Situation & Miscommunication
For $114,000
After careful research over the past several
weeks, our team has developed a detailed
recommendation to better inform our
external stakeholders of our diversity and
inclusion. In this document, we will
describe our business communication
misalignment our company is facing, our
recommendations for how to address it,
and our detailed response.
We at CDW are leaders in diversity and
inclusion. Our internal channels such as
our website and Business Resource Groups
heavily focus on this. As a result, our
employees and current customers are well
aware of our diversity. However, external
channels and individuals, such as job
seekers and the general public, are not
discussing our diversity because they
simply are unaware of it.
Diversity Impacts Our Stakeholders
Our Objective
We’re leaders in diversity, but not every
stakeholder knows that. We are missing
out on potential market share and
recruiting key talent because our internal
representation does not match the
perceptions of our stakeholders. ​(Harvard
Business Review 2012)
Who are our stakeholders?
CDW​ CORPORATION
We have identified job seekers, B2B
clients, and stockholders as our
stakeholders. Targeting our job seekers
proposes the greatest potential for a strong
return on investment. Investing in talent
but also fostering a business community
that expects more from each other while
sharing in the benefits of diversity. Our
B2B segment offers a potential increase in
client acquisition; whereas we are missing
out on potential sales in untapped markets.
Our stockholders are content with stock
growth, but they could be happier. Diverse
organizations represent a strong positive
correlation with profitability.
"Our latest research reinforces the
link between diversity and company
financial performance—and suggests
how organizations can craft better
inclusion strategies for a competitive
edge." McKinsey & Company
How We Can Create A Conversation
Diverse Advertisements on Diverse
Channels
To target future employees and business
clients, we suggest supplementing our ad
campaign to reach more diverse outlets.
Currently our ads are shown on the Golf
Channel, we suggest advertising on more
diverse channels that are viewed by people
from all walks of life. There are two
channels to focus our efforts on:
Bloomberg and YouTube.
the first page of Bloomberg BusinessWeek
article can showcase CDW’s diversity.
Advertising on YouTube through paid
sponsors costs as little as $2 to $5 per 1000
views with massive potential for return on
our investment. We recommend spending
$500,000 on sponsoring tech focused
YouTubers. This investment will produce
massive amounts of awareness for CDW
with half a billion views seen worldwide.
Diversity Summits: Picture IT
Our second recommendation for CDW
entails the idea of a diversity summit,
Picture IT, where we can invite diverse
undergraduate students from a wide variety
of universities to take part in an impactful
experience at CDW Headquarters in
Chicago, IL. A diversity summit would
show prospective employees that CDW
values diversity and is looking to hire the
best and the brightest diverse students.
Picture IT would have several learning
objectives including identifying data and
tools to use in the pursuit of inclusivity and
diversity, exploring processes on university
campuses that are barriers to inclusivity
and diversity, and open dialogues with
students from The University of Illinois at
Chicago.
Our budget for the Diversity SummIT is
$317,500. In this budget we have included
costs for catering, student travel,
marketing, audio/visual and more. Our
plan for recruiting students to attend the
SummIT is through Handshake Premium.
CDW has seen incredible results because
of Handshake Premium including 160%
more applications than talent competitors
(Handshake, n.d.). We can now continue
our popularity in Handshake by offering a
specific diversity and inclusion event that
will bring greater attention to our already
over performing company.
Response
Increasing our business message across
these channels will directly benefit each
stakeholder. The diversity summit on
November 12​ and 13​ of 2020 directly
th​ th​
impacts potential jobseekers. Serving as a
welcome call for everyone in the IT
industry. In addition, will administer a paid
endorsement for one of YouTube’s most
subscribed YouTuber, Marquees
Brownlee. With over 9 million subscribers,
our 1:30 second advertisement will break
down the complexities of a diversity
summit with a relatable authority figure.
Bloomberg Business week reaches an
audience of over 600,000 subscribed
CDW​ CORPORATION
readers and ten of thousands more with long-term. Our $114,640 investment in a
their online publications ​(Bloomberg full-page advertisement in Bloomberg
Media Group 2019)​. The demographic of Business will garner 27 million views
Bloomberg’s audience coincides with the based on their subscriber count. These 27
values at CDW, diverse business million views by Bloomberg Business’s
individuals with shared values building subscribers will help to create more
relationships. ​Advertising on YouTube business to business relationships. The
through paid sponsors costs as little as $2 $270,000 investment on YouTube
to $5 per 1000 views with massive Promoters will garner 90 million views and
potential for return on our investment will attract young job seekers.
(Geyser, W. 2019).
Conclusion
Budget
Our stockholders will benefit from the
Our projected budget for sponsoring
diversification of our proposed
YouTube promoters of $270,000 is based
recommendations. All of these investments
on research that suggests YouTube
together will start a conversation among
promoters are paid an average of $3 per
the public that does not currently exist,
1000 views (​Hunt, H. 2018​). The $270,000
increasing sales in our untapped market
budget would allocate for 90 million
share. Let’s talk.
views. Our projected budget for an
advertisement in Bloomberg Business for a
full-page advertisement in each weekly
issue for a year is $114,640 and is based on
research that this is the cost for a yearly
advertisement ​(Bloomberg Media Group
2019)​. Our projected budget of $317,500
for our PictureIT Summit is calculated
based on a budget from a similar summit
(​McGillivray, E. 2019).
The $317,500 investment in our PictureIT
summit will attract the nation’s top diverse
talent to apply to our company and
improve our company’s success in the
CDW​ CORPORATION