Keynote Speech Nyenrode - Diversity Day 2022

Use the Dark Side of the Force

Dear all,

Thank you for inviting me to give this keynote on this beautiful day. 

It’s a special day for Nyenrode as today marks the day that you embark on a new journey to explore diversity and inclusion (D&I). Because Nyenrode as one the biggest and assumably most prestigious business universities in the Netherlands has signed a Diversity Charter of the Social Economic Council of the Netherlands, the SER.

And as a Dutch citizen of both Surinamese African-creole and Jewish descent I congratulate Nyenrode for this major step.

Because a new dawn arises, a new opportunity to find a better business education future is at hand. 

But also a new journey to explore the unknown, within others and… ourselves.

Let me begin by telling you a bit about my own journey concerning diversity and inclusion of the last few years.

Diversity and Inclusion is valuable not only from a social perspective but also economically 

It must have been sometime in the fall of 2020 that I was approached by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) in response to a very small article about me in the national newspaper Algemeen Dagblad about "boardroom racism". And after a conversation with the Director- General of EZK, I was asked to conduct an Exploration: how the government can aid to improve D&I in the ecosystem of innovative entrepreneurship - startups, scale-ups and corporate ventures. 

Initially I had the illusion that I was going to have about 20 conversations, but eventually I had more than 250 personal and intense conversations. This involved not only Dutch people of color but also women who supposedly did not come from the "right" backgrounds, people from the LGBTQ+ or disabled community or persons who would be “on the spectrum”. Basically anyone who doesn't have the 7 check marks according to my dear acquaintance Joris Luyendijk.

A number of recommended directions followed from that Exploration to allow untapped entrepreneurial talent to flourish and to provide better access to multiple forms of capital. After all, in addition to financial capital, this also concerns cultural capital (for example, the language needed to successfully complete financing applications), but also symbolic capital (access to greater visibility and honorable recognition of achievements) and also social capital (access to networks with new resources and knowledge).

During the Exploration, the following insights also emerged: the importance of a solid data infrastructure (e.g. on measurements of the exclusion of talent), but also that people themselves want to get started from a position of empowerment. And that there should be more transparency about the progress with regard to D&I that organisations are making, especially those that use public funds and government instruments. 

Side-note: there is a persistent narrative that organisations cannot collect data on ethnicity. 

This is incorrect. 

Depending on intent and consent, actually a lot is legally possible. Fortunately, the SER has written a guideline about this called PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA FOR DIVERSITY POLICY.

All the insights from the exploration led to the next phase of concrete steps with a pragmatic or action-oriented approach to the ecosystem: the Dutch New Narrative Lab Foundation. An initiative supported by EZK to foster the hidden gem of D&I in innovative entrepreneurship in the Benelux and Germany, with economic ties to the Dutch economy. For entrepreneurs from both underrepresented and overrepresented groups who recognise the innovative power of diversity & inclusion and want to monetise it professionally.

Let me explain the name a bit. Dutch is of course clear.  Lab stands for that there must be room for experiments to be able to make mistakes and learn from them.  But New Narrative is all about making more people able to recognise themselves in the story or image of innovative entrepreneurship. So not just white men who tick the 7 checkboxes - with or without hoodies on.

I’m grateful that Jean-Marc ter Riet, Raisa Ghazi (also present here) and many others have joined the Dutch New Narrative Lab initiative. Because it is clear that the Netherlands is missing out on an opportunity to use D&I for the advancement of businesses and broad prosperity.

The resulting economic damage not only relates to health care cost but because D&I also leads to higher financial results this also means opportunity loss.

According to the Dutch Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) more than a quarter (27%) of Dutch residents experience discrimination. Racism, sexism and discrimination in general are a form of interpersonal trauma, directed from one person to another person.

The consequences of perceived discrimination are major: people can withdraw from society, lose confidence in institutions or drop out when it comes to education or looking for work. 

According to the publication Oneworld research in the Netherlands also shows that racism increases the risk of depression and anxiety disorders, among other things. 

On the other hand,  let’s have a look at the economic benefits of D&I.

Studies by globally renowned consulting firms such as Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and the World economic forum show that  through D&I innovation and creativity are initiated, which leads to 20 to even 36% better business results. Especially if you look at the diversity axes gender and cultural diversity, which are in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) 5 and 10.

