EPISODE TRANSCRIPT.
Matt:
Welcome to great minds and our guest today is Katy Talikowska, Katy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Valuable 500. The Valuable 500 is an incredible organisation and, Katy we’re going to start by talking about Caroline Casey, the incredible Founder of the Valuable 500. We had a chance to have Caroline and and Paul Polman, wonderful Chat, who was the global Chief Executive Officer for many years of Unilever and an early supporter of the Valuable 500 on our stage in London several years ago, I think we had them in New York as well. We share a wonderful PR sharp Seven Hills, which has worked for us for many, many years. At Advertising Week, Europe, Nick Giles, Matthew Rowland’s, the team, their dear, dear friends, and we were delighted when the seven hills team came to us Katy and suggested we talk to you so a hearty welcome.
Katy:
Thank you! Thank you so much. It’s wonderful to be here. Thank you for the opportunity.
Matt:
So let’s start by talking about Caroline because she’s such an incredible woman. It was her vision, no pun intended here that really launched the Valuable 500. So can we talk a little about Caroline, I want to get to you and her in a big event in 2019 in Davos at the World Economic Forum, which I know is pivotal and you’re joining the organisation but let’s start by talking a little bit about the great Caroline Casey.
Katy:
Of course, so Caroline is a is a self-declared, optimist, hustler and dangerous dreamer. And I think those words are very intentional because that really embodies her spirit. And I think is is why she’s been so successful. She actually achieved the near impossible. So in terms of what Caroline did, Caroline, you mentioned this much in the intro. In 2019, Caroline launched the Valuable 500, which was a call to arms and the call to action to 500 CEOs 500 CEOs of the world’s largest and most influential companies and she asked them effectively to end the CEO silence and put disability on the board agenda. Because in a world where happily everyone was beginning to talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion and representation, Caroline as a woman who is registered legally blind, she she realised that what was conspicuous by its absence and woefully so was disability, no one was talking about disability. And when you think that one in five of the population, that’s 1.3 billion people on our planet, live with a disability, the fact that 20% of the world’s population, were not being spoken about not being taught to think represented in boardrooms and in our workforces, and in our advertising and throughout the supply chain. That was pretty woeful. And Caroline really at that time was on a one woman mission to to do something about it, and end disability exclusion in business. You mentioned Paul Polman. He was CEO of Unilever at the time. And he was the, he was one of the first CEOs who stood shoulder to shoulder with Caroline and said, Yeah, we’re going to end the silence. We’re going to stop talking about it. And all in service of disability inclusion. So Caroline Yeah, I mean, she was she was one point on with a clear dream and a clear mission, and an absolutely unstoppable spirit. And that’s how that’s how she started it. And I was lucky enough to meet Caroline six months prior. So that was the summer of 2018. When I was working for an Omnicom agency BBDO, the London office. I can come on to that in a moment in terms of the brands I was overseeing but I started to have a bit of a personal and professional journey and passion for disability inclusion. And I met Caroline and I’d heard her speak and for those who have met Caroline and heard her speak, you leave the room changed and you leave change for the better. And she she affected me a little bit of a fire in my belly. And I went to her and said Can Can we help? Use the harnessing the power of a very good advertising agency can we help you create an awareness campaign that will be in service of your of your mission? So we created an awareness campaign that got the 500 CEOs to sign up.
Matt:
Absolutely fantastic story and I remember many years ago, and I should call her Dr. Caroline Casey because she was a doctor came to my office. And you do leave the room changed when you spend some time with her. Let’s dig in a little further into the whole conversation around diversity, equity, inclusion, which globally has become I’ll use this facetiously, suddenly popular the last several years. Now certainly a lot of it in America is driven by the black community. Some of it is driven by events like the tragic killing of George Floyd and the black wheel in America and particularly is the squeaky wheel and there’s that old expression the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The Hispanic population gets much less attention. The Asian Pacific Islander conversation gets much less attention and the disability community which is you said is well over a billion globally. One out of five. My take on what Caroline has done and what you are now carrying forward as Chief Executive Officer of the Valuable 500 is you are giving that community its own squeaky wheel.
