>> Hey, welcome back, everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. It's International Women's Day 2018, there's stuff going on all around the world. We're up at the Accenture event at downtown San Fancisco. 400 people at the Hotel Nikko, lot of great panels, a lot of interesting conversations, a lot of good energy. Really about diversity and inclusion and not just cause it's the right thing to do, but it actually drives better business outcomes. Hm, how about that? So we're really excited to have our next guest, it's Vivienne Ming. She's a founder and chair of Socos Labs, Vivienne, welcome. >> It's a pleasure to be here. >> Yeah, so what is Socos Labs? >> So, Socos Labs is a think tank, it's my fifth company, because apparently, I can't seem to take a hint. And we are using artificial intelligence and neuroscience and economic theory to explore the future of what it means to be human. >> So who do you work with? Who are some of your clients? >> So we partner with enormous and wonderful groups around the world, for example, we're helping the Make A Wish Foundation help kids make better wishes, so we preserve what's meaningful to the child, but try and make it even more resonant with the community and the family that's around them. We've done wonderful work here with Accenture to look at what actually predicts the best career and life outcomes, and use that to actually help their employees. Not for Accenture's sake, but for the 425,000 people get to live better, richer lives. >> Right, right. That's interesting, cause that's really in line with that research that they released today, you know, what are these factors, I think they identified 40 that have a significant impact, and then a sub set of 14 within three buckets, it's very analytical, it's very center, it's great. >> I love numbers. I'm you know, by training, I'm a theoretical neuroscientist, which is a field where we study machine learning to better understand the brain, and we study the brain to come up with better machine learning. And then I started my first company in education, and to me, it's always about, not even just generating a bunch of numbers, but figuring out what actually makes a difference. What can you do? In education, in mental health, in inclusion, or just on the job, that will actually drive someone to a better life outcome. And one of those outcomes is they're more productive. >> Right, right. >> And they're more engaged on the job, more creative. You know, a big driver behind what I do is the incredible research on how many, it's called the Lost Einsteins Research. >> The Lost Einsteins. >> Lost Einsteins. >> So a famous economist, Raj Chetty at Stanford just released a new paper on this, showing that kids from high wealth backgrounds, are 10 times as likely as middle class peers to, for example, have patents or to have that big impact in people's lives. In our research, we find the same thing, but on the scales of orders of magnitude difference. What if every little kid in Oakland, or in Johannesburg, or in a rural village in India, had the same chances I had to invent and contribute. That's the world I want to live in. It's wonderful working with a group like Accenture, the Lego Foundation, the World Bank, that agree that that really matters. >> Right, it's just interesting, the democratization theme comes up over and over and over, and it's really not that complicated of a thing, right? If you give more people access to the data, more people access to the tools, it'd make it easier for them to manipulate the data, you're just going to get more innovation, right? It's not brain surgery. >> You get more people contributing to what we sometimes call the creative class, which you know, right now, probably is about 1.5% of the world population. Maybe 150, 200 million people, it sounds like a big number, but we're pushing eight billion. What would the world be like not if all of them, just imagine instead of 200 million people, it was 400. Or it was a billion people, what would the world be like if a billion people had the chance to really drive the good in our lives. So on my panel, I had the chance to throw out this line that I was quoted as saying once. "Ambitious men have been promising us rocket ships and AI, "and self-driving cars, "but if every little girl had been given the reins "to her own potential, we'd already have them". And we don't talk not just about every little girl, but every little kid. >> Right, right. >> That doesn't have the chance. You know, if even one percent of them had that chance, it would change the world. >> So you must be a happy camper in the world though, rendering today with all the massive compute, cloud delivery and compute and store it to anyone, I mean, all those resources asymptotically approaching zero cost and availability via cloud anywhere in this whole big data revolution, AI and machine learning. >> I love it. I mean, I wouldn't build AI, which that's, I'm a one trick pony in some sense. I do a lot of different work, but there's always machine learning under the hood for my companies. And my philanthropic work. But I think there is something as important as amazing a tool as it is, the connectivity, the automation, the artificial intelligence as a perhaps dominant tool of the future, is still just a tool. >> Jeff: Right. >> These are messy human problems, they will only ever have messy human solutions. But now, me as a scientist can say, "Here's a possible solution". And then me as an entrepreneur, or a philanthropist, can say, "Great. "Now with something like AI, we can actually share that "solution with everybody". >> Right. So give us a little bit of some surprise insights that came out of your panel, for which I was not able to attend, I was out here doing interviews. >> So you know, I would say the theme of our panel was about role modeling. >> So I was the weirdo outlier on the panel, so we had Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf, we had the CFO of the Warriors, Jennifer was great, and we talked about simply being visible, and doing the work that we do in AI, in sports, in politics. That alone changes people's lives, which is a well studied phenomenon. The number one predictor of a kid from an underrepresented population, taking a scholarship, you know, believing they can be successful in politics is someone from their neighborhood went before them and showed them that it was possible. >> And seeing somebody that looks like them in that role. >> And so seeing a CFO of the Warriors, one of the great sports teams in the world today... >> Right. >> Is you know, this little Filipino woman, to put it in the way I think other people would perceive her and realize no, she does the numbers, she drives the company, and it's not despite who she is, it's because she brought something unique to the table that no one else had, plus the smarts. >> Jeff: Right. >> And made a difference to see Libby Schaaf get up there, with a lot of controversy right now, in the bigger political context. >> Jeff: Yes, yes. >> And show that you can make a difference. When people marginalize you, when I went out and raised money for my first company, I had venture capitalists literally pat me on the head and treat me like a little girl, and what I learned very quickly is there are always going to be some one that's going to see the truth in what I can bring. Go find those people, work with them, and then show the rest of the world what's possible. >> Right. It's pretty interesting, Robin Matlock is a CMO at VMware, we do a lot of stuff with VMware, and they put in a women in tech lunch thing a couple years ago, and we were talking, and I was interviewing her, she said, you know, I'd never really took the time to think about it. I was just working my tail off, and doing my thing, and you know, suddenly here I am, I'm CMO of this great company, and then it kind of took her a minute, and somebody kind of said, wait, you need to either take advantage of that opportunity in that platform to help others that maybe weren't quite so driven or are looking for those role models to say, "She looks kind of like me, "maybe I want to be the CMO of a big tech company". >> Well part of what's amazing you know, I get to work in education and work force, and part of what's amazing, whether you're talking about parents or the C Suite, or politicians is... A lot of that role modeling comes just from you being you. Go out, do good work in the world. But for some people, you know, there's an opportunity that doesn't exist for a lot of others. I'm a real outlier. I was not born a woman. I went through gender transition, it was a long time ago, and so for most people like me, being open about who you are means losing your job, it means not being taken seriously in any way, I mean, the change over the last couple of years has been astonishing. >> Jeff: It's been crazy, right? >> But part of my life is being able to be that person. I can take it. You know, my companies have made money, my inventions I've come up with have literally saved lives. >> Right. >> No one cares, in a sense, who I am anymore. That allows me to be visible. It allows me to just be very open about who I am and what I've experienced and been through, and then say to other people, it's not about me, it's not about whether I'm happy. It's about whether I'm serving my purpose. And I believe that I am, and does anything else about me really matter in this world? >> Right. It really seems, it's interesting, kind of sub text of diversity inclusion, not