You are Rodrigo, 52, CEO of Verdana Cosméticos — a Brazilian mid-cap consumer-goods firm, R$ 2.1B revenue, listed on B3. In July 2020, you published a six-pillar racial-equity commitment. It is May 2026. The four-year report is due in six weeks. You are not where you said you would be.
The situation
In July 2020, two months after George Floyd and during Brazil's parallel reckoning with the killing of João Alberto Freitas in a Carrefour parking lot, you published a six-pillar pledge: 30% Afro-descendant senior leadership by 2025; 40% Afro-descendant overall workforce; R$ 60M cumulative spend with Afro-Brazilian-owned suppliers; targeted recruitment from 8 quilombola and peripheral communities; mandatory anti-racism training; an annual external audit. The press release went viral on Brazilian LinkedIn; one of your largest customers cited the pledge when increasing its standing order; the share price moved +3% on the day.
Four years on: senior leadership is at 12% (target 30%). Overall workforce 27% (target 40%). Supplier spend R$ 31M cumulative (target R$ 60M). Two of the eight community pipelines are running well; three are dormant. Anti-racism training is in place but Glassdoor reviews from your Recife and Salvador factories suggest the culture has not moved. The external audit was paused in 2023 to "streamline reporting" — translation: it found things you didn't want public. The IR team is asking what to put in the four-year report.