You have been hired as the Chief Diversity Officer of Acme Designs, a small fashion design firm that has been in the industry for 50 years. It has 35 employees, and it is in the state of Colorado. As you start evaluating the organization to gather information that can help you understand where the organization is and where it should go, you notice that there is minimal cultural and gender diversity among employees in all areas. You also notice that there are many biases in the firm in relation to what type of employees fit their culture and should work there. There are minimal growth opportunities for employees within the firm, which is causing retention issues. Another issue you found is that the decision-making process related to hiring, marketing, and creative ideas is done only by the owner and a few of his closest friends (all white males). The decision-making team for marketing is also very homogeneous and recently got into hot water after a racially insensitive ad caused public backlash. You also discovered that there is no code of conduct or code of ethics in the organization. In the past few years, the firm's revenues have started to decline and that is impacting the future of the firm.

Being in the fashion industry, you know that Acme Designs has a lot of potential for growth and success if it can open itself to more DEI and ethical processes. Answer the following questions that will make the owner of Acme Design buy into adding DEI initiatives as part of the organization's strategic plan and culture to achieve organizational goals. 

 

1. Where is Acme Designs in relation to DEI?

• Why is it important to make DEI a priority in Acme Designs?