Since its founding in 1988, BlackRock has grown to become the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $4 trillion under management. BlackRock has more than 120 investment teams operating in 30 companies and has clients and investments in more than 100 countries. A multicultural perspective is essential for BlackRock’s leaders.
I visited with three of BlackRock’s senior talent executives to ask: How does BlackRock instill multiculturalism in its leaders? Here are three strategies in BlackRock’s leadership playbook:
- One-company culture: Bridging multiple cultures is about more than being empathic to local distinctions. It also and especially means communicating a corporate culture that transcends differences and aligns team members. BlackRock is relentless in aligning its leaders around four guiding principles.
- Human Capital Committee: BlackRock’s Human Capital Committee is composed of 35 senior line leaders from around the world. The HCC oversees BlackRock’s talent management, including workforce planning, recruitment, training, appraisal and succession planning. When the team overseeing talent is multicultural, the result is multicultural leaders.
- Manager objectives: BlackRock managers must periodically identify their own development objectives, including what they are doing to develop their own multicultural perspective. Business leaders must become the drivers of their own inclusion efforts.