A study by McKinsey in Germany also showed that if more energy is put into getting  underrepresented groups such as women, people with a migration background, but also scientists, this can lead to an increase of as many as 3000 new companies. In the Netherlands, based on the relative size of the population, this could lead to 600 new companies with an average of 14,000 new jobs.

There are several reasons why innovative companies are already investing in diversity and inclusivity. A good example of Dutch soil is booking.com, which has become a great international success due to its better connection to local markets.

In the startup world there is still a myth that there is a shortage of diverse talent. 

But a survey of 260,000 companies by Kaufman Fellows, an prominent educational network and leadership development program for investors, reveals not only that there is an overrepresentation of white (mainly male) startup teams and an underrepresentation of ethnically diverse teams. But also that the white startup teams are almost 350% more likely to receive funding.

And that is remarkable because the ethnically diverse founder and management teams realise - simply put, up to 30% to 65% better results at exits (e.g. selling the company).

When it comes to intersectionality, for example women and black, an even worse trend is noticed concerning investments in that group (0.27%), while the companies they set up are less likely to go bankrupt and are also more capable of dealing with toxic cultures (also relative to companies of white female founders by the way).

Opportunities remain here when it comes to mixing cultural backgrounds. As mentioned, in addition to facilitating financial capital, it is also about stimulating mixed networks that lead to mixed teams. This achieves the so-called diversity bonus. 

A well-known scientific theory that offers solace in this regard is that of the American Stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter, who indicates that the strongest growth of networks, and the associated positive opportunities, is caused by a strong focus on the so-called weak-ties.

People, often on the outside of your network, who are often different from you, but with whom you do share important values ​​and who can introduce you to new networks and thus new resources, knowledge and insights.

In the more than 250 conversations I've had during the Exploration for EZK with underrepresented founders, one of the many outliers, hidden gems was most definitely: Tyrell Pantophlet.

Tyrell is, together with Victor Okoro, the founder of the sustainability solution PLAEX. In short they’ve built an intelligent waste bin, a sort of robot that contributes to the recycling of waste without you having to sort and separate everything yourself. And this is impactful. Because more than 60 percent of the waste collected would be recyclable, if disposed of correctly. 

Quite impressive, 60 percent. But what is even more impressive is Tyrell's motivation to even start his venture. 

Tyrell comes from Sint Maarten, an island in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately 300 km east of Puerto Rico, and partly of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, partly French. An island which, amongst other economic issues, has been struggling with the disastrous after effects of the hurricane Irma. Although the main dump site is more than 30 years old and growing fast (currently stands at 42 meters), it was hurricane Irma that caused a 30% growth spurt in the size of the dump. And even worse: This Dump regularly catches fire. Its smoke causes all kinds of respiratory diseases like asthma and lung cancer. Even some diseases unknown to medical doctors... 

Tyrell, who formerly was an international Taekwondo champion at a very young age, got frustrated when he realised at one point that nobody seemed to truly solve this Dump disaster.  That was the moment that he decided to be a tech entrepreneur. To both find a sustainability solution for waste and create enough wealth to fix the Dump of his beloved island.

I'm grateful that Tyrell, amongst many others, has shared his personal story with me. Stories like his give an unprecedented insight in the resilience of humans to overcome (seemingly) insurmountable situations. And his story, certainly in these troubled times, gives hope. Hope that entrepreneurship can be a force for good and a confirmation of the adamant conviction that diversity brings broad prosperity, for all.

The story of the startup entrepreneur Tyrell's can be seen as an heroic but personally specific tale, but what do stories have to do with entrepreneurship in general?

Entrepreneurship is a transformative journey 

I can still recall it as if it was yesterday. My best friend, Silvan, who I have known since secondary school, a gymnasium in Amsterdam, got married to his Russian girlfriend.

At school Silvan and I not only had great interest in the classical languages but also in school subjects related to science such as chemistry and physics. But most of all we found each other in our love for science fiction movies and series such as Lost in space, Star trek and above all Star Wars.

It was a great honour that he and his wife-to-be asked me to play an important role in their wedding: they asked me to actually marry them … as a special civil servant. But it was also a heavy task to create a speech that would apply to both of them. I knew that they also both loved movies… and traveling. So what was the connection here?

Well, while writing their wedding speech I bumped into a quite interesting concept. People like American mythologist Joseph Campbell or the Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp have studied the patterns common to “stories across all cultures of the world”.

This is called the Monomyth or the Hero's Journey. Let’s have a look at that.