Katy:
100% 100% and and it’s also to, it’s important to point out, and perhaps I’m stating the obvious, but the disability community is truly intersectional. And it’s also worth us acknowledging because I think it’s really important that we acknowledge that that sadly, disability can affect any of us at any time through illness, through age, through accident. So it is just plain wrong. To not think about such an important part of our community. And so from from my perspective, it is so important to give people a voice because it could affect all of us you know, I don’t have any direct lived experience but my mother in law was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 35. She used to be a valid ballet dancer, my niece is autistic. So I see I see second hand how society just isn’t inclusive and it’s really really important to have those conversations and give that voice under no circumstance am I choosing a favourite? Am I picking a side? It is genuinely about the whole of humanity, making sure that everyone has a voice, everyone is heard, everybody is authentically represented, and everyone gets the opportunity to tell their story and effectively feel the same. Paul Polman talks, you know, what drives Paul Polman is an absolute clear and unequivocal desire and mission to make sure that no one no one is left behind. And that’s why Caroline had to make sure that the disability community and not left behind and by engaging the might and power of the business community, because like Caroline, you know, I believe passionately we believe that Valuable 500 that sadly, you cannot rely exclusively on governments and policymakers you have to, you know, if you’re going to have a voice, you have to be heard and you have to be supported by the business community, because it’s business that has the greatest ability and make things happen. And I think business leaders know that it makes great business sense to be truly inclusive across the boards, and that absolutely has to include the disabled community,
Matt:
And disability cuts across race, gender, age. It’s a horizontal if you will, versus a vertical.
Katy:
Absolutely. It is truly intersectional, yeah!
Mat:
And as one of your gigs and AMV BBDO which we will talk about, of course, you’re Chief Talent Officer and beyond inclusion, as you talked about as it relates to Paul in particular. This is also about a lot of very talented people who have a lot to contribute.
Katy:
Absolutely. I mean, wouldn’t it be? Wouldn’t it be done if we all had the same story? We all had the same way of looking at things and seeing things. I believe in the power of brands, and I believe in the power of storytelling. And if you’re telling the same story over and over again, from the same, let’s say able bodied, standardised and forgive me I’m not a big fan of that language. But let’s say from a normal kind of baseline perspective, if you just keep telling the same old story, then then your audience are going to shut off you’re not going to be disrupted with your communications, you’re not going to tell stories that resonate. So I think having different voices, having different talents, having different perspectives within the workforce that that allows you to certainly in in my background from advertising it allows you to tell different more interesting, engaging stories. So so so effectively shutting off the perspective and the intellect, and the insight, and the experience of one in five of the global population. Just doesn’t make any sense.
Matt:
One in five, that’s an absolutely 25 statistic. I want to go back and talk about your early career, but it’s not everyone Katy, who at sort of let’s call it not even the midway point of their career, you’re rising up the ladder, your Chief Client Officer when you left AMV BBDO you were there about 12 years. It’s not everyone who at in their prime if you will decide to leave the industry and go to a not for profit. What was behind that decision for you? A lot of people at your level, committed career professionals, they want to keep rising up the ladder stay on the commercial side, if you will. You made a switch. What drove that decision?
