my things, the daily stream of bags of cards and food and flowers and jambalaya, so many things, but daily we have 90,000 people around the world, and I think every single one of them sent something. And so while I was always who I was for a lot of different reasons, that outpouring of affection from the United team and family knew, I knew that I had to stay and make it work. It was a perfect excuse to get out of town, right? I mean, hey, heart transplant, let's go retire. But no, I mean, I'm telling you, there was that. There was just so many things like that. So it made me really appreciate. And if I provide advice to any of us, we all have people around us that get affected by certain things. Whether it's a death of a friend of a family or any kind of bad situation. We, a lot of us, always say, golly, I meant to write. I meant to send something. I meant to say. Or you say, the infamous, hey, if there's anything I can do to help, don't do any of that. Just do it. I mean, just send a card, send food. It doesn't matter. I learned over those bags of email. And it's funny, because to this day at this hospital, we call it the daily reading. The nurses and doctors would gather while my children. My children read those notes to me. And there's nothing more authentic that makes you want to really care. So when I go through the ups and downs of this industry, which is unbelievable, and we've all shared some of those data, that's what keeps me going. And I'm not doing it for adulation, not doing it for anything. I'm doing it for the family that serves you when you fly. So that's my authentic story.

Great. Thank you so much. Geisha, you've talked a lot about mentors that you've had, and how have they helped you appreciate authenticity?

Well, I don't think any of us get to the positions that we're at by ourselves. Whether it's teachers, mentors, along the way, parents, everyone supports us and helps, I think, create the conditions that allow people like us to be successful. And I have had wonderful mentors. I just talked about Clark. I have another mentor that really had a profound impact, and I think the way I show up as a leader. So after Clark, I believed him. Now I'm all in. I am working, and I was driven. I was all about results. I was all about process. I was married. I didn't have children. My husband was an attorney. He was working long hours. I was working long hours, and I was driving for success. And one day, after a pretty tough meeting with my new boss at the time, a man by the name of Manny Rodriguez, he pulled me aside and he said, geisha, I want to give you a little feedback. I'm ready to give feedback. I'm sure he's going to tell me what a great job I'm doing, right? And he said, geisha, I gotta give you a little feedback. You need to lighten up. And I was like, what do you mean? He goes, you know, you are just like, all business, all the time. Go, go, go. Story is a performance scorecard. There's more to you than just that. You need to lighten up and let people know who you are. Because while you are a great manager and I respect you, I think you're a very great, great manager. I want to see you be a great leader. And a great leader inspires, shares, and really brings their team along. And so you. I've seen you. I know you have a good sense of humor. You need to show it. Nobody wants to work for a robot. They want to work For a person, you need to loosen up and let people know who you are, what you're about, what you value, what you like, what you did over the weekend, just be you. And I remember it hit me like a ton of bricks because again, there weren't role models for me. There weren't women role models for me. And I recognized that I was maybe overcompensating, that I was just trying to be this image of maybe what I thought a strong leader or manager looked like, but it wasn't true. It wasn't who I was. And that was such a pivotal moment from that point forward. And it took a while because I don't think you turn a switch, because I was afraid to completely open up. But over the years that followed, I started just being more and more me and opening up and telling my story and talking about my kids and my sports teams and really engaging with the people that I worked with and caring deeply and not recognizing that's not a weakness, it is a strength. And I really believe it's made me the leader that I am today. Again, the power of mentorship and the power of being true to who you are.

That's terrific. Thank you. Jennifer. One thing that really struck me in looking at your career and what you have done is when you refer to raising money and how much capital you've had to raise to invest in your business, and there's been a lot of talk about how that can be particularly challenging for women. But for a woman to be raising the money to invest in a company focused on selling to women, you're adding in one more wrinkle. What has been your experience and what is your advice for how we can increase the diversity around entrepreneurship?

