Dear [name],
To stay relevant in a multicultural world, businesses need to connect with customers in new and
innovative ways and stay agile as the landscape continues to evolve. The cost of failing to adapt
to a changing world can be steep. Case in point: 50 years ago, the life expectancy of a Fortune
500 firm was 75 years—today, it’s less than 15 and declining. Companies with staying power
aren’t just growing, they’re transforming—using a combination of great people, great ideas and
great execution to get the job done.
At Verizon, we have the assets to change the world. Our technology is one of the most reliable
sources for delivering information in the digital world and provides the energy needed to power
things like smart cities and intelligent healthcare. And, our purpose-driven culture gives
everyone at Verizon a seat at the table to ideate and work together to solve the world’s biggest
challenges.
In short, we’re on a mission to be better at what we do every day and deliver the promise of the
digital world to everyone—and we’re relying on diverse talent to get there. Diversity drives our
culture and our bottom line. It’s a tall order, but with the help of diverse voices and perspectives,
we’ll succeed.
We can’t do this alone. That’s why I’m reaching out to you today to ask that your company make
an important commitment to drastically improve the percentage of women and people of color in
leadership roles and continue to support our diverse supplier community by awarding more
subcontracting work to diverse businesses.
We recognize that we cannot deliver the promise of a digital world to everyone if our business
leaders don’t represent our diverse customer base. At Verizon, we take great pride in having a
workforce that’s 59% diverse (people of color and women). Worldwide women make up 35.7%
of the workforce and in the U.S. people of color represent 40%. Just as important to workforce
diversity, Verizon is committed to supplier diversity to help us deliver our promise. Over the past
five years, Verizon spent more than $25 billion dollars with diverse businesses and $4.25 billion
in 2015 alone. Moreover, Verizon’s board of directors is one of the most diverse boards in the
country comprised of 4 women and 5 people of color —from a total of 13 board members. The
quality of our team output has never been better.

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 To measure Verizon’s efforts, we have a scorecard that tracks several levels of diversity and
have made tremendous progress, but we know that there is always a higher gear.
We make diversity an explicit business objective and hold ourselves accountable as with any
performance goal.
Verizon thrives on innovation. Study after study confirms that innovation is improved and
accelerated by broad perspectives and diversity of thought. Marketers are expected to have a
deep understanding and insight about their markets, about decision makers and about customers.
We are more likely to create solutions that amaze our customers if our workforce and suppliers
represent the communities we serve. Having an inclusive culture makes us more innovative,
more responsive and more in touch with our customers.
You currently have a performance agreement with Verizon that includes diversity spend with
suppliers and I look forward to your continued growth in this area. As for your workforce
diversity, my expectation is that in the next 30 days you will share your current state of
workforce broken out by number of women (by ethnicity) and people of color in your different
levels, including senior leadership. Moreover, please provide your action plans that describe
how you are growing workforce and supplier diversity. I’m here to support your efforts and will
make my team available to assist you in driving change.
We owe this to our customers, to each other and to future generations. By making the important
and necessary changes today, together we can push for change and deliver the promise of the
digital world.

Diego

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