Volume 5.5| May 2020
Advancing Supplier and Governing Board Diversity
Email us at Diversity@insurance.ca.gov
Email us at Diversity@insurance.ca.gov about any events or updates you'd like to share with the Initiative and our stakeholders!

Deadline for submissions is the 15th of every month.
May 2020 Newsletter Preview
I. What’s New:
  • Welcome from Insurance Diversity Initiative
  • Strategies to Chart a Path Forward
II .  In the Community:
  • Honoring Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
  • Resources for Businesses Impacted by COVID-19
III. Spotlight on Diversity: 
  • Supplier Diversity: Supplier Diversity Will Help Businesses Large And Small Recover From Pandemic
  • Governing Board Diversity: Boards in the Time of Coronavirus
IV. Announcements:
  • We Want Your Feedback!
V. Diversity Events Calendar
  • May/June
WHAT'S NEW?
How are you doing Diversity Stakeholder?
 
We hope this e-newsletter finds you safe, well and adapting as best as you can to this new normal. In this month's issue, we honor Asian Pacific American Heritage Month . As we recognize and honor the important contributions of Asian Americans whose stories and achievements are woven into the fabric of our nation’s history, we also celebrate the vast diversity in ethnicity, language, and cultures that are represented within this community. Being among one of the fastest growing segments in the U.S. economy, Asian Americans’ buying power has grown tremendously within the last 20 years, reaching $1.2 trillion in 2019 and projected to be $1.3 trillion by 2022. Within the ethnic minority-owned business enterprises category, in 2017, insurers reported that $428 million was spent with Asian Pacific Islander business enterprises in California. Today, Asian Pacific Islander-owned business enterprises continue to play a critical role in the economy. Yet, similar to many small and/or diverse businesses, the impact of the global pandemic has been debilitating for this business community. Now more than ever, there is a need for greater solidarity.
 
Since our inception, the Insurance Diversity Initiative has been predicated on the principles of equity, economic empowerment, and inclusiveness. Xenophobia, in all of its forms, does not reflect the values and mission upon which our program was created. During this critical moment in history, we hope that you will join us in spreading this message of hope, resilience, and solidarity by remembering that we are all in this together.
 
While much of the future of the pandemic remains to be seen, what we have seen, however, is the collective power of community-building. It has been heartening to read about and hear of the inspirational stories of the many ways that people are uplifting one another during this difficult time, from businesses pivoting to provide necessary protective personal equipment for frontline heros and essential workers to leaders that are working around the clock to help provide economic relief & sustenance to those who need it most. Thank you.
 
Following last month's issue, we have identified new information and resources that we hope are helpful to you. In this issue, we are sharing articles focused on providing strategies to chart a path forward, how supplier diversity can help businesses amidst the COVID-19 coronavirus, and key board leadership qualities that will be instrumental during these very uncertain and emotionally charged times. As always, if you have a resource that you would like to be added to our growing list of COVID-19 Resources, please get in touch with us. We’d love to hear from you.

Stay safe and let’s continue to uplift each other. 
 
Insurance Diversity Initiative Team
4 Strategies to Chart a Path Forward
When There is No Map
The coronavirus pandemic has generated tremendous uncertainty for businesses. But while the scale of the crisis is new, uncertainty itself is not—it's a natural condition of doing business, and numerous tools exist to quantify and mitigate it. Most strategies rely on accumulated knowledge from the past—there's a precedent on which to make sense of unknowns. COVID-19 breaks all that. There is no precedent for how to respond to this moment, much less steer ahead.
 
The biggest challenge to businesses right now isn't uncertainty, but ambiguity—a condition in which the future is unclear, the past is no help, and we don't even know what we don't know. There's no predicting when the pandemic will end, nor what “business as usual” will look like when it does.
 
[In March] Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, acknowledged the unparalleled challenge leaders face trying to buoy their organizations in the absence of any familiar strategies. Though Slack is one of a handful of companies experiencing massive growth right now, Butterfield and his team are still struggling to predict the future. Other companies are not this fortunate, and have had to halt operations, let go of employees, and make other painful decisions.
 
Understanding that organizations are facing a broad range of challenges and have varying capacities, the question becomes, how might businesses create new ways to push ahead intelligently? Human-centered design can offer leaders an alternate set of mindsets and methods for navigating ambiguity. Here are four ways forward, along with inspiring examples and questions to drive action.
 
