Monica Eaton Speaks on the Economics of Diversity in Tech
Chargebacks911 COO Monica Eaton was invited to offer her insight for a special guest feature on Entrepreneur.com on October 12.
Monica is a widely-recognized leader in payments tech innovation. However, she’s also a passionate advocate for greater diversity in tech and other STEM-related fields. As she knows, developing a diverse organization isn’t just a moral issue: it’s also good business sense.
Why Diversity Just Makes Sense
Teams with more ethnic and gender diversity are more likely to be profitable and productive. In contrast, the most homogenous teams performed significantly below industry averages. As Monica explains:
“The answer is that uniform groups tend to produce more uniform thought. When you have a bunch of people with similar identities and backgrounds, they’re going to think and see the world in similar ways. In contrast, diverse groups yield a wider range of experiences and perspectives. This enables more dynamic thinking, adaptability and creativity.”
This is a major problem here in the US, though. We’ve got a bit of an issue with fostering diversity in tech; for example, just 1 in 10 people working in a science or engineering job in the US is a woman of color. To be blunt, other countries are leaving the United States behind in terms of diversity in tech,” Monica explains. “That will reduce our competitiveness in the long run, potentially costing us our position as innovators and leaders in the global market.”
