Randy Groomes is the director of inclusive excellence and engagement at the Terry College of Business, a diversity, equity and inclusion-related role that faces a period of uncertainty due to executive orders from the Trump administration.
Q: What led you to the position of the director of inclusive excellence and engagement at the University of Georgia?
A:
I’ve always been involved in activities that bring people together, really since probably high school, and so I was working in the corporate world, and we had an opportunity to create new markets and bring in new clients.
So, we are able to write business in neighborhoods that had historically been left out. And so that’s how I got into this whole field.
Q: What about the corporate world informs your work here?
A: Really everything. Our work is really designed to help us create leaders who drive value in the marketplace and then make companies grow and make things more valuable. And so, that is really the essence of inclusivity. It’s, how can we get people to work together effectively, to be able to be more innovative and to create opportunities for growth for companies?
Q: Why do you think diversity is important in the business and corporate world?
A: It helps us to serve the population. We are an increasingly diverse population in the United States. Basically, if you want to be able to understand your customers, you have to have a variety of employees that come from different backgrounds and understand different practices. They understand wordings that will be effective with that population. They understand wordings that might be offensive.
Q: With many companies scaling back DEI initiatives, what do you see is the biggest risk for the workforce if diversity efforts are deprioritized?
A: I don’t think it can be deprioritized. I really believe that the only way to deprioritize it is to get rid of people. You know, if you have an organization that’s all computers, robots and machines, then you can do it.
Q: You mentioned something about artificial intelligence. With its increasing efficiency, do you think it will eventually replace diversity efforts?
A: It’s a tool. I mean, it would be like saying will calculators replace people? Will computers replace people? No, it’s a tool that people will use.
Q: How can organizations today maintain meaningful diversity and inclusion efforts as a result of DEI rollbacks?
A: DEI rollbacks, I don’t think they are really sustainable. Even, at McKinsey & Company, they have sort of rephrased their company policy to incorporate what they call diverse meritocracy. It’s basically saying we’re looking for the best and the brightest from a diverse pool of people. If you’re going to deal with people, you’ve got to understand people. So, there’s no way to roll it back and grow.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like me to know about diversity in the business world?
A: I just think our best days are ahead of us; people are very pessimistic now. But, we will overcome it and find ways to work effectively with each other and hopefully solve lots of the world’s pressing problems.
Comments trimmed for length and clarity.
Caroline Feagin is a journalism major covering business.
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