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KeyCorp Board Member EDUARDO MENASCÉ Shares Verizon's Driving Principles At KeyBank Diversity Thought Leadership Series
KeyCorp Board Member EDUARDO MENASCÉ Shares Verizon's Driving Principles At KeyBank Diversity Thought Leadership Series
Published 06-10-05
Submitted by KeyBank
Menascé, a member of the KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) board of directors and the featured speaker at the event, said he has a unique vantage point for seeing how critical diversity is to business since, as one of the top 20 Fortune companies, Verizon touches more customers, employs more people and invests more capital than all but a handful of United States corporations.
"Verizon's success depends on our ability to transform into a truly multilingual, multicultural company," he said. "That's why we apply a broad, multicultural marketing strategy at Verizon. Our strategy is inclusive and integrated, allowing us to reach out to a number of vital, growing markets, from African-American to Asian-American, that comprise about one-third the country."
In Menascé's speech, entitled "Competitive Advantages of Diversity and the Hispanic Market," he noted that Hispanics, as the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States, with $686 billion in buying power, present a unique market for Verizon. "We need to do business with our customers on their terms - and, for many of our Hispanic customers, this means en Español," he said.
As a result, Verizon has 600 Spanish-speaking customer service representatives and two Hispanic business-sales centers; publishes Spanish SuperPages and its own Spanish-language magazine - La Vos de la Plaza - for Hispanic small-business customers; and plans to include up to 30 Spanish-language channels on its new FiOS television programming. Also, Verizon supports 10 employee resource groups, including the Hispanic Support Organization (HSO), which draw more than 12,000 employees to their meetings.
Menascé said his experience has taught him that greater employee diversity can be driven in four fundamental ways with:
"The best chance for success is to align all four areas. The biggest challenge is to keep diversity a priority, and the final challenge is to cast as wide a net as possible when recruiting for job candidates with a focus on diversity," Menascé said.
According to Menascé, while diversity is the right thing to do, it's also the smart thing to do. Several studies show that companies with greater diversity deliver more shareowner value than other companies. Menascé noted that Verizon has been recognized by numerous organizations for its diversity efforts, with minorities making up 19 percent and women 32 percent of Verizon's top management jobs.
"Paying attention to diversity helps Verizon stay in touch with its customers and its communities. And our commitment to diversity ensures that Verizon's work force has the vision and talent to continue reinventing communications now and in the future," he said.
He concluded by asking if the audience members were casting "a wide enough net" as they look at job recruits.
Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group
Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group is dedicated to serving Verizon's largest business and government customers. Menascé, an Argentine native with more than 30 years of corporate experience, has led the $6 billion-a-year business unit since 2000.
Verizon Communications Inc.
With more than $71 billion in annual revenues, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Verizon has a diverse work force of 212,000 in four business units: Domestic Telecom provides customers based in 28 states with wireline and other telecommunications services, including broadband. Verizon Wireless owns and operates the nation's most reliable wireless network, serving 45.5 million voice and data customers across the United States. Information Services operates directory publishing businesses and provides electronic commerce services. International includes wireline and wireless operations and investments, primarily in the Americas and Europe. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.
VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.
KeyCorp
Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $90 billion. Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services to individuals and companies throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally.
KeyBank
KeyBank
KeyCorp's roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $176.2 billion at March 31, 2021. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,100 branches and more than 1,400 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.
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