Page 28 - rr-2021-11-diversity-advertising-marketing-industry

CASE STUDY

TREATING DE&I AS THE CRITICAL BUSINESS ISSUE IT IS

“At Ferrara, diversity is a growth imperative. Treating it with the
focus and rigor it deserves is the only way to achieve growth
and create a culture in which everyone feels at home.”

— Marco Capurso, CEO of Ferrara

We all know that diversity is
key to an organization’s growth.
Diverse teams make better OUR DE&I
decisions, are able to adapt MISSION
more quickly in a rapidly changing
environment, and develop more Foster diversity and empower all
innovative products — especially employees to be authentic,
critical in CPG, where our already share ideas, and grow.
diverse customer base grows more
so every year. Today, the majority Propel the business forward
of gen Z is multicultural, and by through an inclusive culture
2045, the entire U.S. population where transparent, collaborative
will be primarily multicultural. minds unite.
Building diversity and retaining
diverse talent requires that we
incorporate diversity, equity, and
inclusion (DE&I) into how we operate Launching the Diversity, Equity,
at the most fundamental levels of our company. and Inclusion Council
In the fall of 2020, we launched our DE&I
An Opportunity Council, chaired by our CEO. The council was
In the last few years, Ferrara has grown composed of 45 employees, representing the
exponentially, bringing three large companies, diversity of the organization — from manufac-
each with their own culture and operating turing and operations to sales and marketing
practices, together under one roof. When — and our market, along with every mem-
we founded Ferrara’s diversity, equity, and ber of the executive team. The composition
inclusion program in Q4 2019, we had a unique of the team was meant to ensure that broad
opportunity to integrate equity and inclusion perspectives were heard at the highest levels
practices right at the onset of building our new and integrated into Ferrara’s mission, strategy,
and inspiring culture as well as into our daily operations, and departmental and functional
operations. To do this well, we needed to treat goals, and that there would be accountability
DE&I as the critical business issue that it is. for results.

28 // A Diversity Report for the Advertising/Marketing Industry