so much about your skin color or things that are easy to classify on your tax form, but it's really more just being your whole you. And no longer being suppressed to fit in a mold, not necessarily that's good or bad, but this is the way we did it, and thank you, we like you, we hired you, here you go, you know? Here's your big stack of rags, here's your desk, and we expect you to wear this to work. But that to me seems like the bigger story here that it's the whole person because there's so much value in the whole versus just concentrating on a slice. >> You know, it's really interesting, again, this is another area where I get to do hard numbers research, and when I do research, I'm talking looking at 122 million people. And building models to explain their career outcomes, and their life outcomes. And what we find here is one, everybody's biased. Everybody. I can't make an unbiased AI. There are no unbiased rats. The problem is when you refuse to acknowledge it. And you refuse to do something about it. And on the other side, to quote a friend of mine, "Everybody is covering for something. "Everybody has something in their life that they feel like "compromises them a little bit". So you know, even if we're talking about you know, the rich white straight guy, everyone's favorite punching bag. And I used to be one of them, so I try and take it easy. It is, the truth is, every one of them is covering for something, also. And if we can say again, it's not about me, which amazingly, actually allows you to be you. It's not about what other people think of me, it's not about whether they always agree with everything I say, or that I agree with what my boss says. It is about whether I'm making a difference in the world. And I've used that as my business strategy for the last 10 years of my life, and even when it seems like the worst strategy ever, you know, saying no to being chief scientist after you know, Fortune 50 company, one after another. Every time, my life got better. And my success grew. And it's not just an anecdote. Again, we see it in the data. So you build companies around principles like that. Who are you? Bring that person to work, and then you own the leadership challenge up, and I'm going to let that person flourish. And I'm going to let them tell me that I'm wrong. They got to prove it to me. But I'm going to let 'em tell it me, and give them the chance. You build a company like that, you know, what's clear to me is over the next 10 years, the defining market for global competition will be talent. Creative talent. And if you can't figure out how to tap the entire global work force, you cannot compete in that space. >> Right. The whole work force, and the whole person within that work force. It's really interesting, Jackie from Intel was on the panel that I got to talk, to see if she talked about you know, four really simple things, you know? Have impact. Undeniable, measurable impact, be visible, have data to back it up, and just of course, be tenacious, which is good career advice all the time, but you know. >> It's always good. >> Now when you know, cause before, a lot of people didn't have that option. Or they didn't feel they had the option to necessarily be purpose driven or be their old self, because then they get thrown out on the street and companies weren't as... Still, not that inclusive, right? >> Vivienne: I get it, believe me. >> You get it. So it is this new opportunity, but they have to because they can't get enough people. They can't get enough talent. It's really about ROI, this is not just to do the right thing. >> If even if you look at it from a selfish standpoint, there is the entire rest of the professional world competing for that traditional pipeline to get into the company. So being different, being you, it's a-- I mean, forgive me for putting it this way, but it's a marketing strategy, right? This is how you stand out from everyone else. One of my companies, we built this giant database of people all over the world, to predict how good people were at their job. And our goal was to take bias out of the hiring process. And when I was a chief scientist of that company, every time I gave a talk in public, 50 people would come up afterwards and say, "What should I do to get a better job?" And what they really meant was, what should I write on my resume, you know, how should I position myself, what's the next hot skill? >> Right. >> And my advice, which I meant genuinely, even though I don't think they always took it as such, was do good work and share it with the world. Not just my personal experience. We see it again and again in these massive data sets. The people that have the exceptional careers are the ones that just went out there and did something because it needed to get done. Maybe they did it inside their last job, maybe they did it personally as a side project, or they did a start up, or philanthropy. Whatever it was they did it, and they did it with passion. And that got noticed. So you know, again, just sort of selfishly, why compete with the other 150 million people looking for that same desirable job when the person that you are, I know it's terrifying, it is terrifying to put yourself out there. But the person you are is what you are better at than everyone else in the world. Be that person. That is your route to the best job you can possibly get. >> By rule, right? You're the best you you can be, but by rule, you're not as good at being somebody else. >> It sounds like a corny line, but the science backs it up. >> That's great. All right Vivienne, I could go on for a very long time, but unfortunately, we're going to have to leave it there. I really enjoyed the conversation. >> It was a lot of fun. >> And thanks for spending a few minutes with us. All right, she's Vivienne, I'm Jeff, you're watching theCUBE from the Accenture Women in Tech event in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. (upbeat electronic music)

(logo snapping) >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with the Cube. We're in downtown San Francisco with International Women's Day. Stuff going on all around the world. Check social media. It's pretty exciting and definitely a movement. We decided to come down to the Accenture event. 400 people here at the hotel, Nikko. A lot of panels, a lot of great content, and we're excited to have our next quests. We have Paul Chapman. He's the CIO of Box. Paul, it's great to see you. And J.D. Sassaman, Senior Workshop Manager at Autodesk for the Pier 9 Tech Center. So J.D. jump in. I have to ask, J.D. What is the Pier 9 Tech Center? >> Yeah, it's a fantastic place, right here in downtown San Francisco. We have a wood shop, metal shop, robot arms, digital fabrication, rapid prototyping. It's literally a physical place to fabricate, prototype, iterate, and research within Autodesk. >> It's so cool. I don't think most people think of Autodesk as, you think as a software company, but not necessarily that you can touch, shave, >> Yeah. >> and drill, you know play with toys. >> Absolutely. It's where the rubber hits the road. You can design all day but if you can't make it, and we can't test what the customers are doing with the software to valid that we're making software that drives that thing getting build in the world, then we missing something. So there's where these centers, you know, they help Autodesk be authentically in touch with what our clients are doing. >> So part of today's topic was to put out this report, there's forty kind of factors that influence people, businesses, and culture, and diversity. And one of the big three buckets is about culture and leadership, be bold leadership. And it's pretty interesting in your panel, you talked about Box and being that kind of millennial-lead company. A lot of millennials compared to HP and some of the older companies. You had a quote. I wrote it down. You talked about a maniacal focus on culture fit. So Paul, I wonder if you can dive into a little bit about why that's important and how does it manifest itself in the day-to-day operations at Box? >> Something that we always done from the very beginning is, we've always been a people first company. And so what's really important is part of that is when you're hiring people into the company, they also have to fit the culture of the company. As we know, one of the hardest thing to hold on to when you're growing scale a company, is the culture. And so we not only hire for in sort of experience and capability, but also for the culture fit. And we maniacally do focus on that. Now, it can slow down our hiring process, but ultimately it's about preserving that culture. And the culture people first is very much about inclusion. It's very much about our employee resource groups. It's very much about the way we recruit, the way we hire, where we hire from as well. You know I think that millennials, you mentioned having driven millennial culture, millennials will actually interview the company for their values, for their views, for you know. Inclusion would be one of those things as well. So it's, >> Jeff: Right. >> actually even, I think it's going to become harder for companies to even recruit in the future if they don't have a, you know, diversity inclusion as, not as a side project, not as something that happens on the side, but as something that's baked into the company's cultures. >> Right. This is kind of ying and yang, right? 