[ColdNoMore]

A number of companies with past problems...are now setting the best examples. (Click Here)

The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month elicited statements denouncing racial inequality from major corporations with past scandals and legal settlements tied to alleged discrimination, including Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Walmart (WMT).

Some of those companies have been “awakened” by current unrest over racial inequality, says Yale University professor of management Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who posits that large companies that faced past allegations of discrimination have often responded best in the aftermath of Floyd’s death due perhaps to the criticism they once received for their shortcomings.

Last week, Sonnenfeld convened a virtual discussion of race relations with over 300 chief executives, mayors, and government officials.

“Companies that historically had the biggest problems are often setting the best models right now,” he says. “Maybe it’s from litigation or legislation or people in the media.”

“Some of the irony is that large lumbering older giants have been awakened,” adds Sonnenfeld, who also serves as the senior associate dean of leadership programs at the Yale University School of Management. “Maybe sometimes they’ve been punished in the past.

They have found religion, for the most part.”

Now who in the world can think...this is a bad thing?

Methinks however, there will certainly...be some.