  • Lead with people and the business will follow
  • Forge unexpected partnerships to meaningfully pivot
  • Experiment today to strengthen the business for tomorrow
  • Leverage scarcity and constraints
 
Continue reading the full article from IDEO.

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IN THE COMMUNITY
Honoring Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian/Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month was officially designated by Congress in 1992 . The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.

To learn more, please visit the Library of Congress .
Resources for Businesses Impacted by COVID-19
We have compiled a list of resources that you may find helpful in providing guidance and support to businesses during this time of uncertainty. While not intended to be a comprehensive list, we are hopeful that it can guide impacted individuals to obtain information on next steps. For more information and to peruse other resources, please visit the Diversity Initiative's COVID-19 Resources site .


If you have any questions or resources that would be beneficial to share, please email us at diversity@insurance.ca.gov.
SUPPLIER DIVERSITY SPOTLIGHT
Supplier Diversity Will Help Businesses Large And Small Recover From Pandemic
After ensuring America’s health, economic recovery will be next on the to-do list. Access to financing will play a huge role but so, too, will access to customers and vendors. Having customers who spend billions on goods and services, such as the Fortune 1000 companies, increases your chances for high growth.

It is a mutually beneficial relationship between small and big businesses. Large corporations buy the goods and services from 1.1 million small supplier businesses *, many of which are owned by minorities, women, LGBTQ+, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. These diverse businesses are what Hello Alice calls the “New Majority.” Alice is a predictive technology platform that helps you find the answers, resources, and support you need. It has a COVID19 Business Resource Center and is providing emergency $10,000 grants to businesses with less than 50 employees.

The benefits to the Fortune 1000 are that diverse small businesses:

  • Produce innovative products/services for them to use or sell. 
  • Increase competition, resulting in better prices and service levels. 
  • Enable them to serve emerging and untapped markets.
  • Purchase their products and services.
  • Are acquisition candidates. 
  • Highlight their commitment to diversity and inclusion, and a shared and durable prosperity.
  • Help them be flexible, agile, and resilient.

Continue reading the full article from Forbes.com.

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GOVERNING BOARD DIVERSITY SPOTLIGHT
Boards in the Time of Coronavirus
Never before have CEOs and their teams been more in need of the foresight and seasoned judgment that a well-functioning board of directors can provide. Likewise, never before have boards needed more carefully to balance providing support to management teams operating in highly stressful conditions with challenging them to ensure that they make the best decisions throughout a crisis for which no playbook exists. This may well turn out to be the moment when your board proves its value—or shows its flaws.

In a recent article, our colleagues have called on management to act across five stages—Resolve, Resilience, Return, Reimagination, and Reform—both to address the immediate crisis and to prepare for the next normal after the battle against coronavirus has been won. At the same time, many board chairs and CEOs are looking for guidance on what role boards should play in these challenging times

Just as every organization faces different challenges during this crisis—some are reaching new levels of growth, while others are struggling to survive—there is no one-size-fits-all answer for what a board should do. While management teams focus on making rapid decisions to protect employees, address customers’ needs, and communicate with stakeholders, boards need to balance oversight of the crisis response with thinking beyond the immediate challenges. Time is a scarce asset for most board directors, requiring them to make deliberate choices about where they focus their attention.

In hindsight, the early 21st century may be seen as divided into two periods : the time before the coronavirus outbreak and the postpandemic era. That era could be characterized by different consumer behaviors, new ways of working, altered industry structures, and value pools redistributed across existing and new ecosystems. What does that imply for your organization and for your board?


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WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK!
We strive to make this newsletter as useful and informative as possible for you. Please take one minute to share your thoughts with us.If you have additional feedback, you may email us at diversity@insurance.ca.gov.
DIVERSITY EVENTS CALENDAR
MAY/JUNE
MAY

There are currently no events scheduled for May 2020. Please continue to check the Diversity Events Calendar for updates.
To submit a request to add your Supplier Diversity or Governing Board Diversity-related event, please contact us at: diversity@insurance.ca.gov .
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The Insurance Diversity Initiative was established in 2011 to address diversity issues within California's $310 billion insurance industry. Specifically, these efforts are meant to increase procurement from California’s diverse suppliers, as well as to increase diversity amongst insurer governing boards. To accomplish these goals, the Department conducts outreach, creates partnerships, hosts events, and most importantly, administers surveys to collect and publicly disseminate information about the state of diversity in the insurance industry. 
INSURANCE DIVERSITY INITIATIVE
Office of Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara
California Department of Insurance
(916) 492-3317