'Cause like you said, it probably slows down your hiring process. There's a lot of pressure to hire people knowing >> Paul: Yeah. >> you can get all the talent they want, but at the other time, you want retention. And you want people that are going to be around for awhile >> Paul: Yeah. >> when you do hire them, will be good contributors to the company >> Paul: That's right. >> for a long, long time. So, I image short-term lost, long-term gain when you stick to that. >> That's absolutely right. Who you work with and who work for is very, very important. And we have a very open social, collaborative culture. And I think generally what that does, and I worked in a number of organizations, is that it creates for a very motivated workforce and very productive workforce. >> J.D., I want to ask you kind about the growth of purpose-driven. You know, we've see it >> J.D.: Yep. >> again and again, I give a lot of credit to the younger kids coming up in terms of purpose being much higher on their rank of priorities of how they make their decisions. I wonder if you can talk, have you seen that in Autodesk in some of your new hires and is it changing the way you guys do things? >> Yeah, sure. And I think even more, more visibly for us, we have such a turn of residences who come and do work in research and prototyping at the shop. That we see a bigger volume there than I do in hiring, and what I really see is a similar. They want to know that we have a commitment to a culture of collaboration. That innovation isn't just a buzz word but is really going to be facilitated. By putting people in the place, with the machines, with the technical capabilities, but also with other people, who are going to think about their problem differently. And I think, you know we back that up with physical practices. We do a lot as a technical team that supports all those residences. By creating spaces to be curious and to learn, and irregardless how much technical expertise you have coming in, we want to learn from you and you want to learn from us. And when the team that's supporting that space really embodies that, people feel it. And they know that it's real. And they know this is a place that I come and ask questions I don't know answers to and not feel dumb about it. But go on the journey with you to find the answers. And that's really what we're facilitating, is people coming in with good questions. >> Right. _ And making a space where you could possibly find an answer you don't expect. And that comes from that culture. So we see that with the turn of people coming through the space, that they need to get it, and they need to know this is a place that they can really push the limits of where they've been before. >> And then how, have you seen the kind of top down push for that culture, in terms of supporting it, evolving it, you know, >> Paul: Yeah. >> over time, from the very top levels? >> J.D.: That's interesting. >> No, now I'll take a run if. Even just go to our company's values, and everybody, you know, has an employee badge. We have our company values in the back of every single badge. And one of our company values, there's a couple, actually we have 10 values in there. And I think they're all great values. One of them is make Mom proud. Okay, it's about, you know, before you make any decision, before you do anything, is this a decision that would make your Mom proud? The next one that is, I think, also goes to the culture of our company, is bring your blank self to work. And you can fill in blank with whatever you want to fill it in with. So these are values that have been thought through from the top of the company, that permeates all the way through the organization. And as you know, an organization, your values and your mission are very, very important to that culture. >> Jeff: Right. >> So we even just reworked our recruitment philosophy based upon hiring on diversity and inclusion as well. So these are things that are absolutely supported from the top down inside our organization. >> And how has that manifested? Do people quote the values in reference to company awards? Do people, how does it actually go from just the back of, you know, the back of your badge to implementation to everyday world? >> We have them in performance reviews. When people are, you know people sort of do their performance reviews in, and part of that is, how is this person upholding our values. And so, we've installed this, you know, deep understanding of the values of the company because that's what effectively holds us together from a culture stand point as well. >> Jeff: Right. >> Yeah, it's interesting I think with Pier 9 we've seen a real chicken and egg. Pier 9 was an experiment when it started five years ago. And I think what's happened is the experiment went well. And that leadership started to see this kind of experiment is bringing in a value that as a software company, we haven't been able to reach before, which is having people in the space innovating and collaborating building community in that way. So it's been interesting to see it trickle up. And I say it's been really been grass-root, and what I see is that now, you know, when they're recruiting at Autodesk, they bring the people to Pier 9 because it's an employee benefit. So, and we see how the videos that Pier 9 are getting made from the marketing department and has influenced how the videos are getting made when we talk about all throughout the company. So it's been very interesting, you know, they brought, they started the experiment that they thought would be valuable, and now the company is found out more and more what that value is. And now they're looking at it. I do we expand that with our network of technology centers? I do we reach more people? And what else does this feed back to the larger corporation? >> Right >> Yeah. >> If anything you just touched on it with your be the underscore person is, is even diversity within the regular, just the regular hires that maybe, just the regular white guy from 10 years ago, >> Paul: Yeah. >> before it would be fit in a box, right. We hired you, now fit in a box. We talked about, it's amazing to me the impact of clothing. >> Paul: Yeah. >> We talked about it in an earlier interview. You know, you're a great person. You do all this stuff. Now we hired you, we'll put you in a box. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> As oppose to now, there's kind of whole person concept, which is even diverse inside of the attributes >> Paul: That's it. >> that you're leveraging from the individual >> Paul: Yeah. >> employees to get more value. Seems to be just a really >> Paul: Yeah. >> significant trend that then is going to drive that innovation. To use that whole asset. >> Yeah, you know, I'll even add that, as I mentioned earlier, employee resource groups, right. Heavy support for creating employee resource groups. In fact, we just created a new one for, Belong, you know, this is for people that are maybe immigrants into the country that are now under fear and concern with the what's going on with certain immigration policies and laws and so on. >> Jeff: Right, right. >> And we have Box Women's Network, Box Women's Technology Network, we have Black Excellence Network, we have all these various different employee resource groups, but also what's happening is that these groups are also helping people to get connected with other people across the organization. And as companies grow and you have thousands of employees, how do you get connected with other people across your organization that are in a similar situation as yourself. And we're finding that it's helping build relations, helping to build connections. I think our cognitive thought, our problem-solving, and so on is actually significantly improved because of this. >> Alright, so we're getting the wrap sign. It's a busy day. I want to give you the last word before we cut off. If we sit down a year from now, at International Women's Day, what are you working on, what are your priorities, both as individually as well as, you know, from a company point of view for the next 12 months? J.D., I'll start with you. >> Yeah. I'm actually launching an organization right now called, The Workbench Alliance. It's a professional organization for women, gender non-binary folks, trans-women, super inclusive, working at the intersection of craft, technology, and design. It's a lot of what we facilitate at Pier 9, and I'm looking at how we build a professional network to promote, create visibility, and really more and more community around these sort of converging industries. Supporting each other and you know, kind of employee resource group, but outside the corporation, which I think it's going to benefit, certainly benefit Autodesk, but benefit everybody. >> Jeff: Right, right. >> You know, I'll go on one topic and that's machine learning. I think we that we're at a point, it's almost the tip of an iceberg, but we have over the last few years created more, and more, and more data. And now we're mining that data for intelligence. Machine learning is getting smarter, and smarter, and smarter. So not only are we looking at leveraging that ourselves at Box to add more value to the content that our customers store with us, but also I think it's an opportunity to do things around hiring on diversity. You know, I think there's a lot of learning we can do to weed out unconscious bias. How we screen, the screening process, the finding process, the recruitment process. So I'm a big believer of machine learning helping us in a lot of different ways. >> Alright. Well, J.D., Paul, thanks for taking a minute, >> Alright. >> from your day. I really enjoyed the conversation. >> Alright, thank you >> Great, thank you. >> I'm Jeff Frick, we're at the International Women's Day. The Accenture at downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. Catch you next time. (electronic beat theme music)

