How Prudential Turns Purpose into Practice

Steve Odland: Welcome to C-Suite Perspectives, a signature series by The Conference Board. I'm Steve Odland from The Conference Board and the host of this podcast series. And in today's conversation, we're going to talk about Prudential Financial's commitment to corporate responsibility. 

Joining me today is Lata Reddy, the senior vice president of inclusive solutions at Prudential Financial and chair of the Prudential Foundation. Lata, welcome.  

Lata Reddy: Thank you. It's great to be here.  

Steve Odland:So Lata, you're famous in the ESG world. Tell us a little bit about your background, and how did you get going in this field? 

Lata Reddy: Well, I've been at it for a while, which may explain why people may know me. I'm not sure about being famous. I am a lawyer by training. So I began my career as a civil rights attorney, and I was working in the education space trying to ensure that all students had access to a high-quality education. And so my focus was around equity and access, again, in the space of ed reform.  

I was looking for opportunities to get more at some of the systemic issues related to those challenges, and found my way to Prudential, where I had an opportunity to work as an educational program officer, addressing these opportunities from a different vantage point, and then eventually had other opportunities to run the foundation, and then to take on my current role leading a function at Prudential. 

Steve Odland: Yeah, and Prudential has been around for a very long time. It's a household brand, and everybody has worked with Prudential in one way or another over time. But this is Prudential Financial's 150th anniversary this year. Congratulations to Prudential.  

And it's amazing. You've been in Newark, New Jersey, since the founding. Most companies move around a little bit for one reason or another, but Prudential hasn't done that. They've really been part of the Newark community for a long time, and that seems like a good place to start. Talk about the work that you all have done there. 

Lata Reddy: Well, it's a fascinating story. So I think it's worth spending just one second on the history. And as you mentioned, we're celebrating our 150th anniversary this year. So a big milestone. Founded and continue to be headquartered in Newark, even as our footprint has expanded to be a global footprint. 

And it's really about leadership.There have been successive boards and successive leaders who have affirmatively made the decision to stay in Newark, and that continues to be the case. We just were going through a CEO transition right now, and our incoming CEO is as committed as our outgoing CEO. And so it's a really interesting legacy.  

The work in Newark has evolved over time based on the city's needs and the macro environment so that we can ensure we meet the moment. As we've looked back to think about where we've come from and where we need to go, we've summarized our work in this way: pre-2000, and we began this work in earnest in the early '70s. The first few decades were focused on literally rebuilding the city, which as I'm sure you're aware, Newark was one of the cities in the summer of 1967 that experienced civil unrest. And sothere's a need and opportunity to signal that we were open for business. And we did that by building some signature, high-profile buildings. One a residential building, one an office building.  

We also at the same time were rebuilding the civic infrastructure, and so the nonprofit sector, in particular, and helping to ensure that residents were able to get the services that they need. That then transitioned to building the capacity of those organizations and really investing in the service delivery aspect of that, as well as piloting different things. Charter schools were just coming on the scene. We invested in charter schools, facilities, financing, working capital, that sort of thing.  

And then move forward to pre-pandemic, we were really building out systems change opportunities. And so deep investments in public safety and intermediary organizations that could care for all the various direct service organizations. 

Then the pandemic hit. As we've seen, cities across America have really suffered from those years and are still rebounding from the impacts. And so we're continuing to invest heavily in the city in ways that can help regain some of the losses but continue on the path to make Newark a model for inclusive economic growth. 

Steve Odland:Yeah, and it's not unusual for a corporation to try to support the community where its headquarters is located, but Newark is a different kind of community and really has an incredible number of needs. It'srelatively poor, it'svery diverse, and it's really a kudos to Prudential for really digging in and helping to make a difference in so many people's lives. And so then the question is, how has Newark responded to this and reciprocated? 

Lata Reddy:It's interesting. So we did, a few years back, a survey of our stakeholders in Newark because we wanted to answer that question, right? How do you feel about Prudential's work to date? Where do you think we should be focusing our time and attention going forward? And there were two things that really stood out, not surprisingly. 

One was collaboration. So people really appreciated the collaborative nature in which we do the work. The other was the singular and shared focus across Newark around economic justice or inclusive economic growth and ensuring that residents benefited from the upside of all of the investments that we were making. 

Steve Odland:Yeah. And so there has been a good relationship with the community as a result. You work closely with all pieces of the community—elected officials and people in the community, different community groups. Any examples of things that you would suggest are models for others to follow? 

Lata Reddy: One that I would cite is an entity that we created several years ago called the Newark Anchor Collaborative, as the traditional definition of anchors were the so-called eds and meds, and corporations were left out of that, as were other large institutions. But many of us looked around, and we're like, wait, we meet the definition of an anchor institution. We are rooted in the community. We've got a large number of employees, real estate, all of that.  