Well, I think the numbers kind of speak for themselves that less than 2% of dollars go towards women. And the metrics are even more stark when you look at founders of color or founders who actually are not from a East coast city or, sorry, a coastal city. So there's a lot of need for diversity. If you think about what are the implications of this. A lot of most job growth and innovation in this country over the last few decades have come from entrepreneurs. So when people tend to invest in other people who look like them, who have similar backgrounds, the ideas that get invested in become more homogeneous. And therefore we're not really addressing the full population of the United States by the entrepreneurial ideas that are getting funded today. And we've left out full demographics of people that are not receiving the innovation that they need to. So, you know, I think that one thing that just has to happen is that the sources of capital, the folks that control the person strings, have to themselves more actively become diverse. And understand that hiring one woman onto your team is not enough to actually sway the conversation. And that when you have a small team, most kind of venture capital private equity firms have just a handful of partners, that you need kind of a plurality of backgrounds to lead to diverse outcomes. Now what's interesting is in such a data driven industry, there's so much data that shows that a diverse team leads to better financial outcomes. So the idea that you wouldn't invest behind diverse founders or diverse teams from the very beginning seems slightly odd. But I do think that people and firms proactively setting goals, also making the environment less opaque. So one, I was raising money in 2009. There were very, very few female founders at the time. And the situation for me was quite opaque. Meaning that when I was raising money, I didn't have a network, I didn't know what terms I should be asking for, I didn't know how to negotiate those terms, and I didn't know what equivalent founders at my stage were getting. So there's not just a dynamic of less money going towards women, but there was a study released by Angels and Carta last week that said that for every point of equity that a male founder has in a company, a woman has 50% less a female founder. So in the same deal terms, those 2% of women who are getting funded are receiving funding at much lower valuations with much more stringent legal terms attached. And part of that is due to the opaqueness. If you don't know what you should be asking for or you should be negotiating for, you're left in a situation where you're even more powerless. So one step could actually be just releasing more information about what other founders and other CEOs at similar stages, what their compensations are. You don't have to. You can anonymize all of the data. But again, it's a data driven industry. Let's actually see the data and have that data released by firms by, even by law firms who are representing a lot of these companies. It wasn't until I started working with a law firm that that law firm advised me that the terms on which I had raised capital were unfairly punitive towards me and that they had never seen other deals like that in their history of working with founders. I would never have known that. So you need kind of more agnostic parties to release data, to give people more power to negotiate and you need a more diverse set of investors who are going to put money behind a diverse set of ideas.

That's great. Thank you. So one of our mantras at Salesforce is that business is really the most powerful platform for change. And everything that you can do in terms of using your voice as a company, using your resources as a company, we can be putting this to bigger purposes. And geisha, I've been very impressed by what PGE is doing around the environment. Can you talk a little bit about what your efforts have been there and why it matters to you?

It really matters to us. You know, we're a California company. California is a national, international leader on all things climate. It's important to our employees, and it goes way, way back. I'll tell you, back in 2006 when, and I know Al Gore was here today when he was talking about An Inconvenient Truth, climate really wasn't front and center for any companies. It was sort of something we didn't really talk about. But at pge, we invited leading climate scientists from around the country and we went deep into the science. And over a period of months, we came to the conclusion independently that climate change was real and the time for action was, was now. And we have been on a tear ever since. So today, I can tell you, we are 80% of the electricity that we provide to our customers, that we deliver to our customers, is greenhouse gas free. That is one of the cleanest portfolios, if you will, of any utility in the country. And that's just the beginning. And that's how we view it. We believe that we play an important role in helping California achievement its clean energy goals. And so by the year 2030, our goal as a state is to reduce greenhouse gases by 40% from 1990 levels. That's a lot. But we're all in and we're going to make that happen. We believe that we enable that transformational change. We believe that the time for action has been and continues to be now. We see the impacts of climate change around us. We see the terrible hurricanes in the Caribbean and now in the West. We see the ferocity of some of these hurricanes. The flooding, the tornadoes, the polar vortex, the ice caps melting, sea rising. And so you've got to move. You've got to do something about it. And our belief now is that since climate change is here, is happening, we've got to also pivot to what do we do about helping our communities become more resilient to those changes. So whether it's the terrible wildfires of 2017 and 18 or all the various things that I talked about in terms of flooding. How can we help especially underserved communities become more resilient? Figure out the strategies and policies that are going to make that happen. What that means for us is we are really looking at our practices, our policies and we are going to say what else can we do? New normal requires new solutions. So we're doing more veg management, more hardening of our infrastructure, deep studies about what we need to do with equipment that might be in low lying flood prone areas. And how do you anticipate and take action? Because we shouldn't be surprised that these things are happening. It's all around us and we feel like we've got a special responsibility as one of the largest energy companies in the state, the largest energy company in the state to help our state with its bold clean energy agenda. We're a partner, we're enablers.

