While posting a black square on a company’s Instagram is a great show of showmanship it rings hollow unless you are doing the work and putting a plan in place and implementing that plan. Showmanship doesn’t really have an impact. Now I think people want to see the plan. – Hitha Herzog
Recently named by Forbes as one of the most influential South Asian women in the United States, Hitha Herzog is a retail and fashion analyst for NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Fox Business, MSNBC, Bloomberg TV and CNBC.
Hitha has recently been engaged in a national dialogue about corporate responsibility and the Black Lives Matter movement, which she considers a “watershed moment” for America both politically and culturally.
In this talk, Hitha and Cyndi discussed the difference between corporate showmanship and impactful change, and whether companies announcing their alliance with the Black Lives Matter movement are actually implementing the organizational changes that need to happen to ensure equity at every level of their business. In her words, “I understand why companies would want to come out and publicly acknowledge the movement and acknowledge they are allies. I think the real work, though, comes from making sure that is sustained and how they really create an opportunity for people who may not have that opportunity.”
ABOUT HITHA
Hitha is the Chief Research Officer at H Squared Research LLC, a research firm for investment advisors and is also the Executive Producer and Co-host of the podcast “Divided States of Women”. She has been featured in Vogue India, New York Times, Shape magazine, Glamour magazine, Marie Claire, Oprah magazine, Lucky magazine, The Daily Mail, Style.com, Forbes.com, Huffington Post. She was recently named by Forbes as “one of the most influential South Asian women in the United States.
Her television appearances include NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Fox Business, MSNBC, Bloomberg TV and CNBC. She has written for Time magazine, MSNBC.com, nymag.com, Today.com, People magazine, People.com, and ELLE India. She advises start-ups in Silicon Valley, Parsons The New School of Fashion incubator XRC Labs, and teaches a class on social commerce.
Hitha is also dedicated to raising awareness about criminal activity linked to the black market and counterfeit products. She is the author of Black Market Billions: How Organized Retail Crime Funds Terrorists and created an app to help people identify and spot counterfeit merchandise sold on the black market. What an honor to reconnect with this remarkable woman.
Click here to read Cyndi’s 3 Questions Interview with Hitha.