Katy:
So it’s really interesting that when you say sort of stay on the commercial side because I think I think what what drove it or certainly a key influencer is that genuinely I have never separated what you never separated out society and business. Okay, so I’ve never, I’ve never made that distinction a lot or operated in a silo of thinking, right, today I’m going to do some purpose driven stuff. I’m going to talk about humanity and what’s good for society, and tomorrow, I’m going to talk about what’s good for business. I think it is a fundamental mistake when organisations separate out the two. I passionately believe that what’s right for commerce what’s right for business is also what’s very good society and vice versa. So yes, it is true that I was working. I was working client side. One of my biggest biggest accounts for a really long time was Mars Wrigley confectionery. I was lucky enough to lead Snickers globally working with a team in New York for eight years. And yeah, we were there to sell chocolate, you know, that I have made I’ve made a living in selling stuff. But actually, when you’re working with brands that are reaching such a huge percentage of the population, why wouldn’t you want to do something else in addition to selling chocolate, but then the unlock is realising actually, if we want to grow the brand, and we want to sell more stuff, then if our messages are infused with what’s right for society, then it’s a win win for everyone. So I think I hadn’t made that distinction and always seen that what was right for commerce, what was right for business. So for me truthfully, it didn’t seem a massive change from what I’m going in a going from Omnicom, an enormous, powerful, influential commercial holding company. So then go and work for non-profit. It actually felt to be honest, like a bit of a continuation of what I was doing, but with more focus, because when I was working in advertising, brightly brands were going right, what else can we do with referring to the point I was making before in order to sell more and grow more? What else can we do that’s right by society. And that was great, but I really wanted that single minded focus and what we have at the Valuable 500 is a clear single minded mission to work with our 500 companies and the disability business community on this focus of ending disability exclusion in business, so I still had that commercial bent. I still have that background in commerce and corporates, but I can focus it squarely on genuinely the betterment of society and the betterment of humanity. And I passionately, passionately believe in that. So, I suppose to sort of summarise it didn’t feel like a massively equal change. It felt for me like a natural continuation and evolution of what I was doing. But with a greater sense of focus and a greater sense of purpose. And as I referenced, I did have that long standing relationship with Caroline. I’ve always been a Venus supporter and an ally, perhaps from the outside, you know, generating the campaign that I spoke about that helped launch it in Davos 2019. So for me when Caroline called me in January and asked me to put my hat in, in the ring for what was through necessity a very hard and very rigorous recruitment process. When she asked me to do that. It just felt so right because that gave me the opportunity to continue what I started with from the inside versus the outside.
Matt:
What a great story. Let’s dig in a little further to the continuing evolution in thinking on both the agency side and the brand side, around embrace of issues that transcend the industry, and are bigger than just trying to sell more product or service. Going back to Paul again. He was very early to the game around proving that purpose and profit were not at odds as Unilever built many of their brands around sustainability earlier than most to embrace what is no longer climate change, but the climate crisis. Talk about what you saw going back to those agency days and what you’re seeing now on the front lines with the Valuable 500 around a genuine embrace by the marketing community in issues, disability and others that are broader than the industry itself in terms of the stated mission to sell your product or service.
Katy:
If I may, I’d like to, I’d like to give an example of a campaign that I did in 2016 for Maltesers. Another Mars Wrigley confectionery brand, so I was, I mentioned running the Snickers globally quite a bit but a UK brand that I was overseeing was Maltesers. In truth Matt, our communications was pretty woeful. We had spent the best part of eight years doing rounds of pre testing and nothing was working, nothing was cutting through. We had an established brand communication platform which was called ‘look on the lighter side’ for global audience who don’t know Maltesers, the little honeycomb balls and there’s a there’s an inherent lightness to the product. And we have this this brand platform, we’re looking on the lighter side which was shining a spotlight on humour, various everyday moments. And we were running campaign after campaign and it wasn’t working. And then in a beautiful moment of serendipity, perhaps where the planets were aligning. 