Our Mission
We are building a community of diverse senior leaders who share their knowledge to empower more diverse aspiring leaders to achieve their goals.
What inspired BLIX
2020 was a year that revealed the extent of racism like never before; high Covid-19 death rate among people of colour due in large part to lower paid high risk jobs and crowded housing. We saw racism in sports, racist political rhetoric and ultimately the disgusting police brutality in the killing of George Floyd and so many others being exposed on a global stage. The spotlight shone on the disproportionate amount of adversity and systemic racism black individuals have to overcome just to play on the same terms. Many members shared stories of racist colleagues and managers they had to navigate simply doing their job.
The BLM movement shone a light on racial inequities experienced by Black individuals but also Brown, Asian and Minority Ethnic Groups. It lays bare the additional expectations required to compete for access to the same opportunities and overcome bias both conscious and unconscious.
"Talent is evenly distributed, Opportunity is not"
This awareness inspired us to create BLIX Network for people of all ethnicities, races, colours and creeds to actively support diversity, inclusion and opportunity equity. You can read a post from our founder here.
What is BLIX?
A community of Business Leaders advocating for diversity & Inclusion through knowledge exchange, advisory, mentorship & talks.
We are a diverse group of leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals disrupting mentoring by making it easily accessible and consumable in 30 minutes career and business advisory sessions.
What is our vision?
We want to empower a new wave of diverse & inclusive leaders through
1. Bite-sized mentorship sessions with successful leaders.
2. Champion diversity & inclusion through networking and community.
3. Showcase diverse & inclusive leadership through stories, lessons and expert knowledge exchange events & workshops.
Who is BLIX for?
We welcome everyone. Our members come from all backgrounds and ethnicities to value diversity & inclusion as a competitive advantage.
We welcome senior leaders who want to share their knowledge and experience as advisors.
We welcome next generation leaders (mentees) who want to grow and develop their career or scale startups.
Why does mentoring matter?
We remember that one teacher, senior leader or adult who gave us invaluable guidance and insight that positively impacted our lives. Not everyone is lucky to have that one person who believes in them. Chances are, people from less privileged backgrounds, single parent household and underserved black, brown, Asian communities rarely have such encounters.
Using the 100M sprint analogy, their blocks are moved back 20M for each disadvantage and they still need to compete in the same race to success.
Mentoring can help people of ethnic minority to overcome disadvantages by providing expert advice and experience from leaders who look like them, understand their challenges or have navigated similar obstacles.
What are the benefits of mentoring?
Mentees are 5 times more often promoted than those without mentors.
Mentors are 6x more likely to be promoted than those without mentees or protege.
87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their relationship and have developed greater confidence.
Mentoring program boosted minority representation at management level from 9% to 24%.
Promotion and retention rate for women and minorities go from 15% to 38%.
Mentors become better communicators and leaders in their organisation as they develop coaching, listening and emotional intelligence skills.