ICAS ICAS logo

Quicklinks

  1. About Us

    Find out about who we are and what we do here at ICAS.

  2. Find a CA

    Search our directory of individual CAs and Member organisations by name, location and professional criteria.

  3. CA Magazine

    View the latest issues of the dedicated magazine for ICAS Chartered Accountants.

  4. Contact Us

    Get in touch with ICAS by phone, email or post, with dedicated contacts for Members, Students and firms.

Login
  • Annual renewal
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Find a CA
  1. About us
    1. Governance
  2. Members
    1. Become a member
    2. Newly qualified
    3. Manage my membership
    4. Benefits of membership
    5. Careers support
    6. Mentoring
    7. CA Wellbeing
    8. More for Members
    9. Area networks
    10. International communities
    11. Get involved
    12. Top Young CAs
    13. Career breaks
    14. ICAS podcast
    15. Newly admitted members 2022
    16. Newly admitted members 2023
  3. CA Students
    1. Student information
    2. Student resources
    3. Learning requirements
    4. Learning updates
    5. Learning blog
    6. Totum Pro | Student discount card
    7. CA Student wellbeing
  4. Become a CA
    1. How to become a CA
    2. Routes to becoming a CA
    3. CA Stories
    4. Find a training agreement
    5. Why become a CA
    6. Qualification information
    7. University exemptions
  5. Employers
    1. Become an Authorised Training Office
    2. Resources for Authorised Training Offices
    3. Professional entry
    4. Apprenticeships
  6. Find a CA
  7. ICAS events
    1. CA Summit
  8. CA magazine
  9. Insight
    1. Finance + Trust
    2. Finance + Technology
    3. Finance + EDI
    4. Finance + Mental Fitness
    5. Finance + Leadership
    6. Finance + Sustainability
  10. Professional resources
    1. Anti-money laundering
    2. Audit and assurance
    3. Brexit
    4. Business and governance
    5. Charities
    6. Coronavirus
    7. Corporate and financial reporting
    8. Cyber security
    9. Ethics
    10. Insolvency
    11. ICAS Research
    12. Pensions
    13. Practice
    14. Public sector
    15. Sustainability
    16. Tax
  11. CPD - professional development
    1. CPD courses and qualifications
    2. CPD news and updates
    3. CPD support and advice
  12. Regulation
    1. Complaints and sanctions
    2. Regulatory authorisations
    3. Guidance and help sheets
    4. Regulatory monitoring
  13. CA jobs
    1. CA jobs partner: Rutherford Cross
    2. Resources for your job search
    3. Advertise with CA jobs
    4. Hays | A Trusted ICAS CA Jobs Partner
    5. Azets | What's your ambition?
  14. Work at ICAS
    1. Business centres
    2. Meet our team
    3. Benefits
    4. Vacancies
    5. Imagine your career at ICAS
  15. Contact us
    1. Technical and regulation queries
    2. ICAS logo request

Melanie Eusebe: How to improve diversity

  • LinkedIn (opens new window)
  • Twitter (opens new window)
By Lysanne Currie, CA Mag

30 September 2020

Melanie Eusebe, award-winning business strategist and co-founder of the Black British Business Awards, tells Lysanne Currie how businesses can improve diversity

Read October's CA magazine now

Melanie Eusebe likes to tell a story to explain why she set up the Black British Business Awards (BBBA). When she was a girl, she loved to play the flute, but one day she stopped. She turned her back on something that gave her enormous pleasure. Why? Because she couldn’t see anyone else who looked like her doing it. As she’d later comment, “It was as if I had my own glass ceiling put on me.”

There are glass ceilings everywhere. While we probably like to imagine ourselves a little more “woke” nowadays, there remains chronic under-representation of black talent in the UK. In the investment industry alone, the stats are damning: just 51 of the 1,097 most powerful roles in the country are taken by non-whites. While according to a 2018 study by New Financial, just 12 black portfolio managers were located in the UK investment management industry. A glint of hope: created by the President of Capstone Investment Advisors, Jonathan Sorrell, the #100blackinterns campaign aims to help university-educated black people break into the City. Under the scheme, 80 asset managers, including Brooks Macdonald, Fidelity, Royal London and Schroders, have signed up to offer paid internships to black candidates next summer.

In the era of Black Lives Matter, the spotlight is once again on racial inequality – and a renewed determination that we cannot return to the “old normal”. Eusebe founded her own initiative, the annual BBBA, in 2014, following a chat with two friends running an organisation for the advancement of women in business. Taking inspiration from their example, Eusebe and Morgan Stanley COO Sophie Chandauka created the awards “to shine a light on talent we had not seen… we knew thousands of amazing black talents who are doing amazing things”.


