The Best of the Best (BoB) Conference hosted by Avtar & Seramount every year, sees leaders, HR professionals, and DEI practitioners from across India coming together to discuss innovative practices in DEI. BoB 2024 was no different. Featuring various panel discussions, the conference threw light on different DEI themes – from navigating intersectionality and ensuring inclusive communication to building neuro-inclusive workplaces, embracing allyship, and many more. One of the most insightful discussions was the keynote conversation between Sandip Patel, Managing Director IBM India & South Asia, and Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder-President of the Avtar Group.
Sandip highlighted that DEI is deep-rooted at IBM and how it is seen not “as a thing to do” but is naturally embedded into every practice. He also emphasized that while there may be global mandates and trends, it is critical to understand that every market has unique needs. He pointed out that there are specific requirements for the Indian ecosystem, where intersectionality plays a critical role. “You have to make it real for the environment you are operating in,” he said.
Dr Saundarya spoke about how diversity and unity are at cross-purposes with each other. She explored how companies can handle this contrast and stressed the need for unified diversity, the key takeaway from the conference’s central theme ‘The Prism of Diversity’.
The conversation also covered one of the most pressing concerns today – the advent of AI. Research has revealed that AI is more likely to replace low-skilled roles than specialized jobs. Since women engage more in foundational jobs, there is widespread fear that AI may affect women, and bring down even the little bit of gender diversity in the workplace. Mr Patel allayed this fear by saying that AI must not be seen as a threat. “AI is there to augment human intelligence. AI can’t replace humans. AI is also going to create more jobs more than it eliminates,” he said. He insisted on the need for women to get skilled in new dimensions like prompt engineering and developing scripts that can be embedded into AI. “As any new technology, we worry. But it is incumbent on all of us to understand the good and bad of AI,” he added.
The conversation also drew attention to various other points related to the realm of DEI, such the key role that people (employees) can play in promoting inclusion, the importance of fixing the fundamentals in DEI to promote true inclusion, whether it is possible for organizational culture to be strong yet not inclusive, and more. The keynote conversation truly delivered on its promise, offering fresh and thought-provoking insights into the DEI space.
The BoB conference, an annual event, is India’s most impactful DEI conclave, which also honors the winners of Avtar-Seramount’s ‘Best Companies for Women in India’ ranking and ‘Most Inclusive Companies Index’. Pre-registrations for BCWI 2025 are open.