>> Hey, welcome back everybody Jeff Frick here with theCUBE, we're downtown San Francisco, the Hotel Nikko, it's International Women's Day, March 8th, there's stuff going on all around the world, but we're excited to be here at the Accenture event, about 400 people, a lot of great panels, some familiar faces, some new faces, and one of those familiar faces joins us in the next segment. He's Marc Carrel, from Accenture, great to see you. >> Great to see you too. >> And a new face, Mary Hamilton, managing director also from Accenture Labs. Mary, great to see you. >> Great to see you too. >> So, first things, just kind of impressions of this event. I don't know if you did it last year, we weren't here, you know, there's a lot of energy, kind of, initial takeaways from some of the early panels. >> I mean, the energy is there, I mean, definitely last year we were here, I mean we do that every year for sure, and last year it was amazing as well, but I think this year is even bigger than we had last year. We have a kind of a hub and spokesmen of our organization where we have also our top leadership to go from different cities and then we celebrate all over the world. So this year the hub is here, and that's the reason why there's so much buzz and so much excitement. So that's pretty cool. >> Yeah, all of our leadership is here, and just phenomenal guests, um, from, yeah, we really aim for diversity, even not just gender diversity but diversity across all of our different panelists, you know, kind of thing they're thinking about, the way they're thinking about diversity, um, and you know, for me just some of those takeaways, you know, Vivian Ming, her point was when she showed up um, and, is there a difference between how men and women are treated? When she showed up as herself, as she is today, as a woman, she said she's never been asked a math question since. And that just blew me away that it's so black and white and they're really you know, from someone who's lived on both sides, there really is a difference. >> Right, right. So what are the topics? You guys are involved in Labs, is innovation, right? So there's digital transformation, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, but really innovation is kind of a more concrete thing that people are trying to achieve. And you guys are a big part of that at Labs, diversity is a big part of being more innovative. >> It's critical. >> So how do you guys see it in your customer base, and how do you see it within the work that you guys do within your own department at the Labs group? >> Well, I'll start, just, you know, you think about innovation that taps diversity is stronger innovation. Right? Our clients are delivering products and services to a diverse audience. And as we serve our clients and try to help them transform and be more digital, we have to reflect, the consumers or the buyers, for their products. And if we don't have that diversity, we're not going to deliver the right kinds of innovation. >> Right. >> I think Mary is absolutely right. And then what's very important to us is that we absolutely demonstrate that through numbers. So, you know, we have like seven labs, two of our leaders are women from those labs, we have five research domains, out of the five research domains, three out of the five are lead by women. >> Right. >> And I think that's pretty amazing. Now you see that from an organization's perspective. But I think if you look at who are the researchers, the most prolific that we have in the labs, from the few hundred people that we have, they're women. Hands down. And I'm going to give you some numbers which is again amazing, we are again publishing about 2,000 patents. I mean from the labs, since we exist. More than thirty eight percent have been driven by women. And then our most prolific labber is a woman. She has many of her, 124 applications and patents. How about that? I mean, she's amazing. >> Well drive is such an important piece, which is one of my favorite quotes. "In God we trust, but everybody else better bring data." Right? So if you don't apply data, if you don't measure the data, and you don't actually put in processes to specifically address the problem, it's just conversation, right? It's just interesting words. >> Absolutely, Jeff. And I think Mary will share with you, I mean also we're putting a process and an approach, a culture that is really changing the mind. >> Yeah. We focus on programs, not just at the junior level of recruiting, we do spend a lot of time and effort on getting out where women are, so we do things like Grace Hopper. We invest a lot to go to Grace Hopper and meet those technical women, we do things with women who code, with girls who code, what's the pipeline going to look like? But then once we have them in, how do we retain them? And so we've created a community and a network where we do a number of things. We mentor them, we create external networks, we create internal networks, we create kind of a social space, a safe social space, where you can bring up questions like "what should I wear to International Women's Day?", without having to feel awkward about asking those kind of things. We create a community that empowers and makes people feel comfortable. >> And do the clients get now that for whatever good, bad or otherwise they just need more good people. I mean we can't just not pull from the greatest population of good people that you can pull from. >> Absolutely, you're absolutely right. And I think another aspect from what I see what's happening in the lab, and I think Mary is a great example of that, we're looking at raw morals. Like, amazing woman like Mary, that is going to be driving, basically striving, and showing our people that you can really have a fantastic capacity as a technology person in the lab and in the Accenture organization overall. And that is very, very important for us. >> Yeah, and for me I'm not just a technologist but I'm also a mother of three small kids and I try to bring that to work, right? I try to show people, you know, I'm not just taking the hardcore path, I'm balancing a family I'm doing all these things that probably the rest of you are trying to do too and I let it show. Right? This is hard, how can I help you, here's what I'm going through, here are the challenges I'm facing, and try to bring others along too. >> So funny I did an interview years ago at an IBM event and there was a great women who was from an HR kind of consultative background, and she said, "You know, we spent all this time trying to find these great people, that have all these great attributes, and then we bring them in and then we just like give them the compliance manual, now you need to not be you, the mom, you've just got to be this little machine." And that's really not the way anymore, not at all. >> And credit to our leadership, to Marc, to Paul, Ellen, all the way up, right? There's true support for being truly human, bringing yourself to the workplace, and they do support it, they encourage it, right? And I think that that culturally seeps in to how we bring diversity to innovation too, right? It's bring your whole self to how you think about innovation. When we're hiring, I mean, I have a great example, I had a client come visit us, and he's been a strong supporter of us within his client space, and he came in and we were talking about you know, his work, and then I took him out to meet the team that was building the proof of concept for him, some tangential areas, and he met people from not just men and women, you know, diverse, but also different backgrounds, engineers, researchers, businessfolks, he met people from all kinds of backgrounds around the world. And he was able to have conversations about sports science, cricket, extended reality, and bring all those conversations back and at the end of his meeting he said "I was just floored at how many engaged conversations I was able to have with different people and the diversity of your workforce." And it's not just male female, right? You need that broad spectrum diversity to fuel innovation. >> Right. >> So -- >> Go ahead. >> Go ahead, Mark. Oh, I was just going to say, so, you know obviously it's a feel-good day today, it's feel-good place right here, but what are some of the significant, is it just execution or are there still some big hurdles that we have to overcome? Let's see, Mary, from your perspective. Marc's got it all figured out so we don't have to worry about him. >> Well, yeah, I mean there absolutely are, right? There is a pipeline problem, there is pipeline problem both from girls in STEM, coming up, right, what culturally we're telling girls and then there's a pipeline problem for, you know, we need to hire today. And I'm actually on the board of Women Who Code because I'm so passionate about their mission is, let's get women to understand that technology is approachable. That it is for all of us. >> Right. >> There's so many, the spectrum of what you can do with technology is so broad and so really if you think about it it's so appealing to so many women if you hit the right focus for them, then I think we can bring more women into tech even now, right? We don't have to wait for the pipe, we have to work on the