>> Welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. It's International Women's Day 2018. There's a ton of events happening all over the world. Check the social media stream, you'll be amazed. But we're excited to be here, downtown San Francisco, at the Accenture event. It's called Getting to Equal, 400 people, it's a packed house here at the Hotel Nikko, and we're really excited to have the authors of some really important research here as our next guests. This is Julie Sweet, the CEO of North America for Accenture. Good to see you, Julie. >> Great, thanks for having me today. >> And Ellyn Shook, the Chief Leadership and HR Officer at Accenture. Great to see you. >> Thank you, Jeff. >> All right. So Ellen, I want to start with you just cause I noticed your title, and I wrote it down, I've never seen, we do hundreds of events, thousands of interviews, I've never seen Chief Leadership and HR. Where did that title come from, and why is "Leadership" ahead of "HR"? That's a pretty significant statement. >> It is, it is, and Accenture's a talent-led business, and part of being a talent-led business is growing our people to grow our business, so leadership and leadership development is essential to our business. It's a core competency of ours, and that's why my title is Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer. >> And Leadership before HR, meaning you really need people to get out in front. >> Yes. >> It's not about compliance, >> Yes, leaders at all levels. >> and this and that, leaders of all levels. >> Correct, correct. >> Okay, so let's talk about the research. >> Sure. >> It says, "When she rises, we all rise." I think it's pretty common, and everybody knows hopefully by this point, that diversity of opinion, diversity of teams, leads to better business outcomes. So what specifically is this piece of research, and give us a little background. >> Sure, the research, I think, is groundbreaking because never have I seen a piece of research that looks at the cultural aspects of an organization and really helps to articulate very transparently, what are the biggest accelerators in a culture for equality? And that's what the research is about. >> And you've identified, and is this an ongoing research, is this the first time it's been published, is it kind of an annual thing? >> Every year we publish a piece of research about gender equality, and this year we put a different lens on it to really look at equality for all. >> So you've identified 40 kind of key areas, but of those 40, really 14 are the big hitters. Is that accurate? >> That's correct. >> So what are some of those 14? >> Well, I would put them, we've put them in three categories. The first is bold leadership, so think about companies like Accenture who set targets and have CEOs who are very clear about their priorities. The second is comprehensive action, so think about policies and practices that are really effective. And then finally third, which I think is often under focused on, which is an empowering environment. What does it feel like to be at work every day? Do they ask you to dress a certain way? Is there flexible time for all? And it's the combination of these 14 factors that really makes a difference about creating a culture of equality where men and women advance. And what was really impressive is we saw that, in companies with these factors, women were five times more likely to advance to director or senior manager, and men were two times more likely. And so it really is about, when she rises, all rise, and that is probably one of the most exciting things about the research. >> It's really interesting, we just had Lisa on from The Modist, and you know, I would never have thought of clothing and dress as such a significant factor, but you've got that identified in that third bucket that you mentioned. And in fact, it's the number one attribute. So what are some of the other surprises that kind of came out of the research? >> Well, I think one of the surprises was that companies that, as part of comprehensive action, that implemented maternity leave only, it actually had a negative effect on women's advancement. But where companies implemented parental leave, so it was for men and women, it eliminated that negative bias. And it really goes to the importance that these policies, and actions, and the focus need to be about women and men. And when you start putting women too much in a category, like flex time is a mommy track, as opposed to flex time being something that men and women commonly do, it really changes how it feels to, does it feel inclusive every day at work? >> Right. >> Yeah, so companies really need to, I think what the research showed very strongly is that companies need to look at programs, policies, practices, and an environment that levels the playing field rather than isolating any particular gender or other form of diversity. >> But it's interesting, kind of law of unintended consequences, I think that panel that you were on earlier, one of the gentlemen said, since the not me, there's been reports of, >> Me too. >> for me too, excuse me, a lot of hashtags today. That there's been people doing, men scared of mentoring maybe that they weren't before. I don't know how true that is, but no it is kind of interesting to think, are there some kind of counter balances, as you said, if there's just maternity and not parental leave that need to be thought about? That probably people aren't thinking it through that far. >> Well and I