California Diversity Council and the University of Phoenix to Host Free Diversity Conference

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Michael Carrillo

Editorial Note: I am proud to be a Founding Member of the California Diversity Council and to serve as Vice-Chairman in 2010. Please join us for this important event – and pass it on to anyone you know who might benefit from attendance.  Special thanks to our sponsor companies and organizations who are making complimentary attendance possible. – Michael

Diversity and Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities

A complimentary conference hosted by the California Diversity Council and the University of Phoenix

Please join us on Tuesday, October 19th and Wednesday, October 20th at the University of Phoenix Costa Mesa Campus for one of the year’s most important conference events:

Diversity and Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities

At Diversity and Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities you will experience one and a half focused days of keynote presentations, breakout sessions and discussion panels devoted to diversity issues including scope and definition, trends, social, community, education, religious issues, and best practices in business including law, marketing, sports, entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare and other industries.

Sessions will include expert presenters, panelist and moderators from companies, organizations, institutions and academic communities to discuss issues of diversity and inclusion in a positive academic and professional environment.

The event will also provide an exceptional forum for business networking and the promotion of diversity programs.

CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS AND PRESENTERS
Attendees and presenters at Diversity and Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities include representatives from leading edge corporations, organizations and academic institutions:

  • Allied Barton
  • AT&T
  • Black MBA Alumni
  • Cal State Fullerton
  • California Diversity Council
  • Chapman University
  • CPG Jobs
  • Cricket Communication
  • Disney Resorts
  • Jack in the Box
  • Kaiser Permanente
  • Local, County & State government officials
  • Los Angeles Police Department
  • Orange County Sheriff
  • Pepperdine University
  • Religious leaders
  • State Farm
  • University of California, Irvine
  • University of Southern California
  • UPS
  • USPS
  • Verizon
  • World Affairs Council of Orange County
  • YMCA


SPONSORSHIP
This conference is an excellent way to showcase your company or organization. To join the exceptional group of sponsors for this event, or to find out more about presentation opportunities, please contact Michael Carrillo at michael@cpgjobs.com or call 626-535-0143 Ext. 101.

ACCOMODATIONS & TRANSPORTATION
The preferred hotel for the conference is:

Hilton Hotel/Orange County
3050 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA
United States 92626
Tel: 1-714-540-7000
Fax: 1-714-540-9176

Attendees should fly into John Wayne (Orange County Airport/SNA), which is 5 minutes from the Hilton Hotel.

Second choice airport is Los Angeles International (LAX), which is 45 minutes from the Hilton Hotel.

HOW TO REGISTER
To register for the Diversity and Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities conference, go to Eventbrite. To view a detailed conference agenda, visit the California Diversity Council Website or contact Frank Nainoa at 949 380-3601 or via email at frank.nainoa@phoenix.edu.

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Diversity, Wherefore Art Thou?

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Beth Moore

Diversity Wherefore Art Thou?There are a lot of unfortunate effects of the recession,” wrote economist Howard Wall in a recent article for Dunn & Bradsreet’s All Business, “One of them being that many of the gains made by black women over the last 20 years have been erased.”

Strong words, yes. According to Wall, African American workers have lost jobs at a rate 50 percent higher that white employees over the last two years, and the gap is even more profound when broken down by gender. Projecting the volume of jobs lost had recession not interrupted the trajectory of the economy, Wall determined that black women are now unemployed at a rate twice that of white women.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about diversity and inclusion in the workforce these days. As a newly elected Board Member to the California Diversity Council (CADC). My Board colleagues and I continuously strategize about how to increase corporate sponsorship and participation to help support the CADC. And while it’s never been easy to recruit time-pressed business leaders into volunteer service, the economy has made the task even more challenging.

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How’s Your “Retentionship” Going?

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Beth Moore

How's Your Retentionship Going?I have to admit, I feel somewhat vindicated.

For months I have been observing an increase in a rather counterintuitive phenomenon: top-notch management people leaving their jobs in the midst of the worst recession in 60+ years.

Pshaw you say. After rounds of firings (including middle management and C-level business leaders) employees who actually keep their jobs work that much harder. It just makes sense, right? Well, maybe not.

Researching my theory has turned out to be a little easier than I thought. Out in the expert HR blogosphere there seems to be consensus that the carefully crafted corporate strategies for responding to recession are the same strategies that spell trouble for employee retention. Companies under pressure to retain market share will tend to downsize keeping only those employees deemed absolutely necessary to maintain normal business operations. But the wave of resignations that frequently starts immediately following the downsizing upsets the intended balance the downsizing was supposed to achieve.

Surprise! Turns out people are really not so grateful for keeping their jobs if that means that they are reassigned their former co-workers’ responsibilities, especially managers who often find their teams decimated. And many managers are on performance-based packages, which makes the situation even worse.

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Finding Profitability in Random Acts of Kindness

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Beth Moore

Finding Profitability in Random Acts of KindnessA couple of weeks ago I happened upon a fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine by Rob Walker called Favor Enhancement.

It seems the Hyatt hotel chain is engaged in a marketing experiment in which employees of the mammoth hotel chain are being empowered to unexpectedly pick up the tab for a guest’s bar bill or spa treatments. Hyatt executives call the program “random acts of generosity” and it’s based upon psychological principals long employed in business “ particularly in the consumer packaged goods industry.

“The idea,” writes Walker, “is that the unexpected nature of the ‘gifts’ will leave the customer not just pleased but also grateful, and gratitude is a powerful and potentially quite profitable emotion to inspire.”

New research published this month in the Journal of American Marketing seems to bear this out. The research team from the University of Washington concludes, “A customer who is made to feel grateful most likely becomes enduringly loyal as a result.” Gratitude, as the paper puts it “can increase purchase intention, sales growth and share of wallet.” But things are not quite that simple.

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Just Don’t Call Me A Vendor!

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Beth Moore

Just Don't Call Me A Vendor!There’s something about these tougher times that invites introspection. Lately I find myself reflecting on the real value of all of the investments I’ve made in my business over the last 10 years.

Like most business owners, I can easily tick off the investments in obvious material things – servers and software, office equipment, the skilled folks that make CPGjobs run everyday. Last week however, a particularly tough candidate search put me in mind of the most important investment I’ve ever made in this business. It’s the investment in the relationships we have with our loyal clients. Despite the challenging economy, our clients have consistently shown up, re-invested in us, and have continued to support our approach to career networking for CPG professionals. I feel incredibly lucky, but the truth is, business relationships are hard work.

I once read a wonderful quote from Paul Stieman at Oracle that went something like this:

“Building strong business relationships is the critical success factor…at the end of the day, buying and selling happens between people, not between organizations. People buy from people they know, trust and like.”

Let me take a moment to tell you about that tough candidate search.

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