Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2018 - 22

THE PULSE

CASE STUDY

22 OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Summer 2018

THE VIEWFINDER
Photographer Lanisha
Blount at work on
belay at Brooklyn
Boulders in Somerville, Massachusetts.

"IT'S ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE HOW MUCH GROWTH
WE'VE SEEN ON THIS FRONT," DIAL SAYS. "THERE ARE
SMALL GROUPS AND COMMUNITIES FORMING THAT
ARE BASICALLY SAYING, WE'RE NOT GOING TO WAIT
AROUND FOR AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY TO CATCH UP."
ent. Recruiters now offer on-the-spot letters
of intent to promising candidates at events
such as conferences for the National Society
of Black Engineers.
Alliant, another CEO Act!On signatory,
has created an alternative work week for
employees to work half days every other

Friday, which helps parents schedule doctors' appointments for themselves and their
children without having to take vacation
time. And Alcoa, which manufacturers aluminum products, realized that the 12-hour
shifts at its location in east Iceland were
prohibitive to women returning to the work-

Adam Bidwell / Lanisha Blount

This basic question is at the root of the
debate over diversity initiatives in the outdoor industry. Outdoor publications such
as this one analyze the situation and receive
a flood of feedback that often falls into two
camps: The first being that we're not making enough progress, and the second being
that we're not talking enough about the
progress that's already been made.
"It speaks to the fact that, up to now, we
haven't really been working together on this,"
says Gareth Martins, director of marketing at
Outdoor Industry Association (OIA). "I see the
things that are happening, but I don't think I
see that much diversity on the trade show floor.
But nobody's not telling the truth-we're all
seeing it from our own perspective."
Martins says he wants to see more C-level
leaders sitting in the audience at diversity
conversations at Outdoor Retailer. He also
thinks the industry would benefit from a
pledge targeted at hiring more people of
color, similar to the way Camber Outdoors'
CEO Pledge has encouraged brands to pay
more attention to hiring women. As part of a
series of events based around intersectionality at Outdoor Retailer, Camber will hold an
invitation-only workplace equity working
group to discover a potential evolution of
the CEO Pledge, Executive Director Deanne
Buck says. On day one of the show, Camber
will also host a conversation on the show
floor called "Breaking a Paradigm: Why
Focusing on Women is Not Enough."
An example of this type of action is the
CEO Act!On For Diversity and Inclusion
pledge, which was created last fall by a group
of CEOs spearheaded by Tim Ryan from
accounting firm PwC, to foster Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts among
the world's leading corporations. The pledge
has been signed by over 400 CEOs from
companies-including AIG, Best Buy, and
Alaska Airlines-in a wide range of industries and they have taken dozens of actions
toward improving their company cultures
since signing on. Aerospace Corporation,
for example, has created unconscious-bias
training for its managers, which has led to
more participation in recruiting events run
by organizations with diverse pools of tal-
Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2018
