- Wednesday, February 12, 2025
The company joins a slew of US businesses scaling back diversity initiatives, in response to the Trump administration’s efforts
By: India Weekly
MEDIA giant Walt Disney has said it is changing its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes to focus on business outcomes, according to media reports.
The company joins a slew of US businesses scaling back diversity initiatives, in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle DEI initiatives.
Since taking office on January 20, Trump has issued several executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI programmes across the federal government and the private sector.
In its annual report, Walt Disney has reportedly removed mentions of “Reimagine Tomorrow” programme, that featured some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments.
“Reimagine Tomorrow” will be rebranded as “MyDisneyToday” and will focus on attracting top talent.
Last week, Alphabet’s Google announced that it is scrapping its goal to hire more employees from underrepresented groups and is reviewing some of its DEI initiatives.
“In 2020, we set aspirational hiring goals and focused on growing our offices outside California and New York to improve representation,” Fiona Cicconi, Alphabet’s chief people officer, said in an email to staff. “…but in the future we will no longer have aspirational goals.”
Google had for years been among the most vocal companies pushing for more inclusive policies in the wake of protests against the police killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans in 2020.
In 2020, CEO Sundar Pichai set a goal to have 30 per cent more of its leaders from underrepresented groups by 2025.
At the time, about 96 per cent of Google’s US leaders were white or Asian, and 73 per cent globally were men.
Accenture
Global professional services major Accenture has scrapped its global diversity and inclusion goals after an evaluation of the changing US political landscape, according to an internal memo.
The company will start “sunsetting” the diversity goals it set in 2017, along with career development programs for “people of specific demographic groups”, said the memo from CEO Julie Sweet.
She said Accenture’s policy change followed an “evaluation of our internal policies and practices and the evolving landscape in the United States, including recent executive orders with which we must comply”.
Other big tech companies such as Meta and Amazon have also scrapped their DEI goals leading up to and after Trump’s return to power.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi had in a note to the staff last week said the Justice Department would “investigate, eliminate, and penalize” illegal diversity programmes in the private sector. (Agencies)