pipeline, but we don't have to wait for it. We can start now. >> It's great, we do stuff with girls in tech and girls who code and obviously your Grace Hopper too. So you saw, just basing on her name, the gal that got the keynote, from uh, from the UK, who was basically, you know, at her last nickel with her kids, the poorest, homeless, and she learned how to code. And I dunno how old she was but she wasn't -- >> And we have so many stories of women who code. It turns their life around. And maybe the Tech For Good. >> Yeah, I think that's interesting, I mean also the nature of some of the projects we're doing also are driving women to be involved in this project. Do you know what is Tech For Good? I think I discussed that with you for some of these interviews. >> Yes. >> Where we're using technology and innovation to bring change to the world and the society and everything. We really believe, and we're not the only ones who believe that, you know, I mean, there are CEOs from other organizations that believe that, like, women are really on track today to build solutions or projects, with meaningful projects that really have purpose. That are meaningful to the society. And so Tech For Good, that we have launched, first of all got an incredible success, not only within the firm but outside of the firm, and the second thing is that it attracted tons of women talents. They love these kind of things. And then because they loved that, they want to stick with Accenture, and they, you couldn't describe it. >> Yeah, I mean, you get both sides of the coin. You're doing things that are empowering women in many cases, a lot of the projects we're doing. >> Right, right. And then that's also attracting women because we're excited about betterment of society and humanity and -- >> It's interesting, you know I got to give a lot of credit to kind of the younger generation coming up in terms of the prioritization of purpose within their hierarchy in deciding what to do, what companies to work for, how to spend their time, you know, it's very different than when we were, we didn't think about purpose, was trying to get a good job. Pay off the mortgage and then get a car. They don't want a car, they don't want a mortgage, they just want to do good. >> Absolutely, and I'll tell you something Jeff, I mean it's just like the Tech For Good I was just discussing with Mike Sutcliff before that, our chief officer of Accenture, and I was telling him that Tech For Good, the reason why we decided to do the Tech For Good and lab, talking to my leaders and everything is just like because my kids come to me and say "Hey Dad, you have the best job in the firm now, I mean, you need to do something with it." And so obviously we had to do some Tech For Good things. That's it. >> I love it. Alright, we're running out of time so I'll give you the last word, if when we come back a year from now, I'll probably see you in a month since I see you all the time. But a year from now at International Women's Day what are you working on, what are your priorities, how does this integrate into what you guys are doing at Labs, in your brand new space, by the way. >> Yeah, yeah. I mean part of the mission in that brand new space is to create these accidental collisions, right? >> Accidental collisions? >> Collaborative collisions I should say. (laughter) >> I was like, I love that term. >> No, we're not just colliding with each other. We're collaborating in these collisions. >> When atoms collide big things happen, right? >> Exactly. >> I'm sorry, knocked your train of thought. >> No, no, no, that's perfect. Um, and I think that whole mission is about how to create that diversity of thought. How do we bring people together that wouldn't have collaborated in the past? So my mission as we're moving into that new space, is to get my labbers, who are, you know, we're on our own little floor doing our own little thing, to expand our horizons, right? To think about diversity across the spectrum, how are we going to work with other groups, how are we going to bring different pieces to the innovation? So I hope we can reflect than even as we come back next year to this program. >> Great, alright. >> And my job is really to, I mean, as a, to pile on what Mary says, like, I'm going to continue stretching the limit of others' research. Because I think that there's nothing better than to do that hard research to solve that hard problem to elevate our people. And to be honest whether it's woman or man, they're all labbers, they're all part of our family, and there's no better, basically, reward for you to see these people, basically shining and explaining their passion to our clients, changes society and everything. That's what we got to do. >> Love the passion Marc, Mary, it's always great to catch up. >> It's great to see you. (soft music)

>> 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.

(clicking) >> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE, we're in downtown San Francisco, the Hotel Nikko, it's International Women's Day, March 8th, stuff happening all around the world If you haven't seen it, jump on social. I think there's more hashtags than I even know what to do with. Thankfully we have 240 characters now. (Lisa laughs) But we're excited to be here at the Accenture event, it's Getting To Equal. Accenture's made a commitment to get to 50% gender equality by 2025, and this is a terrific event, 400 people, a lot of panels, a lot of real-world conversations. So we're excited to be here and our next guests are joining us, it's Lisa Bridgett, she's the COO of The Modist. Welcome. >> Thank you so much. >> And Amy Fuller, chief marketing and communications officer from Accenture. Thank you for having us. >> Thank you. >> So for folks that aren't familiar with The Modist, give us a little overview. >> Hi everyone, we are a year old today. >> A year today? >> A year old on International Women's Day. >> Happy birthday. >> Thank you so much. And we are a luxury ecommerce platform between Dubai and London, that has an assortment and a curation of luxury fashion, 150 brands, but all with the sensibility around modesty, so we think about hemlines, we think about opacity, we think about loose fits, all with luxury fashion on top of it, but making sure that we cater for our customers' needs in mind. >> How could this not have existed before, 366 days ago. >> This is the age old question, and our founder Ghizlan Guenez has been asked that time and time again. We have numerous places where you can go and find anything that will reveal, but there wasn't a one-stop place that really had curation and styling thought through from a modest perspective. And the customer base spans women who think about modesty from a religious perspective, businesswomen, curvier women, older women, high fashionistas that love a layered look, really, it's a niche, but it's massive. It's a massive global niche. >> Again, we're here, Macy's is right across the street, we're right downtown San Francisco, Nordstrom's, this is the big retail hub of San Francisco, one of the bigger retail hubs in the United States. And we know, we were talking before we turned on the cameras, I have teenage girls, and you go to the store, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, "is there nothing else that you can buy, "besides what's on there?" Why is this so underserved, or was underserved? >> I mean, I think that the fashion industry is going through a massive overhaul now, as one thinks about whether you're designing for aspiration, or whether you're designing and selling for really the reality of what the consumer segment is out there. And that goes for a Western woman, and when you think about the global fashion industry, are we thinking about fashion that resonates in India, or the Middle East, or in Asia, or are you sticking to a more conformed, idealized persona of what the customer is. And so this is very much on top of minds of all retail at the moment, and you will have seen shifts into larger sizes, very well-known fashion designers thinking about how do I design and cater for women that don't subscribe to an idealized format, it's quite a reflective thing that the fashion industry's going through at the moment. >> It's interesting Amy, a lot of conversations about communications, and objectives, not necessarily about what's comfortable and what I want to wear. As you look at this world and how it evolves, what's your take? Because, designing for an aspiration, that's a really interesting way, versus just designing practical clothes, we haven't seen the practical side. >> Well I think that what Lisa and her company are doing has potential to be quite transformational, and, I'll just plug a piece of research that we're publishing in honor of International Women's Day, which looked at, how do we get to equality in the workplace. Massive research, analytics, surveyed 22,000 working adults, men and women, in 34 countries, and what we were trying to get at, and did get at, are things about the culture. So what are the cultural factors that actually make a difference? So this is a very long way of getting to the point, but one of the questions we asked was, have you ever been asked to change clothing, hair, tattoos, et cetera, things about personal appearance to fit and conform in the workplace. A lot of people had been asked, sadly. And this was across 34 countries. But what we further found was, if you had not been asked to conform to the workplace, in other words, if you are allowed to