“Lift as You Climb”: Gene Waddy on Diversity in Business, Mentorship, and Education

Gene C. Waddy is an entrepreneur and co-founder of DIVERSANT LLC, the nation’s largest African-American owned IT staffing and solutions firm. In many ways, DIVERSANT is a reflection of Waddy’s professional expertise, personal drive, and his commitment to helping others. The company has developed a reputation for excellence among numerous Fortune 500 companies.

The son of two Harlemites, Waddy was raised in New Jersey and attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

Gene C. Waddy, Co-founder of DIVERSANT LLC

Prior to founding DIVERSANT, Waddy was the National Practice Director for Infrastructure Services at Spherion Technology where he managed the provision of IT staffing and solutions for large clients nationwide.

Now, he combines his business acumen with his desire to help others by developing transformative programs that promote diversity in the workforce and supply chain. His commitment to diversity has led him to help others along their journey in the business world, including minority students, small business owners, and young professionals.

Lindsey Moore (BT): What inspired you to build your own business, DIVERSANT? When did you realize that entrepreneurial work interested you?

Gene Waddy (GW): I’m going to be completely honest and transparent. I started DIVERSANT because I got laid off from another job at a large staffing firm. So after working ten years and learning the business of IT staffing, I decided to venture out on my own, as opposed to working for another large competitor. I no longer wanted to accept the feeling that someone else was in control of my destiny, whether it was monetarily or concerning my job satisfaction. I started my company because I needed a next move, and I wanted to do something different. This was in 2005. Growing up, I never had a desire to be an entrepreneur or a business owner. I’m a first-generation, and my father was a blue-collar chemical worker. He worked in a factory for 30 years, so I was raised to work for someone else. I’m dating myself, but when I was growing up, folks didn’t switch jobs. You worked for one company if you could for 20, 30 years and then you retired. That’s what my dad did, and that's what I was going to do. Generation X, we were one of the first ones to say, after 5 years, I’m moving on to something else. My mother and father didn't understand that at all. I wasn’t born to be an entrepreneur. I stumbled into it and found that I really enjoyed certain aspects of being an entrepreneur, an owner. My superpower is that I excel at making relationships and using those relationships to grow the business. I was good at that before I started the business, so I used a gift that God gave me to grow a business, and here I am.

BT: You said you weren’t born to be an entrepreneur necessarily. What was the push or what introduced you to the world of owning your own business?

GW: I grew up in the IT staffing space, so I was already a subject expert in this area. However, I didn't just jump blindly in the world of entrepreneurship. I met a person who had an IT staffing business, and I got to understand what was really involved. I talked to other entrepreneurs inside my space and even outside my space to understand what it really means to work for yourself. This allowed me to make a more intelligent decision and prepare my wife,  family, and friends for what was to come as far as the stress and long hours, the ups and downs, the travel. I had young children at the time when I started DIVERSANT. My daughter Ashley was only 2, still little. My son was not yet born. Having a circle of mentors and advisors was key because it let me know what it would take to be successful.

BT: DIVERSANT is the largest African American owned IT staffing and solutions firm. How does this make DIVERSANT’s perspective unique?

GW: Being a certified minority-owned business in the staffing industry is a competitive advantage. Why? Because there are not many African American owned firms in the space, and the ones that do exist are small and not in a position to scale to work with Fortune 500 firms. The average IT staffing company isn’t looking necessary to be a $200 or $400 million company. They might be satisfied with a $10 or $12 million firm, which is where the majority of companies are at in the industry. Less than 2% of the thousands of IT staffing firms make it to $200 million in revenue or more. Of that 2%, there is an infinitesimally small number of Black-owned firms. There are other African American owned staffing businesses in the space, but when it comes to IT staffing specifically, DIVERSANT is the largest African American owned firm. As much as I love to say that, we did not know this was going to happen. The fact is, even before the Black Lives Matter movement, major Fortune 500 companies looking at their supplier list would say ‘We have diversity in some sense, but we don't have Black-owned firms’. From my previous job, I was able to leverage the relationships I had already created with Fortune 500 companies. Being a Black-owned firm opens a door for you where it may be closed to other firms, but it does not guarantee you business. Your competency has to be rock solid because you still have to compete with non-diverse firms, who may be larger and have longer relationships or tenure with a particular client. You’re still playing with the big boys. But the DIVERSANT status is a competitive distinction in a mostly nondistinct commodity. Being an African American, male with experience growing up in the staffing business is not something you see every day. That has been a big part of why DIVERSANT is where it is.