think, one of the things as we saw in the research is that it's not about also one action, and so the way that companies really create a culture of equality is it's a combination of these factors. And you said something when we first started that I think is really important, and that was, you said, well it's really commonly known that diversity is important. And I think that people do need to understand that, we are optimistic about where we are today because, as a company, we're constantly in the c-suite. We serve in the U.S., 3/4 of the fortune 500, and as much as we're talking as a leader in digital disruption and artificial intelligence, the conversation quickly turns to people, to talent, to diversity, and so there's a real business lens that's on this, and that's the context in which we're operating. >> Right, and we can go to Grace Hooper, we do a ton of women's events as well as large conventions. And most people, I think, hopefully have figured it out, that it's not just about doing the right thing, it's about actually having better business outcomes. You get better outcomes with diversity of opinions, diversity of teams, you think about things that you just wouldn't think about. You don't have that same experience, everybody has a bias from where they come from, so you want to get some other people and have different points of view, different lenses to look at things. So it is really important. But why do you think things feel like they're changing now? What's important about, March 8th, 2018, versus say a year ago when you started doing some of this research? Is it the tipping point that it feels like, or? >> I think there's a couple of factors that are coming together right now. First of all, we're living in the digital age, and the digital age is all about innovation and innovation fast. And as you just said, you cannot innovate without diversity. Diversity is a form of, you're able to tap into creativity, and it's a source of competitive advantages for organizations in this age. But also what's happening in culture around the world, the me too movement as well as other things that are occurring for women around the world, and it's a moment in time where a movement can really start to happen. And I think, companies who look at culture as an accelerator of change are going to be the winners. >> Right, so what impacted bold leadership? We had from the Golden State Warriors on earlier and I think there's, what's great about sports teams is we all get to see them do their business. And we get to see the scoresheet at the end of the day, we don't necessarily get to see that in other companies. But really a fantastic example of new leadership coming in, made bold sweeping changes, probably a little bit of luck, which most success stories have, but you know significant top-down culture change. So how do you see cultures changing with bold leadership and old-line companies? Can the old guard flip? Do they need to bring in new blood? How are people executing bold leadership? >> Well first of all, I do think that it's not about old-line, it's not about young, it's really about leadership. And so it is very dependent on who is the CEO and what kind of a board we have, and so, we don't, both of us don't subscribe to the idea that you have to be born digital to be have a great culture >> To be digital. >> Yeah to be digital. And I would say that, one of the key things we saw in the study was around transparency of goals. And we talk a lot at Accenture about transparency creates trust. And so when you think about, how do you change a culture? Bold leadership is in part to find in the research by the willingness to set public goals, and to be transparent and that creates the trust. The trust of your employees, and the trust of the people you want to attract. And what I often will say that is, when we put out our statistics in the U.S, we're the first professional services firm, it wasn't that we had phenomenal statistics, but the fact that we were willing to put them out created trust that we were trying to change. And it helped people want to be a part of that change. >> Right. I mean you know that, you guys are in this business, if you can't measure it, you can't improve it. It's interesting, the Anita Borg organization puts out a self-assessment, we do their show, and Grace Hopper, to have companies. Again, not necessarily that they're going to score high but at least they recognize the problem, they're trying to measure it, they're trying to set a base line and make moves. We've heard that from Brian at Intel, Intel's making moves. And you guys have made a very definitive statement, write a line in the sand, at 2025, you're going to hit 50%. I believe that's the goal. >> Correct. And not only do we say that we're going to do it but we're doing something about it. And a lot of companies will say they want to achieve gender equality, but it's actually the actions that you take every single day. And then, of course, reporting on your progress, whether it's what you wanted to see or not, just the full transparency around the scorecard is important. >> Yeah, it's so critically important cause again, if you can't measure it, you can't change it. So great event here, as you look forward into 2018, I still can't believe we're a quarter of the way in to the year, it shocks me. (laughs) What are some of the priorities for 2018, if we sit down here again a year from now, where will you have moved on that measure, what are some of the things