dress as you wish to dress, that that was a factor that drove equality in the workplace. So, the idea that a woman with fabulous taste, who wishes to dress modestly, and Lisa described, there are a lot of people out there with that point of view, have a place to go to get absolutely stunning stuff, and dress as they wish to dress, and therefore, be the persona they want to be in the workplace is really powerful. And there were a lot of other factors, but that was the one that I found really, really, really interesting, and we found out before we had even invited Lisa to talk to us today, so it was a coming together of things that do matter. >> It's interesting because dress in the workplace, in the context of the workplace, is an interesting topic, if you go to Wall Street, everybody's got to buy the super nice suits, and then we got this kind of Casual Friday thing a few years ago, and people were very confused, how casual do I get on Casual Friday, and then, you've kind of got the whole joke about the baristas, with tats, and ripped up t-shirts-- >> There you go. >> And the getting that blended into traditional corporate cultures, little bit of a shocker. >> Well, there are a lot of questions that come into play, and I was having a long chat with one of my male colleagues, last night about how things have changed, and how much trickier it is to navigate, and he described that early on, cut to a couple of decades ago, men had to wear white shirts and ties at Accenture, and there was a young man who came to work in a blue Oxford, tie, suit, perfectly appropriate-- >> But blue, not white. >> On a Monday, yes, taken to task, and drawn aside, and said, "Blue shirts are for Fridays." >> Wow. >> So, from there, we go, and one of the things we really love about Accenture is that, you can wear what you want to wear, and it really has such a profound impact on how you feel in the workplace. And, if I can pull in a little AI stuff as well, when we look at AI, and the impact it will have on the workforce, what really, really matters is the things that humans are uniquely able to do. And what AI is uniquely able to deliver, that's the big win for all of us, for business, and when you think about the uniquely human characteristics, creativity, comfort that leads to creativity, and being able to freely think, is one of the most valuable qualities we have as humans. And, oddly, or not oddly, what you wear allows you to feel comfortable, or not. So coming back to what the Modist really provides women with great taste-- >> Great taste. >> To something that they feel comfortable with, and they can be more productive, and more successful. >> Yeah, I'll halo just a couple of those points. The first one is about choice. So, we were saying earlier on, we're in a luxurious environment where we are able to say, "You can choose," because it has not been that way and still continues not to be that way for many people. And that's why we really are for a mission and a purpose, because here we provide you with this element of choice, and you don't need to be ashamed of it, and you'd need to be proud of it. The second part was that modesty didn't need to equate to frumpiness, why can't I dress elegantly and magnificently beautifully, and there is something about dress, and fashion, that really provides a sense of identity, that's an age old desire for society, and for women, a lot, and this is a place where you can be modest, but luxuriously, and beautifully dressed up. And be proud of that, and not necessarily conformed into a box of frumpiness, or less stylish wear. >> The other big interchange, I think, which drove a lot of the traditional norms around clothing, was when you interface with a customer. It was how do you represent the customer, I'm sure that was a lot of what the story that you said, or in the investment bankers, where, we want you to have a certain look, because you're representing the company, it's that company's look that you are personifying when you go out and talk to your customer. Well today, a lot of customer interactions, let's take banking for one, is done on a mobile app. People don't go to the bank, I don't expect the guy to come out from the back with the beautiful pinstripe suit, who knows me anymore. I wonder, do you think that's had a part of the impact on this? Or just more of our acceptance in general of people that don't necessarily look like me? Whether that be in skin color, dress, the way they speak, et cetera. >> Yeah, those are great-- >> You go, and I've got a-- >> Well, I think it's both, and I love both of those points, more virtual interaction clearly takes clothing out of the equation, as well as a lot of other things, and that can be liberating, though I think we have a thirst for the in real life, and the person-to-person which isn't going away. But, I grew up in the advertising business, and, at ad agencies, they were pretty loose. But you always dressed for your client, so that certainly was a dynamic. But of course, now, dressing for your client doesn't imply a suit. And it makes it slightly more work, in fact, 'cause you have to do some anthropological study of what is the client environment like, and that how would you be most comfortable, and appropriate in that environment, so, certainly both of those factors come into play. >> And I feel the hyperdigitalization of the way we interact actually allows for more authenticity. Because you don't have to dress up in the suit that's the conform, you know. Your digital interaction and the work effect is happening, and so people behind that wanting to know who are you really? And authenticity is a way in which you get your own identifical message through, and dressing is one of the elements that comprises that. >> Alright, so before we wrap, Lisa, I want to get your take, so, you've been in business for a year-- >> Yes. >> Again, happy birthday. >> Thank you. >> If we get together, a year from now, you've, say, got over the hurdle, you're up, you're running, you're shipping, what are some of your objectives for the next year? >> Well, we have an amazing strategic roadmap ahead, we have got a very secret launch around product that will be coming out shortly, and that's something that we've been deep in. We are really developing the personalization and the AI component of our shopping experience, so we're really targeting what works best for this consumer, how and where, and that goes all the way from her marketing, through to her experience inside, and through to the retention side. And, just increasly, continually growing globally. We ship to 120 countries, our first market is UAE, our second is America, third is UK, fourth Saudi Arabia, fifth Canada, sixth Hong Kong. So we're global at the get-go, and it's just continuing to grow our customer base in this magnificently beautiful parts of the world that love modest fashion. >> Well, congratulations-- >> Thank you so much. >> And what a great story, we'll continue to watch it. >> Thank you so much. >> So Lisa, thank you, Amy, thanks for spending some time with us. >> Thanks so much! >> Alright, I'm Jeff Frick, you're watching theCUBE, We're at the Accenture International Women's Day event, in San Francisco, California. Thanks for watching. (mellow electronic music)

>> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at The Hotel Nikko. It's International Women's Day, March 8th. A lot of stuff happening all over the world. We came here today 'cause Accenture's got a great program, put together about 400 people, a number of panels on a number of topics. We're excited that they invited us to cover it and we've got some really exciting guests. And our next guest is Sabeen Ali, she's the founder and CEO of AngelHack. Sabeen welcome. >> Thank you so much. >> And she's joined by Ellen McGirt, the senior editor of Fortune, welcome. >> Thank you. >> So I think we all know what Fortune is. >> Ellen: We do. >> But we don't probably all know what AngelHack is. So Sabeen, what is AngelHack? Give us kind of the overview. >> Yeah, I'll give you the eight second elevator pitch. We are an international hackathon organizing company. We travel the world and organize hackathons all over the world. And we basically create a bridge between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world to bring entrepreneurs here and give them the same opportunities that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have. >> So do you do independent hackathons or do you like contract it? 