BT: Why do you think diversity is so critical to the workforce of any technology company and how have you witnessed this importance?

GW: Diversity is important for our business, but it's also important for our customers. The demographics of the country are changing. Our customers, whether it’s large banks, large pharma, you name it, are sensitive to the fact that their customers, their users, their consumers, more and more of them look like you and me. And that is continuing to grow. These corporations are looking for ways to market their product to the largest audience they can. Part of their strategy is workforce diversity, hiring more minorities for their internal workforce. But then there's also supplier diversity, by which I mean using more diverse supplier partners in their supply chain. So those are two ways of going about diversity. It is more important than ever for these firms to be even more intentional when it comes to building relationships with the Black community, in business, or otherwise. Because of the unique time we’re living in right now, I've gotten more calls from clients asking me if I would consider working with them on an opportunity. They’re using Black Lives Matter terms to describe why they're doing it. They say, ‘We want to be intentional”. ‘We're inclusive’. ‘Black Lives Matter’. They're actually saying it to me. These are people that don't look like me or you to be using these terms. And it's part of being ingrained, even in the corporate world. So that is why it's important. It's important for our country, if we ever want to be the country that we're supposed to be, to reckon with diversity and all of its forms, right? In my lifetime, diversity used to just mean race. Now it's more inclusive: LGBT, veterans, seniors, folks with disabilities. Diversity has really blossomed, and it's good for the country. If we can pull everybody together and everybody feels like they have a stake in this country, we'll get along better, the country will run better, and we'll achieve more. I'm a firm believer in that. You know, I've been Black my whole life, as my father would always say. Diversity is part of a set of values that should inform business strategy. At DIVERSANT, I tell people, ‘You know, you can do good and do well at the same time’. I can help my clients build a more diverse workforce. I can help my clients spend money with diverse firms. And that helps. That's a dollars and cents thing, but it’s also about community development. Diversity is good for business, but it's also good for us as a country.

BT: The unofficial motto of DIVERSANT is “Lift as you climb”. How does DIVERSANT embody this motto within the company, through such initiatives as your mentorship program?

GW: The way I'm looking at it, it’s my job is to kick in the door and hold it open as long as I possibly can and get as many of us in as fast as I can before the door closes. That's what I do. When I get a new account or client, I'm already thinking, what other needs does this client have? What diverse supplier can I connect this business with? This is important because I'm tired of being the only one. From companies, I still hear they only have one African American owned firm, just one. They’re worth how many billions of dollars in revenue a year,  a multinational corporation, and they think that's okay? That's not. So what I do is be intentional and say, ‘You’ve got me and I'm glad you do, I appreciate it. But you also have a need over here in this area, and here are some other suppliers that I know can do this work.’ That is what I mean by “Lift as you climb”. I'm climbing as I build this business, and as I go up that ladder, you become a bigger target. You never want to suffer from crab in a barrel syndrome, looking at the world like, it's me versus all of my people. No, that's not the way to do. It's me. And I'm bringing my people, qualified people that can play, people that can compete. Diversity efforts aren’t charitable, but they do have to be intentional. Somebody has to think of it when they're in the meeting, and they're all excited cause the client just gave them a contract. When you hear the client needs computer infrastructure support, or they're looking for an equipment leasing company or a minority business owner, take that information back. Some of these clients will say, ‘Well, you know, I couldn't find an African American that does XYZ’. I'm like, no that's fine. I’ve got five. Where do I send them? That's what I do. That is the secret sauce of my success. I do what I love to do. I love people. I love building relationships. I love connecting people. I just found a way to get paid to do it. That's what “Lift as You Climb” means, and I live it every day.

