Apple's diverse white men?

Apple's diversity champion resigned this week, one month after making controversial assertions that white males can be diverse. When Apple hired Denise Young Smith as Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion in May 2017, it was the first time in their approximately 40 year old history that they have recognised and hired someone to focus on this area. It was a watershed moment.

Denise was to lead a charge in defence of Apple's starkly white male leadership, a company that in 2017 only had 3% of leaders that were black, and women representing 23% of tech jobs (Fortune). Hardly diverse.

However it was Young Smith's comments that drew more concern and controversy. She was famously quoted as saying "There can be 12 white, blue-eyed, blond men in a room and they’re going to be diverse too because they’re going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation" at the One Young World Summit in Bogota.

Her comments caused an uproar, and she was forced to apologise. She recently stated her comments "were not representative of how I think about diversity or how Apple sees it". Just after 6 months in the job, she has resigned and has been replaced by a blue-eyed, blonde haired female.

Irrespective of whose message it was, there is a plethora of empirical evidence that shows diversity drives innovation. Apple needs to make better steps forward or risk becoming less innovative.

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