'Cause every conference we go to, we do like 100 conferences a year, always has some hackathon component. Do you help other people put on hackathons or you just do your own kind of independent? >> We do both, actually. So we organize a 50 city global hackathon series which is our own, and then we also work with corporate partners such as Accenture and HPE and others to organize hackathons for their brand. >> And is it thematic? Is there a special thing about the hackathons that you guys do and why you think that that's a interesting way to either develop talent, deliver a message, deliver solutions, what's special about hackathons? >> Yeah, well, what I can tell you is, what's special about hackathons is that it's a community space where people feel comfortable exploring themselves and exploring their talents, working with new individuals, and really giving them an opportunity to learn new things and try new things. What's very different about AngelHack is we're actually the world's largest and most diverse in developer ecosystem, so we actually have a wide range of diverse backgrounds and genders that come to our events, and we personally think that that's really where innovation happens, when you bring a variety of different backgrounds and minds together to get together and solve problems using technology. >> Can I just brag on you for a second? Because we just got off stage together where she just wowed the crowd with stories of these hackathons from around the world, and it's not just that there's diversity, and it's not just that they've given them the tools to succeed. She's going to Kabul, she's going to San Diego, she's bringing people who ordinarily never get the attention although plenty of people in San Diego get attention, I didn't name all the right cities, and she's bringing them together and then she's helping them fine tune, and then she's bringing them to the attention of people in power, it is extraordinary. >> Thank you. >> This is the sign of the times. The innovation, like things are starting to happen and markets are opening up, and Sabeen is one of the people who is absolutely making it happen. And that's what Fortune does best, we brag on the people that we write about. (laughing) >> That's great. And why do you think, Ellen, why are things changing now? It definitely feels like they are. >> Ellen: It does. >> But, you know, the cynic would say, yeah we've heard all this before, and, you know, pick your favorite time, you know, it's not really different, you know, this too will pass. Why is it different now? >> You know, and we were talking about this and I actually wish I knew, and I'm a cynic too depending on where I am in my deadline cycle, so sometimes I'm super optimistic and sometimes I think it's just crazy, but I think it's the confluence of many, many things. We've had a lot of stories about injustice and lack of access from every possible sphere, and race, and age, and country, and religion, all of it. And we have the very same tools, social media tools that are spreading things that are false, are spreading things that are true. And people are legitimately finding each other, and people are legitimately finding a tribe, for lack of a better term, and it's kind of exciting. So when you hear about things like AngelHack, which I always am looking for these in my daily column, it can resonate with people who are not part of the ecosystem and they can absorb the lessons of inclusion and optimism and bring it to the rest of their lives. And plus everything's crazy right now, in the world. >> Yeah, I think it's really important to also point out that in America our political climate and certain personalities that are in power right now, there's certain topics and subject matters that are becoming everyday topics. People are becoming a lot more comfortable talking about sexual harassment and talking about women in the workplace and it's not like a lot of the stories that women are telling are things that just happened yesterday, this is stuff that's from, that's happened in the past that now unlocked in their memories or they're feeling a lot more comfortable talking about it because we're actually creating an environment where people can talk about it and we're actually creating a language that people can use to express their experiences and their emotions about it. >> You're absolutely right. >> So many places we could go. But it was interesting that we're in kind of this rough middle ground where we haven't really kind of made this transition to where we're hoping to go, and it was an interesting comment at one of the other panels, you probably weren't in it, you were in your panel, about the Me Too has actually scared some men away from being mentors, and somebody said, you know, there's less. We cover the Grace Hopper Celebration and the sum of the numbers of women coming out of engineering programs, computer science specifically, are actually not going in the direction that you would think. So we're still kind of in these choppy waters, but I'm just wondering, when you set up your hackathon have you ever set up just not diverse teams to show that the output with the diverse team of opinions, points of view, backgrounds, race, sex, pick your favorite variable, actually deliver better results? >> Well, there's a ton of scientific research that actually shows that diverse groups and a diverse set of backgrounds delivers better results. So groupthink, it's been proven to be very detrimental. At our events we don't form the teams, we let the community self-organize, and we've seen time and time again that we can actually never predict who the winning team is going to be and what the make up of that team is going to look like. >> Yeah, you have to try that sometime. Put 'em in little, I don't even know, it doesn't even matter which single group you chose, you just know, as you said, the evidence is pretty clear, they're not going to perform as well as difference of opinions. Ellen, you're shaking your head. >> I know, I just sort of thought about like the sad little homogenous group who is sort of like set up to fail. (laughing) And that maybe there's a kinder way to make the case. >> Give them gummy bears or something. (laughing) So, with all you've done at AngelHack, where are you going next? What do you see as you look down the road? I still can't believe it's 2018 and we're almost a quarter of the way through this calendar year. What are some of your priorities if we come together a year form now, what will you have worked on? >> Yeah, hopefully a year from now we would have expanded into more than 92 cities, into more remote regions than we have now, and also we're doubling down on our accelerator. We want to make sure that our winning teams have an opportunity to really come to Silicon Valley or get access to funding that's available in Silicon Valley so that they can have funding and they can be successful for many years to come. >> And do you see within some of the groups that don't have access, obviously, to the money and the location in Silicon Valley, that people realize kind of what a powerful world changer technology can be, that you can actually write some code and deliver it to the entire world, that people actually use your code to do something different? >> Yeah, absolutely, that's what we're advocating for, that's really, honestly, what a lot of out topics discuss, that technology doesn't discriminate. It's really when people take a look at it, and in fact, GitHub did some research that they put code that was written by men versus code that was written by women and then they had people rate it, and immediately people were rating the code that was written by men higher, and then they didn't put what gender wrote it and then the code that was written by women was higher. So I think the research is starting and people are starting to realize to put technology first and gender maybe doesn't even belong in the judging criteria here. >> And do you think, Ellen, part of it's maybe just because we need more people? I mean there's, you know, on one hand autonomous everything is going to knock out all the jobs, on the other hand check the job listings 'cause we need a lot more people. >> We do, we do. And you're right, we're losing, what, 25% of jobs with new technology coming in, but we're also going to bring all kinds of people online who do not have access to even modern services. We're going to need some very basic things and they're going to need access to markets, and then they're going to become more responsible consumers and they, in turn, will then propose ideas that will make everybody's lives better because one of things that we talked about is that innovation tends to happen in a bubble and people are solving problems that they themselves are happening, but there's a whole world that would be improved by new levels of thinking and that would also create more jobs. >> And they're new jobs, right? There wasn't such a thing as a software developer, you know, 20 years ago, and if you're a buggy whip guy it's probably not a great time to be in business today. So while there are many jobs that are going to get wiped out, there's new jobs. You know, social media manager, I mean, that didn't exist, what, five years ago at most companies, now it's a huge part of a lot of corporations. So it's this constant evolution and yin and yang. >> Constant evolution. >> So what are you looking forward to in 2018 as you kind of, you've got kind of a broad view of the landscape. >> I do, and I write a daily column about race and culture, so that is how we got a chance to meet. You know, diversity and inclusion has been sort of the thing I've been studying for the last two years and as difficult as the world is and as crazy as it is, I really do see an opening that's happening where people are becoming more open to the idea of thinking different ways and embracing people who are different from themselves and not feeling threatened. We're still in choppy waters though, you're absolutely right. >> Well, and the other thing too, right? I was thinking if you're a 100 miles from a coast in the United States, I won't speak for other countries 'cause I don't know it as well, you know, there's a point of view and if you're more than 100 miles from the coast, maybe with Chicago as an island or Denver, there's a little bit of a difference, are you seeing, kind of, it getting beyond those kind of short borders, 'cause obviously, as you said, a lot of social stuff going on right now, there's a lot of diametrically opposed