Scottish Widows calls for companies to promote cognitive diversity

Makes ending ‘groupthink’ a priority

Scottish Widows has called for companies to better understand cognitive diversity and foster a culture of ‘constructive disagreement’ in its new ‘Great Minds Don’t Think Alike’ report.

It said that while companies are working to improve gender and ethnic diversity in senior positions, too many executives are still from similar backgrounds with similar viewpoints, leading to "groupthink". The report, which was co-authored by Scottish Widows and Dr Johanne Grosvold, associate professor at the School of Management at the University of Bath, argued that cognitive diversity is "critical" to the long-term success of companies. Scottish Widows targets net zero across £170bn fund range by 2050 The report found that only one firm out of Scottish Widows' top 25 holdings sp...