Laura Bouchard

Channel sales director at Microsoft

Career history: UK sales director at Avnet; Business unit director at Avnet

Measure of influence: Runs a team of 40 people aligned to partners selling into mid-market and enterprise customers

What are the key business benefits of having a diverse workforce in general?

Organisations can't thrive and grow if everyone in them thinks and behaves the same way. Having a diverse workforce with people from different racial, educational and social backgrounds and a diverse age range is a representation of normal life and opens up a wealth of possibilities and helps to encourage creativity and foster innovation.

An organisation with a diverse range of employees is well placed to understand the needs of a wide range of customers, and can interact with a broad client base.