What tips and teachings do you need to be a successful global worker? What tips will help an organization to manage diverse ethnicities? The panelists will offer management skills, work processes, evaluation tips, and basic ground rules as they share and discuss their actual experiences.

The impressive Miwa Kato led today's panel in front of a packed room. She began by introducing the challenges of multinational management styles. She asked the panelists, all leaders in diversity, to provide a brief info and explain what diversity meant to them.

For Ms. Vodusek, it's simple“. Diversity is smart business.” Having lived and worked around the world, she is used to diversity and has seen how it helped to grow her business. Mr. Yagi, who spent 19 years at the Japanese steel company NKK, described the company as very traditional and old-fashioned. In his 13 years at GE Japan, he learned that diversity is simply a strategy to make the company healthy and global. He said that in management, there are many difficult questions and answers, but diversity is not one of them.“If you don't drive gender diversity, you won't win since you ignore half of the best talents. It's that simple to me.”

Dr. Reiko Abe, president and director at Oriental Consultants Global Pvt. Ltd., shared her difficult story with a great deal of laughter. As an engineer, she had to leave Japan to find work and landed in Bangalore, India. She then oversaw a massive transit project in Indonesia, and returned to India again before being able to find work as a female engineer in Japan.

Ms. Kato asked crucial questions: What can the organization do to facilitate more inclusion and greater diversity? What does it take for individuals to be a part of that change?

Concerning what the organization can do, the panelists provided some pointers and gave great advice on how to lead a diverse team. Ms. Vodusek described her hotel's diverse range of employees, and how this has benefited their business to make The Peninsula Tokyo one of the best hotels in Japan. She recalled her past work experiences in Japan, from being the only international staff member when she was a room attendant, then as a director who was initially not welcomed for being ‘a female’ before being named the first female GM of a luxury hotel in Japan. Mr. Yagi sees diversity as a strategy, one which requires a target. He shared how he worked with his boss to increase diversity percentages, providing some keen insight into how to tackle such a dilemma through smart and strategic thinking. Dr. Abe drew laughs when she admitted to never thinking about diversity, even when she was the only female manager in her company in both India and Japan. She provided statistics on female managers in her company and some of their hiring processes.

The Q&A session centered on cultural and gender diversity. Dr. Abe received some questions pertaining to the lack of women in the STEM fields. Recalling her difficulties as a woman in STEM, she described today's hiring processes and encouraged future female engineers by saying,“ Woman, or man, it does not matter. You just hire the good engineer.” In regards to cultural diversity and multinational management, Ms. Vodusek offered two integral points, sharing her own unique experience. Ms. Kato closed the Q&A with a reflection on the importance of equality not just being about men and women, but over a broader range that includes nationality, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation.