“ My fellow Board members and I are mentors to advance diversity in our organisation. 
We promote various Women networks that are launched in the organization, stretching from USA to Japan, where participants are supporting the overall Diversity initiative.
Tom Schmitt

Member of the Board of Management, Chief Commercial Officer and Contract Logistics, DB Schenker

LEAD Newsletter Sponsor spotlight Interview with DB Schenker – February 2018

Can you tell us a bit about your organization and your role?

DB Schenker is a 145-year old company with 72,000 of us creating 20 bn USD in revenue.
While we are spread across more than 100 countries we are united by our one purpose: to advance businesses and lives by shaping the way the world connects.
We provide access to global trade. And make lives and livelihoods possible.
We are six Management Board members leading our company.
We make it a team sport.
I am personally responsible for our global sales and marketing activities. As well as one of our four major businesses, Contract Logistics.

Why is diversity, and specifically the advancement of women, so important to your organization?

If you have a choice to tap fully into all of the talent pool – or half of it, which one would you choose?
Right.
Tapping into all of it is not only the right thing to do. It is also smart business.
Every time we get the balance right we have richer, broader and more balanced sessions.
And better outcomes.

Which diversity initiatives do you have in your organization?

My fellow Board members and I are mentors to advance diversity in our organisation. We promote various Women networks that are launched in the organization, stretching from USA to Japan, where participants are supporting the overall Diversity initiative. We provide Diversity awareness and unconscious bias training – at top management level to be cascaded throughout the organization. And we rolled out the Diversity game – a tool that tackles the way we think, how we respond in diversity related situations and invites to a discussion on various diversity topics. Our regions organize Business Dialogues, sessions where talented female employees exchange on strategic topics with the global leadership team. And we publish success stories of female senior managers – role models for both female and male employees.

What role does the LEAD Network play in reaching your organization’s diversity goals?

Companies with excellent results are very often frontrunners when it comes to advancing diversity. We generate approximately a third of our turnover with the Consumer Retail industry and LEAD provides a platform to get to know our customers from a totally different angle, understand their culture and strategy. Teaming up with business partners strengthens business relations as well as the commitment to change things for the good. The support LEAD provides in setting up learning events, give guidance when defining diversity goals and implementing effective measures to reach them, is something we specially value.

What would you like your employees to take away from the LEAD Network?

In the first place, I want to make LEAD and their offering accessible to a clear majority of our female employees. Learn from other female managers, find role models and be role models for others, widen their industry knowledge and strengthen leadership relevant skills. Gain confidence, be encouraged to “lean-in”. And step-up.

But it is not only about my female colleagues. I also think of my male colleagues. Become more aware of the female talent, of different ways of doing things, of the opportunity and the need to have diverse teams to secure our leadership position for the long term.