Apple CEO Tim Cook talks diversity, coding, more in interview with high school senior
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently offered a few words of wisdom to high school senior Rebecca Kahn as part of a National Center for Women & Information Technology outreach program dubbed "Innovator to Innovator," which grants NCWIT Aspirations in Computing (AiC) Community members time with Apple executives.
The inaugural installment of "Innovator to Innovator," Cook's short interview came about as an assignment from Kahn's computer class teacher at Porter-Gaud school in Charleston, S.C. Kahn's task was to reach out to a person of interest in the technology industry, which she did via email.
Cook responded and conducted a brief interview by phone.
Kahn covered a few topics in her short time with Cook, picking the executive's brain on matters like women in tech, learning to code at an early age and human rights issues.
Cook reiterated past sentiment, saying children should learn to code as early as lower school. Apple itself has led efforts to insert coding into public school curriculums, and markets teaching tools like Swift Playgrounds. The company also conducts "Hour of Code" workshops for youth at its retail stores.
Cook is an advocate for more women in leadership roles, Kahn says. Apple, along with other Silicon Valley tech firms, have come under fire for a distinct lack of women executives. Though the company highlights progress in corporate diversity showcases, Apple's ranks include very few female executives.
Currently, Apple's top ranks include a handful of women, including environment VP Lisa Jackson, retail chief Angela Ahrendts and VP for Inclusion and Diversity Denise Young Smith.
Cook went on to urge Kahn to find and follow her "North Star," or higher purpose, an analogy he often cites when speaking with students or the media.
Kahn's interview ended with a query about Cook's role models. Being an NCWIT project, the Apple chief rattled off names of prominent women including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, four-star Air Force general Lori Robinson and Rosa Parks.
Additional interviews and essays featuring Apple executives are expected for release in the near future as part of the 2018 AiC Award festivities.
The inaugural installment of "Innovator to Innovator," Cook's short interview came about as an assignment from Kahn's computer class teacher at Porter-Gaud school in Charleston, S.C. Kahn's task was to reach out to a person of interest in the technology industry, which she did via email.
Cook responded and conducted a brief interview by phone.
Kahn covered a few topics in her short time with Cook, picking the executive's brain on matters like women in tech, learning to code at an early age and human rights issues.
Cook reiterated past sentiment, saying children should learn to code as early as lower school. Apple itself has led efforts to insert coding into public school curriculums, and markets teaching tools like Swift Playgrounds. The company also conducts "Hour of Code" workshops for youth at its retail stores.
Cook is an advocate for more women in leadership roles, Kahn says. Apple, along with other Silicon Valley tech firms, have come under fire for a distinct lack of women executives. Though the company highlights progress in corporate diversity showcases, Apple's ranks include very few female executives.
Currently, Apple's top ranks include a handful of women, including environment VP Lisa Jackson, retail chief Angela Ahrendts and VP for Inclusion and Diversity Denise Young Smith.
Cook went on to urge Kahn to find and follow her "North Star," or higher purpose, an analogy he often cites when speaking with students or the media.
Kahn's interview ended with a query about Cook's role models. Being an NCWIT project, the Apple chief rattled off names of prominent women including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, four-star Air Force general Lori Robinson and Rosa Parks.
Additional interviews and essays featuring Apple executives are expected for release in the near future as part of the 2018 AiC Award festivities.
Comments
Then let's talk about diversity.
Diversity is a religion that actually is not about diversity since opinions that are not "correct" are shunned killing all creative thinking, debate and making the world better. If we had real diversity, why not quota in all believes, not just the "right ones"?
It amazes me how people do not see that this is the most anti-democratic force that exists in the west. Controls how we talk, how entertainment is presented and so on. And it does not exist in 190 countries.
I hate Tim for abusing Apple to his political activism that is against the best for the company. He is not for diversity, only "right" diversity. The new accepted norm that many westerners have: "we do not accept any other viewpoint/facts". That is the root of why so many westerners think its normal that you wage war/bomb countries "to learn them think right". As a real diverse person: Let people have their cultures/values, A multi-ethnic world. In their own countries. It is Tims values that make people think its normal to bomb countries that for example bans homosexuals. I do not talk about right/wrong in that issue. I talk about that other countries/cultures actually have right to their culture in their country. Something Tim does not accept and abuse.
