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Author: Aleena Gardezi

HP’s CMO Antonio Lucio Says Diversity is a ‘Business Imperative’

Posted November 7, 2016

Last week, HP’s Chief Marketing Officer, Antonio Lucio was honored with the Male 3 Cheers award at The 3% Conference in New York City for his focus on diversity, which he believes is a business imperative.

“We are very honored to receive this award,” Lucio stated. “I feel that more than a recognition for a job done, it is further stimulation to strengthen our commitment and insure we deliver the results we expect.”

He pointed out that its important to have women in leadership because 50% of their business is driven by the consumption of women globally.

“We believe that more innovation will be driven by diverse teams that represent the communities they serve,” Lucio told DIVERGE. “We believe cultural contribution is more important than cultural fit.”

Lucio joined HP in April 2015 after spending eight years at Visa where he was most recently the Global Chief Brand Officer responsible for all global brand and product marketing and global communications.

When Lucio joined, female representation on HP’s team was 55% and 43% of all managers are women. The issue of concern was in the top 10 marketing leadership roles, where only 20% where females.

In his first year, HP increased the female representation in the top leadership to 50% or 5 out of the10 leadership positions.

“I must say that these amazing women are not in those jobs because they are women,” he explained. “They are in those jobs because they are kick ass marketers!”

“We fixed our representation issue first and then we invited the agencies to significantly increase the representation of females and people of color in our account,” he added, referring to his letter to agency CEOs including BBDO, FleishmanHillard, Gyro, Fred & Farid and Porter Novelli.

hp_letter

According to the August 30th letter, Lucio briefed the agency partners on what was coming. He gave the agencies 30 days to submit a formal plan outlining how it will improve diversity numbers in hopes that they will accomplish the goals outlined in the plan within 12 months.

“So far, their reaction and commitment has been encouraging,” said Lucio.

HP will also continue to work towards diversity on the HP team focusing on different races and a diverse group of leaders. In addition to that, they are also supporting other diversity initiatives.

HP was the first global partner for Alma Harel’s Free the Bid, which won the female 3 Cheers award lat week for its work on getting agencies to pledge support for hiring women directors.

“Over the next decade, women will control two thirds of consumer wealth in the United States and be the beneficiaries of the largest transference of wealth in the country’s history. Yet only 11 percent of creative directors in marketing and advertising agencies are women,” Lucio told Free the Bid.

“It is time to tackle the significant underrepresentation of women in leadership positions head-on – not by conversations but by swift actions. Set goals, craft measurable criteria and then keep yourself accountable.”