BT: In the past, you’ve discussed the difficulty Black entrepreneurs face in finding capital to fund business ventures. What makes businesses like DIVERSANT well positioned to help in these efforts? Do you believe this challenge can be solved exclusively by the private sector?

GW: It is not something that can be solved just by the private sector. To get more minority businesses moving and increase the number of minority entrepreneurs in the pipeline, it's a three-pronged approach. The first is education. We have got to teach entrepreneurship at the high school level. We spend time teaching our kids trigonometry, and geometry, but little time on business math, which is used every day in the business world. I’m talking gross profit, margins, retained earnings, EBITA, and equity starting from high school. Lack of business knowledge in school is what keeps many of us from achieving entrepreneurship goals later. We have a great idea, but we don't understand business math or business finance. We're not comfortable with business and money in our community. When I was growing up, if the bank called, you didn't want to pick up the phone. We had an adversarial relationship with the bank. Because the education system is not aligned properly, we don't understand the difference between finance, and business finance. We have to teach it. So many Black entrepreneurs I know are with the wrong funding source, and they get taken to the cleaners. The price is way too expensive, but they're happy to pay it because somebody's working with them. We've got to start with education first. The second support is that the private sector can absolutely be a part of solving this problem because companies can fund minority incubators, mentorships, center of excellence programs. We need more of that.

The next piece is the public sphere. The government has to get involved when it comes to funding education and educational standards that will generate more entrepreneurial

inventory, if you will. As a country, our education system and curriculums are very much out of date when it comes to what a business owner wants sitting across from them when we're looking to hire. I have a degree in engineering. When was the last time I needed to do some differential equations or some thermodynamics? All that did was teach me to have a high pain tolerance. Engineering teaches you to understand the importance of delayed gratification. In other words, you go through a whole lot of work, pain, and stress, to get to the goal at the end, a degree. It’s teaching you an important skill, delayed gratification, and discipline. However, I think we can catch the hole in business education early and move our curriculums to more real-world work.

I hire a lot of college grads. For the most part, you may have a degree, but when you come into my office, and you want me to hire you, you don't know anything. What I'm looking for is grit. Somebody that wants to win, is competitive, absorbs information, loves to learn, not afraid to be first. Not afraid of trying something and failing. Those are the traits I'm looking for as a person that's looking to hire. But back to the question, it's a three-legged stool. It's got to be the education system working with the support of government and the private sector, a three-pronged stool. It’s the only way to get more entrepreneurs coming up of any kind. I really believe that in the minority community, there is such a reservoir of talent and ideas. There was a time in this country before integration. There were Black businesses of all kinds. There had to be because we weren't able to frequent the regular lunch counter or the mechanic or the department store or the dry cleaner or the banks. We had to build them in our own neighborhoods. The entrepreneurial spirit is there; it's always been there. We’ve just got to put those three pieces together and support what we know is already in our community.

BT: Real-life skills in business and financial literacy are not taught at high frequency within the education system. Do you think an entrepreneurship class requirement in middle school or high school would benefit students?

GW: 100%, right, because it can be taught, it can be taught. In other words, you get ready to go out and graduate into the world. You need to know how to sell yourself, you need to know how to market yourself, right? You need to be able to walk into a room and run a meeting, or run a presentation, or assert yourself in negotiation. That's another thing we need to do. Negotiation is huge in the business world. But it's something that can be taught, right? You don't want to learn that on the job. You want to know what to do before you get there. We need to do more earlier, and I think we'll be very happy with the results.

BT: Education in STEM is key to creating a diverse STEM workforce. According to an education study, Black and Latino students leave STEM majors at almost twice the rate of their White counterparts. How do you think universities can help support and retain their minority STEM students?

