Entrepreneur Kaori Sasaki makes diversity a science

It was a very serendipitous journey for Sasaki. From finding a job handing out flyers for concert venues in high school, when she knew she had to help out by making her own money, to working freelance as an interpreter after graduating from university, to incorporating her first company, Unicul International — mainly at the behest of her paying clients — Sasaki pretty much fell into her corporate role. As Unicul International began to grow in the late 1980s, Sasaki was often approached by the media for interviews, and she soon realized that Japan lacked a network for advice and support for female entrepreneurs such as herself.

Sasaki then began researching women’s business networks in the United States and established what is now called the International Conference for Women in Business, and in the process became a pioneer in her field. “I just did what I felt was needed, and did what I thought I could contribute,” she explained. “When I see something in business or society that I think is needed, I think, ‘Well if I need it, I guess then everyone else must need it.’… And that’s the good thing about being an entrepreneur.”

For every organization, the variety of thought that diversity brings is important, but just as critical is ensuring that the diversity is actually used. To ensure this outcome, Ewoman uses the Diversity Index, which facilitates four stages of diversity utilization.

The first stage is to recognize people within the organization. Next is the “equity stage,” which ensures that every member is significantly active and fairly evaluated. The third stage is inclusion, ensuring that everyone is listened to and evaluated fairly. The final stage is governance and innovation, where ideas are implemented. This process is termed “diversity management,” a horizontal strategy to unite a diverse team with a common goal, as opposed to the traditional vertical management strategy of top-down goal implementation. It is also important that diversity is represented across every section of the company. Companies can boast, for example, of having 40% female employees, but if those employees are not in decision-making roles or lack voting rights on the board, then nothing changes. The Diversity Index is the only system that performs such a comprehensive check. Sasaki said it is “like an annual health checkup.”

Rowbury asked about the diversity of life experiences that new recruits can bring to a company. Sasaki joked that she would like to be brought back for another episode to discuss this point, but also discussed the positive benefits of some recent changes to Japan’s corporate governance code, including a new stipulation that compels companies to take an internal audit of the talent skills of every employee. This creates a talent matrix to assess an employee’s skills rather than just the typical matrix of age, university and time served at the company. Sasaki agreed that many companies are now operating completely differently from the way they operated just 10 years ago, and that with employees’ talents increasingly now being recognized, there is every reason to believe that companies will make more use of their employee’s diverse talents in the future.