During the past years, MLB has tasked a private firm to address the diversity problem. The company is supposed to be in charge of hiring candidates from minority groups. Recent reports said that MLB discovered a conflict of interest within the firm that pushed the league to dismiss to company.
August last year, MLB recruited Korn Ferry, an exclusive search group that helps in finding and endorsing candidates through various screenings that include interview preparation, resume writing, career planning and networking. Individual teams also seeked the company's help in searching top of the line baseball executives.
"Korn Ferry is a quality firm that does good work," Manfred said. "It's just clear that you have to be on one side or the other." However, to meet the numerous demands of different teams, Korn Ferry resorted in recruiting non-minority members while leaving out the candidates that they were supposed to help through MLB.
With this unruly gesture, protests ensued from minority candidates that soon reached MLB. After learning Korn Ferry's folly, MLB sent them packing without hesitation and relied more on their in-house efforts with its very own Pipeline Program, under senior director Tyrone Brooks.
Pipeline Program is developed to function as a body that will identify, hire and promote candidates who are coming from the minority groups even the ones from baseball's lower levels through Manfred's support. Though pale in comparison with Korn Ferry, MLB is confident that it can reach its expectations.
Before MLB's dismissal, Korn Ferry have previously placed non-minority candidates within several teams. Some of the candidates are Mike Hazen, the new chief baseball operation and Torey Lovullo as the manager of Arizona Diamondbacks. With Minnesota Twins, Derek Falvey is assigned as the new chief baseball officer together with Thad Levine as general manager.
Korn Ferry admits that they had conflict of interest in their work. "We totally understand," said Jed Hughes, the vice chairman of Korn Ferry and also the head of the sports division.
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