2016 was a really important year globally and important year in the UK because Channel 4, one of our most pioneering and progressive broadcasters, had the rights to broadcast the Paralympic Games in Rio in the summer of 2016. And they launched an amazing initiative which was effectively a call to arms to brands but for the first time to authentically represent people with disability in their community in their communications, not as an add ons through casting, but through through telling their stories and authentically representing them. So their own voice and genuinely we’re sitting around with a team sort of head in hands thinking God, we’ve got to go through another round of pre testing, we really don’t know where we’re going with this. We’ve got a bit of a problem. And along came effectively a spam email from Channel 4 saying: “Hey, brands do you want to do this?” And they were giving away a million pounds worth of airtime, as I said, and also, the successful ad would be aired during the centre break of the opening ceremony of the Paralympics. So we thought I think as a group of sort of like minded storytellers, we saw actually there’s a massive opportunity here to do something that’s right for society because at that time in the UK less than 1% of national primetime advertising, featured people with disabilities let alone was authentically representing them and telling their stories. So there was a there was a huge opportunity to do something that was right for society. And we thought, what if we improve the case that we can do successful advertising for Maltesers that will actually grow the brand and sell more chocolate and make the case for business as well? And as I said, you know, this was 2016. This was sort of, you know, seven years ago when perhaps it was on the periphery. I think we use language before that where it was the fashionable sort of fit thing to do, but people were sort of playing with it. Was it doing good or was it actually going to be in service of the business? So we entered the competition, credit to our fantastic clients at Mars, which was a bit of a leap of faith, because of course, it was quite a bold and brave thing to do. This was a humorous platform, representing people with disabilities so well, we actually saying, you know, it was really sensitive. We had to break the conventions, of how people with people with disabilities were seen in advertising, and we couldn’t run the risk of people thinking that we were laughing at them. So it was quite a sensitive topic. But we love the challenge and we thought we just have to do something different and disruptive. So we entered the competition, and we were lucky enough to win. And that was a massive, massive game changer. Because the first sort of big social media response was: This is amazing from a societal perspective. We had the most amazing feedback from people within the disability community saying for the first time, “I feel truly seen and heard and I feel truly represented”, because our the stories that we were telling, were actually real stories. We’ve done research with scope, a charity in the UK, and that’s a really important thing for brands as well. You know, you must talk to the people that you want to represent in order to do an authentic job. So we’ve done all we’ve done our research, we found these true stories of women living with disabilities and who knew, they laugh at the same things as us. They cry at the same things and they get angry, angry by the same things so there we were being able to authentically tell their stories and represent them. We got this fantastic positive feedback from the community. But then from a business perspective, Maltesers saw a 7% Direct, directly correlated uplift in sales from that campaign. And that was massive. That was really, really unprecedented. And the campaign was and still is the single most successful campaign that Maltesers run and have run in 18 years. So suddenly Matt, we had this brilliant proof points, where we could go back to the business, and if anyone was sceptical or a little bit cynical or just couldn’t quite make the case for business and for doing it, we had clear and unequivocal evidence in terms of the actual business case. So, So, so that was really critical, and that was a massive unlock, and that helped. That helped me with my other clients, that helped Mars across their entire portfolio. Not just with chocolate when they were thinking about their pet care brands and everything else. And also, from a BBDO perspective, we were able to take that to other clients, we were able to infuse it in our new business strategy. So it was you know, it was this beautiful moment of serendipity where we were, we were effectively handed a lifeline when our communication was ailing, and then everything skyrocketed. So So that for me, I’ll always go back to that because, you know, that was that was a real lived experience that was a massive unlock, and a massive catalyst for proper change.
Matt:
And tells a great story! You know, Channel 4 is embrace of the Paralympics really was important not just in the UK, but globally. And we saw in 2020, or ultimately the games took place in 21, the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Toyota put a tremendous amount into the Paralympic Games, unprecedented for a brand like that a global brand to put so much money into the Paralympic Games. And Paralympics for many, many years were just sort of conducted almost, you know, in a back room quietly, and now they are very prominent, I’m sure there’ll be very prominent in 2024 and Paris and going forward in the winter games as well. That was really a seminal moment, but I think it’s a great example here of UK leadership on a global scale as Channel 4 and brands like the story you just told a Maltesers, a personal favourite of mine, really embraced that opportunity to connect with, again, one in five globally.
