US-based Working Mother magazine has recently evaluated the presence and prominence of coloured women in the US corporate world and has drawn up a list of the best companies. The list has been made primarily on the basis of diversity programmes for such employees.
The companies were chosen mainly on factors like representation, recruitment and retention of women of colour.
The magazine said it noticed a dramatic increase in the number of women of colour, who are senior managers. Also, women of colour represented 13 per cent of all new hires last year, 14 per cent of all employees, and 7 per cent of top 20 per cent earners at the winning firms.
The list includes two big American conglomerates -- PepsiCo and Citigroup.
According to the magazine, PepsiCo has about 10 per cent employees who are 'women of colour', with seven per cent of them being executives/managers.
Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup has a higher representation of women of colour in its ranks, making up 22 per cent of the total employees. However, when it comes to executives or managers, there is only about four per cent of such people.
Noting that nearly 28 per cent of new hires last year at the Citigroup were women of colour, the report said the figure was up from 25 per cent in 2006.
Other prominent names in the '2008 Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women' list include Colgate-Palmolive (13 per cent), Credit Suisse (14 per cent), Deloitte (16 per cent), Ernst & Young (17 per cent), IBM (8 per cent), MetLife (14 per cent), PricewaterhouseCoopers (16 per cent) and Wal-Mart (20 per cent).
To know more about these companies, read on. . . .
Pepsico (10% employees are women with colour)
PepsiCo is a conglomerate that manufactures, markets and sells a wide variety of carbonated and non-carbonated beverages and snacks.
The company is headquartered in Purchase, New York while its research and development headquarters are at Valhalla, New York.
The Pepsi Cola Company began in 1898, but it only became known as PepsiCo when it merged with Frito Lay in 1965.
Indra Nooyi is the conglomerate's chief executive officer since 2006.
PepsiCo owns five different billion-dollar brands. These are Pepsi, Tropicana, Frito-Lay, Quaker, and Gatorade. The company owns many other brands as well.
The company's net revenue as on March 22, 2008, stood at $8,333 million as against $7,350 million in March 24, 2007.
Image: A PepsiCo worker watches over a delivery of the soft drinks to a supermarket in Beijing.
Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
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