So we formed a coalition of the willing who wanted to come together to think about how can we pull all the levers within our respective institutions and truly behave like anchors to continue to further our shared goal of economic growth and development for the city. And so we created a strategy that was focused on buying locally, living locally, and working locally.  

Steve Odland:Yeah. Now, of course, as you mentioned, Prudential is a global financial institution. And so your work doesn't stop at the borders of the city of Newark. It cascades into other communities. Talk about that. 

Lata Reddy:Yeah, so while Newark is our heart and soul, we are, as I mentioned, expanded to be a global company. And so we work with our business leaders across the globe to understand what their needs are locally and regionally, both from a business perspective, as well as from a societal perspective. And then we craft strategies with them that, again, are specific to those different places. 

Steve Odland: And so two examples I might cite, which are very different. One in Japan, following the Great East Earthquake and tsunami, where we worked with our colleagues to help with relief efforts, recovery efforts, and, ultimately, rebuilding efforts. And one thing we're really proud of is an organization called Ishinomaki 2.0, which was something created by young people to help attract young people to the region most impacted by the disaster and to create a sense of community and a sense of place, two things that were taken away from them as a result of the disaster. So that's one example.  

Like any company, Prudential's resources are not infinite. So therefore you have to prioritize. How do you think about prioritization of your investments?  

Lata Reddy:So we think about the opportunities at the intersection of business and society. And Newark is a given. We're going to continue to invest significantly in Newark, and we do so in a way that speaks to a place, right? People live their lives horizontally, not vertically, meaning we need to invest in a lot of different things we might not invest in other parts of the world because of the nature of a community.  

In other places, we're really looking, again, at that intersection of business and society, where we can place our resources in a way that meet multiple goals and aims of Prudential that are shared by the community. 

And so, for example, in Brazil, we are working with our business there to help hire, create a pipeline of talent locally into jobs that people might not be thinking about. Specifically, actuarial science. How do people become actuaries? Would anybody ever think to do that? Well, we built out an "actuarial of the future" program to help young people who might not even be thinking about college get into colleges and universities and then learn about those pathways to this really successful career opportunity  

Steve Odland: Yeah, and a tough career, and a really important one, particularly in the insurance world. And that's a considerable investment. 

How do you think about partnering with other companies? We talked about partnering with elected officials and the community itself, but there are other companies in each of these communities where you operate and live. How do you bundle resources and coordinate that?  

Lata Reddy: In Newark, as a corporate entity, we play a bit of an outsized role, but we partner with everybody in the community. And that's a little easier because again, you're talking about a defined geography. So, we've all worked very hard to co-create a shared approach and following the vision of our mayor. So again, we'revery fortunate that we have Mayor Baraka, our mayor, who has outlined a set of aspirations for all of us to try to get to.  

Outside of that, there'svery little we do on our own, to your point. These are big, intractable issues. We've got to partner, and partner across industries. And so typically, it's coming together on a shared issue area, issue interest, and where there's a natural way and an organic way to begin to partner on things.  

Steve Odland:Yeah. And I think that's really become a best practice where businesses and communities look to each other and get together and think about what the priorities should be. Because, of course, the need is virtually infinite, and you don't want to just spread dollars everywhere, or else you have no impact on anything. So it does require some prioritization, and as well, it requires people to coordinate  

Lata Reddy: And I would add, really, an understanding of what you can uniquely bring forward. So again, in Newark, we can do things that others might not be able to invest in, either because of the resources we have at our disposal or the expertise we have and so on. So we try to fill gaps, versus being duplicative and doing things that others could be or should be doing versus us. 

Steve Odland:Yeah. The way we've talked, and the way I've laid it out, it sounds like all we're talking about is financial resources, but it's not, it's people. And you have tens of thousands of employees. How do you marshal their efforts, from volunteerism and engagement in their communities? 

Lata Reddy: We have done a lot over the years to transform how we think about that. So we still have the traditional hands-on volunteer opportunities that our employees can engage in at their child's school or in their local community or what have you.  

We also have a set of skills-based opportunities that we've created. So for example, we have the Pru Bono program where we bring together our—so pro bono—where we bring together our employees with specific skill sets to match the needs of an identified challenge that our nonprofit partners or small businesses might be facing, to help them. So whether it's website design or marketing, building a marketing campaign, what have you, we'll pull together the internal expertise and match it against the external need. 

And then we also place employees on boards of nonprofits to help them from the governance side.  

Steve Odland:Yeah. So this is an important thing for our listeners in other companies to think about it, particularly if you want to expand on this, is that it's got to be a deliberate effort. It's not just toss it out there and say, "Hey, go volunteer." It's really the orchestration of that, the alignment of needs with skill sets, as you said, and time. And that takes an effort, doesn't it?  