Katy:
100% Yeah. And it’s so important that, forgive me, I know this sounds cliche, but the subtle point has to be, why not versus why. And actually, if you start with that, then I would really challenge anyone to come up with any valid response to why not because again, you start with you start with the basic premise of we have to, we have to speak to the entire population. We can’t leave anyone behind. Let’s start with a human first. And that makes good business sense because you’re going to reach a greater percentage of the population and therefore your brand is going to grow.
Matt:
So once you’ve mentioned your mother in law and some other family members who have had some challenges, but let’s go back further, when you were growing up, you know, were there things that you saw, were there things that came from your parents, your empathy here is genuine, clearly, and you’re uniquely skilled to do this job to succeed someone like Caroline a Founder who has been a big, big driving force here globally. That’s a tough set of shoes to step into. Talk about the early part of your life, Katy, which really helped, you know, put that recipe together that has rendered you incredibly qualified to do this job. And I must tell you, this is a conversation that I think is so important for us to have you know, on great minds. We work very hard to present a real jump Elia variety of guests and topics. This is one that we’ve not gone into as deeply as we should. It’s such an important one.
Katy:
Okay thank you. So, when I would start by saying I I I am the eternal optimist. I have huge hope in in the power of mankind. If you look at if you look at the world’s ills that they’ve all been created by us, so therefore, I think with the right attitude, and the right mindset, and the power of the collective, I think we can fix the ills that we have created. So I am a great optimist, and I’m a genuinely owe it to my parents. I’m very fortunate without sanding to sort of white picket fence and Brady. I come from a from I have a I have a great family, my mom and dad, if you can believe it got together when they were 14. They’ve never been with anyone else. They’re going to celebrate 56 years of marriage in December. So I had a really lovely, clean, simple, happy upbringing. And I’m not saying that to be smug. I am acutely aware of the fact that that’s given me a huge privilege, perspective on life. But I think by part of that I have never ever taken anything for granted. Because conversely my parents actually had really quite a troubled upbringing. And they were sort of, they came together in a sense of solid solidarity of wanting to create a really safe stable unit. My dad’s a massive self starter, both my mom and dad came from incredibly humble beginnings. My dad won’t mind me saying this. He was a bit of a reprobate in the tearaway my mum was gloriously squeaky clean and a bit nerdy and got him on the straight and narrow. And he had no education to speak up. But my mum said if we’re going to get married and have kids to go to go back to school, and my dad ended up being a senior partner in a law firm and that was a law firm when when he was 16. He was a shoeshine boy at the law firm and then worked in the post room. So I only say that to let you know that I, it’s an overused by by so inspired by my my parents story and their dedication and commitment and my sister and I genuinely really wanted for nothing. And when I say wanted for nothing, we wanted for nothing in terms of family support and love. So I think by virtue of having that, that’s made me realise how that’s really set me on my pathway, but for so many people, they really don’t have that. And so, I I just I’m a massive believer in in equality and equity. And, you know, no one can choose where they’re born or what family or set of circumstances who they’re born into, born into. So So I think it’s incumbent from us as just good people. And again, by extension for businesses, to try and level that playing field to try and give everybody a chance. And it’s interesting, you know, someone like Caroline I know she won’t mind me saying this, Caroline had it had a less easier personal journey. So Caroline, we are all we are all creations I suppose, of both, you know, our our family situation. And of course, to a degree in external factors. Mine was an easier journey. Caroline’s was a was a much tougher journey. But actually we meet in the middle within with with hugely shared values. And the same set of motivators, Caroline determines to make sure that everybody has a chance, because perhaps she felt she didn’t have that at the beginning. And she saw firsthand that not everybody was afforded the chance. And I was given every single possible chance on the planet. And I’m, I’m so supremely grateful for that. But rather than me just going off and feeling elitist and smug. It makes me want to make sure that I can pass that on and afford everybody in the same opportunity. So yeah, I think for me, I’ve just been incredibly lucky to be able to see how good the world can be if you are given a chance and you’re given an opportunity. And I want to extend that to others because that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. And that’s still what keeps me motivated and happy and happy. But yeah, I hope that I hope that makes sense.