Stories around the world seem to contain most of the 17 stages that the scientists Campbell and Propp identified. We're not going to discuss all these stages today, because of time constraints. Nevertheless, there are three main stages in the Hero's Journey I'd like to highlight: 'One, Departure' 'Two, Initiation' (in Dutch inwijding, ontgroening), and 'Three, Return'. 

The hero is special, but rarely a perfect person, although it seems that he or she possesses some secret or special powers. But above all it is someone who has the guts to embark on a journey to the unknown.

Just like an innovative entrepreneur or an educational institute diving in D&I.

The publication Entrepreneur Europe states: “Entrepreneurship is a path, a lifestyle and ultimately also a journey. You begin, face challenges and, eventually through struggle and hard work - your own initiation -, you succeed. Whether you're about to begin your path, or are perhaps floundering in the dark and stormy woods along the way, knowing the three basic elements of a good story just might help you survive entrepreneurship.”

The hero (or entrepreneur) embarks on a quest, faces challenges and dangers, becomes victorious after a decisive crisis, and, in the end, comes home changed, transformed.

The entrepreneurs' paths surely sound like the quest of Luke Skywalker. It also sounds a lot like many of the entrepreneurs you might know and love. Much like the hero of a great story, entrepreneurs or business men and women too are undertaking a journey of heroic proportions. Knowing the three stages of the hero's journey just might help you identify where you are on the entrepreneur's path and help you reach your intended goal. Remember, it's not just the destination, it's the journey.

On this journey we need companionship to complete our journey. And different people play different parts in our narrative. To help us to combat the evil we encounter.  Even in ways we don’t expect. Shall I tell you a story that I'm a bit embarrassed to talk about? Can you keep a secret? 

Use the Power of the Dark side of the Force (Introspection)

After I sold my interest in several companies I was able to have a sabbatical from 2013 till 2018. It must have been at the beginning of my sabbatical that I bought a new car and was driving with my best friend Silvan through a neighborhood in the Bijlmer. 

For those who do not know the Bijlmer. Following Suriname's independence in 1975, many of the inhabitants of this former colony of the Netherlands migrated to Dutch soil. The government placed a substantial number of them in affordable social housing in the Bijlmermeer. The neighborhood once had a very high crime rate, but this has decreased dramatically in recent years. The area has always been home to many different nationalities simultaneously. Throughout the years, claims of rising social segregation or ghettoization have been both denied and pre-empted by local governments.

Now back to the story of me driving with my best friend Silvan in de Bijlmer.

We saw some men from Surinamese descent gathering in a large group near the point of destination where we were heading to park my car. We had to pass this large group of people to reach our destination. And when nearing this group. Well, guess what I did? …. 

In a reflex I pressed the close-door button of my brand new car <click>. And my companion on this trip, my best friend, was flabbergasted and blurted out “OMG What are you doing dude? Closing your car because you see a group of black men? You do realise that you are just a black as these guys and probably bigger than most of them don’t you?” 

My best friend called me out. 

And what’s even worse. After taking a closer look at the group of men we saw that all of them had birds in cages in their hands… and I realised that these men were actually having a typical Surinamese tradition: a singing birds contest. And at that moment I realised how I myself, as Dutch citizen with a dark skin, have been conditioned, maybe even indoctrinated by the many negative stereotypes in Dutch media and narratives related to neighbourhoods as the Bijlmer. It also made me conscious about the struggle that the average white Dutch Joe and Jane would need to overcome to see through their own bias. What chance do they have in general not to perceive the other as the enemy?

Concerning the Bijlmer birds incident. The great philosopher, Dave Chappelle, would say in his show: “Was I being racist against myself?” 

Haha, no but in all seriousness. This “singing bird incident” was most definitely a wake-up call for me.

It really woke me up!

Because understanding the unknown other, the enemy, is also something that can bring you greater self-insight.

As said in the Hero’s Journey there are different people who play different but typical roles in your journey of discovery and transformation. Jung, the psychologist by which Joseph Cambell the author of the Hero's Journey was heavily influenced, called these roles archetypes.

There are many different archetypes such as the helper, the guardian angel and many more. It’s actually just as Prince Constantijn mentioned in his speech at the opening of Nyenrode you need a great team. To successfully complete your entrepreneurial journey.

But the most underrated and least understood character in the hero’s journey team is the enemy to face. 

The enemy is symbolised by the shadow.

