“If you had told me on July 1 that I’d be spending most of my time talking about race and thinking about how to solve these big problems, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
So begins the tale of Tim Ryan, once a newly minted U.S. chairman at accounting titan PwC, with a 100-day plan to set big goals and bond with his new leadership team. Then, on July 5th, Alton Sterling was shot by police in Baton Rouge, LA. The next day came the shooting of Philando Castile, whose death was live-streamed by his girlfriend. The next night, the world watched in horror as a disturbed veteran killed five police officers during a protest in Dallas. My second feature in Fortune’s new February issue focuses on what Ryan and his team decided to do next.
With those searing events, Tim Ryan’s 100-day plan went into the dustbin. “I got the team together and asked what they thought we should say or do about what was happening,” he says. “I knew it had to be something.”
That “something” started as a series of emotional, company-wide conversations about race that continue to this day and have transformed PwC leadership and emboldened employees. It has also changed the way the firm thinks about leadership development for PwC and the world. PwC plans to make its anti-bias training, already mandatory for new employees and those who are being promoted, available to the public for free.
Since July, Ryan, 51, has been thinking about other ways to share what the company has learned, including with clients and competitors. At first blush, his pitch sounds ridiculously naive: “Wouldn’t it be great if all the CEOs of the Fortune 500, who employ millions of people in the United States, came together and acknowledged that, notwithstanding everything we’ve tried, we can do even more about race?”
With those searing events, Tim Ryan’s 100-day plan went into the dustbin. “I got the team together and asked what they thought we should say or do about what was happening,” he says. “I knew it had to be something.”
That “something” started as a series of emotional, company-wide conversations about race that continue to this day and have transformed PwC leadership and emboldened employees. It has also changed the way the firm thinks about leadership development for PwC and the world. PwC plans to make its anti-bias training, already mandatory for new employees and those who are being promoted, available to the public for free.
Since July, Ryan, 51, has been thinking about other ways to share what the company has learned, including with clients and competitors. At first blush, his pitch sounds ridiculously naive: “Wouldn’t it be great if all the CEOs of the Fortune 500, who employ millions of people in the United States, came together and acknowledged that, notwithstanding everything we’ve tried, we can do even more about race?”
Wouldn’t it be great? Please click through, then forward this story to every Fortune 500 CEO you know. Maybe even some you don’t.
(Note: PwC sponsors Fortune’s RaceAhead newsletter.)