The Rediff US Special/ Arthur J Pais

Indian food is no stranger to Stephen W Sanger, the CEO and chairman of General Mills, one of the largest food companies in the world.

Sanger, whose best-selling products include Wheaties, Cheerios and Yoplait yogurt, has enjoyed Indian cuisine in London and New York over many years.

But today, when he has lunch at an Indian restaurant in Minneapolis, a few miles from the General Mills headquarters, he will be doing something very special.

For he will break naan or chapati with half a dozen of his desi employees who belong to the South Asian American Network at General Mills.

"He surely wants to know more about Indian cuisine," says Chuck Chakrabarti, R&D vice president at the company. "But he is more keen to get insights into Indian culture."

Just the other day, General Mills created culinary history when for the first time in the 50-year-old history of its Betty Crocker book division, an Indian cookbook, authored by Raghavan Iyer, a local chef, was published.

Knowing about cultures of General Mills employees is a serious passion for 54-year-old Sanger. He is not worried if a particular ethnic group has a handful of employees or hundreds.

His company has just about 50 Indians (out of a total 2,000) employees in Minneapolis but Sanger, who grew up in the Midwest eating mostly bland food, has agreed to have a new experience today.

The other day, he had lunch with the representatives of his Hispanic employees.

"I learned a few things that day," Sanger says. "They told me culturally they are more likely to have a degree of personal interest in any business, that they expect to know personally the people they are dealing with," he continues.

"That is quite the opposite of the stick-to-business Scandinavian ethos we have had here for decades."

In a state where over 91 percent of the population is white, General Mills has over 12 percent of its employees from minority communities. The number is far bigger when you include women, and the high positions they hold in the company, Malathi Nair, a scientist, points out.

Recently the company won the Catalyst Award for its initiative to advance women's careers. While the percentage of women corporate officers across Fortune 500 stands at 12.5 percent, Sanger points out, at General Mills, 18 per cent of its officers are female

"Knowing about other cultures and diversities, helps to create a better workplace," he says.

"I would love to see General Mills like the rest of America," he says. "We want to have much more diversity at this place."

Diversity is not just a politically convenient word at General Mills, says Vivian Callaway, who heads its diversity efforts.

"From encouraging our minority groups to have their own associations to organizing programs for them to coping with corporate culture and enhancing their skills, we truly enjoy making diversity something to be appreciated."

The diversity programs at General Mills would not have made a big impact but for the leadership of Sanger, Callaway adds.

Engineering one of the biggest mergers in the food industry brought Sanger enormous amount of attention from the business world and media last year.

Sanger led a $10.5 billion deal to acquire its rival, Pillsbury, and doubled the size of General Mills to roughly $13 billion in sales.

While Sanger naturally sees the acquisition as a huge challenge, he makes time for other priorities including increasing diversity at the company.

There is nothing "startling" about his interest in multiculturalism, he suggests.

Did his interest in rock music give Sanger a taste of world cultures?

Sanger, who as the president of the student union at DePaul University booked such rock groups as The Temptations for campus concerts, dreamt of going into music business at one time.

But he says he was curious about other cultures much before he got passionate about rock music. "I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood in Cincinnati," he recollects. His ancestors are of Scottish and Welsh background but he had friends from mainstream and minority communities.

"There was a good degree of comfort and appreciation of people who came from a different background," he says.

"We judge our co-workers for what they do," he continues. "But it helps a lot to know about other people's cultures and tradition."

"One of the good things about diversity appreciation is that you focus less on habits, dress, and food (of minorities) but more on their contribution as employees."

"I am absolutely convinced that a team of people encompassing different life experiences and different points of view will consistently out-innovate a very homogeneous team," he says.

It also makes good business sense.

It is crucial to achieve "a broad, diverse mix of backgrounds and viewpoints at all levels of management and across our 10,000 General Mills employees," he said in an address to Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility.

"It's important for a lot of reasons, but perhaps the biggest one is that diverse viewpoints produce innovation. And innovation is the force that drives our business."

Having a diverse workforce also helps in knowing the increasingly diverse consumer field.

"Our products are designed to have a broad appeal," he says. "Now, if you are selling Rolls Royces, perhaps you don't need to worry about consumer diversity. But we can't do it. There is no one in America who is not a potential customer of our products."

"In fact, within a few years we will be able to say there is no one in the world who is not a potential consumer of our products."

Sanger, who has been the General Mills head honcho for over six years, banished the dark suit and white shirt uniform at the company, shut down the executive dining room, and started airing popular music on the company jet.

"Will there be Bollywood music -- or at least some Ravi Shankar?" a reporter asks him.

"Not a bad idea," he says, with a huge smile.

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