Member Profile: Greg Almeida — The Providence Foundation

Twenty years ago, Greg Almieda saw a need for a new department at the marketing firm he worked for in Boston. With rapidly changing demographics across the nation, it became apparent that if corporations wanted to stay engaged with their workforce and audiences, they’d need to incorporate new strategies. “There were a slew of projections based on the 2000 Census about what the country was going to look like in the upcoming 30, 40, 50 years,” says Almieda.

Almieda launched what was known then as an “ethnic marketing” division at his firm, where he found that there was a need for an expanded set of services for many of his clients. After the initial investment, the firm wasn’t ready to back an expansion to include intentional strategies for diversity and inclusion.

This was in 2001, and Greg Almieda responded by founding Global View Communications. GVC focuses on implementing strategies across leadership engagement, supplier diversity, workforce development, and communications to provide data driven solutions with proven results for diversification and inclusivity. In 2004, it became a standalone company.

“By 2010, we began to see the ‘business case phase’,” explains Almieda. Through financial research, economic modeling, and competitive analysis, GVC discovered that consultants and internal marketing divisions saw a need for diversity initiatives to be integrated into the business’ organization.

“We were able to prove the concept but also validate the investment. As we moved through the next decade, those business cases became business plans, those business plans became initiatives, and a lot of it got executed around consumer marketing, and workforce.”

Almieda was seeing that companies began to realize that there wasn’t a lot of strategic thinking around diversity and inclusivity. It was executed in communications, in advertising, and in recruitment programs, but there wasn’t any strategic thought or rigor in strategy to focus and spend time on diversification and inclusivity. Companies were beginning to work towards making changes in their operations, but no one knew whether or not it was working.

“As our relationships and organizations began to change, and we started to go further and further up the pyramid, starting with regional managers, then divisional Vice Presidents, on to Senior VPS, and CEOs, one of things we began to hear is ‘We don’t know if it’s working. How do we know if it’s working or not?’”

Almieda thinks diversity and inclusion initiatives are unlikely to yield measurable results without affecting the overall business strategy. “As we began looking at the strategic business plans in most cases, the mention of diversity was missing. In some cases, it wasn’t even a core value or of focus. We said, well, you can’t know if it's working because you haven’t declared it a priority.”

By this point, GVC had the capability to do in-depth assessments of corporations’ diversity and inclusion practices and that ended up taking over a majority of the business practices .

GVC proposes services based on a company’s need. There’s an initial discovery and research process, where through a series of questionnaires and assessments, it is determined whether or not it's a good fit. It’s also important to understand whether a company has the capacity to do the work.

“We come back with a proposal around how we either validate the issues that have been identified, or change, or challenge those, and figure it out from there, what the process of the engagement is going to look like, and what areas we’ll help them with. We have four practice areas, diversity and inclusion business strategy, digital and social media practice, data and analytics market research, and then a total market employment brand. Everything we do has a data or digital component to it.”

GVC goes beyond performative displays of inclusion by investigating the structural components of a corporation, and determining how the operational context and internal dynamics can net positive outcomes for the business.

“A lot of these corporations put themselves out there by making these statements in support of Black Lives Matter or condemning the violence, and people say ‘that’s great, but what have you done up to this point, or what are you doing now to insure that systemic racism doesn’t happen any longer?’ It’s an interesting time for our work. People are seeing more and more that now is the time for a strategy.”

GVC also performs analysis of the external environment businesses are operating in. “As you might imagine, right now we’re helping a lot of our clients to understand this world of 2020, and how rapidly things are changing . . . the conversation in terms of accountability is moving away from police and municipalities, and moving to what corporations are doing.”

By being intentional with improvements throughout the years, GVC finds that they are now in an era of specialization. “We’ve really figured out and determined our areas of focus.” says Almeida.

“We’re in an environment around this issue like no other time. On some level, it impacts all of us. For some, more strongly than others. Whether it’s social, business operations, or employee culture. This thing is moving so rapidly the reality is corporations need help. And we’re here to help them.”

GVCs clients. They have also worked with BCBSRI, Akami, Putnam, and Tufts Healthplan.

Greg Almieda is the founder of Global View Communications, and is on the TPF Board of Directors. He is also the chair of our Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

Member Profile: Greg Almieda, Founder of Global View Communications