that are your top priorities around this initiative this year? >> Well I know for me, we certainly are trying to make sure that we continue to make progress, but I also think there's a growing conversation about the intersectionality of diversity, and so, it's women in color, it's race and the workforce, and so. We're a global company, but certainly in the U.S, which is part of the business I lead, we are not only focusing on gender, but the intersectionality of diversity and on race. >> Yeah and I think just broadening the conversation from gender diversity to true equality for all is really the big push for us here at Accenture now. And I think it's essential that no part of our organization or no individual gets left behind. And that's what we're really focused on. >> Well that's great, and so I want to thank you for having us, and wish you well in 2018, and really a fantastic event and super, super initiative. >> Come back in 2019 and we'll show you our progress. >> Alright. >> Exactly. >> She's Julie, she's Ellyn, and I'm Jeff, you're watching theCUBE from International Women's Day at the Accenture event in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching.

>> Announcer: Live, from Boston, Massachusetts, it's The Cube, covering Red Hat Summit 2017. Brought to you by Red Hat. >> Welcome to more of The Cube's coverage of the Red Head Summit 2017, I'm your host, Rebecca Knight. I'm joined today by DeLisa Alexander, she is the Chief People Officer here at Red Hat and then, joining us also, are the women in Open Source Technology winners. We have Jigyasa Grover and we also have Avni Khatri. So congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm looking forward to hearing more about why you were bestowed with this honor but I want to start with you, DeLisa. >> DeLisa: Thank you. >> Why this award? Why did Red Hat feel that highlighting women and what they're doing in Open Source was worthy and we needed to showcase these women? >> Red Hat believes this is incredibly important. We all know that there are not nearly enough females in the technology industry and as the Open Source leader, we felt like we had a responsibility to begin to make a difference in that way. >> So tell us about the process. How do you find these women? How do you then winnow it down to who deserves it? >> So it's community based. It's a power of participation. >> So it's the Open Source way. >> It is the Open Source way. So the nominees come in from whomever would like to make a nomination. We do have a panel of judges that narrow down the nominations so there's five of each, the academic and the community And then we put it out to the community to vote. And so the community selects our award winners. >> Great, okay. So let's start with you, Anvi. So you, you're based here in Cambridge. >> Anvi: I am. >> And you were talking about how you had a five year goal. >> Yes. So, I was working at Yahoo! at the time and my boss at that time had asked us to make one year, five year, and 10 year goals. And in my five year plan, I had listed I wanted to set up computer labs for underserved populations. I wanted to travel, I wanted to see other cultures and I wanted to bring technology to other cultures. And I went to this awesome conference, the Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing. >> The Cube has a great partnership and long-term partnership with Grace Hooper. >> Awesome, it's a great conference. I was there and I met ... I reconnected with some folks and I was so inspired by all the women that were there and I came back and I was looking at my goals and I was like, why do I have to wait five years to do this? And I looked online and I saw that someone I had reconnected with, Stormy Peters at Grace Hopper, was running Kids on Computers and so I emailed her and the rest is really history. I found one of my passions in life is to bring technology to people who don't have access to it and doing it with Open Source so that it's accessible to everyone who needs it. >> So tell me about some of the stories, some of the kids that you're working with, and how it is, in fact, changing their lives. I just got back Monday night from a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico for Kids on Computers. We were there for a whole week. But we were setting up computer labs for these local rural communities. Most of them don't have internet. Some of them are now starting to get internet but what we do is we take donated equipment and grant money and Red Hat has also been ... Has awarded Kids on Computers a grant for contributing to some of the labs we set up last week. But we set up two new labs, we took donated equipment and we purchased equipment in country and we worked in the small towns of Antequera and Constitución. Those are actually the school names. We worked in the city of ... It's a suburb of Oaxaca City, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán and working with them is really enlightening. So, some of the teachers have never used a computer before. Some of the kids have but most of them have not. So just seeing them trying to use a mouse, learning how to do single-click, double-click and going from the point where they haven't used it to the point where they have and where the understand it and getting to the point where one kid is teaching another kid is just really ... Just seeing that makes you feel, like, wow. I've actually made an impact and then, hopefully, by providing accessed technology and also providing