By Brian Grim
The conclusion of my nearly 3-week trip to the London, Doha and New Delhi and Mumbai included a wonderful meeting in London with Maurice Ostro, a 2021 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award Winner. See the short video below to see his extraordinary work.
During our meeting, we hatched an idea for a global interfaith & business action campaign. Stay tuned for more details as it grows!
By Brian Grim
Join us on Monday, July 31st at 11:00 EST, for a live, virtual discussion by top experts from SAP, the EEOC, Vettd and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation on how faith and belief contribute powerful ethical tools to navigate the AI revolution.
Companies are implementing Al in their business processes at a quickening rate. One of the areas for potential concern is Al’s use to facilitate Human Resource decision-making. If such uses are not carefully overseen by real people, the consequences can be destructive.
Question is: Who should have a seat at the table in designing oversight and tracking mechanisms? Who should companies consult as they consider the possible dangers that should be guarded against?
I hope to see you on Monday for this timely and informative discussion!
By Brian Grim
As the adage goes, “If it bleeds it leads.” But why can’t equally important constructive news make headlines?
That was my thought as I had the opportunity to learn about the amazing work of Mrs. Sangita Jindal, the Chairperson of the JSW Foundation, the charitable arm of her family’s JSW Group, a $23 billion conglomerate — amongst India’s largest.
Among their priorities is “conserving the architectural soul of India.” In a recent interview she said, “People have asked me why I helped restore the Keneseth Eliyahoo synagogue and the David Sassoon Library and Reading Room. Are you Jewish, they ask me. I say, no, I am Hindu, but it doesn’t matter what I am. This is for the city.”
I had the opportunity to visit the Reading Room (pictured above) and visit with Mrs. Jindal at the JSW Foundation headquarters in Mumbai on Friday. Hers will be one of the stories that will be shared at our upcoming Dare to Overcome meeting in New Delhi.
If people from your business would like to attend, please let me know!
By Brian Grim
After my meetings in London and Doha, the real fun began! It kicked off with a lunch with our Indian partners, Teamwork Arts, who is producing Dare to Overcome India!
In the coming days registration will open, with international participants already slated to come from Japan, Australia, the UK, Italy, Lebanon, the US, and more! Of course the largest contingent will be business leaders and employee resource group leaders from across India.
Stay tuned for updates!
ABOUT
With India’s dynamic socio-economic rise on full display for the world during its G20 Presidency, Dare to Overcome’s next global gathering is in New Delhi October 3-5, 2023. The event’s theme is Unity in Diversity.
Dare to Overcome (DTO) is the premier global event for business leaders to share and celebrate best practices, virtues, and values in being allies of differing communities and cultures in workplaces and marketplaces, thereby building peace.
DTO-India 2023 will also the first-ever international gathering of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) committed to fostering intercultural understanding in corporate workplaces.
DTO’s signature events are the Global Business & Intercultural Peace Awards and the Business & Peace Symposium. American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, is DTO’s official airline and partner.
By Brian Grim
After extremely successful meetings last week in London, including at No. 10 Downing Street, I had a wonderful meeting with Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi at the Doha International Forum for Interfaith Dialogue on Sunday (the first day of the work week in Qatar).
As we discussed our upcoming global edition of Dare to Overcome, Dr. Ibrahim suggested nominating the CEO of Qatar Airways for our Global Business & Intercultural Peace Award in Delhi, recognizing how one of the most popular airlines in the world has been build with people of all faiths working together to connect the world.
There’s precedent. Qatar Airlines One World Partner American Airlines SVP & CCO Alison Taylor received Global Business & Intercultural Peace Award in 2022!
ABOUT
The Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) is a Qatar-based institution dedicated to interfaith dialogue, intercultural cooperation, and capacity building.
Also at the July 16th meeting were Ms. Nadia Al-Ashqar, DICID Conference Affairs Coordinating Officer, and Dr. Sekou Marafa Toure, DICID Researcher.
The State of Qatar, represented in DICID, believes that the process of nation-building is based on cooperation and respect among the various components of society to ensure social harmony and constructive interaction among different faiths, cultures, and races both, locally and globally. Qatar thus plays a leading role in rapprochement, multiculturalism and advocacy for peace and strives to realize these values throughout the world.
“Dare to Overcome,” in the words of one participant “was more than a conference, it was a movement!”
See and share some of the best photos and videos from this seminal gathering here. Also, see and share the news coverage, including from WSJ, NPR and HBR here. The final program is available here.
And, as we promised in the Al and Ethics workshop following the expert panel, you can find a summary of your responses to the Menti meter questions here.
Join us July 31 at 11 AM ET for followup presentation by top experts from SAP, SAP Interfaith Alliance, and Vettd. This discussion will kick off an ongoing working group coordinated by RFBF’s senior corporate advisor, Kent Johnson, former senior counsel at Texas Instruments.
