Cablefax The Magazine - October 2013 - 4

cablefaxmag.com
editorial
executive editor, cablefax group
Michael Grebb
DIVERSITY 2.0
Evolutionists theorize that humans may have experienced a few instances
of sudden progress over the last few hundred thousand years-times when
incremental improvement gave way to giant leaps forward. For the cable
industry, which has made slow and steady progress on diversity for at least
two or three decades, it's perhaps reasonable to assume that we're on the
cusp of a major leap. Call it Diversity 2.0, a tipping point that could make all
of those previous strides fi nally pay off in a big way.
Or not. As many of the incredible minority execs featured in this magazine
mentioned to us, the industry's progress-while laudable when it comes
sheer numbers of minorities in entry-level and middle-management positions-starts
to look less impressive when applied to upper management.
CEOs and boards are still mostly white and male. No way around that. Sure,
there are reasons for this that aren't necessarily rooted in racism. For one
thing, many of the current CEOs and EVP-level execs came up in the 1960s
and 1970s when diversity basically meant varying up your lunchtime cocktail
selections. Those execs have now reached the level of age and experience
justifying their upper positions. And because of medical and health advances,
they're staying in those positions longer than ever before. Combine those factors
with corporate downsizing and consolidation, and the opportunities for
minority execs to advance to those upper levels remains daunting.
Of course, none of this is to suggest that cable has done a bad job. In fact,
this industry has done a vastly more than most with its mentoring programs,
organizations and internal diversity programs spanning across the distribution,
programming and technology sides of the business. Many have
defl ected credit, arguing that these are merely smart business moves as
the customer base becomes more diverse. That's true, but these efforts are
also a moral mission of sorts. Those of us who care about diversity understand
the business benefi ts. But we also feel an obligation to right years of
discrimination that continue to unravel slowly before us.
The cable industry-as well as many other parts of corporate America-
should be proud of the strides everyone has made toward a more diverse
workplace. We've never had so many minority executives on this list, and
that's because of those very efforts. But it's not a numbers game anymore.
It's an opportunity game. And there's still much work to do in
the upper management ranks where minority execs can truly
infl uence the overall strategic direction of these companies-
and of course ensure that they keep those doors of opportunity
open. The evolution continues.
managing editor
Cathy Applefeld Olson
contributors
Nick Dmytrenko, Paula Hendrickson, Kaylee Hultgren,
Amy Maclean, Michael Maloney
advertising/business
senior vice president, media communications group
Diane Schwartz
(212) 621-4964, dschwartz@accessintel.com
associate publisher, cablefax group
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(301) 354-1629, aabbey@accessintel.com
sales manager, cablefax Group
Susan Kim
(301) 354-2010, skim@accessintel.com
marketing
director of marketing, media communications group
Kate Schaeffer, kschaeffer@accessintel.com
(301) 354-2303
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Joanne Moran, jmoran@accessintel.com
senior production manager
Joann M. Fato
(301) 354-1681, jfato@accessintel.com
director of marketing, cablefax
Laurie Hofmann
(301) 354-1796, lhofmann@accessintel.com
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