Workforce diversity is key to business innovation, says Carnival CEO Arnold Donald

Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said Thursday that workforce diversity is critical for any company trying to innovate and disrupt an industry, emphasizing its role in ensuring the longevity of a firm. “Businesses thrive over time through innovation. You have to introduce new products, refine your processes so you can be more cost-effective. You have to innovate for a business to sustain success over time. If you don’t innovate, you get gobbled up or you go out of business,” Donald said at CNBC’s Inclusion In Action Forum. And for that innovation to happen, Donald said a business needs to be hearing a range of ideas. “Innovation, by definition, is diversity of thinking. It’s thinking out of the box and so you are far more likely to engineer sustained innovation if you’ve engineered diversity of thinking in your organization,” said Donald. “And diversity of thinking is often reflected by the diversity of the people, and so you need diverse people in the organization. It’s absolutely a business imperative.” Donald said he has taken this approach with him throughout his business career, including since he became Carnival’s president and chief executive officer in 2013. Donald, who is Black, stressed that diversity can […]

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