Hotel-casino operator MGM Resorts International’s latest report on its diversity initiatives is in some ways bittersweet.
The report, issued Thursday, was being put together this summer when the company’s former chairman and CEO, Terry Lanni , died at 68.
His accomplishments for MGM Resorts included establishing and championing MGM’s diversity programs, which he launched more than a decade ago at a time when the gaming industry faced questions about its commitment to equal opportunity in the workplace and to minority communities. The programs Lanni created would go on to become the most honored in the gaming industry.
"He infused diversity and inclusion into our culture and core business operations, and now MGM Resorts has become one of the leading models of diversity in corporate America," Thursday’s report said.
"Without a doubt, the greatest legacy he bequeathed us is our company’s diversity and inclusion initiative, rooted in the deep and abiding respect he held for all of humanity," says a note in this year’s diversity report by Chairman and CEO Jim Murren and board member and former U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman.
In addition to recognizing Lanni's influence, the report covers the company's achievements under its various diversity programs — including its formal "Diversity Champion" training of employees and managers, and community giving by the company and its employees targeted toward diverse organizations.
The report says that by the end of the year, the company will have trained 15,000 employees and managers in diversity since the program’s inception in 2000 — including 4,000 trained or to be trained since October 2010.
The training is geared toward boosting the performance of employees and managers by helping them embrace diversity in the workplace. Diversity education also provides business benefits by training workers to make people of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations and backgrounds feel welcome in company hotels, casinos and restaurants.
Elsewhere in the report, the company says efforts to find and hire minority and women-owned suppliers and contractors have led to more than $1 billion in nonconstruction spending by MGM resorts with such certified vendors since 2001. The company says it also has spent more than $1.5 billion for construction and design services with minority and women-owned businesses since 2001.
In 2010, spending under the initiative amounted to about 9 percent of biddable non-construction spending and about 13 percent of construction spending, the report says.
As to the business benefits of the programs, company convention sales executives Thursday said it has helped them book meetings — particularly by associations that value diversity and inclusion.
“We are in alignment with their goals,” said MaryAnn Sena-Edelin, director of diversity sales at MGM Resorts International.
Sena-Edelin's predecessor, Dzidra Junior, who now works as director of hotel sales at the Mirage, said that during her five years of focusing on sales to diverse groups, she made sure they were aware of MGM Resorts’ commitment to diversity.
“A lot of these organizations have missions that are specific to that,” she said. “Customers are interested in what we are doing and want to learn about it.”
The company in Thursday’s report didn’t quantify the dollar amount of business it believes is tied directly to diversity initiatives, but the executives noted some recent successes for MGM Resorts.
They include landing UNITY: Journalists of Color, a group of minority journalists that plans to hold its 2012 conference of 10,000 to 12,000 people at Mandalay Bay; as well as the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights and advocacy group also coming to Mandalay Bay next year with its annual conference and Latino Family Expo.
The La Raza conference is expected to bring 3,000 to 4,000 people to the conference, while the Expo is projected to draw 10,000 to 15,000 people, including local residents.