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Five years ago, I watched alongside millions of Americans as the news media looped a clip of George Floyds murder at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis. In the days that followed, as a national movement came to life, dozens of CEOs and executives reached out to me for advice on how their companies should navigate this sudden “racial reckoning.” One time donations or DEI policies would no longer be enough. We needed a sustained response that would create generational wealth for Black families, and start to move the dial on closing the racial wealth gap. I told them, Black people are almost 15% of the U.S. population, major retailers should commit 15% of their shelf space to Black owned brands. If, in 2020, major retailers began making this commitment, venture capital would be forced to take notice, and might be ready to allocate more than their traditional 1% of capital to Black entrepreneurs, therefore driving capital into Black communities. Not enough customers But in those early days of my nonprofit, the Fifteen Percent Pledge, for every late night call I had with a CEO who had been moved to tears over their complicity in systemic racism, there was a call the next morning with an executive telling me “they didnt have enough Black customers to do this” or that “they just wanted to stock the best products.” To be clear, the Pledge has only ever asked retailers to stock the best productsand we want to expand customer bases, not narrow them. The business case for investing in people of color, which is too often boiled down to DEI, was as true then as it is now: when we invest in small businesses, everyone wins. Mounting pressure And yet, over the past few months, weve seen mounting political and cultural pressure aimed at dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. From conservative lawsuits to shareholder proposals trying to roll back corporate commitments, the backlash is unendingand some companies are caving. They are quietly scrubbing DEI language from their websites, dissolving departments, laying off experts, and shrinking procurement goals, all under the guise of following the lawto be clear, there is no American law that actually bans inclusive business practices. But even as many companies cower in fear at the prospect of a nasty tweet from a certain elected leader, the ones that have truly committed to diverse employees, vendors, and customers are not backing down. Smaller, stronger, more serious Yes, the performative DEI eramarked by splashy social media campaigns, vague equity initiatives, and one-off diversity trainingsis over. Whats emerging in its place is a smaller, stronger, more serious cohort of brands that are leaning into the hard work of equity. These are companies that understand this isnt about politicsits about people and profit. And right now, those two things are aligned more than ever, for better and for worse. Lets look at Target. In 2020, the companybased at the epicenter of the Black Lives Matter movementactively chose not to partner with the Fifteen Percent Pledge, and instead launched REACH, their Racial Equity Action and Change committee, along with a $10 million pledge and series of DEI goals for hiring, sourcing, training, and advocacy. In January of this year, Target disbanded the committee and all associated commitments, which promptly led to a series of customer boycotts. This month the company announced a 2.8% drop in quarterly sales and scaled down projections for the duration of the year. Increased profits On the other hand, companies like Sephora didnt stop at wordstheyve understood for years that consumers of color, and those rooting for them, are a massive market opportunity. Sephora has restructured their shelves to feature dozens of Black-owned brands, conducted in-store equity audits, and invested in vendor diversity throughout their supply chainand theyve seen significant results: stronger customer loyalty, greater brand trust, and an influence that reshaped their industry. Plus increased profits. Supporting diverse small businesses is not simply a moral argument, its a business case. Black-owned businesses contribute over $200 billion to the U.S. economy each year. If Black women-owned businesses achieved revenue parity with their white male counterparts, they would add $1.5 trillion in revenue. We know Gen Z and millennial consumers are shopping their values, and we know Black consumers collective buying power is expected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2030. The data is undeniable: equity sells. The market speaks And yet, were seeing major retailers suffer the consequences of abandoning the values they once claimed to uphold. Target is only one example of companies facing reduced foot traffic, declining Q1 earnings, and increasingly vocal backlash from the very consumers they rely on. The market is speaking. Are brands listening? The companies that will thrive in this next chapter wont be the ones retreating in this moment. Theyll be the ones redesigning their hiring and promotion pipelines, embedding supplier diversity into procurement, conductin holistic equity auditsnot just press-friendly initiatives. Theyll be the ones moving from symbolism to systems, from pledges to practice. DEI isnt dying. But performative DEI? Thats over. And were better for it.
