How Businesses Can Better Serve Their Communities
This summer we saw and heard a lot about how businesses are tone deaf. The racial protests put a spotlight on what many believe is a disconnect between corporations and their customers, from the racial makeup of the C-suite and boards, to the lack of investment in communities of color.
The reality is, there is some truth to the allegations. When I co-founded Ichor Strategies five years ago, I began with the mission of bringing together entities that are often at odds — institutions that deploy capital and the communities where their consumers, employers and policymakers live. Our mission is still the same, and we work hard to bridge the divide.
For corporations, meaningful engagement starts with learning as much as they can about the communities they serve. It’s why we’re launching Communities in Focus to enable businesses to make informed community-centered decisions for new or ongoing work across U.S. markets.
This innovative and adaptive series highlights major cities across the nation that are undergoing cultural, economic, and political shifts. Within each city, Ichor advisors provide local insights about the city’s sociopolitical and business landscape through surveys, interviews, and roundtable discussions. Paired with our data-driven research on government, economic, and community landscapes, this creates a unique snapshot of each city.
The marriage of this information allows businesses to identify the intersection between issues, such as in Atlanta where Black neighborhoods receive the fewest resources for their public schools and are disproportionately impacted by economic immobility. Or in Houston, where our Geographic Information System technology highlights patterns of how sea level rise interacts with social vulnerability across the city.
By utilizing data and a hyper-focused view on a city, businesses can build authentic relationships that result in valuing of different perspectives. When this alignment happens, both businesses and communities win.
