MGM Mirage presented its annual Diversity Report last month, an event which celebrates the company’s efforts to increase the diversity within the ranks of its employees, business partners and vendors, and its customers. Punam Mather directs this effort for the company, and is an eloquent spokeswoman explaining why it’s not only important to the company, but also to the communities in which MGM Mirage operates. Since the company is Las Vegas-based, however, she explains what the diversity initiative means to Southern Nevada and how it impacts everyone’s lives in the region. She sat down with Casino Connection Editor Roger Gros immediately following the diversity presentation at Mandalay Bay in late May.

Casino Connection: Give us some background on how and why MGM Mirage is so committed to diversity.
Mather: It’s almost exactly seven years ago when MGM Grand Resorts was merging with Mirage Resorts and going through the regulatory process for approval before the Gaming Control Board. In a public hearing, a local activist raised the issue of diversity. It was not anything we had planned for, prepared for, or anticipated. But our chairman Terry Lanni—because he is a man of deep convictions—simply said to the board, “I don’t know the answer because I don’t know how we’re doing, but I will find out.”

That’s what caused him to come back and insist that diversity become an area of focus for us.

The diversity event was held this year in Mandalay Bay. When MGM Mirage acquired Mandalay Resort Group and its Nevada properties two years ago, what did you find from the standpoint of diversity and how did you incorporate the MGM attitude toward that subject?
We acquired 35,000 very talented people in that deal, who came with a slightly different corporate philosophy and value system than we have at MGM Mirage. We actually used the diversity values and training that we had developed at our company to indoctrinate the Mandalay employees. It was quite remarkable. In some respects, it accelerated a bringing together of the two companies, which served not just our business needs, but also the needs of employees, customers and our diversity initiative. It shows the business interests and the upside potential for this program.

Terry Lanni has said many times that diversity is good business, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it results in more profits for the company in the long run. How does that work?
It works on many different levels.

Let’s start with the employees. All of our senior leaders are quick to point out that our most important asset is our employees. In a marketplace where it is getting increasingly more difficult to attract and hire employees, our ability to do that is going to be dependent upon how we are perceived in terms of the values we espouse, including the values of diversity. In order to fully appreciate that, we truly have to live the values of diversity. Employee retention, employee productivity and customer satisfaction all tie directly to our values. The research shows that if I feel like I belong; I feel like I’m heard; I feel like I’m making some contribution, that’s worth a lot to me and I won’t be distracted by another offer from the property across the street. So it has a profound impact on the bottom line when a company such as ours with 70,000 employees can minimize that job loss.

In terms of customers, our fundamental reason for operating is to welcome people. So the richer the diversity of the rank-and-file employees, the greater the ability to express a warm welcome. As customers, we go where we are valued. So that has a huge impact on the bottom line.

So we believe that just by emphasizing those two things, it gives us a competitive edge in the marketplace.

MGM has done many things to ensure a diverse workforce. Why is this important to the company’s overall health?
There are 73 million baby boomers who are going to start retiring soon. This will be a huge tsunami exiting the American workplace. There’s only 44 million coming behind them. That paints most vividly the challenge that American industry, and gaming companies, are going to face over the next several years. So you’d better be doing something to be attracting these workers over and above your competitors. We think diversity is a big part of that.

When you look at who is in that pool of talent, you see much more diversity than you’ve seen in the past. Ethnic diversity, gender diversity, sensibility diversity, priority diversity… so having a culture that truly celebrates diversity makes us a stronger company. And if you develop a culture that lets me participate every day and celebrates when I come up with good ideas and even bad ideas, and encourages me to keep doing it, we can create a pretty engaging culture for any employee.

If we can do that, we’ll create an environment where we’re all more motivated, we care more about the company, and ultimately it shows up in how we treat our guests.

MGM Mirage has many community initiatives in Clark County. Some are diversity related, others are not. What are some of the things you’re doing in Southern Nevada?
In terms of Clark County, there are three priorities.

The first is at-risk children. All the research shows that if you invest early and create hope, that their lives don’t fall apart later.

We think public education is important for the same reason. Our community’s quality of life is going to be dependent upon the quality of the public education system, so we care a lot about that. We’re very active in “empowerment” schools in the K-12 sector, but we’re also active in the 12-16 college years. We’ve got community college programs and scholarship programs where we partner with many local institutions. We want to make it easier for students to be successful. But we also want the best and brightest to think about a future with our company.

The third is community redevelopment. When you’re growing as fast as we are, you can’t allow neighborhoods to become the victims of decay. We need to make sure we grow without leaving behind any areas.

Those three areas are our focus. Every challenge the community faces impacts us. Since we are the largest employer, landowner, investor and taxpayer in the community, those things impact us the most, so it only makes sense we want to play an important role in the community. Whatever the water level is in the community, that’s where you’ll find our dinghy. It’s just that our dinghy is a very big one.

This effort has spread across the gaming industry. You’ve been involved the Diversity Task Force put together by the American Gaming Association since the start. Is it working?
Yes, I’m actually quite proud of the industry. If there’s something that is good about our industry is that we’re so young we can move more quickly. I’ve co-chaired this task force for the past six years, and I can tell you we’re moving more quickly that any other industry I’ve seen.

As an industry, there is still some negativity as soon as you leave the primary gaming markets. That makes it tough for all of us as we’re recruiting. So we have to figure out how to attract the talent, and this is one instance where the industry has rallied together for the good of everyone.

By Roger Gros

Roger Gros is publisher of Casino Connection and editor and publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine, the industry’s leading gaming trade publication. Prior to joining Global Gaming Business, Gros was president of Inlet Communications, an independent consulting firm. He was vice president of Casino Journal Publishing Group from 1984-2000, and held virtually every editorial title during his tenure. Gros was editor of Casino Journal, the National Gaming Summary and the Atlantic City Insider, and was the founding editor of Casino Player magazine. He was a co-founder of the American Gaming Summit and the Southern Gaming Summit conferences and trade shows. He is the author of the best-selling book, How to Win at Casino Gambling (Carlton Books, 1995), now in its third edition. Gros was named “Businessman of the Year” for 1998 by the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce.

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