The shadow is an archetype that consists of life instincts and exists as part of the unconscious mind. Composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, and shortcomings. The shadow forms out of our attempts to adapt to cultural norms and expectations. A composition of those qualities, impulses, and emotions that we cannot bear for others to see and thus cast into the hidden domain of ourselves.

Although the shadow is an innate part of the human being, the vast majority of us are willfully blind regarding its existence. We hide our negative qualities, not only from others but from ourselves. To do this we often criticise and condemn others to ensure our focus does not fall on our own faults and destructive tendencies. We go through life with a false air of moral superiority and a belief that while others act immorally and destructively, we ourselves are wholly virtuous and always in the right.

When our shadow remains unconscious, it wreaks havoc in our life. Repressed contents do not merely disappear, but rather they function independently of our conscious awareness. In other words, the shadow has the capacity to override our conscious ego and take possession of our being, exerting control over our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. 

According to Jung we must become conscious of our shadow qualities and integrate them into our conscious personality, in order to avoid being the victim of “shadow-possession”; accepting our shadow with open arms not as abhorrent aspects of our self, but as necessary and vital parts of our being. Toward this end Jung emphasized it is useful to realize that the task in life is not to become perfect, but to become whole. And as wholeness entails both good and evil, light and darkness, the achievement of wholeness in personality development requires we assimilate our shadow into our conscious personality.

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” - Carl Jung

What is especially interesting is the psychologist's idea that the shadow contains not just destructive aspects of the personality, but also potent, creative, and powerful capabilities. 

For the sake of our personal development, we must, therefore, become more aware of our shadow and open our mind to the possibility that maybe we are not so friendly, righteous, and moral as we think. We must consider that perhaps there are unconscious aspects of ourselves driving our behavior “behind the scenes”. We must look down into our depths and realize that our conscious ego is not always in control, but is often overtaken by the power of our shadow.

Of course in Star Wars the power of the shadow is represented by the dark side of the force manifested in Darth Vader who was tempted to do evil. Because he didn't understand he needed to do some innerwork to process his youth traumas. But also many heroic characters in Star Wars seem to be tempted by the Dark side of the Force and learn from that experience.

Due to social pressure to eradicate prejudice, people often find it easier to “pretend” that they’re not racist/homophobic/xenophobic/sexist, etc., than to do the deep work it would take to override or offset particularly destructive stereotypes they may be harboring.

But as said earlier the hero or heroine (female for hero) is also seldomly perfect.

This aspect of accepting imperfection seems also relevant with regards to the origin of the whole concept of the Hero's Journey itself. 

Because, unfortunately, we can not exclude the possibility that Joseph Campbell was a racist.

So what to do now?

“Perfection is the willingness to be imperfect” - Lao Tzu

It is not always just men who fill the lists of the most powerful people in society. See Johanna Borski from the late 18th century who earned gold and in the meantime saved the Dutch National Bank from destruction.

In the time of Johanna doing business was a male affair, forbidden for women. Only widows were allowed to take over their husband's business. But that was not easy either due to all kinds of mechanisms excluding women. Nevertheless, after the death of her husband Borski became the most powerful person in the Dutch financial center and was even called 'the funder of the Netherlands', because she bought two million guilders worth of shares in De Nederlandsche Bank. The bank had been founded by King William I, with the aim of using credit to boost the new Dutch Nation’s economy.

But Borski also owned many plantations with hundreds of enslaved people. 

Narratives, especially dominant narratives, have the power to influence people. In relation to the colonial past, the emphasis of the dominant narrative is on the Eurocentric white male perspective. This focus lacks crucial counter narratives from women of color.

“Where would Dutch women be without Aletta Jacobs?” With these words Aletta Jacobs is introduced into the Dutch canon. Aletta is known in our collective memory as a leading champion of women's suffrage  (vrouwenkiesrecht). Less well known is her colonial ideology, imbued with racialized stereotypes. This is evident in her letters, which she wrote during her trip to various African and Asian countries. The letters discuss Aletta’s ideas with regard to 'civilization' and colonialism. She infantilized black people and expressed herself negatively about 'racial mixing'. 

For example, Aletta wrote: "Mrs Catt has already expressed the wish to receive such a small ni***r from us on her birthday, but it may not get any bigger." So although she made a case for the patriarchal power, her own "superiority" was strongly present in her reasoning.

And then of course you have the story of one of the greatest pioneers in the industrial revolution. In 1913 Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. This innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to just one and a half. 

