Charlotte Kemp argues diverse teams spot what homogeneous ones miss: vulnerabilities, market blind spots, and bias. New Coke, Pepsi's Kendall Jenner ad, and Dove's Real Beauty campaign all stumbled because nobody in the room saw the problem coming.
I'm Charlotte Kemp, and this is an extract from my recent book, Put the Future on the Agenda. Diversity is important. It is a foresight advantage. A team where everyone thinks the same and has the same type of experience is a dangerous team. Its lack of diversity means that it cannot see vulnerabilities in its plans. It cannot anticipate reactions from the market. It is blind to bias and offence. We don't want to become business school examples of failure like the New Coke decision, the Pepsi Kendall Jenner debacle, or the offensive Real Beauty campaign by Dove. All of those damaging and costly decisions could have been avoided by having at least one person with a different background to be able to point out how bad these ideas were.
Unlock the Power of Thresholds_ What Ancient Wisdom Teaches About New Beginnings