access to educational content. So the offline content pieces for schools that don't have internet, working with a partner of Kids on Computers, Internet in a Box, providing offline Wikipedia, Khan Academy, MEDLINE content, offline books, that we give them a pathway to bettering their own lives and bettering the lives of their communities. >> That's really incredible and it will be this really big leveling of the playing field. >> Yes, I hope so. I really hope so and I am hopeful that will come to fruition 'cause I think education is one of the most sustainable ways to improve communities and I think Open Source is an avenue to get them there. >> Thank you. Jigyasa, so you are the academic winner. You are still a college student and with this wonderful award so congratulations. >> Jigyasa: Thank you so much. >> I want to talk to you. So you went to an all-girls high school in India and then got to university in New Delhi and weren't very happy with what you saw when you got to university. Can you tell us a little bit more. >> So I told you what was at the end. What I see is ... I am doing my undergraduation in Computer Science and Technology. In my batch, 80% of them are boys and the rest, girls, and not much interested in pursuing a career in technology, as such. They're pursuing different stuff like arts, designing, or even going for civil services back home. So when I came, I wanted to actually pursue a career in technology and do something apart from cataclysm. Not just books, but do something so that I can apply the concepts somewhere. We were just studying different mordents of software engineering but I wanted to be a part of a team, which actually implements it. So Open Source was the only way because I had internet, I had a good internet connection, I had a laptop and lots of free time. So one day I came across Pharaoh. The name itself fascinated me because it reminded me of Egyptian mummies and all. So that's how I actually got into Pharaoh. I've been contributing to it since three years now and also been apart of different world wide programs like Google Summer of Code and to give back to the community which has helped me so much, starting right from scratch. I tried to meet 13 rich developers and budding programmers through programs, like one of them is Learn IT Girl. So it pairs females, both mentors and mentees, worldwide. So not only do you get to know about technology but you can also know about their culture by being a team and knowing about how it works, how are their working styles and temperaments. Also, I wanted to be a part of something local so that I could interact with them physically so I'm the Director for Delhi Network of Women who Code which has more than 400 plus members back in New Delhi and I organize code labs, teach them, or randomly give pep talks sot that they do not feel bogged down and have enough to look forward to. It's been a pretty exciting journey, as I say. >> It's just beginning. >> And this is the thing is that we are bombarded with headlines about how difficult it is for women in the technology industry because it is such a male-dominated industry. There's a lot of sexism, there's a lot of discrimination, a lot of biases where people just don't put women and technology together. You think of a technologist, you think of an engineer, you think of a guy. So how do you think that these awards, DeLisa, are changing things? What are your hopes and dreams for women in this sector? >> Well, we've come so far in terms of the way we think about supporting women just in our conference alone. And so, I think that when we're really, really successful we won't need this award anymore. But we have a long way to go between now and then. Women like these women are just so inspiring and by sharing their stories and showing what women can do future generations of girls, hopefully, will be inspired to join. Men will understand the contributions that women are making today and it will help really generate the next leaders in Open Source that are women. >> Anvi, five years from now, what do you hope? How many labs do you hope to have opened? What's your grand plan? >> So we have 22 labs right now, which is so exciting, in five countries. >> In how long? >> So, we're eight years old. We were a 501(c)(3) in 2009, so super exciting. So my hope is that ... We are currently focusing in Oaxaca and we just formed a partnership with a local university down there to provide support because, as we know, technology is just one piece of the puzzle. We need the community, we need the support, we need the education pieces along with the technology to really fulfill the project. So my hope is that ... At this point, we've kind of figured out how to deploy one lab at a time and my hope is that now we can do this at scale. That we can work with local universities, governments, and actually get .... Reach out to kids who need it because I think Oaxaca has one of the lowest literacy rates in all of Mexico. This is definitely communities where most of the kids do not go on to high school and definitely most do not go on to college. So if we can make an impact, show the measure, like be able to measure the impact that we're making, longitudinally, I think that then we can grow and we can scale. So, very hopeful. But this is my passion, right. So it's going back to as a woman, how do you find your passion. I think, find what you're passion is and go for it and that makes things so much easier. And I think there's a lot of opportunities