views, and I blame actually technology for a lot of it because thanks to the recommendation engines we tend to get served up things that we've read in the past, so unlike where you had kind of one newspaper in town, everybody had to read it so it had to be kind of down the middle. Now, the silly algorithms will keep delivering stuff that supports my point of view and other people will get delivered with their point of view, and I think the surprise after the election illustrated it more than anything that people didn't know anything about the other side, the shock, so are we getting past that? Do you see, kind of, what's your take on that? >> I'll start and then you jump in. I think that when we invest in communities that are under invested in, wherever they are, I live in St. Louis, you will see innovations. And maybe you won't always see the innovations that you're hoping for that will knit society together, but investment will flow and new product ideas will flow, and most importantly to your point, an understanding of how the world actually works will flow. The reason why to study software and code engineering is maybe that you don't want to be that, maybe you want to be an opera singer, but it will make you a better, more informed citizen. It will make you understand what's real and what's not real. I'm a big fan of liberal arts education in technology because it helps you understand how people actually behave and what markets actually need. >> Right. >> So I think that as people have the tools and use the tools, investments will follow, lifestyle will follow. So I guess I'm just outing myself as an optimist here. >> Jeff: Good, that's good. >> Sabeen, what do you think? >> I have to be optimistic, as well. Again, being at the forefront of emerging technology, I know that there's people looking to solve that very problem, and they're coming form a diverse group of engineers, and I really feel like that we're going to come up with a lot of tech solutions that are going to make a lot more diversity, inclusion, easier to facilitate, and easier to implement in corporations as well. >> Well, keep up your good work. I mean, at the end of the day it's about democratization. It's giving more people more access to the tools and you're going to get better solutions, more solutions, more diverse solutions. So, great job, and thanks for taking a few minutes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Alright, I'm Jeff Frick, we're at the Accenture International Women's Day Celebration. Thanks for watching. (electronic music)

>> Hey welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with the Cube. We're at the Hotel Nikko in downtown San Francisco, International Women's Day. Accenture's putting on a big event today. It's called Getting to Equal, about 400 executives. Packed house in the little conference area. So we're excited to sit down with some of the leadership team and talk about some interesting research that Accenture's come out with. And also just talk to some terrific guests and we're excited by our first guest. She's Jennifer Cabalquinto. She's the CFO of the Golden State Warriors. Jennifer, great to see you. >> Thank you. >> I'm joined by Mike Sutcliff. He's a group chief executive for Accenture Digital. Great to see you Mike. >> Great to be hear. >> Alright, so let's just jump in to it. We're a little short on time and got a packed schedule. But I want to jump in, Jennifer with you, in culture. >> Yeah. >> Talk about the culture at the Golden State Warriors. I think it's such a phenomenal example that we can all see. We can't see in lot's of other companies, but with a professional sports franchise, we can see what a top down culture change when the change of management happened. When, when >> Sure >> Joe and Peter came in and how they've been able to change the culture, but then also drive that through all the way down to the greatest operations. >> Yeah, no we've really been fortunate. Our ownership group has been so supportive. And they really want us to succeed and they gave us all the resources to do it. And they've really brought that sort of Silicon Valley leadership style and fast fail and really make us push to be innovative and to grow. I love, you know, they brought on Bob Myers as our general manager for the basketball operation side. And he always says that he recruits for character first. And then tall 'cause you can't teach tall, but character is really something that I think, we as part of the whole organization really focuses on is that, you know, it's that are we all willing to be a team and have that sort of drive together. >> Right. >> And Joe and Peter embody that from the top down and I think it really permeates. And it's really our desire to be innovative and to drive this business, both on the basketball side and on the business side. >> And what's interesting, I mean they're good guys, but they're not doing it to be good guys, they're doing it to win. I mean, it's a competitive business >> Sure. >> that we can all watch the winners and losers. It's a business decision for better business. >> That's exactly right and you know, they really do want to win. They're competitive and every single person I think in the organization is competitive. But I think they want to win in the right way. And I think you can see it in the way that we approach both the basketball side and the business side really wanting to, you know, I think do, I think the community the best that we can. I mean, we really want to reflect our community, as well as our business partners and really succeed together >> Right. So Mike, you're out on the field. You talk to a lot of customers. I mean, do people get it? Do people get that diversity of opinions, points of views, teams, isn't just to do the right thing? It's actually to drive better business outcomes? >> I think they do. I mean one of the reasons we were attracted to work with the Warriors is they were looking not just to change their game, but to change the community that they were involved in. We see lot's of clients with the same aspiration. They're trying to figure out how to improve the way the world works and lives. And so if you want improve the way the world works and lives, you got to have diversity of thought. People with different educational backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, different experiences who can look at those really tough problems and say there's a better way. >> Right. >> And that's where we think diversity brings powers. That diversity of experience allowing you to come up with new solutions. >> So Jennifer, just from a woman's perspective being in obviously a very male dominated world. Of course, a lot of the tech companies around here are as well, how are you attracted to this industry? You know, kind of, what was your experience going in knowing that you were going to be in the minority in terms of the executives around the table? >> Right. >> And how did you overcome? >> You know, I am one of five children. I have four brothers, two older, two younger. And raised in Brooklyn. I'd like to think that I've been competing with boys my entire life. And I think my environment sort of gave me a tough skin. So I don't look at it in that lens. I didn't approach the job thinking I'm the only woman, or I'm one of a handful of women. I really approached the job saying I can make a difference in this organization and to help drive and bring a new perspective to the sports industry. It was my first sports job I was out of entertainment space and not really the sports entertainment world. And I really thought that I could bring a different perspective. And I think, you know, the ownership saw the same thing. And that's why I came aboard. And I think not filtering anything that I do with the lens of I'm a woman. >> Right. >> I think really makes a difference in terms of how I approach the role and then how other people, you know, sort of receive that. >> Right. So that said, for the gals that weren't raised in Brooklyn with four brothers. Fighting for food at the table probably since you were a little kid. You know, what advice would you give them? I mean, is it just, there's some really great advice coming out of the panel in terms of just focus on data, focus on results, you know, raise your hand. What advice would you give to, you know, say young women, say a junior in college, a senior in college, first years out, who want to get started, and are attracted to a traditionally male dominated space? >> Sure, I think one, don't self edit. Like know you can succeed in that space. Just because it's male dominated doesn't mean that it needs to always be that way. I also think you have to be great at what you do. I mean it's performance first, I think in any industry. And so, when you can actually have the confidence in your abilities, I think it starts to show through and then people, you know, I think respond to that. So I think perform really, really well. Be deliberate about what you want. Ask for what you want. Set your rules. You know, I think all of that is really important. Find your voice. >> Alright, well we could go on and on, and I want to continue this later at the San Antonio game this evening, but we'll make that work out, but we got to drop. So I'll leave it there. Jennifer, Mike, thanks for >> See you there. >> taking a few minutes. >> Great to see you today. >> Alright, I'm Jeff Frick, we're at the Accenture International Women's Day celebration in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)