Whether you are talking about innovation, women and minority presence
on boards, or any kind of other non-standard corporate practices, everyone has
a saying. And so do I.
Reviewing all the fuzz that Vivek Wadhwa has created at calling Silicon
Valley “all boys tech club”. I could only roll my eyes. (link)
Mr. Wadhwa stated a fact: start-ups in Silicon Valley are mainly directed by white
male individuals. He argues that, for any company to evolve and last as a business,
this kind of male dominated culture is not the best option. Several analyses
show that companies that have inclusive boards do better than companies that do
not. Many people say that the correlation shown in those analyses does not imply
causation and should be ignored.
Let us take a look at other examples of such analyses companies are
confronted to: “companies that invest in innovation and take it seriously do
better than companies that do not”, or “companies that do environmentally
ethical business do better than companies that do not”. Now, is there causation
in the correlation shown on the studies that support those statements or should
we simply ignore those too?
My take on this is quite pragmatic. Success, from the business
perspective, is always relative. The goal of any given company is to do
financially better than its competitors. If everyone in a given market is doing
exactly the same, there is no way to become better than your neighbour.
However, as soon as one company in that ecosystem has the courage to do
something different, it sets itself to bring a positive change that can
generate competitive advantage.
Companies, like people, do not like change, so they tend to openly
disregard the signs that show them that if they do not act differently they
might lose their market position. Ignorance is not bliss, but danger.
For those people that still feel sceptical about linking
correlation and causality when dealing with business decisions, I will simply tell them that, as the adage goes,
the proof of the pudding is in the eating!
If a company operates and manages its
talent exactly as it did in the old days, I cannot believe it is future proof.
As for the investors in Silicon Valley that seem to support
the same success formula over and over. I would only tell them: enjoy as long
as you can, because when your competition will see the potential of supporting
a different model, you will be doomed. And those new models will include men, women,
children, elderly, minorities, environment, ethics, etc. -the most diverse
human side. At the end of the day, we are humans and businesses are here to
deliver needs to humans of all kinds and sustain our evolution, not more and not
less. In my humble opinion by forgetting all that is how we end up with a 1929
crisis, a .com crisis, a general banking crisis, and any other that will come along. There will be more because we are humans and we do not like change… Will
it be then too late for you?