When will Apple's boardroom be diverce? Why is a specific ethnic group that is 1 in 650 persons over 50% Apple board (and it is the same everywhere in USA)
Just let people do what they want at home as long as it do not hurt other people. Just hire THE BEST qualified, not after a race, sexual or anything else. (is this just a millenial thing? Again taking away responsibiltiy? "I cant be good enough to be hired, but I can be a transsexual gay person = have to be hired or I am oppressed by TheMan?
I am so happy that I have moved from West to a military dictatorship. For the funny thing is: Its WAY more free/free speech in these countries than the brainwashed/religions west.
I hope that Apple continues to select the "A" players based on the demands of the job... Period.
Nobody would suggest that the Patriots should put a woman in as quarterback simply to meet a diversity requirement. (If she could throw further, faster and more accurately than Brady then fine. But...)
.... So why would they suggest that Apple do that?
The current story seems to assume that there is no difference between male and female -- and the fact that women are under represented in tech is strictly due to bias and sexism. But, my own experience in a highly successful tech company was that they sought out only the "A" players -- regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. In other words, the only bias was based on ability. As a result I worked with some excellent females who I greatly admired. But, mostly it was white guys because their skills and abilities were best suited to the majority of the jobs...
I think other areas (such as lawyers or teachers) have broader requirements than the mostly narrow scope of technology. But, tech demands a particularly unique type of abilities -- often those with Asperger's fit best -- and Asperger's, for example, carries a 4 to 1 ratio of guys over girls.
My own daughter was affected by diversity hiring standards. She applied for a job based on an ad she saw in the newspaper. She had two telephone interviews before it dawned on the interviewer that she was caucasian. The ad never said a word about ethnic preferences (I suppose that would be illegal, equal opportunity employer and all that) but my daughter was told quite frankly that the job was reserved for a woman of color. End of interview and job prospect.
If a person is not qualified to do the job then don’t give it to him because he is black.
If a person is qualified to do the job then don’t turn him away because is black.
When Cook talks about diversity he means giving everyone a fair shot; he doesn’t mean give someone the job because they’re gay.
What Apple does s encourage diversity, but in the end it’s down to the candidate.
Keep it civil.
What you have described in actuality is called meritocracy, not diversity.
When you have quotas and separate lists for the different colors, meritocracy has no place in it, because you have just removed a level playing field, so people start playing on different fields, but they still play the same game and scores are calculated based on that. That in and of itself contradicts the principle of a fair competition (from which we all benefit). Also, calling diversity - meritocracy is as Orwellian as calling war - peace.
So, was he hired because he was gay? No, he was not. He was hired and was able to bring himself up the corporate ladder because clearly he had skills needed to do that.
Yeah, this sounds like a Mom and Apple Pie kind of thing for Apple to figure out but it's non-negotiable, not because of any HR edicts or affirmative action, but because Apple is also building highly personal products for a highly diverse global customer base. How could Apple possibly embody the best interests of their customers into Apple products without Apple's workforce being equally diverse and empathetic to the many realities and subtle nuances of the many diversity attributes? They couldn't, so they would impose their own limited and narrow perspectives on their customers - blue phones for boys and pink phones for girls. Why? Because that's what Apple wanted.
I truly believe that the vast majority of people, but certainly not all, are totally cool with diversity. The rub and negative reactions to diversity arise out of what to do when disparities, real or perceived, exist. For example, why would a country that has about of 50% split between men and women have only 20% of its governing body represented by women? In my mind this makes no sense at all from a representation perspective. But what "should" be done about it is the real challenge. Heavy handed corrective actions like affirmative action can provide a forcing function to rebalance the mix quickly but this creates a problem for those who see the "corrective action" as a loss of privilege or the sudden opening of opportunities lowering the acceptance bar. I don't believe Apple is taking this approach at all. Just look at their BOD and Executive Tier makeup. The rate of change in Apple and most large companies is very slow. But they are taking action at all levels, especially at Tim Cook's level, to encourage and attract more candidates from underrepresented areas of diversity to jump into the candidate pool and make sure Apple's hiring processes are not exclusionary or filtering out qualified individuals that can contribute to the diverse teams they need to build and support.
No easy answers here, but I would encourage everyone to at least put themselves in the shoes of the person they see as being on the other side of the diversity equation and consider how they would feel when faced with either 1) inequality and 2) the consequences of corrective actions. Nobody likes to change the status quo when it's working in their favor. But those on the other side cannot be written off or marginalized due to circumstances totally beyond their own control.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2189/asqu.2010.55.4.543