Mary Hunter, Managing Director, Columbus Global, conducted an inspiring session on the way Diversity & Inclusion can help an organization grow. She touched upon the aspirations Columbus has becoming even more diverse and inclusive.
Hyderabad, India, 24 April 2019: Mary Hunter, the Managing Director of Columbus Global, conducted an immensely inspiring session on Diversity & Inclusion with the leadership team. She talked about the way diverse and inclusive teams can positively affect the success, growth and creativity of a team.
Going a step further, Mary expanded on the virtues of how a diverse group enhances the performance of an organization and how the lack of a diverse team will make an organization extinct. She talked about not only being inclusive of diverse people in terms of age, race, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation, but also emphasized diversity in the way individuals think based on their personal experiences. Her emphasis on the diversity of thought that a healthy mix of people can bring is a testament to her strategic mindset.
She took the group through a couple of interesting exercises as an interactive and engaging way of driving home the importance of Diversity & Inclusion. The exercises included people completing the sentence ’I am ______ but I am not _______’ to break stereotypes. Another exercise was the Diversity Thumball where people had to share their thoughts on the questions that their right thumb landed on.
She felt that we, as individuals and as an organization need to focus on being diverse and inclusive. She emphasized the need to be open, hear the voices of all the people in the team, respecting them, and empowering them to bring and implement their diverse ideas in the workplace. According to Mary, ”Diversity and Inclusion is not just something that organizations need to think about but rather make it the strategic starting point for their growth plan.”
The session concluded with Mary creating a forum where people can share their thoughts, concerns, and ideas on Diversity & Inclusion with complete anonymity if required. Participants left feeling enlightened and enriched with the experiences and knowledge she shared and some tools to use to share the conversation further.
About Mary Hunter:
Mary Hunter is the Managing Director of Columbus UK and globally sponsors initiatives for Diversity & Inclusion. She is responsible for driving growth through customer success and has taken the UK team from 13 people to 250 people.Over the last 15 years at Columbus, Mary has led the company to win numerous Microsoft awards including global partner of the year twice, while accelerating growth both organically and through acquisition. This strong track record of success has resulted in the UK winning country of the year within the group for ten years running 2008–2017 and it’s not surprising to note that based on the culture she has created the length of tenure of her team is outsanding and triple the industry average
Several external organizations have recognized Mary for her initiatives in addressing the gaps present for women in technology, the importance of diversity in a team, and her STEM activities around raising awareness and understanding with children. She is the winner of the 2018 Leadership Award, Women in Technology (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) and regionally in the UK won a Businesswoman of the year 2018 as well as being a finalist for Digital Leader of the Year 2018 for UK Computing Awards.
Her specialty is motivating, managing and mentoring people to deliver to their full potential while maximizing growth opportunities and business operational efficiencies.
About Columbus
Columbus is a global IT services and consulting company with more than 1,600 employees serving 1,100 customers worldwide. Columbus helps ambitious companies transform, maximize and futureproof their business digitally. We specialize in working with the retail, distribution, food, and manufacturing industries. We offer a comprehensive solution portfolio with deep industry knowledge, extensive technical expertise, and profound customer insight. Columbus has offices and partners all over the world, and we can deliver our solutions and services locally—on a global scale. www.columbusglobal.com
For further information, please contact.
Communications Director
Tine Rasmussen
tra@columbusglobal.com
+45 29 69 06 77