Tim Cook Says Diversity is the Future of Apple, Points to More Female-Driven Presence at WWDC

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke with Mashable at a ceremony yesterday honoring the recipients of the company's WWDC Scholarship Program, which awards up to 350 students and developers with tickets to the week-long Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The program aims to promote diversity amongst lesser-represented groups in the tech industry - such as women - by awarding tickets to WWDC for excelling in various technological or science-driven education environments. Today, when asked by Mashable why diversity is so important to Apple, Tim Cook responded simply that, "It's the future of our company."

APPLE_WWDC_BP2T4842_Vincent_Laforet

Tim Cook posing with a WWDC scholarship winner

"I view these people that I talk to today as the future generations of the company, and they will either be a part of it directly or a part of the ecosystem. And either way — when I think of Apple, I think of the whole community, not just the people that have the Apple badge."

And that future, according to Cook, should be diverse: "I think the most diverse group will produce the best product, I firmly believe that," he says. Even without taking its values into account, Apple is a "better company" by being more diverse.

Given that Apple keynotes have historically been spearheaded by white male presenters, many wondered when Apple's forward-thinking efforts in diversity would trickle down into the public spotlight at one of its big keynote events. When asked about just that, Cook hints that a more female-driven presence may occur later today at WWDC. "Look tomorrow," Cook said. "Look tomorrow and let me know what you think."

Although not an official employee of Apple, model and founder of non-profit organization "Every Mother Counts" Christy Turlington Burns partnered with the company in showcasing various uses of the Apple Watch in a weekly blog meant to build up excitement for the wearable, after first appearing on stage at the March "Spring Forward" event.

Tags: Tim Cook, WWDC 2015

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Revearti

52 months ago

Hire skills. Period. Forget everything else.

Rating: 29 Votes

sputnikv

52 months ago

i've never understood how diversity leads to 'better' products or is conducive for better productivity. why not just award people best suited for the job completely independent of their racial or sexual background?

Rating: 24 Votes

overpaidrockstar

52 months ago

Translation: You are being hired because it makes us look diverse, qualifications aside.

Rating: 12 Votes

Benjamin Frost

52 months ago

What utter tripe from Cook.

Diversity is neither good or bad. The complete works of J.S.Bach were written by one white man. In Cook's world, he would have preferred them to have been written by a committee consisting of one ginger, one black transvestite, one deaf atheist and one homosexual drug-addict.

Hire on skill alone. Nothing else matters.

Rating: 11 Votes

Smith288

52 months ago

Diversity in the tech world? Maybe if the same number of women show interest in the field but the number of resumes we get for a tech job is few and far between. For me to hire one woman because she's a woman even though there is 15 resumes of men infinitely more qualified is folly and leads to a lesser product. It's a numbers game. Not a fairness game.

Rating: 10 Votes

RichTF

52 months ago

Looking forward to this. For those who think that "people should be hired / promoted purely on merit" — sure, that's an admirable goal and one that I share with you. But we can't simply pretend that we're already there, close our eyes, stick fingers in our ears, and carry on as if everything is okay.

Everything is not okay. Our industry is massively skewed and unrepresentative, and the root of the problem runs deep (often all the way back to childhood). We need action to give extra support to those groups who have been historically discouraged from the tech world, and I'm proud to support a company that, hopefully, gets this.

Try and take a long term view. This is about redressing a decades-long imbalance, so that one day we really can stop worrying about inequality in the tech world, and become a true meritocracy. That day is not here yet.

Rating: 10 Votes

Eadfrith

52 months ago

As opposed to first class products and services?

Rating: 9 Votes

napabar

52 months ago

If you're a company that is able to find 10 really good hires in today's male-dominated world, you could instead have found up to 20 really good hires in a world where women are as available as men. Same logic applies to other minority groups. (where "minority" refers to power base, rather than simple numbers)

You assume women want to be involved in tech in the same proportions as men. Your logic is flawed. Typical of a hipster.

Rating: 8 Votes

AustinIllini

52 months ago

Considering it was women who pioneered coding, I'm glad they are flocking back to the field.

Rating: 7 Votes

69Mustang

52 months ago

You assume women want to be involved in tech in the same proportions as men. Your logic is flawed. Typical of a hipster.

You're deliberately being obtuse. Clearly the poster was using the number of twenty as an example. What he is talking about is inclusion. That's what diversity is supposed to be about. Diversity isn't about hiring someone because they are a certain race, sex, or whatever just to say you're diverse (that's a quota). It's about expanding your pool of talent beyond the typical White or Asian male that dominates the tech industry.

If a hiring manager says, "We have 100 employees. All are male, and either White or Asian. I need to hire some black women to balance this out", then that wrong. That's not diversity. If the manager says, "We've only hired White or Asian men. In this next round, let's expand our search to a larger talent pool that includes people of different races and sexes" that's diversity. It's not guaranteeing a job to a person because of their sex or race. It's including them in opportunity where in the past they weren't even up for consideration. It's hiring the best person for the job regardless of their race or sex. That hasn't always been the case.

Rating: 7 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]