Issue 2 2021

46 Acquisition International - Issue 2 2021 Jul20564 Promoting the Strength in Diversity CEO of Somos B, Etienne Du Jardin is a front-runner in forging a diverse future for the corporate world. Her company have made so many positive impacts to people’s lives through training employees from marginalised groups and their prospective employers – but the fight is far from over. ased in Brazil, Somos B was founded in 2018 after its CEO, Etienne Du Jardin, closed her Agency to focus on her true passion: changing businesses everywhere into more inclusive spaces. Somos B focuses on personal and professional transformism, offering free technical design and innovation training for young women and young people from marginalised groups such as people of colour and the LGBTQIA+ community. This behavioural and technical training helps to boost confidence and self-esteem as well as enhancing their employability. However, for these young people to be employed, the places who would employ them also need to open their minds and disregard any internal biases they might hold towards them. Thus, Somos B also consults for these companies and encourages them to foster diversity and inclusivity amongst their staff using mentorship programmes to deconstruct prejudice. With the pandemic exposing wide social inequality gaps in countries all over the world, especially in Brazil, Somos B’s work is becoming more important than ever. As the CEO, Etienne and Somos B ‘evolve at the same pace’, and therefore she seeks to grow as a person just as much as she seeks to grow her business. Her work in developing Somos-B into the best possible business includes considering its own internal culture, working to ensure it is emblematic of the diversity and inclusivity that it seeks to inspire in all areas of the corporate realm. Within the company itself, Etienne trains collaborators, faces down problem solving issues, and seeks to improve it by expanding to include as many types of people as possible. A motto that Somos B holds in their work and that Etienne tells her clients is ‘blow up the bubbles’ – destroy in-group and out-group biases to create a team unified by its differences. Thus, this is something that they carry out internally too. In terms of experience, Etienne has 18 years of advertising and technical experience in marketing and people management, and throughout this period she focused on developing the skills of empathy and understanding. She took her first leadership position at 26 and began to build a solid career in social movements and consulting. Notably, she was the first woman to cover football on ESPN Brazil and designed an NFL website with coverage written only by women. Years later, Somos B’s work connects businesses directly to the favelas in São Paulo to open opportunities to the people living there, and they have so far helped 75 young people in this way. When Etienne started her work, she ‘was one of the few women sitting at the decision tables’. With social progress trending upward, this is less often the case, with more women and marginalised voices in boardrooms and influential roles than ever before. However, B Company: SOMOS B Contact: Etienne Du Jardin Website: www.somosb.com.br/ there is still a long way to go, and the importance of questioning the system is still as pivotal as ever, especially if those questions are uncomfortable ones to pose. Etienne herself grew up in a low-income household, and so knows exactly what it’s like to be told that due to her background she can’t achieve certain things. In order to break through the glass ceiling she faced, she tackled each challenge with strength and courage, and uses this experience to inspire a similar attitude in the young people she works with. Etienne also firmly believes in the importance of movements such as #MeToo and their power to open doors for other marginalised groups in having their voices heard. For every successful movement, the voices of the campaigns after them are amplified. Ultimately, Etienne would like her company ‘to not exist in 20 years’, because this will mean that Brazil no longer needs it. However, as an influential voice in making that happen, Somos B will continue to fight on behalf of its service users. Lastly, in terms of plans for the immediate future Etienne is planning to expand her campaigns to include the ‘Transforma Project’, which will focus on empowering and supporting transgender people in the workplace.