Lata Reddy: It does. And it's also, I would add, about making sure that we really understand the needs of our partners.So we say we're trying to help them, but years ago, we used to have this thing called Global Volunteer Day, and it was a lovely initiative. People around the world every day would go out and volunteer. Massive undertaking for my team to organize all of that. But what we also found is it was quite burdensome for our partners, because while they appreciated the desire to volunteer, to have them have to accept us on a certain day of the year and design a program for us was a little bit burdensome for them, as well. And so we realized there's a better way to do this.  

Steve Odland:Yeah, just having a hundred people show up, it probably is overwhelming and more work. It's the thought that counts, but if you do it in a more orchestrated fashion, you put the right amount of people, power, and skills at the right place for the right time that meets the need. Yeah, really great learnings.  

We're talking about Prudential Financial's commitment to corporate responsibility. We're going to take a short break and be right back.  

Welcome back to C-Suite Perspectives. I'm your host, Steve Odland, from The Conference Board, and I'm joined today by Lata Reddy, the senior vice president of inclusive solutions at Prudential Financial, and she's also the chair of the Prudential Foundation.  

So, Lata, before the break, we were talking about how Prudential engages in all the communities and not just in its hometown of Newark, but also global. But as you think about the stakeholders of the corporation, it's not just community. There are many. There are customers, there are employees, there are owners, community, certainly environment. 

How do you think about all of these stakeholders in your mission?  

Lata Reddy: We have a real commitment, and have over the years, decades, had a commitment to stakeholder engagement. And we like to think we come at this honestly, again, because of our work in Newark and the fact that we're rooted in Newark. And so, that's one whole set of stakeholders right there that we see every day. 

But we know that it's important to make sure that we're engaging proactively with all of these different groups. Because it's critical to the work, their engagement is critical to the work, and it's critical, as you said, to our ability to do the work.  

Steve Odland: Well, it used to be said that all you had to do is take care of the shareholders, that was what corporations existed for. And you do have to do that because they are the one constituency and they are investing in your company, and so they want to return for that. But there is complete acknowledgement now, or at least general acknowledgement, that there needs to be a balance across all of these constituencies. And you can't just deliver for one of them. You really have to take them all and get the right balance and deliver for all of them in that balance. And that's hard.  

Lata Reddy: It is hard. And I would actually take it a step further and argue that you can't deliver for your shareholders unless you're delivering for all of these other stakeholders at the same time. 

Steve Odland: Exactly right. So I don't know what you'vedisclosed in terms of the many millions that you contribute to this, both in terms of cash, but also employee hours. And I'm sure that you spend time thinking about what's the return on that. Well, obviously there's a return to the communities but how do you think about return on the impact of this?  

Lata Reddy:It's multifaceted, and I'll give you a couple of different perspectives on it. One is, so we think about the societal impact and the business impact and, increasingly, in a more integrated way. We have a whole measurement, rubric or scheme, if you will, to look at how we're doing on that. And it's across philanthropy, corporate contributions, employee engagement, impact investing. Soit's apples to oranges to bananas. But we try to see what that all ladders up to in terms of, as you said, the actual impact we're having. 

The other part of it is the less quantifiable, the employee sentiment, right? We know it's important for us as a business that our employees feel good about this work. And so that's one other dimension we look at. But look, ultimately, this is about ensuring that the people that we are serving at the pleasure of, or trying to help, have the agency to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. Full stop.  

Steve Odland: You have a really interesting title. Not the SVP part, although that's pretty good one, too, but the inclusive solutions part is really unique to Prudential. I don't know thatthere's another company that has somebody with that kind of a title. How did that come about?  

Lata Reddy:So there are a lot of conversations with our marketing team and our colleagues and communications to try to identify a term that spoke to the totality of what we do as a function. And nothing was perfect, but this came closest in the sense of, we are not the traditional corporate citizenship or CSR function anymore. We'vetransformed to be something very different, that's about helping ensure we as a business go to market more inclusively. And to do that, we need just more inclusive solutions, more inclusive distribution platforms, product services, et cetera. So inclusive solutions was meant to speak to that whole basket of things that we need to do differently. 

Steve Odland:Yeah. And I think, ultimately, it also speaks to the need to provide opportunity, right? That'sessentially whatyou'reattempting to do in your communities: provide opportunity for people who may be marginalized, may not, equality of opportunity. And it's not necessarily about equality of outcome, because there's so many other variables in that, but you're trying to level the playing field, which is really a unique approach.  

