I do not believe in the insanity of tick-box diversity and inclusion, but I am dumbfounded that a Top Innovators list with 99 men and one woman was created and published in 2019.

 As a member of the Harvest Summit board, here’s what I had to say as part of our collective response last week.

“There just aren’t women out there” is a ridiculous defensive excuse. “It is the pool’s fault. I can’t help it if there aren’t enough women CEOs.” 

If the pool is the problem – go back and ask yourself what exactly are we trying to achieve identifying the top innovators and how can we best do that? It is like the lazy answer to why companies don’t hire more diversity of any kind. "We can’t get the applicants, we don’t think they are out there, it’s not my fault it is the pool of available people."

 I am not buying it.

What this list shows is that even when some of the smartest brains get together to create a showcase of brilliant minds, common sense does not always prevail.

Of course, now everyone can see producing a list of top innovators with more men called Stanley than women on it is preposterous, but no-one in the creators or publishing side of this report saw it or had a loud enough voice to air it before it woke up the internet this week.”

 The question now for executives everywhere is where does this show up in your company and what can you do about it?

The time to speak up is now.