The ability to manage a multi-ethnic team was essential for someone to successfully lead a company, AMP Capital Funds Management chair Ming Long said.
The Malaysian-born executive said on an ANZ podcast that being against racism at the workplace was not enough and managing diversity was a prerequisite for successfully running a large corporation.
“You may end up, hopefully in an executive leadership position in an organisation like ANZ and you’ll start encountering directors like myself who will ask you: ‘Have you led diverse teams in your career? Because if you have not, then why would I ever put you in as CEO?’,” she said.
“Because an organisation like ANZ is big and complex and very different people in there and if you have not learnt to learn the skill of leading a diverse team, then unfortunately, you probably don’t have the right skills to be able to lead an organisation like ANZ.”
Long also suggested a manager must be an anti-racist.
“Being non-racist in Australia is now longer enough” she said.
“We’ve tried to be not-racist but what we actually need in Australia is to be anti-racist and for people to stand up and to be against racism and actively work against racism, because what we’ve found is being non-racist is quite passive.”
The diversity advocate who also chairs Australia’s Diversity Council said it was harder for minorities to succeed in their careers and “that is the reality of life for so many racially marginalised people in Australia”.
“It’s been harder for them and we actually have to do something,” Long said.
