Back in 1899 a man named John G. Palmer went on a road trip from Rochester to Toronto. He was sent by his bosses at Eastman Kodak to check out the Canadian market. Palmer was impressed with the city and went back to upper New York State, convinced the photography business would do well there.

Palmer was right. Within two years Kodak Canada was doing so well it had to relocate from its downtown offices at 41 Colborne Street to larger quarters on King Street. But back then, at the turn of the last century, things—like photographs themselves—were black and white. And from an employee perspective, almost entirely ‘white’.

That was then. Today Toronto is considered one of the most diverse in the world. It’s where Kodak has wisely situated its call centre, a call centre that services all of North America. Joanne Heighway, Kodak Canada’s director of human resources, acknowledges the “competitive advantage” the city has given the company.

“We can get people that speak many different languages in Toronto and are able to populate our call centre with people who can speak in those languages to customers who may be calling from almost anywhere in North America.”

This is not the Toronto Palmer saw—or foresaw, for that matter—back in the late 1800s. And as successful as Kodak became back then, thanks to the popularity of picture-taking, the company wouldn’t be what it is today if Toronto hadn’t become the city it now is.

“If we didn’t have the wealth of the Toronto employment diversity, we likely wouldn’t have a call centre in Canada,” Heighway explains. “And we’d be a much smaller organization here.”

Today Kodak Canada has 500 employees and another 100 on contract during seasonal peaks. Besides Toronto, it has major offices in Vancouver and Montreal, and research and development facilities in Vancouver and Summerside, Prince Edward Island.

Kodak is very much a multinational corporation. In the US—where the head offices are still in Rochester, NY—Kodak has been consistently recognized for its work in the area of diversity and inclusion: Fortune Magazine’s annual 50 top companies for minorities, Latina Style’s top 50 companies providing professional opportunities for Hispanic women, and Working Woman’s top 30 companies for supplier diversity. The Human Rights Campaign also gave Kodak a perfect score on its Corporate Equality Index because of its policies supporting gay employees.

No surprises then when you hear that Kodak has a Global Diversity and Community Affairs Office.

“Kodak has made excellent progress in helping Kodak people emerge as champions of diversity and inclusion,” says Essie Calhoun, the Chief Diversity Officer & Director of
Community Affairs for the U.S. “When employees blend that commitment with their own creativity, they can grow to become even better employees, supervisors, managers, and executives.”

On the home front, Kodak sponsors an employee network that, Heighway says, is there “to improve and change the environment to be more inclusive for employees.” Those who do make a difference are acknowledged as “champions” and given awards for their efforts.

Kodak is in the business of “creating products and services for a diverse world.” A philosophy echoed by US CEO Antonio Perez: “Diversity and inclusion is a key business imperative for us. The rich tapestry of our customers, markets, employees, and suppliers reflect the diverse nature of our global business.”

No one has done a better job of that than Kodak Canada—mainly because of its position in the most diversely-populated city in the world.

“We can offer language and we can offer quality workers,” Heighway says. “Those are hard to compete against.”