Yahoo Finance Presents: Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall

In this episode of Yahoo Finance Presents, Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynthia "Cynt" Marshall sat down with Yahoo Finance's Akiko Fujita to discuss executives' roles in sports in harboring diversity and inclusion, the Maverick's recent efforts to expand equality, and the Mavericks' process of having fans return to the stadium.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

AKIKO FUJITA: This is Yahoo Finance's Presents. I'm Akiko Fujita. And today, we are joined by the CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, Cynt Marshall. Since taking on the executive role as the first Black female CEO in the NBA, she has guided the franchise through a transformation in diversity and inclusion.

And Cynt, it's great to talk to you today. This really feels like a very timely conversation to have because it does feel like we are seeing this national reckoning that's happening on the issue of racism, social justice, and inequality. Of course, it started with the Black Lives Matter movement last summer. More recently, there's been a lot of focus on anti Asian-American hate. How do you think this national conversation has changed the role of executives like yourself in really focusing beyond sort of profits?

CYNT MARSHALL: Yeah, first of all, it's great to be here. It's good to see you. I think it has made us a lot more intentional about how we lead. And I often talk about all-in leadership, where you need to be intentional, you need to lead with inclusion, you need to inspire your people to embrace what's going on, and you truly need to have a plan. And so, I think it's made us a lot more intentional.

And it's caused us to really focus on, you know-- we talk about D, E, and I-- diversity, equity, and inclusion. I think it's caused us really to focus on the equity and inclusion piece and not just the diversity piece, where we're focusing in on the numbers and diversifying our teams and all of that. It's making us really look at our policies, looking at our public policies, our internal company policies, and making us really make commitments to change. So I think it's very different than some of the workforce focus that a lot of us have had for years.

AKIKO FUJITA: How much of that you think comes from necessities? Employees increasingly look to executives to dictate that conversation and push forward beyond the traditional role.

CYNT MARSHALL: Well, I think it's twofold. I think it definitely comes from employees saying they want employers who are part of it. Most folks now look at your values. They look at your social plans. They look at corporate social responsibility before they even sign up to come to work for you. That's different than it was 10 or 20 years ago.

But I think also, people are becoming increasingly more aware of the business case for diversity, understanding that if you're a leader that you make better decisions, that there's a diversity dividend, if you will, that McKinsey talks about, that you can win the war for talent, that you can actually increase your customer base. You can actually increase your profitability by doing business with diverse suppliers. So I think between the business case for diversity, really understanding that and then having employees say, you absolutely need to be at the table. You absolutely need to speak out. You absolutely need to be an employer who I want to work for by doing that. I think it's getting all of our attention.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about your background with the Dallas Mavs. Because you've told the story many times. You came in into this role in 2018 when the franchise was embroiled in controversy, allegation of sexual harassment, domestic violence as well. The Mavs at the time had zero women or people of color on the leadership team. Today, you have roughly half of your executive team made up of women as well as people of color. What has this process over the last several years taught you about the tools to drive cultural change? What's most effective?

CYNT MARSHALL: Well, it's taught me something that, frankly, I learned a long time ago when I was at AT&T and in some of the work that I did post-AT&T. It taught me that you have to come in and really lay out a vision for people. And the vision that we laid out is that we would set the global standard for diversity and inclusion. By the end of that first year when I was there, we laid out a set of values that focused on fairness. It basically spelled CRAFTS-- Character, Respect, Authenticity, Fairness, Teamwork, and Safety with a big focus on Fairness.

So we looked at equity. We looked at gender pay equity. We looked at our workforce demographics by level. So it taught me how you can really drive change when you're intentional but you also have to have people who are brought in. And so we had to get all the right people at the table. We had to get a diverse leadership team at the table. And it taught me that when people understand it, when they understand the business case when you have values-based employment and when you have a speak up culture and an environment where every voice matters and everybody belongs, you can make a lot of progress. But you have to have people bought in and all going in the same direction.

AKIKO FUJITA: Have you achieved success based on the markers you set out when you stepped into this role?

CYNT MARSHALL: Well, we clearly-- I think we achieved everything we wanted to in our 100-day plan. And if you look at some of the key performance indicators that we put in place, we've met all of those. We were fortunate enough to win the-- where we achieved the NBA's Leadership-- Inclusion Leadership Award last year. So all that is good. But I really measure it by our culture survey results that are some of the best in the NBA, where our people are satisfied working with us. Our fans seem to be happy, which we like that. I mean, so we have achieved success, but we're not there yet. We're definitely not there yet. There are things that we really want to accomplish.

We launched a Mavs Take Action social justice plan last year, so there are a lot of things, 41 different initiatives. So there are a lot of things there that we want to get done not just internally, but really externally in the community. We want be a voice in education, in employment and workforce development, criminal justice reform. So there are some things that we want to do as part of that Mavs Take Action plan. But we'll always have something in front of us. We'll always have it in front of us. You mentioned it earlier.

I just talked to my team last week about some of the anti-AAPI, the Asian-American Pacific Islander hate that's out there. We can't have that. So as an organization, we're standing up to that, too. So as long as things are out there for us to step up and have a voice on, we're going to speak on it. So we won't get there until the country gets there.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about where the league as a whole stands right now on these issues. There was a report that came out from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport that graded the individual sports leagues based on diverse, equitable, and inclusive hiring practices, what you highlighted there. When it comes to the NBA, they got an A plus when it comes to the issue of race, but a B on gender. What more you think needs to be done to get that grade to where it should be?