Thank you for everything you're doing in that area. It's been incredible. I think it's also very interesting that we're really seeing, not only is it a commitment to our communities from companies, but really it's employee driven. In a lot of our areas, employees really have different expectations now about the workforce, what they want their company to do and how they're treated. And one thing that I that has always struck me with United Airlines is kind of this focus on caring. And what would you say about that culture? And why have you chosen the word caring to sum that up?

You know, an industry like mine is so large, so many interactions between US customers and our folks. We fly 150 million customers a year to some 9,500 countries. Every single day there's a, every single minute there's 1,000 planes in the air. And so the possibility for interaction is so. The interaction is so critical and exponential and the possibility for error is often one that causes us. Because of the safety and security concerns that we have in our industry, which you all should be cognizant of, we become rules oriented. And it's so frustrating to me as we change our culture to be much more customer centric is the fact that the difficulty is that we have to tell you no all the time. No, you can't board yet. No, you can't change your seat. No, you can't change your flight. No, you can't bring that 6 foot peacock on the. And we feel that we're doing that for the right reasons. Right. You can't just show up at the airport and I can't just say hey, everybody, come on in. Get on whatever plane you want. We'll take you.

Right.

It has to be order and process. And over time, those rules, those policies, those procedures, take over what we are. That we forget that just look at you and say, hi, Jennifer, thanks for flying with us. Something simple as that. But I have folks that have been around 20, 30, 40 years. They've been through financial strain, bankruptcies, they've lost everything. They have nowhere else to go but work for us. And so how do I recapture the hearts and minds of those folks? And the way to do it is simplistically, in an authentic way, in a genuine way. I told you about who these people are. The way they reached out to me. I know they have it in their DNA. So we just need to put the tools and procedures. So we put something out. Let's just say here's the core four principles of how we interact with each other and with our customers. Safety. Caring. Dependable, Efficient. Simple words, very easy to understand. But the difference that we had today was safety's always first, caring became second. And it's funny, in a rules based world that we created, I created because it's buck stops here. I have people asking me, it's like, well, is there like a rule book for caring? It's like, when do I care and when do I not? That's the part of my problem we have to fix. Because, you know, they do have good questions. It's like, when do I let some, when do I wait for that plane door to shut to let somebody else board that's running a little bit late? The person running late says, every time, please, I want to get on the plane. The 130, 180, 300 people on the plane that are already there, they're like, let's go now.

Right?

It's crazy how customers see. I get letters that would just shock you. How dare you board children before me? Really? And back to Jennifer, your story about your, your sister. We have a massive global inclusion revolution partnership with Special Olympics because that's one.

Of the.

Our outreach and breadth and scope a lot diversity and inclusion crosses, crosses everywhere. And that's one of the ones that we found recently because a lot of them have invisible disabilities that nobody can see. But people are so judgmental. And everybody asks me, what would you tell another, you know, customer? What would you tell your customers? I said, caring, empathy, whatever it is. And that's how caring was born.

That's beautiful. In terms of caring, Jennifer, you did something at your company which sounds so obvious and yet was really revolutionary around benefits. Can you tell us about that?