Melanie Eusebe's steps to embedding diversity in business

Monitor diversity and inclusion

We always say “what gets measured gets done”, so we need companies to monitor diversity and inclusion (D&I) as they would any other key performance indicator. When this happens, we’ll begin to see real change.

Put metrics in place

There are the classics you should be doing anyway – attraction, retention, etc – but more innovative companies go deeper, measuring behaviours around black employees. How do we engage directors, leaders, career counsellors and line managers to create an inclusive atmosphere? By measuring performance.

Look at your supply chain’s diversity – advocacy isn’t enough

D&I is more than just an internal conversation about talent: it’s about Sephora dedicating 15% of its shop floor for black suppliers or financial services institutions looking at how to engage black SME customers.

Consider representation in what you produce

How do we represent black people in everything from media services to talent shows. FMCGs need to ask “Do we need to revamp our products so we are inclusive to all?”

Treat D&I as a risk to be mitigated

We need someone reporting to the CEO. There must be tangible metrics at each level so that everyone is responsible for D&I in their department.

Review your systems and processes

One organisation I work with is doing a complete review of their performance reviews and management. Look at the incumbent processes and structures that may be enforcing racial injustice.

Create diversity focus groups

Put people around a table and let them throw stones at your ads, pitches, products and services to make sure you are truly making diverse products.

The vision must come from the top

Make clear this isn’t just about D&I, but the business taking a stand against racial injustice.

Put yourselves out there as a place where black people can prosper

So when an executive is looking for an organisation where their career can grow, they see yours as welcoming.


The awards would celebrate and promote rising stars in the Bame business community, highlighting routinely unsung UK talent. But it would also act as a crucial role model – a way to show others, especially young people, that it’s possible to succeed and break free from damaging stereotypes. “If you look at our soaps, TV screens, or experts on the news, there’s little representation of [black] bankers, doctors or physicists,” she says. “This was an entirely positive movement to say ‘Hey, I know these people exist, do you?’ Because it might change your stereotypes just a little bit and accelerate the conversation.”

Eusebe and Chandauka had assumed the awards would only be “a little event – and then all of a sudden everyone just jumped on it”. Fast-forward to 2020, and the duo are now working with “leading scientists and professors at some of Britain’s great universities to examine what is happening to the talent in the UK”. It has since grown into a powerful change agent for the diversity agenda, launching fresh initiatives such as Middle Action Research, Bame Talent Accelerator and Bame In The Boardroom.

For Eusebe, diversity means celebrating difference and seeking it out. It is about aiding and encouraging that difference in order to make a stronger solution. Progress has been made, but there’s still a long way to go.

2022-11-mitigo 2022-11-mitigo
ICAS logo

Footer links

  • Contact us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Privacy notice
  • CA magazine

Connect with ICAS

  • Facebook (opens new window) Facebook Icon
  • Twitter (opens new window) Twitter Icon
  • LinkedIn (opens new window) LinkedIn Icon
  • Instagram (opens new window) Instagram Icon

ICAS is a member of the following bodies

  • Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (opens new window) Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies logo
  • Chartered Accountants Worldwide (opens new window) Chartered Accountants Worldwide logo
  • Global Accounting Alliance (opens new window) Global Accounting Alliance
  • International Federation of Accountants (opens new window) IFAC
  • Access Accountancy (opens new window) Access Acountancy

Charities

  • ICAS Foundation (opens new window) ICAS Foundation
  • SCABA (opens new window) scaba

Accreditations

  • ISO 9001 - RGB (opens new window)
© ICAS 2022

The mark and designation “CA” is a registered trade mark of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), and is available for use in the UK and EU only to members of ICAS. If you are not a member of ICAS, you should not use the “CA” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to accountancy, tax or insolvency services. The mark and designation “Chartered Accountant” is a registered trade mark of ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Chartered Accountants Ireland. If you are not a member of one of these organisations, you should not use the “Chartered Accountant” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to these services. Further restrictions on the use of these marks also apply where you are a member.

ICAS logo

Our cookie policy

ICAS.com uses cookies which are essential for our website to work. We would also like to use analytical cookies to help us improve our website and your user experience. Any data collected is anonymised. Please have a look at the further information in our cookie policy and confirm if you are happy for us to use analytical cookies: