The company has seen progress in diversity in employment, purchasing, construction, sales, diversity relations and philanthropy, Chief Executive Terry Lanni announced in April during the company's annual diversity report. The number of minorities in the company rose to 52 percent in 2003 from 51 percent in 2002.

Mathur said diversity is a mindset that is beginning to become a part of the corporate culture at MGM MIRAGE.

Mathur began her gaming career at Mirage Resorts in 1996 after having served as senior vice president of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

As a minority woman executive at MGM MIRAGE, she said MGM MIRAGE has a way to go before there is full inclusion of minorities and women at the upper levels of management at the gaming company. Still, she said MGM MIRAGE and the gaming industry in general offer many opportunities for women and minorities, such as good pay and benefits that aren't as plentiful in other industries and other parts of the country.

Mathur was interviewed by In Business Las Vegas prior to MGM MIRAGE's takeover offer for Mandalay Resort Group.

Answer: I'm not sure how to evaluate ahead or behind. There are a lot of natural attributes that put Nevada in a fairly unique position relative to diversity. We are a dynamic, rapidly growing community. We have a rich and vibrant economy, which creates lots of opportunity for everybody. So I think in some respects that's very healthful and is unique to us as contrasted with other parts of the (country) where there isn't significant growth, and there isn't the dynamic economy. The other consideration is that our industry, the gaming industry, does a remarkable job at providing full opportunities for every kind of person that wants to work hard, so I think in some respects because gaming is a significant participant in the local economy, we actually are doing better than a lot of other communities, than a lot of industries. An additional consideration is th at we're a very young industry and so unlike some far more established industries in America where you've got 100 or 200 ye! ars of bad habits to undo, that's simply not the case in this industry. We're young, we're growing, there's new opportunity and so the highest priority for us is to identify enough people to be ready, willing and able to rise to the challenges of that growth.

In this day and age diversity becomes essential to continued business success. It's that simple. And it's for two reasons. One half of the business imperative has to do with the employees. We have 42,000 employees, 36,000 of them here in Southern Nevada. We believe we hire the best and brightest, and we're very committed to creating a culture within the organization that inspires everyone to make a true contribution. So in other words, half of diversity is creating a set of values that unleashes the full power and potential of 36,000 people. That's a powerful potential for shareholders. The other half of it is the marketplace is changing. So if we're going to be successful in extending an invitation to affluent African Americans to come and patronize our properties in order to be successful, we need to also say, "And we'd love for you to come work for us, we'd love to do business with you, we'd love you to build our buildings for us." So everything else we do in diversity real! ly is to place ourselves in a stronger position to compete in the marketplace.

Not at all. I don't think it was a coincidence that both MGM and Mirage were kind of viewed as the top of the industry. I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that both companies prior to the merger placed a very strong priority on people. Both companies had a core value that recognized the people-centricity of our enterprise. And so the bringing together of two companies was the bringing together of two very similar philosophies. So I don't believe at all that it was the case that one was doing it and the other wasn't. I think both were very successful because they placed such a priority on people.

Quite the contrary. We were the first organization -- we're proud of this -- we were the first organization in the industry to voluntarily get very strategically, very focused around diversity. We're proud of that.

There are some that simply take longer. One of the things that we know is that we're richly diverse. If you look at the rank and file, the overall work force, we're a minority majority, (with) 53 percent of minorities in our organization. And we wear that as a badge of honor. That's a significant asset that we believe allows us to be as successful as we've been. However, if I look at managers, directors, vice presidents and above, we're at almost 29 percent minority representation. Said another way, what that means is that we're not yet the full beneficiaries of full diversity of thought at all levels, and we would like to be that strong.

So we're not going to go out and hire a green, a tall, a short, a man, a woman. It isn't going to be that, because that's tokenism. So instead, what we've done is place some seeds in a partnership with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, their hotel college, which is a mile and a half down the street.

We've planted some very important seeds today in terms of minority student recruitment, in terms of minority student retention. We won't see meaningful fruits of those seeds for probably five or 10 years down the road.

There's been progress across all of the initiative areas, which has been a really good thing for us. And I believe part of what's happening within the organization is there's an institutionalizing, as we strive to weave the value of diversity throughout the entire organization.

So we're making steps, and there's a lot of things you do. Each one of them doesn't tell you how you're doing overall. Each one of them is a step in the right direction. We've had a lot of steps in the right direction. We were the first to implement the policy on construction projects that said, "We won't accept a bid from any majority firm unless there's participation by women, disadvantaged and minority-owned subcontractors." That was a productive step. By itself it won't solve anything, but in and of itself, it's a good first step to take.

As it goes with anything, the more information you have the more power you have. Clearly there are chasms. The biggest challenge in our purchasing efforts is the gap that exists between the capacity of the local small businesses and the very large purchases that we make. Because if we do give you a big contract, we could put you under because the cash flow issues would be significant.

We may cause you to fail because your bid to service our 24/7 environment is bigger than your capacity. So for a whole host of reasons what we work to do is identify entrepreneurs that have entrepreneurial savvy.

Before we report any amount of money that we've spent with minority, disadvantaged, women-owned businesses, we require that they prove to us government certification or quasi-government certification. Simply because in our diversity reports, we hold them to the same standards as we do all of the other reports in a tightly regulated industry. That is, every report we generate is bulletproof.

I think it depends on what you focus on. What I see this industry do is create amazing opportunities for women. Full benefits for women, full and livable wages for women. Part of what we've got to do is run a successful business. And certain experiences and certain images that our customers are looking for, it becomes incumbent upon us to meet the needs of the marketplace.

The more important story is what we do for women as an organization. We are 50 percent women in our overall work force. Every full-time employee's got full and complete benefits. So it is possible to be a single woman and raise children.

If you look at an employee workforce of 32,000 people in Southern Nevada, half of them are women. We're talking 16,000 women. We have women in every kind of discipline and aspect.

I don't think there's a glass ceiling, but I do think that it's unfair to take a person before they're ready, willing and able and put them into a position where they're destined to fail. We have one woman who is a property president, Renee West who runs our properties at Primm. Renee was selected for that position for one very simple and very significant reason, and that is she was eminently qualified and she was going to be successful, and that's the way it should be.

I think so. I think in this day and age, whether you're selling washing machines, or guest experience or the multi-faceted entertainment experience, the marketplace is changing, and if you're not in tune with the marketplace, you are going to be less capable of competing.

The highest priority for a company that is 419 on the Fortune 500 list is maximizing shareholder value. Here's what I know: Sixty-five percent of the general market takes an annual vacation. In the gay and lesbian community, 97 percent of that emerging market segment takes an annual vacation. Within that market segment, almost two-thirds takes three or more vacations a year. They tend to have fewer children, tend to be dual-income earners, tend to have higher discretionary income and place a higher priority on luxury. We happen to believe that we operate the most luxurious properties within the entire industry. We happen to believe that we really can meet the need for anyone looking for a multi-dimensional set of experiences.

Critical to our success is our white men. What we are talking about is increasingly enhancing our competitiveness in a more dynamic marketplace. Not a brown marketplace, not a yellow, not a green, a more diverse marketplace. So there is absolutely room for everybody at MGM MIRAGE.

I can't explain what their rationale is. I can certainly explain our rationale.

We wanted our data because absent our data we didn't know where we stood. We don't know where we stand, then we can't figure out what we're going to do, and if we can't figure out what we're going to do, we'll never get it accomplished.

Alana Roberts covers courts and labor relations for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached by e-mail at alanar@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-4059.