GW: It's really quite simple. You’ve got to have people who have been successful go back. Lift as you climb. Like I said earlier, it's the same thing. People will emulate what they see. I'll give you a perfect example. I'm 52. When I was a child, I would have gotten laughed out of my classroom if I said I wanted to be president. My son just turned 14. Most of his life that he can remember, there has been a Black president. It's about perception. In his mind when he was that age, the President was Black. When he was much younger, during President Obama's first term, his teacher asked the students in the class what they wanted to be. There lies the secret to having better outcomes in our public school system. We have to show folks what success looks like. They have to touch it, feel it. When a person comes back to talk to them, they've got to take the suit off and tell these kids what their lives were like. Show them that, but also show them where you started and where you came. Talk to them in a way that lets them know you’re being authentic. Young people know when somebody is talking to them, as opposed to at them. They know the difference. So show them what it looks like. Yes, there are Black men that are doing these things. My goal, as a kid, was being an engineer. One of the things my dad did when I was growing up was he introduced me to some Black engineers at the plant, at the factory where he worked. There were one or two Black engineers at his factory, and he made sure that I met them. One guy Winston, I’ll never forget him. My dad had on the blue uniform, but Winston had a suit on. 

One of my father's best friends growing up in Harlem was the late William “Sonny” Burke. He became the head administrator at the Harlem Hospital, the first Black man to ever hold that role. I remember my father and I drove from Neptune, New Jersey to Harlem to see him. During summers, we stayed in New York at my grandmother’s house and sometimes got to visit Sonny at the hospital. At six or seven years old, I saw a Black man being called sir. This to me was just Uncle Sonny, the same person that would sit around in my mother and father's house and have a good time on the weekends. But this man was also the head of one of the biggest hospitals in New York City. I remember going to his brownstone and seeing how he lived. I'd never seen that before. I’m dating myself again, but the first time I ever heard a CD was in his house. This was in the late 70s. I remember the music playing, it was Miles Davis. I was upstairs when he turned it on, and I stopped. I was like, somebody's playing the trumpet in here. It was so clear; my ears had only heard records before. I come downstairs, and I'm like, wow what is that? He's like, it's a CD player. Now people don't use CD players anymore, but to me, this was a Black man living in a way I hadn't previously thought of. I didn’t know what it was he did for a living at the time, but I wanted to do it. That’s what it takes. Kids are just that way. If they can see it and touch it, they believe. They believe it if you show them that they can do all these things. Yes, you're a human being too, and you make mistakes, and you grew up in, you know, less than ideal circumstances. They will believe it. That's where “Lift As You Climb” comes in. I do a lot of speaking in various high schools in Newark, Camden, Patterson. Those kids need something other than what they see on the day to day.

BT: What advice do you have for students seeking mentorship in fields where their identities are starkly underrepresented?

GW: Be bold people. What I mean by that is, ask for what you want. When I was growing up, we were taught to be humble, keep your head down, don't expect too much. Don't say too much. Don't upset the system too much. Well, what I love about these new generations is, you guys don't know any better. You're like, I want this and I'm going to ask for it, and I want it now. You have technology in place that allows you to touch just about anybody, anywhere in the world. LinkedIn, Facebook, all the different things. On LinkedIn, you can literally connect with any professional in the country. You can look someone up on YouTube. Say, I saw some talk you gave, would you have five minutes to ten minutes to just give me some advice on that? That's it. I didn't have that. We had to like, hunt people down and try to meet them. One of the things that you have to remember is that when it comes to mentorship, people that are successful, love to talk about themselves. Never forget that. If you approach them with, I'm really impressed with what you built, or what you said or your position on that. Would you have 15 minutes to give me some advice? Of course, if you say 15 minutes, they're most likely going to give you 45. Then after, you say, ‘I really got a lot out of this. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me. Would it be okay, if …’ That's the ask. If I contacted you, or if I could share something. That's how you do it. It's really easy. Today, it's a great time to do it, because the world is changing. A lot of opportunities, with change. Be bold, be intentional. You guys are a lot freer than any other generation of Black folks or people of color ever. You are the freest. So use it, right? Use it. You have a world that is in need of fresh thinking, and that's your job. That's your role. I'm 52, and I'm going to continue to build my company, but you can do good things that have never been done before. I'm almost jealous, because I think about all the opportunities that are out there for you guys, and I don't have time. But you guys, if you see a need for something you can create it. Nobody can tell you no. When I was coming up, somebody would go, oh that's crazy. You guys can say, no I'm going to do it and get a bunch of like-minded people that believe like me, and we’re going to do it. That is the advantage you guys have. That's why mentorship is so important. You can get mentors now that will help you avoid the mistakes that we've made.

