Robert Cartwright Jr. is the Division Manager of Environmental, Health, Safety, and Sustainability for Bridgestone Retail Operations. He is also the past chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council and served as the first African American President for RIMS. Robert shares his passion for diversity and how companies can think differently about bringing new talent into their organization and how they can cultivate that talent so they grow into higher leadership roles.

 

Key Takeaways

• How did Robert get involved in risk management?
• What information do people in the risk management community really crave?
• Robert became the first African American to have the President title at RIMS. He shares what that experience was like.
• There’s a generation of students coming in who have the technical knowledge, but not the working knowledge. As leaders, we need to help bridge that gap.
• We can talk about diversity and inclusion all we want, but it’s just a noun. It needs to be a verb. There needs to be action backed behind it.
• Lack of diversity is not just a U.S. thing, it’s a global problem.
• What have companies been doing well to attract unique talent?
• How can companies make room to have more diverse people get a seat at the table?
• Do you want to become Netflix or Blockbuster? You’ve gotta make tough changes if you want to move forward.
• What should people come into the insurance industry?
• What does Robert wish he learned sooner about his career?
• No matter what happens, no matter the color of your skin, the one thing people can’t take away is your work ethic.
• You can’t be afraid of your own success.
• What’s your plan to get to where you want to go?

 

Keep Getting Better

Rims.org

Bridgestoneamericas.com

Robert on LinkedIn

 

Quotes

 

“A diverse organization is a profitable organization. As a risk manager and professional, I wanted to carry that forward.”

 

“Companies don’t exist in a silo anymore. Everything is globally connected, so it’s a disadvantage if you don’t tap into a market that’s out there.”

 

“You can challenge me because you don’t like me, but is that a personal issue or you don’t like my work ethic?”