Damon Jones is CCO at Procter & Gamble and the executive leader of Take on Race. Take on Race is an, an initiative that has been really created and sponsored by the Procter & Gamble Company and in collaboration with the CEO in Action. Take on Race is a phenomenal initiative because it brings together corporations to address issues of racial inequities in communities of color. The following is an edited excerpt of his conversation with Dr. Vanessa Weaver.
Jones: Take on Race started several years ago. The business community recognized that there was an important and meaningful role that it needed to play in stepping up and driving forward progress on the long-standing issues of racial inequity. We wanted to do something that was uniquely focused the inequities we were seeing across society. One of the things that makes Take on Race unique is that it is a cross industry collaboration. Tech companies came together with retailers and retailers came together with manufacturers in defining, declaring, and then demonstrating the role that corporate America can play in addressing some of the most pressing racial challenges of our time.
Weaver: I’m struck by part of your slogan; how does that tie into its commitment to Take on Race?
Jones: The slogan is “force for good and force for growth.” We serve 5 billion consumers all around the world. When we know that we have a healthy consumer, we make no apologies that doing good can lead to business growth to the degree that our businesses can be successful. That means we can in fact serve the communities and consumers that depend on us in more healthy and holistic ways. We see it as a virtuous cycle of doing good and doing growth. We also recognize that we’ve got a unique role to play as an industry leader in convening minds together to solve some of these challenges. When it comes to selling Tide, Pampers, or Charmin we think about the messages that we are putting out into communities around the world. We know that those messages can shape how groups of people see themselves and how they see each other. With that, we then think back on our responsibility to really advance equality and broad societal interests. We view it as a key part of us being a strong corporate citizen. That’s going to lead to greater employee loyalty and greater employee pride. Over time we think that’s going to make us a better company.
Weaver: What is an example of what Take on Race is doing or attempting to do with wealth creation?
Jones: We really pulled together more than a hundred thought leaders across corporate America, academia, and many other areas. What were the unique role that the business community could step up and play? That’s how we align on our six areas of what we call our disruptive areas.These are all areas of tangible well-defined areas of inequity.
When you look at health outcomes of African-American and Hispanic audiences were between 3-4 times more likely to die. If they contracted the disease there were underlying health conditions and access to healthcare. Think about how you got tested in the early days of the pandemic. You were advised to call your primary care physician. What if you didn’t have health insurance? If you didn’t have a primary care physician or health facilities in your neighborhoods. All the things we know to be true and disproportionate for people of color. When you look at the impact, you say these are some things that are systemic.
Think about children needing to access remote learning in the pandemic and many children in the inner cities not having access to a high-speed internet and computers in their homes. They can’t continue their education. You see some of those gaps that we know persist in the educational ecosystem further widen. That’s why we had to go back and look at the data and get specific on these challenges. Then perhaps we could be specific in the solutions.
One of the initiatives that came out of Take on Race was something that we call “A Million Connected Devices.” That was designed to address the shortfall in high-speed connectivity for students of color. One of the initiatives was pulling together with Comcast, Dell, and many others to address it.
We know once someone gets behind in the educational system, the chances of you dropping out of high school are exacerbated. There’s a long-term effect. Not only to use the resources and intellectual capital that we have as corporate leaders, but to leverage our policy voice in Washington, to advocate for a more systemic solutions to problems like the digital divide.
Partnering with organizations like Harlem Children’s Zone, to ensure that we could get those devices into the hands of kids, families, and school systems that need it because it’s not just about having the device. It’s about making sure that we can create the right home environment so that students can thrive.
When we looked into wealth creation, to stem the tide of Black businesses going out of business during the pandemic, we asked how do we connect them with access to capital? One of the things is the number of fortune 500 companies that have supplier diversity programs. How can we come together to share insights, learnings, and build systemic bridges between companies so that we can create these positive cycles of success? Business ownership is a key to long-term wealth. It allows people to have long-term economic security.
Looking at the full range of health, wealth, and education that cross into the media bias, and then eventually getting into some of the social justice efforts that really need to be connected to address systemic change. Number one, we’ve got to be working collaboratively across industries. Number two, we’ve got to be looking at some of the systemic solutions.
Weaver: Take on Race coalition of companies have made a $10 billion commitment. What we’ve seen in some of the their work is that oftentimes these companies are struggling to try to identify those Black and Brown businesses to invest in.
Jones: It’s about sharing the insights and the learnings from each of these companies along the journey and it’s a collaborative effort. We’re going to share some of the challenges along the way so that we’re not repeating the same mistakes so that we can get to the finish line quicker than we can if we were working individually.
Weaver: What have been some of the challenges you faced launching this?
Jones: Some of the biggest challenges we face has been determining where we could have the strongest, deepest, most impactful influence because you have so many people with so many different interests.
Take on Race started before the murder of George Floyd. What we’ve done since then is take a step back and double down on the areas that we can uniquely do. Using the things that people can make contributions to from multiple industries in multiple lens and making sure that we drive the data back into the ecosystems that show that we’re making progress.
Take something like the digital divide. These are not things that you can measure in one-year increments. We’ve got to keep a focus on both the short term and the longer-term things. Another challenge is getting the right balance of public private partnerships. They’re not going to be solved overnight, and they’re going to take people from the public and the private sector coming together with getting that optimal balance.
Weaver: This is a significant mind-shift in corporate America. Are many companies committed like P&G trying to be a force for good?
Jones: It’s an evolution and a journey that every company must go on, on its own timing and own terms. We need a diverse set of people within our company to serve a diverse set of people outside of our company. You can do that better when you deeply understand people when you have people at all levels. We know that two thirds of consumers want to buy a brand or a purchase from a company that shares their values.
We are blessed to have such a wide range of both individuals who are passionate about what they do. They’re not all from corporations. Corporations do play an incredibly important role. I mentioned Dell, Walmart, and EY. They are a few that give you a sense for some of the diversity of industries, but we’ve got members from Chambers of Commerce, and INROADS, which is an educational, not-for-profit that advances Black and Brown students in corporate America. Companies like AT&T and Regeneron are contributing what they can. It is that diversity of interests and companies that makes the coalition so special. People are coming together under the Take on Race umbrella with a specific view. We want committed partners who are in it for the long-term.
