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proportion of women to men. And we would expect the paradigm would hold in management as well as the rank-and-file workers.

We have yet to see the promise fulfilled exactly according to the way we drew it up, but I steadfastly persist in my belief that if we met the basic conditions, we would see the promise fulfilled. Given a fair opportunity, workforce diversity will drive sales and profits.

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

The conventional wisdom holds that "effective customer service" requires reasonable English-language proficiency, adequate product or service knowledge, command of basic etiquette, and a great deal of patience. I agree that we effectively can serve customers when our staff has those attributes and skills.

More importantly, however, I believe that we ENGAGE customers when every single shopper finds a worker with whom he or she can identify. The value of diversity emerges the minute we gain customers trust and loyalty, because they see people who look and sound just like representing us. When my Eritrean customer sees my Eritrean associate buffing-up the lawn tractors, the affinity transcends price-point. We'll negotiate prices. We cannot negotiate common values and expectations. And we won't require "viral marketing," because old-fashioned word of mouth will work just fine. "Did you know that Ismael gave me this spectacular deal on this awesome Mower Machine?" one neighborhood opinion leader tells another, and so on and so on. Similarly, if we win-over one suburban carpool mom, one Latino soccer-coaching dad, and one Southeast Asian small-business owner because each of them found an associate just like him or her, we generate loyalty among legions of their friends.

I don't really think it is as crass as it may first have appeared. When we develop a workforce with which the community identifies, the community identifies with us and our brand. We no longer are The Big Corporation, nameless and faceless and insidiously exploitive. We have become "that big place where Ismael and Jill work."

CORPORATE CULTURE

As we maintain our commitment to diversity, though, our leaders must use all their talent, skill, and experience to reconcile one huge paradox. Our company's values must transcend cultural and ethnic differences, so that our diverse employees either will set aside or will learn to capitalize on their differences, joining in our common cause. I don't particularly care whether my associates greet our customers with "Welcome to The Big Store" or "Bienvenida

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