Achieving New Levels of Success

Pamela A. McElvane, an MBA, MA, MCPC, is the CEO and founder of P&L Group, Ltd, a Chicago-based company with three key brands: Diversity MBA Media, DMBA Benchmarking, and Diversity Learning Solutions. With over 25 years of experience, Pam has been instrumental in providing insights and best practices to large and midsize companies, offering leadership and executive coaching, and managing strategies and organizations.

Pam's drive and vision for Diversity MBA are significant motivators for her team. She works hard to create an open environment where employees feel empowered to contribute ideas and bring their best selves forward. Pam always encourages her team to take initiative on projects they want to work on, allowing them to explore their talents. She even goes so far as to provide internal and external ways for leadership development.

Pam is credited by her team as a strong strategist who can execute a vision to implementation. Her resilience, caring, and trustworthiness motivate her team and have allowed her to create long-lasting relationships and contribute to Diversity MBA's reputation in the marketplace. Her creativity and business acumen have gotten her Diversity MBA to where it is today. More than anything, Pam believes in sharing and development. These values can be seen in how Pam adapts to feedback and has nurtured her team and company's growth and development for over 28 years.

According to Pam, women inherently bring nurturing capabilities and deep caring before anything else. So, coupled with their business acumen and the learned leadership skills of how to influence and drive change through experiences, she has become a successful leader. "We're celebrating 28 years of being in business. Our sustainability and being identified as one of the most trusted organizations are a major achievement," explains Pam. "I am now being tapped into as an expert by major media replaces publications, like the Washington Post, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. We have worked very hard to build so much, and now we are seeing it recognized. We were able to present a thought leadership platform to the marketplace, which we are really proud of."

The company's mission is to provide diversity, equity, and inclusion services for customers seeking to promote, connect, and integrate their values for an authentic place to work. Then, the mission provides the framework and the values to know that we want to partner and work with organizations representing their core values: trust, respect, integrity, and caring. "We deliver this through our strategic objectives. You know, we must be financially secure. We must try to keep an eye on retaining and developing our staff. We have to constantly have feedback and know how well we're doing," elucidates Pam. "And it's not just about having loyalty from your customers but ensuring that you're providing them a competitive advantage. We also stay innovative and creative through our own works, services, and platforms that we introduce through publishing, research, learning, and community. That's how we're able to be able to deliver on our mission and the work."

Diversity MBA is currently in a phase of growth, aiming for financial profitability with a high-performing team. We are innovating at the product and service level, leveraging cutting-edge technology to deliver our services and expanding into global markets. The future looks promising for both Pam and Diversity MBA. Pam will be publishing her second book, 'The Skinny on Inclusion,' in September. For the company, succession planning and building critical capabilities for our management and leadership team are top priorities, ensuring they continue to climb to new levels of excellence.

As an organization, Diversity MBA has retained long-standing relationships with individuals and companies while creating innovative products. One such product is the Diversity Business Review, which the company is beginning to expand and develop a reputation for as a leading thought leadership journal, thanks to the efforts of its contributors and peer review board. Their benchmarking, research, and recognitions, like the 50 Out Front Best Places to Work for Women and Diverse Managers and Top 100 Under 50, continue to exemplify the crème de la crème of the marketplace, mark Diversity MBA's progress and teach them how to go forward.

Diversity MBA has also implemented its newest recognition: The Top 25 Diversity & Leadership Impact Award, providing the company with another opportunity to spotlight incredibly diverse leaders at the 17th Annual National Business Leaders Conference and Awards Celebration, which was held live and in person for the first time since the pandemic. This year's conference is going to be centered around Leadership and Development. "We want to offer leaders a roadmap and support, especially considering the growing distrust around diversity, equity, and inclusion," says Pam. "As such, we are continuing to innovate. We just held our first DEI Collaborative Design Thinking Summit in February, which provided leaders with a platform to train and convene with leaders dealing with DEI disruption and looking for solutions."