Lata Reddy:That's exactly what it is. And yeah, It's about ensuring that people have, so I mentioned use the word agency before, right? So again, we're positioning people to be able to make those decisions, whether it's because they're equipped with the education, the knowledge they need, whether it's because they have access to the tools that they need, and then, the kind of capability, wherewithal to take action. And so that is how we're thinking about it. 

Steve Odland:So if a company was thinking—I think most companies have some sort of community effort—but if they're trying to think about this in a holistic way, as you have pulled together for Prudential, how would you suggest they go about orchestrating this? What's the starting point? 

Lata Reddy: Your core business. So what are you in the business of? And for us as a financial services company, we are trying to help people build generational wealth. So that becomes, then, the touchstone. And then you think end to end about the continuum of resources that you have as a company. So at one end, we have our philanthropy, which is intended to help those who are most vulnerable in society. And then at the other extreme end, we've got our core business lines, which as financial services, typically, that's going to skew right to the other end of that spectrum in terms of income and wealth.  

World events—2008, other things—have brought both sides into the middle a little bit more, if you will. And sothere's a real opportunity to operate at that sweet spot. So that's what I would tell other companies to think about is, how do you get to that point where you're not doing the business of the business and where the business isn't going so far down that they're not necessarily a viable business, but what is that sweet spot where you can create optionality for more people?  

Steve Odland:So I think what I hear you saying is it starts with the business strategy. So if you're in the food industry, you're feeding people. And so hence, you want to start with that as the core, what is your core business strategy and build your philanthropy and your community engagement around that. If you're in the education world, same kind of thing, right? That's what I hear you saying. Now, as you partner with these other companies and industries, how do you get to that complex weave, that woven fabric of intersecting goals?  

Lata Reddy: I would say we're not, we as an industry, probably aren't quite there yet. So a lot of the partnering we do is more on the philanthropic side. We'reidentifying, again, shared issues, organizations that we believe in, and investing in them together. We've not yet come across too many companies that are really in a deeper way operating at that intersection.  

And look, we have a lot to learn. We're continuing to grow into it. But we would love to find partners where we can really do work together in that deeply integrated way.  

Steve Odland:So looking ahead now, 2025 has started out in a strange way. As usual, there's lots of stuff going on. The environment keeps shifting, there's a lot of uncertainty. I'm not sure that's ever going to go away, but clearly, it must create some introspection, not only for Prudential, but for all companies in this world. 

How are you taking this all in, and how are you reevaluating your strategies, and where do you think you'll take it going forward?  

Lata Reddy: So again, with our reflecting on our 150th year, we've done a lot of looking back see from whence we've come, and we've withstood, as you can imagine, in that long time period, a lot of change and turmoil and issues. 

And so for us, it's always been clarity of purpose. That's what has been our North Star, how we've navigated through whatever the external environment is, and how we've also met the needs of all of our stakeholders, to that earlier question.  

Steve Odland:Yeah, in 150 years, we've seen wars, famines, pandemics, crashes, financial crises, uprisings, social upheaval. You go on and on, not to mention weather events, you're in the insurance industry, too. You've rocked and rolled through all of it, and I guess your point is, stay on track with what your goals are, make sure that you keep things in balance. But that requires people who also then have some perspective to all of this and aren't just buffeted by whatever the winds are of the times. 

Lata Reddy: It does. And again, I think that comes from that clarity of purpose, which can't be overstated, because it gets hard sometimes to be purpose-led and make decisions, right, that are rooted in that purpose. But where Prudential is fortunate is we were founded as a social enterprise.  

150 years ago, our founder created us to provide burial insurance to working families, the so-called industrial class in Newark. Three pennies a week. It was unheard of. It was a controversial idea at the time because people didn't trust working families to pay their premiums. But he looked around a corner and, again, saw that intersection of societal need and a business opportunity, and built a company that 150 years later is within the top 100 companies in the world. 

Steve Odland: And that story then creates a dozen other stories. But over time, it's really the anchor for all that you do, isn't it?  

Lata Reddy: It is.  

Steve Odland: And hence your advice to stay true to your core values. Any other advice before we close out that you'd like to share?  

Lata Reddy: I think the purpose piece of it is evergreen, as well as, and we touched on this, but it's to really look within, understand all of the resources you can bring to bear. 

And so if you've got a purpose, you understand what your mission is, and why your company exists, which for us isn't just to drive profit, it's to drive progress, then what do you need to do as a result? And how do you need to spend and allocate your time and your treasure, so to speak? And so those to me are the two most important aspects of this. 

Steve Odland: Lata Reddy, senior vice president of inclusive solutions at Prudential Financial, thanks for being with us today.  

Lata Reddy: Thank you for having me.  

Steve Odland: And thanks to all of you for listening to C-Suite Perspectives. I'm Steve Odland, and this series has been brought to you by The Conference Board.