Apple shareholders reject diversity plan to recruit minorities as company leaders

[Vinny Lupton]

an all time low compared to last year.

 

[The_King_of_Everything]

it's their investment, so their choice. you have a choice as to whether you want to give them your money.

 

[humble forever]

"If it ain't broke don't fix it."

first thought that popped in to my head

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

It does matter. Only someone who has never been near a corporate boardroom would say that. It matters when it comes time to use your power to influence society. Look at how many big time law firms help Jewish groups, there is a reason. Look at all the gay people positions of power. I work in big law, and I was damn near told before that our firm started its diversity efforts to get talented black people like me because there clients had become more diverse and were demanding that people of color be put on cases.

Im torn. Your anectodal point aside, Apple is arguing that we are hiring the most qualified. There is billions of dollars at stake and your race, color, sexuality, etc. doesn't matter. And I think silicon valley would get that a lot more than other parts of the country.

Destroy me with your lawyer arguments, barnone.

 

[.༼-◕_◕-༽.]

Apple shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would require the board of America’s largest company to adopt an “accelerated recruitment policy” for minorities among company leaders.



The result offered a fresh reminder how Silicon Valley, a meritocracy dominated by white men, is having a tricky time navigating identity politics and modern attitudes towards diversity. The proposal, which wasn’t expected to pass, failed 94.9% to 5.1%, according to an early tally announced at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting at company headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Apple’s board had urged investors to vote it down, telling shareholders that the measure would be too restrictive. Speaking afterward, chief executive Tim Cook said: “There’s much more work to do on diversity across the company. I can commit to you we are working very hard on it.”

Of Apple’s 18 named executives on its website, Cook is one of the 15 that are both white and male. There are then three women, two of whom are black. Apple’s eight-member board includes two women and one black man, James Bell, the former Boeing chief financial officer.

The measure was being pushed by civil rights groups, with the Rev Jesse Jackson attending to push for support just before Apple announced the result of the vote.

“Ironically, Apple is already moving in this direction,” Jackson told shareholders. “The world is diverse ... We should not position ourselves to react to inclusion, which leads to growth.”

Until recently Apple had a director of “worldwide inclusion and diversity”, Jeffrey Siminoff, but he was poached by Twitter in December 2015. Apple would not say whether it has replaced him.

Apple shareholders reject diversity plan to recruit minorities as company leaders

they hire friends & family and fellow alumni. Just like the rest of Silicon Valley.

They're NOT hiring the best and the brightest when their pool is limited to white men. And it's NOT a meritocracy.

 

[No1]

Im torn. Your anectodal point aside, Apple is arguing that we are hiring the most qualified. There is billions of dollars at stake and your race, color, sexuality, etc. doesn't matter. And I think silicon valley would get that a lot more than other parts of the country.

Destroy me with your lawyer arguments, barnone.

For one, understanding diverse perspectives and different demographics is always a plus. Second, companies rarely recruit talented people of color. A white kid from a state university has the same interview options as a black kid from an ivy league university. Heck, a white kid with a liberal arts degree has nearly the same job opportunities as a black kid with an engineering degree. The entire point of affirmative action is to expand the base of people that one would typically recruit from. Many jobs are not posted and are just based on internal references, given the fact that a person of color has a more diverse network -- you are opening up the doors to actually recruit the most talented people.

To expand on the first point, it has been shown that more diverse businesses are more efficient. People falsely attribute that diversity with mediocrity when it is the exact opposite. The person from the more diverse background is likely to work twice as hard to prove a point. You're much more likely to meet a mediocre white person at the upper levels than a mediocre person of color. There is a theory about rising to one's level of incompetence--this is what you saw with that Sony scandal. Those people had no business being that high on the chain.

Companies routinely set up this false narrative of quality versus diversity as if the two things are mutually exclusive, but they just hire the same people time and again instead of actually looking at the full applicant pool. It then becomes a -self-fulfilling prophecy because white people get all the experience.

 

[BucciMane]

They hire the best people they can find and believe are qualified, plain and simple. Multi-billion dollar companies are not refusing to hire minorities over white people if they believe the minorities will help their company make more money. It's a bottom line business, and if a minority candidate will help them make more money, they will be hired, period.

 

[Concerning VLoLence]

should go to the compentent leaders. Not just who is the right color.


I work in a company with quotas, and the reputation of black and Latinos has been destroyed by it.

In fast paced environment where work needs to completed yesterday, skill and ability becomes apparent very quickly. Also, people rotate from team to team all year. This creates an environment where poor performers get identified and get tossed from team to team until either leave or get fired. A very high percentage of people hired for quotas never make it past one year. It doesn't take long for people to notice that.
I hear the talk behind closed doors all the time...."quota hire", " political hire", or "minority hire". And most my staff/seniors are Asians or indians, they hate the quota system more than anyone. In my experience, nearly all the black or Latino employees were severely unqualified for the job, and were struggling to survive within 3-6 months of their first year.

They get treated poorly, and I am pretty sure they blamed racism. In reality, their work quality was poor, and they couldn't keep up the pace.

I treat all poor performers the same. We serve as the barrier of entry into this industry. I make sure all poor performers are crushed emotionally and psychological because I believe the weak need to be weeded out. I have no tolerance for those who can't meet or exceed my level of performance when I was in their shoes or rank. If it took me 3 hours to perform something. It better take you 3 hours or you are getting a poor review, and you will ridiculed in front of your peers.




A the same time african immigrants are, I think unfairly, included in the diversity initiatives, and I have trouble understanding what wrongs society had dealt them in order for them to deserve it. Plus, Africans tend to be solid employees. Seems like they are using qoutas to jump ahead of the line unfairly.

Bullshyt. Asians and Indians were some of the most cheating people lve ever seen in college. It got to the point were l stopped respecting them wholesale. You are simply feeding into the stereotypes projected by them. You are confusing not having work experience with not having the intellect.

 

[theworldismine13]

Black peoples should stay away from any corny "diversity" initiatives

They are corny, they are not the path to economic dominance and they leave white people on top

Our goal has to be to dominate not to integrate

 

[MrSinnister]

i agree with this... i just wish we as black people would pool our resources together and create our own tech companies that cater to us..... imagine instead of us pouring billions of dollars into companies that want nothing other than to string us up by a tree, we invested those billions in ourselves....

We definitely have enough money to. Everytime some new gadget comes out, they have either Blacks wanting it in commercials (all up in the videos ), or some hip hop/Caribbean dance beat introducing it. However, when you want to work there, it's like , "do you have the right qualifications?? OK, but who do you know in here??"

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

To expand on the first point, it has been shown that more diverse businesses are more efficient.

I was going to say this but it kind of flew in the face of my other argument.

 

[theworldismine13]

We definitely have enough money to. Everytime some new gadget comes out, they have either Blacks wanting it in commercials (all up in the videos ), or some hip hop/Caribbean dance beat introducing it. However, when you want to work there, it's like , "do you have the right qualifications?? OK, but who do you know in here??"

that is correct, but the question people need to ask is, is "diversity initiatives" the solution to the problem?

will sprinkling a few negroes throughout apple make you happy? should this be the economic agenda for black people?

no

 

[mc_brew]

will sprinkling a few negroes throughout apple make you happy?

 

[theworldismine13]

its a serious question, this question pinpoints were the civil rights/integration movement went wrong

our goals have to be bigger and grander than just sprinkling

 

[jadillac]

this isn't just a black issue. It's Black, Latino, Asian, etc.

If everybody pooled together, things would change.