Is diversity a social or an organizational problem? And how can we unlock its value? This is where episode 71 of Women Disrupting Tech starts.
Join me as I interview Sergio Panday about how his company, Roots Inspire, brings ethnic diversity to corporate boardrooms.
In this podcast, Sergio shares:
- How the George Floyd murder triggered him to start Roots Inspire
- How to get to a critical mass of diverse people and measure if your investment in diverse talent pays off.
- The ways to look at DEI through the lens of talent management.
Plus, you’ll learn why some companies should drop DEI from their list of priorities. To listen, click play below or use one of the links to the podcast throughout this blog post.
Unlocking The Value of Diversity in Leadership With Roots Inspire CEO Sergio Panday | Ep. 71 – Women Disrupting Tech
What we cover in this episode
- What we cover in this episode
- Timestamps
- The Magic you can expect in this episode 🪄
- Free ways to support the Women Disrupting Tech
- What makes this episode magical🌟?
- About Sergio Panday
- About Roots Inspire
- Podcast Tip: The Muddy Middle
- Let me know what you think!
- What’s coming up?
- More episodes like this?
Timestamps
04:20 Sergio’s Corporate Banking Journey
10:15 Providing Career Guidance and Leadership mentoring
14:17 The impact of cultural and physical differences
21:45 Critical mass in representation
25:29 The business case for diversity
30:50 How to measure the benefits
35:00 The problem with the word Ally
38:36 Why management is the real problem owner of DEI
41:29 Making DEI in tech the new normal
The Magic you can expect in this episode 🪄
Corporate success isn’t just about hard work. It’s about navigating invisible barriers.
With the right people around you, you can find a way around them.
But what if you don’t have the privilege of access to mentors or people to explain the unwritten rules?
For women and people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, that climb can feel isolating and unfair. How can we collaborate to change this?
This is the topic of Episode 71 of Women Disrupting Tech, where Sergio Panday, founder of Roots Inspire, shares how he is promoting diversity in boardrooms.
Key insights include:
- Why DEI is not a social but an organizational problem.
- The impact of cultural and physical differences on his career.
- How to get to a critical mass of diverse people and measure if your investment in diverse talent pays off.
Plus, by listening, you’ll discover why Sergio believes the word “ally” is not the proper name for men who support people.
Are you ready to dive in?
Free ways to support the Women Disrupting Tech
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What makes this episode magical🌟?
For starters, I love how Sergio brings the DEI topic into the business domain—not as ‘the right thing to do’ but as talent management. He also adds ways to measure impact (e.g., attrition and retention) so that it becomes clear how improving diversity positively impacts financial results.
Toward the end of the episode, Sergio clarifies his stance on the word allyship. “I don’t like the word allyship because it sounds like diversity is someone else’s problem, whereas it is an organizational problem.” It’s a powerful statement that I can only agree with.
That said, we both believe that men should definitely support women and people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. By doing so, men become part of the solution.
“The value of diversity is especially unlocked in leadership.”
Sergio Panday, CEO and co-founder of Roots Inspire
About Sergio Panday
Sergio Panday is the co-founder and CEO of Roots Inspire. Before starting Roots Inspire, Sergio had a successful career in Corporate Banking.
During his 18-year career in banking, he was often the only person of color in the room. The George Floyd murder and the black lives matter movement made him realize that it was time for a change. You can connect with Sergio on LinkedIn.
About Roots Inspire
Roots Inspire is a leadership development platform by ethnic corporate leaders for ethnic leadership talent. Roots Inspire wants to maximize the potential of ethnic talent and increase ethnic diversity in corporate leadership positions.
They offer mentoring and coaching programs to mid-career professionals who have the ambition to pursue a career in leadership. They also offer programs that help companies attract, retain and advance talents. Check out their website and LinkedIn for more information.
Podcast Tip: The Muddy Middle
The podcast “The Muddy Middle” is about how ethnic corporate leaders have broken through to leadership positions. In each episode, Sergio interviews one of the leaders from the Roots Inspire network to talk about how they got unstuck from the muddy middle and what that experience was like. You can find it on Spotify and Apple.
Let me know what you think!
Please let me know your thoughts about this episode of Women Disrupting Tech in the comments.
I love to hear what you think about men being interviewed on the Women Disrupting Tech podcast.
And if you would like to suggest a guest that I absolutely must have on the podcast, send me an email or a DM on LinkedIn.
What’s coming up?
Next week on Women Disrupting Tech, Manisha Athukorala shares how corporate skills come in handy when you’re working for scaleups like Uber Eats, Sword Health and Mews.
After that, we’ll do a Dutch episode about the importance of financial health for women and how to achieve it with Mijn Sofie Founder Astrid Bruinsma-Eggink.
So stay tuned for more inspiring women disrupting tech and their male allies in season three of Women Disrupting Tech!
More episodes like this?
It’s always difficult to compare, but if there are two episodes that I’d like you to listen to it’s these:
– In episode 62, Ruben Brave shares how we can create new narratives for a more innovative society.
– In Episode 70, Constantijn van Oranje talks about how we can create a cultural shift toward more inclusion.
Women Disrupting Tech | The Podcast 
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