Roads Traveled to MLK Day

Subriana Pierce, a colleague of mine at Frito-Lay, and I took very different roads to end up at the same place today, celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at Frito-Lay headquarters with our guest speaker, Earl Graves, Sr., founder of Black Enterprise magazine.

As a child I led a fairly sheltered life growing up in various Midwest suburbs. Everything changed for me, however, in the summer of 1967, when the riots in Detroit began. I was working as a copyboy at the Detroit Free Press, and at night my co-workers and I would sit on top of the Free Press building and watch the fires burning around the city.  It was like being in a war zone, and tragically, 42 people were killed. 
 
I was frightened, but at the same time exhilarated by all the activity as reporters from around the world swarmed into our city room.  In 1968, those of us on the Detroit Free Press editorial staff received a Pulitzer Prize for our coverage of the riots.  More importantly, I became acutely aware of racial issues and the pressing need for equal rights as a cornerstone for our society.

Subriana had a very different experience, growing up in Jackson, Miss., and attending Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga.  She attended college with the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., Bernice King, where Subriana was active in the campaign to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday.

Today, Subriana heads-up Marketing for Frito-Lay's supermarket-sales business and chairs Frito-Lay's Women of Color organization.  "We've come a long way at Frito-Lay with diversity and inclusion," Subriana says.  "When I joined the company 10 years ago, the focus was on increasing diversity through hiring and retaining minorities. 

"Now we've progressed to the next level -- inclusion -- mentoring, training managers, and developing resource groups to make sure that minority employees know that they can build long-term, successful careers with Frito-Lay.  I'm proud of the fact that in our last employee survey, for the most part, women of color had the same positive attitudes about their futures as the general employee population."

I agree with Subriana that we've made tremendous progress – and become a better business -- because of Frito-Lay’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.  A visible sign of that commitment is our annual MLK event, held at Frito-Lay headquarters every year since 1991, in which a prominent civil rights leader shares his or her insights with employees. Past speakers have included Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King and Andrew Young.  

This year’s speaker, Earl Graves, Sr.  has been a role model and mentor in the African-American community and civil rights movement for 40 years, and his passions include helping young people succeed through scouting, higher education and business.

So as Subriana and I joined more than 1,000 other Frito-Lay associates to listen to Mr. Graves today, we may have come to the event with very different experiences, but we share the same goal of helping the company continue to build a diverse and inclusive culture.  What progress have you personally seen to improve diversity and inclusion in your company/community?

Comments

[Kristin, Frito-Lay employee]

The best part of listening to Earl today was his zesty personality -- he is very funny and entertaining, as he brings a fantastic message to the table.