Business Resource Groups, often also referred to as Affinity or Ethnic Resource groups, are an important component of organizations. For those of you who aren’t as familiar, business resource groups are typically composed of a group of employees who share a commonality (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation, age etc….) Ten years ago, corporate diversity was seen more as a good thing to have, but not as a necessity for corporate growth. Leaders often categorized business diversity initiatives with corporate giving and office philanthropy.

Today, company executives now realize that in order to survive and succeed in today’s competitive business environment, they have to bring diversity to the forefront of the company. The top executives and the employees have come to the realization that the introduction of different voices, with different perspectives, backgrounds, priorities and orientations will help identify opportunities that will yield success in new markets.  Here is an example of how one company applied this business intelligence, and saved $100 million in market research fees using its company’s business resource groups. Resource Groups & Marketing: DiversityInc Innovation Fest

Does your organization have business resource groups? If so, have they been used to help drive business results?

Source: Resource Groups 101: A Primer on Starting Them & Using Them for Business Goals