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E-Commerce
The latest TikTok trend has people exposing their terrible exes and most toxic relationship stories to Lordes new single “Man of the Year“with receipts. Since the song dropped at the end of last month, the trend has quickly gained traction on TikTok. Typically following a slideshow format, users post a selfie before revealing a series of text messages or, worse, a voice note from truly the worst villains. While the trend fundamentally misinterprets the lyrics, which explore Lordes gender identity, it has nonetheless opened Pandoras box online. One viral post, with almost five million views, shows someone scrolling through their ex-partners unopened Snapchat messages from other women (they just keep coming). “At least I was pinned,” the TikToker joked in the caption. That looks exhausting. is he unemployed, one commenter asked. @idk.but.im.a.joke_ at least i was pinned:) Man Of The Year – Lorde Another user posted an actual EDM track her ex created using a crying voicemail she had sent. He cheated, i broke up with him and then he proceeded to make a edm song to a crying voicemail, she explained in the caption. I think youve found a unique experience, one person commented. I’m so sorry this is the funniest thing ive ever seen, another added. @.avery.claire.user he cheated, i broke up with him and then he proceeded to make a edm song to a crying voicemail men are just great Man Of The Year – Lorde Some users chose to opt out of the trend. Could BODY this trend but chose peace, one TikTok user posted, hinting at some truly damning receipts. @xandrapohl hahahaha should I just do it anyway Man Of The Year – Lorde Some videos shared as part of the trend are genuinely disturbing, detailing harrowing accounts of emotional and physical abuse. According to the United Nations, over a quarter (27%) of women worldwide, aged between 15 and 49, who have been in a relationship report having experienced some form of physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. Even Lorde, the unwitting originator of the trend, felt compelled to respond. Earlier this week, she posted a clip shaking her head as the song plays, her face expressing disbelief. The caption reads: These messages In response to one commentgirl yes, its got me scaredLorde replied: I cant look away. Another summed up the trend: guys youre stressing out lorde.
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E-Commerce
Companies try all sorts of waysfrom paint nights to escape roomsto foster creativity among employees, but Pixars approach is likely unique: The animation studio hosts regular mean caricature nights, in which employees draw really nasty pictures of one another. To some degree, we make cartoons, so were starting out in a good place, but we really try to foster as much play as we can, said Pete Docter, Pixars chief creative officer, speaking at Fast Companys Most Innovative Companies Summit in New York last week. Lowering the fear level and encouraging a playful and fun environment, he said, has a tangible benefit: That seems to produce the best work. It may seem ironic that a creative powerhouse like Pixar has to schedule in time for employees to be funny and creative, but Docter said its necessary because of the nature of workdays, which are tightly packed into 15-minute increments. Creative Risks Embracing creativity is also important because the studio must take risks when creating original worlds to potentially build new film franchises from scratchand thats especially true in a time when audiences havent fully returned to movie theaters post-COVID and still have a decided preference for sequels, Docter said. Its a rough time, and all we can do is try to make movies that I think are led by uswe have to believe in them, Docter told the audience. And Pixar will soon test whether audiences agree: Its new original film, Elio, opens in theaters on June 20. This marks the studios 29th film in three decades and follows Inside Out 2, which was released last summer and became the Disney animation units biggest box-office hit ever. The massive success of that film was a surprise, Docter said, as making new original films requires a degree of hoping for the best. It takes as much work and effort to make something that doesn’t make money as it does for something that does. And you can’t really plan on this stuffsometimes you just hit the right little combinations of things. While the studio has to take risks, Docter said, these films also take five years to make and, by the time moviegoers see one in a theater, about eight different versions have already been made in prototype form. To mitigate some risks, Pixar has landed on a cadence of one original film followed by one sequel, more or less, he added. We have to find out what people want before they know it, Docter said. Because if we just gave them more of what they know, we’d be making Toy Story 27. Embracing AI While Hollywood more broadly has been trying to contend with the implications of AI in recent years, Pixar has already been using the technology in various ways for almost 10 years, Docter said. One such way: To render a single frame of filmof which there are 24 every secondcan take 30 to 40 hours, but the studio developed software in which AI finished off the task in much less time. That’s been very productive, it’s not jeopardizing anybody’s job or anything like that, Docter said. And the studio is exploring other use cases for AI as people are starting to better understand the really cool ways it could be used, he added. As I look at it, it’s an exciting new tool. Finally, Docter likened some of the current fear around AI to worries back in the mid-1990s that computer-generated actors were going to replace real actorssomething that has yet to happen. Its not going to replace all of us because there is something about the human conditionthat’s the reason we go to movies, it’s why we read or sing or listen to musicwe’re trying to connect with each other, he said. And I think you can just sense that when it’s not there.
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E-Commerce
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