Yeah. So earlier this year, I decided to equalize benefits amongst my hourly and salaried employees. And that means that if you work in my warehouse or in a store or on my customer service team, you get the exact same parental leave, paid family, sick leave, bereavement leave, sabbatical policies, health care, vacation that I do now that salaried employees do. And what inspired me to do this is the recognition that I had inadvertently created a second class citizen at my own company. We were competing very aggressively for corporate talent. And one of the ways you compete for corporate talent is you give really generous benefits and you say, we're going to give you flexibility. You have the ability to work from home. Men and women have incredible parental leave. When someone passes away, you get a month paid time off to grieve. And realizing that the folks that I was giving the most flexibility to not only also had the higher salaries, so higher ability to be flexible, because money buys flexibility. But second, they often came from more educated backgrounds, from backgrounds that gave them more opportunities. So I was taking the thousands of people that work for me that have, that come from economically disadvantaged situations and making their lives even more difficult. So decided to do research on this and realized that very few companies have equal benefits. And it's often hidden behind the cloak of, you know, I have to do what's best for my shareholders and kind of fiscal responsibility. So. So we've been doing an analysis internally where we've already proven over the last few months that the cost of providing these equivalent benefits to our warehouse teams and customer service teams are actually saving the company money because of higher loyalty rates, lower training costs, lower attrition rates in a world where unemployment is very low, it means that a warehouse employee, you know, can leave to go somewhere else very easily. So understanding that, you know, these benefits, treating every single person who works for me with humanity, that in this country we already distinguish between someone's value to a company. It's called a salary. I make a much higher salary than folks that work in my warehouse. But we shouldn't be distinguishing between whose life is more important. Is it more important that you had heart disease or that someone on, you know, a flight attendant on one of your planes had heart disease? I would claim it's equivalently important. And so I decided to do this. And in so doing, not only has it bred much higher loyalty rates around my hourly team, but very interestingly, the population that received this with the most pride was my salaried Corporate team because you now have a workforce that's majority millennial or younger. And 70% of millennials say they will not work for a company unless it exhibits their values. And putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to equality and treating everyone equally really reframed and has changed the culture of our company. And the promise I made to my employee base is I said, listen, you know, we're not a, we have a lot of room to grow. We're still growing. We're not $100 billion company yet. But what we're doing today, the policies that we have are what is in our financial ability to do. And the promise that I make to all my employees is as Rent the Runway grows, our benefits are going to grow equivalently for everyone. So I'm not saying that my parental leave policies are the best out there. There are many companies in Silicon Valley where they have much better policies. But I'm saying that they're equal, they always will be equal, and we will always give more back to our employees as we grow.

Fantastic.

Good for you.

This has been incredible. I just glanced at the clock and I cannot believe how quickly this time went by. I would love several hours more with each of you. But as we wrap up, what is one quick piece of advice? We have amazing leaders. They are going back to companies around the world. One piece of advice for them to take back, either to help their companies with inclusion and authenticity or to help with their own careers. Geisha, do you want to go first?

Sure. I would say, God, mentoring. Those programs really, really work, especially mentor women. Women oftentimes pull themselves back, don't think they have the qualifications, don't think they're ready. They need that boost, they need that nudge. They need someone to tell them their potential and also what they can do to really become better. Mentor her. We have a program called Mentor her that we really feel strongly about. I am a living, walking example of what mentorship does. And I would say lean into it because it really works.

Great. Thank you, Oscar.

Gosh, there's so many things, the mentorship I mean, you know, having a platform for change in an environment that you're growing and you're creating a base for future companies to, you know, I have a hundred year old company and you know, we still have vestiges of women weren't even allowed in certain parts or people of color. And so in fact, our benefits are flipped around. Our frontline folks get much better benefits than for instance, I do. We've gone kind of the other way big companies. But I would say of all the things you hear and learn and appreciate about people like us and our stories, the one human factor that I would really stress for all of you and because other humans see it or don't, and that is one of generosity. Leadership is incredible, incredible value that we have and are entrusted with. But at the end of the day, if you aren't truly generous of your time, your abilities and people don't feel it, I don't know that you succeed. And these stories that you're hearing from these two and others, it's just all about that personal generosity towards others. And so just keep it that there's human factors involved. It's not about books and tactics and leadership sort of quotients and all that. There's something deep inside your own, excuse the pun, heart, that will drive you. People will see that if you're truly gentle.

I would say that at a time that we can't necessarily count on Washington to make the moral choice that business people, business leaders have to step up to be moral leaders in addition to being financial stewards of their companies. And that change is going to come from business people requiring that change. And it isn't just contingent upon the CEO. The CEO wants to retain incredible talent. So if talent within a company steps up and says, here's what we need to represent, we have to be focused on the environment, that company is going to stand for it then and going to make changes that are going to affect hundreds of millions of people's lives. So I think this is the time to have a voice where you work beyond just going in and sitting at your computer and leaving. And I think that business leaders are more open to that than at any point in history. And that we all have the responsibility to understand that the morality of how we do work every single day is often more important than what the returns are necessarily going to be.

That was perfect. Thank you all so much for being here and please join me in thanking our panel.