Vixen & Bitch

I was fortunate enough to hear the American Ambassador to the UK, speak the day after the Orlando shooting – coincidentally at a diversity event – Diversity in Tech – being spearheaded by Wayra who ardently support the promotion of diversity. (three cheers!)
I found it interesting however that Wayra chose to partner with KPMG, which we were regularly reminded of throughout the day and with their Stephen Frost’s quote “Diversity is reality, Inclusion is a choice.” Even making it into the Ambassador’s (Matthew’s) key note speech.
Whilst KPMG have an impressive UK board with no more than 4 women of 12 (One vice chairperson Melanie Richards, the other three non executive roles), and no other ethnicity representation. Their global board is less than stellar with only one woman – Lynne Doughtie of the US. And the leadership team ‘responsible for the day-to-day management of the activities of KPMG UK’ you may ask? Well, here again we see only one woman, amongst a sea of white male faces. So the event unfortunately seemed as fishy as Greenpeace being sponsored by a petroleum company.
But I’ll stop banging on the hull of KPMG from my little sea trawler soap box, as I do suffer from sea sickness, and cover some of the great insight that came from watching Matthew Barzunus’ address – which I believe will not be the last I see of this gregarious and humble orator on the world stage.
An excellent speaker – his presentation was pitched perfectly. He removed his tie, watched his time, and chose to present with a flipchart, not a presentation. On the board he drew two axis – Analogue to Digital and Hierarchical to Networked. He used the case study of Encyclopedias referencing the demise of the hardcover, Encarta, NuPedia and the eventual global phenomenon of Wikipedia – the largest ever repository of human information.
And his message was simple
• Digital isn’t enough.
• Include the voices of others and open it up – become networked.
• Task people (enable) don’t Ask people (order)
All the while he spoke, behind him was an image of himself with President Obama. And he shared a quote of which I’m sure I’ve heard similar, sitting on a yoga mat somewhere.
When Obama was asked about how to continue to grow as a person, in politic or business his response was “Become predisposed to see the power in other people.” There seems to be a link to empowerment through tech and the creation of disruptive digital innovation.

The great ‘David’s to come, who will topple the ‘Goliath’s of industry, will do this by propagating rapid and empowering growth for everyone and not by focussing on hierarchical market dominion. The dominant, heterosexual male propaganda machine is beginning to be dismantled as it is no longer appetising to a world waking up to its unconscious bias.