Accelerate to tackle UK’s lack of BAME representation

Creative Equals has announced the launch of Accelerate, a leadership programme to tackle the ‘abysmal’ lack of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) representation in the UK’s marketing, advertising and media industry. 

Around 97% of the industry’s advertising and media CEOs are white, according to the organisation that champions diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the UK’s creative industries. It hopes that Accelerate, the industry’s first multicultural/BAME leadership programme, will speed up the pace of change and improve these statistics to better reflect the UK’s audience. 

Across England and Wales, almost one in every four children under the age of four is from a multicultural background and in London, 41% of the population come from these communities, says Creative Equals. This research indicates a clear business need to represent both today’s and future consumers. In an industry that is based on customer understanding, this leadership profile is totally out of step with the communities and consumers who drive the bottom line.

According to June Sarpong, MBE, Diversity Director of the BBC and Advisory Board Member at Creative Equals, “Multicultural representation and industry future-proofing needs to be at the heart of every creative and media business. The most critical arena for this is the C-suite, where diversity progress to date has been glacial.” 

THE DIVERSITY GAP

Recent research from the UK’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) reveals that just 5.5% of adland’s C-suite come from a multicultural background, and only 16.9% of junior employees are from BAME communities. However, this number decreases at every stage of career advancement, falling to 2.9% at CEO/Chair/MD level.

This lack of diversity in leadership and senior roles is, unsurprisingly, reflected in the creative work produced. According to The Black Pound report, 66% of multicultural people said they were ‘not satisfied with the current ethnic representation on UK mainstream TV, including adverts’.

A P&L ISSUE

Retention of multicultural/BAME employees is also at an all-time low in the creative industries. However, supporting, retaining and fully utilising a mixed talent pool could, over time, provide a £24 billion boost to the economy, and deliver more value and increased sales for brands, as well as higher ROI for agencies, according to the McGregor Smith Review of Race in the Workplace.

The problem with the creative industry’s C-suite is that “97% of CEOs are White. They all look the same”, points out Lydia Amoah, Learning and Cross-Cultural Director at Creative Equals, and author of The Black Pound report. “This leadership doesn’t represent London, our society or even the world. If there aren’t multiple voices at the table, the perspectives are narrow, the work created is for one viewpoint and profits stagnate. Accelerate has been designed to grow multicultural/BAME seniors, providing skills so they can navigate a culture of bias. This programme will embrace a multicultural succession plan, creating the next wave of leaders.”

The Accelerate programme will be led by Amoah, and supported by an advisory panel of industry executives from companies, including News UK, Spotify, BBC, Oystercatchers, Mediacom, and Dazed and Confused.

THE PROGRAMME

Accelerate is a six-month boot camp designed to create a pathway to greater diversity in leadership across the creative and media industries. The programme will address the gaping diversity gap between the demographics of leadership in the creative industries and those of the audiences and consumers they serve, confirms Creative Equals. It will take 60 individuals stepping into leadership roles to the next level in 2020, and empower a further 120 rising stars through mentorship and representation.

“We will take 30 people stepping into leadership roles and run through six modules with some of the industry’s multicultural best – leaders that look like them, sound like them and have experienced their struggles. Our cohort then sponsors 60 multicultural/BAME junior/mid-weight employees to create a movement of 90 people,” explains Amoah. “With two cohorts planned for the year, 180 people in total will be put through the programme creating a new power network and movement of the industry’s successors. This time next year our industry will look different.”

The programme will run from 11th February until July 2020 in London. Applications will close on Monday 13th January 2020.  Click here for more information, or to apply.