Matt:
Absolutely fantastic! And such a genuine story. Let’s talk about doing the job. You’ve been Chief Exec now since June, so it’s only a few months. But talk about what you’re sort of keeping the same, if you will, what changes you’re looking to make, and again awfully big set of shoes that you have stepped into.
Katy:
Awfully big although I must say for everyone listening, Caroline is still very much around as the as the Founder so I’m stepping into shoes. But happily I have Caroline very much shoulder to shoulder with me which is amazing and very necessary. So in terms of where we are at the Valuable 500. Now I we are we are absolutely and critically flipping into a new and needed stage of accountability, and action and delivery. If the first phase of the Valuable 500 was was galvanising the leaders of 500 and actually Matt now that we have 523 companies working with us which is incredible, and brilliant, brilliant companies you’re probably aware we work with Apple and Microsoft and Google, EY, Sony, Deloitte, BBC, Sky PayPal, a whole host of amazing, influential and like minded organisations. So phase one was getting their commitment to start talking about disability and put it on their board agenda as Caroline would say ending the CEO silence on disability. And Caroline and the wonderful team at the Valuable 500 in partnership with the 500 companies and also our brilliant sort of community of disability business experts. They’ve been researching and innovating to identify the three biggest barriers to driving meaningful system change. And those three barriers and it was necessary to do that to give us focus under no circumstances am I saying that there are only three problems sadly, there are way more than three. But in the spirit of focus and in the spirit of getting the job done. It was necessary to research and innovate to identify those three problems, which were lack of disability representation within the workforce. So one of our big what we call Synchronised Collective Actions and I’ll come on to that, is around reporting so problems with reporting, lack of disability representation in leadership, and also less lack of disability representation in media and advertising and specifically, internal corporate communications and external consumer facing communications. So reporting, leadership and representation. Those were the three system barriers. So my job now as we look ahead, and where we have a specific deadline and a specific target and destination in mind, we are working towards what we are calling the world and it will be the world’s first accountability summit. And that will be in Tokyo on the third of December 2025. And I’m sure you will know that that the third of December is is possibly the single most important date in within the disabled community because it’s International Day of Persons with Disability. So third of December 2025, the world’s first accountability summit, hosted by the Valuable 500 in partnership with the Nippon Foundation, our amazing sort of lead donors. We will be holding hands but also holding hands with but also holding to account our companies to say what have you done to drive system change and to to help fix and mend those three big problems? So I mentioned Synchronised Collective Action. That’s very much our mantra and you’ll hear that a lot. You read that a lot in any kind of article or podcasts like these around the Valuable 500. We talked about Synchronised Collective Action because our 523 companies credit to them all in their own way they are already beginning to you know to instigate initiatives and programmes to address those three system barriers, but at the Valuable 500, and this is why we believe in the power of business. Imagine if we’ve got 523 companies and let’s not forget these are these are companies that have a combined market cap of 28 trillion USD, in 64 sectors, headquarters in 43 companies. So a lot of statistics but an enormous power and weight. If you’ve got those companies working together to address the same problem at the same time in the same way, that’s the beauty and the power of Synchronised Collective Action. That’s that’s when you get that rising tide. And that’s when we will properly properly see system change. Let’s not operate in silos. Let’s hold hands. Let’s galvanise each other and let’s come together. So that’s what we’re doing. Delivering with our companies in partnership with the disability of business community against those three Synchronised Collective Actions around reporting, leadership, and representation to work towards this summit on the third of December in Tokyo on in 2025.
Matt:
Absolutely fantastic story. And so glad to have this chance to talk to you Katy. As we start to wrap if there’s one piece of advice or an ask of the broader community, what would that be? And I also want to throw something else out that came to mind. We had a wonderful seminar on stage at Advertising Week, APAC in Sydney with a group that I’m going to guess you’re familiar with the Unstereotyped alliance?
