An EY article titled, Demographic shifts transform the global workforce, described what this paradigm shift means to business: “as the market turns, skilled employees will want a better understanding of their employment options and a greater say in how work is assigned, assessed and rewarded. The employer will no longer define the workplace; rather, employees’ priorities and preferences will dictate what the future workplace will look like.”

It went on to say that: “Companies will have to craft methods to engage or re-engage the experienced base of talent. Companies that fail to respond to this change and do not succeed in redefining their employee value proposition will fail to attract, retain or develop talent effectively.”

This means that the way a business operates – its processes and systems and best practices – must integrate the growing diverse population and understand how these operations impact them. The demographic shift requires it as it affects business on all fronts – the people that work for companies and are responsible for their brands; the owners of other businesses (vendors/suppliers) that companies work with externally; and the different consumer groups they must serve if they want to grow and compete.

If you know where to look for it, most companies will find that significant intellectual capital already exists in-house – but it’s disconnected when most departments and functional areas operate in silos. Harnessing it means stitching all of that intellectual capital into one strategy that interconnects each functional area together, which in turn will enable the combined intellectual capital of the business to support a business model that can best serve the shift, strengthen each functional area and  produce better outcomes all around.

Similarly, the same intelligence and data that exists out in the marketplace with respect to the cultural demographic shift is adrift because no one is operationalizing it. Few are taking advantage of this intelligence to improve how they lead and manage their functional areas of responsibility.

Instead, it’s business as usual – unknowingly creating tension points, not culturally connecting with the demographic shift, not authentically communicating with these groups or capturing the intelligence embedded within them. Yet it’s this intelligence that businesses need for successful change management – to change everything from the way they operate, manage supply chain activities, design their strategies, brand their products, develop their leadership and their talent pool of future leaders, and enter into external vendor relationships and strategic alliances. In other words, it impacts every aspect of how a business is run.

But if you don’t have the intelligence about the demographic shift and can’t articulate how the unique qualities of say, the Hispanic culture, impacts business, it will be very difficult to get buy-in to the opportunity. This is why so many companies continue to try – and inevitably fail to authentically engage and sustain a two-way dialogue with their employees and consumers/clients to feed the right kind of cultural intelligence into the business model –   instead lumping the demographic shift into their total market strategy.

And this is why companies are so at risk of losing top diverse talent and consumers/clients, especially to emerging small businesses and mid-market companies owned by Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans and other groups that have the innate cultural know-how to more easily foster relationships with their counterparts among the demographic shift. With a value proposition based on intelligence derived from the demographic shift, companies could instead be serving these diverse business owners with a platform to help them build their businesses – partnering with them instead of losing business to them.

Partnership implies coming together as equals; it means the end of assimilation that perceives culture as a barrier to advancement, instead of a natural source of strength when one is free to express their authentic identity. Through the acceptance of our differences and knowing how these differences can solve problems and create new types of opportunities, we will also solve the economic chaos and identity crisis that exists across America.

A new enlightened form of leadership must emerge that rewards individuality and has the wisdom and cultural acumen and insight to most effectively leverage our differences so that together we can support common goals and values.  The 21st century leader knows that assimilation is being replaced with accountability to understand the impact culture plays in strengthening human capital and business strategy.  The right kind of thought-leadership will position brands to leverage diversity of thought as a tangible enabler of opportunities previously unseen.   The cultural demographic shift must be translated into intelligence and resources to create new revenue streams, strengthen an organization’s overall value proposition, and elevate engagement to secure top talent and earn trust and loyalty from emerging consumer groups that will commit to a brand   once the brand commits to them.

Like many opportunities sitting right in front of us previously unseen, this is one that can no longer be ignored. Start preparing your leadership for the demographic shift with a full-scale cultural intelligence strategy with the mindset of the operational and marketplace value and competitive advantage it can bring – and with a change management approach that no longer settles for losing top talent and ignoring new market opportunities.

Follow-me on Twitter @GlennLlopis.