“I am a big believer in the core of Thrive’s mission: well-being. And as a corporate CEO, who has started companies from scratch and worked inside big ones such as IBM and Oracle, my single most important ingredient to promote well-being for my team is simple—diversity.

Building diverse teams encourages individuals to appreciate and support all viewpoints, making business personal and allowing our natural empathy to care about individual well-being ahead of corporate goals. If the individuals inside of an organization are not well, chances are the long term corporate goals will suffer, too, even if the short term ones are being met. But if we have empathy for the well-being of our people, which happens naturally through diversity, our long term corporate goals will come to fruition.

Today’s tech companies are hyper-focused on STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and while these subjects feed the core building blocks in a tech company, I believe they are over-emphasized against the humanities and arts. Diversity demands not only gender and race equality, but knowledge equality, as well. And today there is a hyper obsession with the sciences and technology–to the point where many are predicting that most of our future jobs will only be available to those who pursue these subjects.

In a recent Ted Talk, I argued vigorously for the humanities and arts, even inside of our most prized technology companies. I believe they need to stay on equal footing with science and technology, for the well-being of all. Please take a look and let me know your thoughts!”

https://www.ted.com/talks/eric_berridge_why_tech_needs_the_humanities

Author(s)

  • Eric Berridge

    Coastal Cloud CEO

    Eric Berridge is a two-time author, TED speaker, and CEO of Coastal Cloud. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Bluewolf (acquired by IBM in 2016), a firm he built over two decades as the original and preeminent consultancy for Salesforce. Eric’s latest book, Customer Obsessed, redefines customer obsession for the tech era, and he continues to lead the conversation with other business leaders on the Customer Obsessed Podcast. He is an outspoken advocate for the arts and humanities, and his writing and speaking engagements focus on spreading awareness and support for the arts to improve education, creativity, and critical thinking to keep up with our evolving digital society. You can find him on LinkedIn to join the conversation.