Katy:
Yes, Yep.
Matt:
And we’re doing something with them again in New York. I know we’ve worked with the Valuable 500 around your launch. Period back in 19, with Caroline and and Paul on stage, but I’d love to pick this conversation up with you and take you with us sort of everywhere we go. It’s such an important conversation. And while I’m grateful that we’re doing something for the disability community with the Unstereotyped Alliance, I’d love to continue this conversation with you and and brand leaders who were really recognising the importance but let’s go back to that question, which is a piece of advice or a call to action or you know, what would you like people to do going forward?
Katy:
But one quick thing before I answer that question, I promise I will. The good news is I found out this morning that I am going to be in New York, for Adweek. And I think I’m going to be seeing you guys on the 17th as well and being part of a panel so delighted to have that opportunity and super excited to continue the conversation.
Matt:
Fantastic that is great news!
Katy:
Hot off the press. So I think in terms of terms of one piece of advice, I think the critical thing for me is be fearless. Be be sensitive. But be absolutely fearless and just start because again, and maybe this comes down to my upbringing and my internal sense of optimism. I don’t think that there is some machiavellian plot or any nefarious sort of behaviour by businesses or brands who aren’t beginning to start the conversation around disability inclusion. I don’t think anyone is actively seeking to exclude I think it is because they are scared and they are fearful. They’re scared of saying the wrong thing. And they’re scared of not being good enough. And you know, I think it is critical one of them I spoke to you before about a Synchronised Collective Actions. One of our things is around reporting. And we launched at Davos, so reporting white paper, and we’ve identified five KPIs that we’re asking all of our companies to incorporate into their investor dialogue and into their annual reports. And we did initially have some companies say: “Well, we’re nervous about reporting because we don’t think we’re very good. We don’t think we’re good enough.” And in my mind, in this spirit, there is no such thing as bad data. Just measure where you are, be accountable for where you are, own where you are, and, and then you get visibility of the way forward and then you can grow. Honestly, genuinely, I don’t care if it’s zero, genuinely, just measure where you are. So you can then track the truth, check that, track that change and then measure the data. So I think my advice would be, do everything you can not to be fearful of getting it wrong, because you will only really get it wrong if you don’t start and you don’t try. So that that would be my piece of advice. You know, just just start with the heart. Start with the heart because I do believe that everyone will understand that is the right thing to do from a from a human perspective, to be truly inclusive and to give everybody an opportunity. So start with that. And then the hate can kick in in terms of your metrics and your measurements. But just don’t don’t let the head silence the heart and think it’s too complicated. We’re not good enough, our industry peer is better. It doesn’t matter in this instance, just start the conversation, ditch the fear, and then we’ll be in a much better place.
Matt:
So well said and let’s extend that one step further. The heart to the head is also ultimately how we get to the bottom line in the wallet and your story about Maltesers share going up to 7% tells that story in exemplary fashion and I think for all the businesses more than 500 now that are part of the Valuable 500 global family. This is a ultimate manifest manifestation of doing good also good for business and absolutely begins with the heart and your story so heartfelt, but this is very much about ensuring that your business is part of the conversation and taking talent from every community and why would you want to exclude exclude 20% of the population from the outset that would be crazy on paper if you were talking about any constituents, any gender, any race, any ethnicity, any one with any sort of issue or disability or anything else, you want to talk to 100% of your customers and draw from 100% of the talent pool and that’s at the core of Caroline’s vision for the Valuable 500 which you’re now carrying that torch clearly quite splendidly.
Katy:
Thank You Matt. Thank you. It’s it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. And it’s the most important thing I’ve ever done. It’s the hardest, but I’m totally undeterred. And I’m optimistic and and yeah, I have I have amazing I have amazing people with me. And I’m really excited for what the future holds. But But thank you so much for this opportunity, Matt. It’s been amazing, amazing to talk to you.
Matt:
Thank you for doing this. Great to have you Katy.
Katy:
Thank you!