for growth and look for people that will support efforts that you're doing, like DeLisa. And Jigyasa, she's mentoring girls already. >> And I think that that's also a great point too. This is the Open Source way because it is about community building and it's about collaboration and that is also, you're doing these things ... The software is a metaphor for what you're doing in life. >> [Jigyasa and Anvi] Yes. >> Jigyasa, what's next for you? So first, graduate from college, that would be >> Yes. (laughing) >> A big priority. But then where do you hope to work? >> Actually, I want to learn lots and travel the world, know more about everything. That's what Jigyasa means. So Jigyasa means curiousity in Hindi and Sanskrit so I hope I live up to my name and the next few years, I just want to keep the learning mode switched on, be curious, and if I want to do something, at least I'll give it a try so that I do not regret that I never gave a try. So always be curious, interact, and give a try. >> Do you want to continue working in technology or do you want to come to the States? Where do you see your career path? My career path, it's like I'm trying to balance everything. I want to learn more theoretically about computer science and technology. Maybe do a Master's degree further and then move on to industry. Also, I am pretty excited about the research work. I've done a couple of them in Europe, Asbarez, and Canada so I want to do something which is a mix of everything so that it keeps me going. >> Do you see ... These are really social initiatives that you're both working on. Do you see that as sort of a real future for Open Source innovation and technology? We know that Open Source is helping companies grow, get more customers, make more money, improve their bottom lines, but we also see it having this big impact on global and social progress. I mean, how untapped is this, where are we in this? Open Source is a way, it's not a technology, it's a way. It's a way of doing things and thinking about the world. Transparency, using the best ideas, innovating rapidly. We have a lot of complex problems to solve, now and in the future. Using the Open Source way, we will solve those problems more rapidly. Whether it's a technology issue or something entirely outside of technology. >> I agree with that completely. Open Source is a mechanism by which we can accomplsih not just technical innovations, but also social innovations. We have to look at it wholistically. We have to look at the ecosystem wholistically. It's not just technology, it's also society, it's also community, education and how do all the puzzle pieces fit together. JeLisa, we talked a little bit about the challenges of recruiting and retaining women in this industry. What is Red Hat doing to get the best and the brightest and the most talented women engineers? Well, we've come a long way. We have a long way to go. The first thing we wanted to do is to create an ecosystem within Red Hat that was very welcoming and inclusive because if you are recruiting people and they come in and they have an experience that isn't positive, they're going to go right out the door. So the most important thing was shoring up our community and creating an environment. So we focused on that, really, in the beginning. Then we started thinking about outreach. Now, the problem is so complex to solve, right. So we started realizing there's not enough people to outreach to. So now our next step has been to start to go deeper into the school systems and start partnering, We have a partnership with BU and also the city of Boston where we supported girls coming from middle school into a lab environment and doing some fun stuff, they get introduced to technology and we're going to keep our eyes on them and we'd like to recreate this type of experience in multiple places so really go deeper in to help create an interest at the middle school age with girls. Because that's what we understand that's when we need to get them interested. >> And that's when research shows confidence falls off and women, young girls, start raising their hands less in class. >> And all that stuff. Yeah, it's such a difficult issue but we hope that we will make a difference by reaching into the pipeline and then certainly retaining. We develop our women, we really focus on that. We want to support them as leaders and so it's the whole pathway. >> And Jigyasa, are you finding that your mentorship is making a difference for the young women you're working with? Young girls? >> It certainly is because even after the program ends I receive messages and emails from girls and boys alike about the program or how they want to build their own product. So, I remember one of the girls from Romania. I mentored her during a program sponsored by Google and all she wanted to build was a website for herself and she's very young. So she used to text me about what technologies she should use and how is it shaping up. Can I test it for her? So I really liked that even after the program ended, she kept up her spirit and is still continuing with it. >> And as DeLisa says, now you got to keep an eye on her and make sure she stays with it and everything. Well, DeLisa, Anvi, Jigyasa, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. >> Well-deserved. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> This has been Rebecca Knight at the Red Hat Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. We''ll be back with more after this. (electronic beat)