Finally, if you have colleagues in India, please share about our Oct. 3-5, 2023 DTO India!
The movement is growing!
Brian Grim
RFBF President
Dare to Overcome (DTO)© Global Chairman
India
No. 10 Downing Street Encourages Faith Friendly Workplace Movement
Save the date: The UK edition of Dare to Overcome “Faith in Work” will be hosted by Salesforce in their London Tower on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. Read about the exciting progress at the highest levels here.
By Brian Grim
A summit on faith in the workplace was held on Tuesday at Number 10 Downing Street, the UK Prime Minister’s Office.
The Summit, chaired by John Glen, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, allowed some of the best companies in the UK – both national and multinational – to share how they are welcoming employees to bring their whole selves to work, faith and all, by encouraging faith friendly policies.
Top executives from Rolls-Royce, NHS, Google, OVO Energy, Salesforce, Baringa, American Express, NATS, among others, each shared how they are embracing faith in the workplace, seeing a person’s religious beliefs as an asset with bottom line benefits rather than a problem to be solved or avoided.
For these companies, faith is now viewed as an integral part of diversity as race, gender, and sexual orientation, and that people’s beliefs were not only more respected but also seen as helpful in the workplace. This includes not only formal religious faiths such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and so forth, but also and non-theistic belief systems such as atheism.
At the event, OVO Energy received the award for being the most faith-friendly national UK workplace in 2023 (pictured above with their award). NATS took the second spot.
The group announced that a national summit on Faith-and-Belief@Work will be held on November 20, 2023, at the Salesforce Tower in London. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the UK’s first Hindu Prime Minister, has been invited to keynote the November summit.
If your company is interested to participate, let me know.
No. 10 Downing Street presentation of OVO Energy REDI Index Award by John Glen, Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On 23 May 2023, the fourth annual Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index was released in Washington, DC. The REDI Index is the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s benchmark assessment of the degree to which companies include religion as an integral part of their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Among US Fortune 500 companies, the Intel Corporation took first place. Among Global Fortune 500 companies, Accenture to the top spot.
And the top spot in the United Kingdom with to OVO Energy, which has an interfaith employee resource group (ERG) that fosters a diverse, religiously inclusive workplace aligned with the company’s purpose. For example, it has take the lead in a program to develop safety headgear for those who were turbans, hijabs, etc. Also, the company allows employees to substitute 6 of the 8 national bank holidays for other days off, allowing for accommodation of holy days not on the national calendar.
OVO Energy also hosted the first gathering of domestic and multi-national faith-friendly corporations, resulting in a broad faith-friendly coalition that will hold its first national summit on Nov. 20, 2023, to be hosted by Salesforce in their London Tower.
OVO Energy was recognized for this achievement at a ceremony at No. 10 Downing Street.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On 23 May 2023, the fourth annual Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index was released in Washington, DC. The REDI Index is the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s benchmark assessment of the degree to which companies include religion as an integral part of their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Among US Fortune 500 companies, the Intel Corporation took first place. Among Global Fortune 500 companies, Accenture to the top spot.
Taking the next-to-top spot in the United Kingdom is the National Air Traffic Service (NATS), which has a Faith Network employee resource group (ERG) that fosters a diverse, religiously inclusive workplace aligned with the company’s purpose. The Faith Network acts as an umbrella for individual Faith sub-networks to be encouraged and flourish. In addition, NATS is a Steering Group member of the Faith Friendly Workplaces initiative that has had over 30 Companies participate in its quarterly meetings. They have used these Quarterly meetings as well as Other Company Inclusion Week meetings and materials to influence and inform our D&I practices.. Also, NATS seeks to reasonably accommodate religious needs of employees, including: Prayer times, Religious dress and grooming requirements, Religious dietary requirements, and Space at work for those who wish to pray, meditate, etc.
NATS was recognized for this achievement at a ceremony at Parliament.
L-R: Jim Shannon, Member of Parliament for Strangford; Helen Fuge, NATS; Sam Matthews, NATS; Sandip K. Verma, Baroness Verma; Ridgely Johnson, NATS; Jodie McMenamin, NATS; Brian J. Grim, Ph.D., President Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.
On Monday, 10th July, executives from Google, Salesforce, NHS, Rolls-Royce, American Express, Baringa, Thames Water, NATS, OVO Energy, etc. will share with the UK Parliament’s APPG on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FORB) how they build FORB for all through their faith-friendly workplaces. They will also discuss how this can and does have an impact on the communities they serve.
The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation helps many of these companies to transparently benchmark their faith-friendly workplace progress through the Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity &Inclusion (REDI) Index.
UK companies participating in the REDI Index will be honored at the event.
The chair of the event is Baroness Verma, a member of APPG FORB. Lady Verma is an Indian-British politician in the United Kingdom. An appointed member of the House of Lords, she is Ministerial Champion for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Overseas, a role who chairs the UN Women’s national committee.
Thank you for your support!