CYNT MARSHALL: Well, when I look at that-- and I'm pleased that the NBA was at the top and the WNBA-- I think the WNBA even got, I think, high marks on all three areas, the gender, the ethnicity, and then also overall. And in fact, we're having we're having something called the huddle. Every month, we have these conversations around social justice issues. So we're having one actually tomorrow. And it's focused on women and women in sports and what can we do to advance the cause. And so we're actually going to be talking about Dr. [INAUDIBLE] report and digging into that and talking about different strategies that we need to put in place.

And I do believe it comes down to retention to make sure that once we bring people in, they see women in leadership, that they see that they have a chance to advance, that they have mentoring. But not just mentoring, that they also have sponsors and people who are going to help get them into different positions. And I think it's not just internally. It's externally as well, when you look at our whole industry, looking at broadcasters, looking at our suppliers. I mean, there's a whole ecosystem that I think we have to really lift women up in that ecosystem and then be there for each other. And it's the men and the women who have to do that lifting.

AKIKO FUJITA: On the issue of m is there a point that we can get to where diversity is no longer an issue? Have you thought about where that marker stands? Is it at the point where it is 50-50 and even split? How do you measure success when there are so many different layers to the issue?

CYNT MARSHALL: I think part of that measure will be when we're not talking about it. And I and I do think we'll be talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion for a long time. My hope is that we will spend more time talking about inclusion than we will have to spend talking about diversity and equity. But right now, we have to talk about all of it. We have a dark sordid history in this country that won't be wiped away over the next few years because it's several hundred years old.

So I think we'll be talking about it for a while, but I'm optimistic. Because what I've seen over the past year is that there is an awakening. I mean, people understand now what some of us have been talking about for years and that it will take all of us to make progress. So I think we'll be talking about it for a long time, but I think we'll make a lot of progress. And I think we have over the past year. But some things are still happening, as you alluded to earlier. And so we have to stand up to that.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about the business side of things. The Mavs certainly have been leading the way on tech initiatives. You're one of the early adopters of cryptocurrency. You recently started accepting Dogecoin for payment as well. How are you looking at the engagement with fans in incorporating tech increasingly to try and get that number even higher?

CYNT MARSHALL: Well, you know what's interesting? I think one of the things that we have seen-- and I know we'll probably talk about it later-- just in this whole COVID-19 environment is, we've had to rely a lot on technology and doing things very differently. Sometimes you're forced into it, sometimes you're not. I think we are an organization obviously because of who our owner is, Mark Cuban, we're an innovative, creative group of people. But I think we've had to be a lot more creative and innovative lately.

And so when this whole cryptocurrency phenomenon, if you will, came about, of course, my boss just jumped right on it. So many of us are still learning it. And we're digging in. In fact, we're having a big session with our leadership team later this week to really dig in, set up our accounts. I learned so much just last week. It's incredible. We've already had, I think, about 50 transactions. So we've sold some [INAUDIBLE] to games and some merchandise just using cryptocurrency. And when you dig in, there's a lot underneath it.

So it's more than just Dogecoin. And so that's what we're learning. And the NBA is stepping up to it. We have what they call, I think, non-fungible tokens. And so we're digging into all that. And we want to lead the way. The Mavs want to lead the way. And I think right now, we are.

AKIKO FUJITA: And finally, as you pointed to, coming out of this pandemic, it feels like there's some-- finally, we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And yet, there's still a lot of questions about when we can get back to the normal we knew pre-pandemic, especially at sporting events. What's the conversation within the Mavs right now about what you're going to do to make sure fans can safely return? Are you going to consider a rapid test, proof of vaccinations? What are the options you're looking at?

CYNT MARSHALL: Well, we actually started bringing fans, transitioning fans back in, in early February. And we started by bringing in vaccinated essential workers. We wanted to honor essential workers, wanted them to come to our games for free, and just give them a time to maybe spend a couple of hours not fighting the fight that they've been fighting for a year. So we've been transitioning fans back. We started out with just a few hundred and now we're up to about 4,000.

We have all the things you're supposed to do-- the social distancing, wearing masks. We started off with a real big focus on vaccinated fans. And we're going to keep that focus. But fortunately for us, the COVID number, the case numbers are starting to go down. The vaccinated numbers are starting to go up. So we're really hoping we can take that 4,000. We can at least take that up sometimes in the end of April, early May. So we're working with the NBA on that.

Health and safety protocols are just so important right now. And not just to keep our players safe and healthy, but to keep everybody in the arena safe and healthy. But I love our fans in Dallas. So far, we haven't had any incidents. And so people have been complying. We do have a health screening that you have to do when you enter the arena. We have not asked anybody to show us their vaccination cards or anything like that yet because we are six feet apart and doing everything we need to do. The arena looks very, very different right now. But we hope to fill it up even more over the next couple of weeks.

AKIKO FUJITA: OK, sounds good. I think a lot of fans are certainly looking forward to that. Cynt Marshall, it's great to talk to you today. I appreciate your time.

CYNT MARSHALL: Thank you. Appreciate it.