What is less known is that Henry Ford was a racist. 

When asked whether the name of the Ford Foundation is still appropriate, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker says the following.

“Henry Ford, was an anti-Semite and a racist, but also a brilliant industrialist who was the first capitalist to name inequality as a problem. “Henry Ford was a complicated, flawed genius. I am able to hold both of those narratives…the duality of who we are as a people cannot be denied and we must come to grips with how to hold both of those narratives” - Ford Foundation President Darren Walker

So this aspect of accepting duality in narratives, ourselves and other persons was also one of the main take-aways in Obama's speech on “wokeness”. He stated: 

“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly. The world is messy; there are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you.” - Barack Hussein Obama II

The word ‘woke’ comes from African American vernacular (slang) and it means that you are aware of racial discrimination and its consequences. During the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, the word was used to describe a person who understood the unfairness of excessive use of force by the police when dealing with African Americans. After the Black Lives Matter issue left the center stage, the word ‘woke’ entered the mainstream culture defined as being into social justice in general.

Unfortunately, the word ‘woke’ has degraded into an easy tribal identification meme, in which agreeing with a limited set of identity politics issues makes you a member of the club of the ‘enlightened people’. This has caused the word to become a derisive term in urban slang:

According to the Urban Dictionary, the word ‘woke’ means: the act of being very pretentious about how much you care about a social issue.

It is evident that racism and gender justice issues aren’t just windmills-to-fight for Don Quixote. These are real issues that should be taken seriously. What turns them into windmills is the way they are often used to create division. Our sense of outrage seems to be very prescribed. If you want to be part of the “enlightened crowd”, any small dissent is canceled. The result is a uniformity in opinion that doesn’t encourage a belief in the health of our society and any social injustice outrage based on critical thinking has been greatly diminished. 

We are allowing others to think for us and feel happy and accepted…by conforming.

Indeed we are social animals, we tend to relish belonging to what we perceive is the right tribe, but we are also endowed with logic, self-reflection, emotional intelligence and critical thinking, and these should help us redefine being ‘woke’. 

The journey of D&I is a monstrous task itself. And the perceived monster is the enemy, the shadow, the unknown aspects of your own personality. The discovery of that inner unknown is the path to deeper self understanding, but also to authentically connect with others.  And to growth, personally, and through connections with others, also society at large and businesses.

This expansion in our mutual consciousness opens a path - in both personal lives and business - that will enable us to move from being woke to being awakened. 

Without a doubt you, Eun-Mi, Uzoma, Koen and all you students and alumni of Nyenrode who choose to embark on this new journey of exploring D&I, you are Brave. By formulating new and uncertain steps through the signed Diversity & Inclusion Charter of the SER.

Without a doubt just like Tyrell, Luke, Johanna, Aletta and Henry you, Eun-Mi, Uzoma, Koen and all you students and alumni of Nyenrode who choose to embark on this new journey of exploring D&I You all are … heroes. 

Heroes in a quest for meaningful connections, and sustainable business leadership.

Science has proven that embracing diversity stimulates innovation and improvement in organizational results. For innovation we need to think outside the box. But thinking outside the box also means creating space for other “boxes”. This way innovation can flow freely and space also reduces the pain for persons to be imprisoned in boxes that they are placed by others or themselves.

You know... Just after I conducted the Exploration for the Ministry of Economic Affairs I told Alice Ode, project leader and initiator of SER Diversity in Business a secret. That I have never cried as much in my mlife as  in the last months of the Diversity Exploration for the Ministry. When I spoke to more than 250 founders of all kinds of underrepresented groups. Most of them shared their most humiliating and embarrassing moments with me, in confidence. Alice appreciated me sharing my emotional response to so much openness, she said :“It's great that you’ve shared this with me, Ruben. Most men would be scared to be seen as a wussy but you are not and the fact that you're sharing this creates space. Space for others to show themselves, to be seen as they truly are.” 

I’ve always remembered this important insight concerning creating space that Alice has given me.

Dear people at Nyenrode, it is therefore my wish and hope that while you are on your new D&I journey you keep your critical thinking mind alive, to reflect on your own shadow. And through the insights of this inner work you create space for deep connections with “the other”.

To build bridges between all team members for a new inclusive narrative.

To use your newly profound consciousness and awareness as your guiding torch.

To see the difference between being woke or being awakened.

I wish you success and wisdom on your D&I Hero's Journey. 

“May the Force be with you!”