Former Jamba Juice CEO James D. White: Empathy Is a Talent That Can Be Taught

Harvard Business Review

In this episode of HBR's The New World of Work, James D. White discusses his book 'Anti-Racist Leadership,' co-authored with his daughter Kr

Key takeaways

• Anti-racist leadership must be driven by the C-suite rather than being delegated solely to HR functions.
• Sustainable cultural change requires focusing on the 'middle management' or the 'frozen middle' of an organization.

Main topics

• Anti-racist leadership principles
• Corporate culture transformation

Notable quotes

It's less about what you say and what the definitions are, but what you do every single day.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a practical guide for leaders to integrate equit

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:02) 🎵 Speaker 3 (0:13) Hi, I'm Adi Ignatius, Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Business Review, and this is HBR's The New World of Work. We're on a new season. Our first two episodes have been amazing. Week one, we talked to Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn. Last week, we talked to Deb Leo, the CEO of Ancestry. We have another great guest this week, and I will introduce him in a second. But first, I want to read a word from our sponsor. Where some see barriers, Unisys sees breakthroughs. Unisys pushes what's possible across digital workplace, app modernization, cloud, and beyond. Unisys, keep breaking through. So our guest this week is James White. Speaker 3 (0:58) He's the co-author with his daughter Krista of the book Anti-Racist Leadership, How to Transform Corporate Culture in a Race-Conscious World. James has also led a long and successful career in business. He served as CEO, chair, and president of Jamba Juice from 2008 to 2016, where he led an impressive effort to reinvent the brand, which we'll talk about today. And prior to that, he held executive positions at Safeway, at Gillette. at Nestle Purina, at Coca-Cola, and others. And he has more than 20 years experience on a number of boards, including currently at The Honest Company, where he serves as chair. So, James White, welcome to the show. Adi, thrilled to be with you. All right. So let's you know, I want to I want to talk about some of the themes in your book first. And I think there's a useful definition for for for our audience. So, again, you wrote this book, you co-wrote this book with your daughter about anti-racist leadership. But I think for some of our viewers, the term the term anti-racist, anti-racism, it's kind of commonplace. I think some people may not quite understand what it means. Tell me what it means to you. Speaker 1 (2:07) I think for us, it means a couple of things. It's really about being human. It's about creating opportunities for all. And one of the CEOs we interviewed for the book, Todd Snooks, is a retailer in my hometown of St. Louis. Their platform around this work is unity is power. We stand against racism. And I think that kind of sums up the way we think about it. And it really requires action from a leadership perspective. So it's less about what you say and what the definitions are, but what you do every single day. And the example we share in the book, Todd and his team focus on this work every single week. Speaker 1 (3:03) And this is chief diversity officer and Todd is CEO and the chief people officer and one operating executive on the team. And something that I think is unique. I sit on that board as a board member. I'm engaged with the team on a monthly basis. We've been doing it for two years, have no intention of stopping that process. So, again, I think this really exemplifies how we thought about the. work in the book. One of the other things, Adi, if you don't mind, I always read the first paragraph of the book, which really does a great job of kind of summarizing how we think about it in total. Speaker 3 (3:47) Yeah, no, please, please, please. Yeah, so this Speaker 1 (3:50) is the first paragraph of the book, and I'll share a bit of a backstory. This book is not apolitical. This book is explicitly anti-racist, pro-Black, pro-LGBTQIA +, and feminist. This book takes the stance that Black Lives Matter, that LGBTQIA rights are human rights, that people of all abilities deserve respect and access. and that people of all genders have the right to sovereignty over their bodies and identities. This book acknowledges that capitalism is built on a foundation of systemic racism, and that to have a truly diverse and equitable and inclusive work environment, we must acknowledge the historic and present injustices faced by marginalized people. A bit of the backstory on that paragraph, my daughter Krista, who work with me on this book, comes to me June 1st, 2020, and says, Dad, I've got a different way to start our book. So as we're working through the process, she comes to me with this program, and it's unedited, you know, from June of 2020. This was just following the murder of George, the tragic murder of George Floyd. We review it with some of the members of our team, and one of the members of the team says, James, you're a mainstream business person. Do you care if you ever work again? You know, so I just let that kind of soak in for the audience. And the answer obviously was, you know, this is who we are. This is what we stand for. This is really an important part of the conversation. And I think the magic of having Chris, that she really saw the importance of this even before I did. And I'm grateful. Speaker 3 (5:39) So that's really powerful. I mean, look, Speaker 1 (5:40) I Speaker 3 (5:40) mean, Colin Kaepernick took a knee and he never played football again. I mean, it's it's it's tough out there. I guess, you know, I would guess there's some people who are listening to this who would think, all right, I am I'm supportive and I want to I want to, you know, I want to be an ally. But, you know, talking about sort of the past and sort of denigrating, I'm not comfortable with that. I'm not comfortable with somebody telling me that I am. you know, the beneficiary of a situation that is inherently racist or something like that. What do you say to those people who are who are potentially allies but uncomfortable with some of the rhetoric? Speaker 1 (6:21) Just think I think we've got to start where you start, where you are. And I think if we all take ourselves and again, the example I give of Todd Snook. Speaker 1 (6:31) That CEO took himself on a learning journey as he took his organization on a journey to learn. You start where you are, you take small or large steps to move yourself to the future. But, you know, much like the platform of this program, the new world of work, anti-racist leadership is going to be required moving forward. I think we're going to have to understand it. And I think in particular, you've got. a couple next generations in your workforces, millennials and Gen Zs that are going to hold us accountable to it. Speaker 3 (7:10) So if you just joined us, I'm speaking with James White, the former CEO of Jamba Juice and author of the book Anti-Racist Leadership. Full disclosure, that is a book published by HBR Press. If you're watching this, if you have questions for James, please put them in the chat. Or even if you just want to tell us who you are, where you are, please interact with us. And one other quick plug, if you like this content, We do have a New World of Work newsletter. Go to hbr.org slash newsletters and