Perfect example, I didn't know anything about negotiation or compensation packages or what to ask for when I got my first job. I was just happy somebody gave me a job. But if I was your mentor, that’s not going to happen. I would say, alright, you are going after this role. Let’s research the role, who had it before you, how much you should get paid in this state vs. that state. That way, you have a strategy when you walk in the door. You're interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. That is a concept I didn't have an inkling about when I was coming up. You can start to ask questions around diversity, affinity groups, the culture. You can have different mentors for different things. You can have one mentor to help you understand the world of finance. Somebody else can talk to you about some other aspect of your life, personal and professional. Your generation has a keen understanding of balance within these two areas, whereas my generation was a bit lopsided in regards to work-life balance. My generation was, yeah, you might dislike your work life, but you’ve got a good job. You guys don't think like that. You want personal satisfaction and make sure that you work with people that match your value system. You guys believe in that, and that makes corporations change. You guys aren't going to work for a company that pollutes the environment. You can go in and have a conversation about all the topics that are important to you. The data is at your fingertips to look up whatever company and make informed decisions based on what you find. Mentorship is key. Get those mentors early.

BT: What advice would you give to students who are looking for mentors? What kinds of qualities would you advise students to look for in a mentor?

GW: Someone who is successful based on your definition of success, because it’s different for everybody. You want a mentor who doesn't just listen but will challenge and stretch you. A person who isn't afraid to point out what they perceive as a weakness, and what you could work at it. A mentor is not just a person who makes you feel good. A mentor should be a coach to help you get to the next level. It might not always be just someone listening to you. It should be someone who is tactical, who really can immerse themselves in where you want to go and can help you get there. They have to be able to devote the time, be clear on the schedule of your mentorship sessions and what they will entail. Do they give you pre-work or reading you should do? You want a mentor that really has a programmatic approach to it. I think that is important. Someone you respect. Someone that shares your value systems. Those are the basics I would say.

BT: Many employers cite being unable to find qualified applicants to fill their open positions as a reason for their lack of diversity. How do you think bigger companies can find the qualified people they are looking for?

GW: What they’ve got to do is get out of their comfort zone. The big corporations will show up at Ivy League schools and other similar schools looking for people to hire. They're recruiting is very two dimensional. The talent they are looking for to the volume they're looking for it is not necessarily at Princeton or Rutgers or Cornell. It’s a little below the surface. There's plenty of talent at the two-year school level. Those students don’t get the attention that they should. The way to get them is to build a plan around building a long term relationship with these less recognized institutions of higher learning, not always just the top tier ones. What college kids want and what their parents want is to know there is an opportunity for employees to move onto the next stage of their life. To the extent that a company can help with that, they will become a destination for those types of students. They need to build relationships with 2-year colleges and other organizations vested in the development of underutilized talent pools. Companies like Gear Up and MPower. Those folks, and there are a lot of them, are non-profits, and they work with corporations to develop a talent pipeline. However, you've got to be intentional. You can't wait until you have a need and then try to match it with someone diverse. If you know you're going to have a need for a project manager or business analyst, if you can forecast that pipeline, you can start to develop a feeder system that brings in the talent at a lower level. You can commit to training and personal and professional development. Not only will those people remain in your organization, but they will remain loyal and commit to working hard because you invested in them. I look at it as investing in someone rather than taking a chance on them. If these companies want to do better with diversity, they have to change their investment strategies. It’s got to have measurement and key performance indicators and milestones. What gets measured, gets done. What is rewarded gets done even faster. If it comes from the top, from the C suite, you’d be surprised what gets done.