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R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., executive director of the American Institute for Managing Diversity, Inc., wrote "From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity" in 1990. He argues that knowing how to manage diversity can be an enormous advantage to American business.

In fact, American corporations are scrambling, doing their best to become more adaptable, to compete more successfully for markets and labor, foreign and domestic, and to attract all the talent they can find. . . .[W]omen and minorities no longer need a boarding pass, they need an upgrade. The problem is not getting them in at the entry level; the problem is making better use of their potential at every level, especially in middle-management and leadership positions. This is no longer simply a question of common decency, it is a question of business survival.

Thomas goes on to describe his own view of the goal for businesses with a highly diverse labor force:

The goal is to manage diversity in such a way as to get from a diverse work force the same productivity we once got from a homogeneous work force, and to do it without artificial programs, standards --or barriers.

Managing diversity does not mean controlling or containing diversity, it means enabling every member of your work force to perform to his or her potential. I means getting from employees, first, everything we have a right to expect, and, second --if we do it well-- everything they have to give. If the old homogeneous work force performed dependably at 80% of its capacity, then the first result means getting 80% from the new heterogeneous work force too. But the second result, the icing on the cake, the unexpected upside that diversity can perhaps give as a bonus, means 85% to 90% from everyone in the organization.

Reference: From R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. "From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity," Harvard Business Review, March-April, 1990, p. 107-108, 112. Brackets added.