profile
the tech industry should be regarded
not just as an issue of morality, as it is
sometimes simplified in the media, but
also as a quintessential prerequisite
without which businesses would fail
to be relevant and innovative. “I think
organizations should represent their
clients. If you know that 50 percent of
your clients are female, that on average
6 percent of people identify as LGBT
(according to Stonewall statistics), or
that your clients and users are from
different ethnic or cultural backgrounds,
then it is essential to fully represent the
diversity of your clients. If you don’t, then
how can you possibly relate to them?”
He further added this holds especially
true in the case of IT: “Technology is
all about innovation, and in order to
innovate, you have to have diversity. This
has been one of IBM’s central tenets for
many decades.” To illustrate his point,
he used an example from the software
industry: “If you get only white, straight,
middle-aged boring men developing
software, then it’s less likely that it’s
going to be the kind of software that
the world actually needs.”
Still, knowing that this tendency
toward affirmative action often
draws criticism in cases of perceived
positive discrimination, I wanted to
know whether Havelock is aware that
the position of enforcing diversity in
the workplace might wind up being
misunderstood. Having previously
mentioned during our interview that he
is more than happy to give people a bit
of an extra leg up if it will help someone
be promoted to the executive level, he
acknowledged my question, and felt the
need to clarify. “I’m not sure how it would
generate more inequality, because I’m
not saying we should promote people for
the sake of it, and I’m not saying that we
should promote people not on merit. But
Peter Havelock is one
of about 40 out gay
executive partners
at IBM, where he has
been working in the
company’s global
consulting business for more than
10 years. With more than 430,000
employees as of 2012 (as many as
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and
Amazon combined), and a presence
in more than 170 countries, IBM is the
largest IT company in the world, and
it prides itself on having promoted a
diverse and inclusive work environment
ever since the early days of industrial
computing. Indeed, IBM has consistently
scored highly in diversity and equal
opportunity rankings, having been
awarded first and second places in the
Stonewall Workplace Equality Index
over the past years, and nominated
among the top 50 organizations for
multicultural business opportunities by
DiversityBusiness.com in 2013.
In light of the company’s reputation, I
wanted to speak to Mr. Havelock to learn
how IBM’s corporate culture understands
and tackles diversity in the industry,
and how his life experience relates to
the bigger picture of equal rights and
opportunities in the workplace.
Career Timeline
Havelock was born and raised in England.
He graduated from the University of
Cambridge in the late 1980s, where he
read economics at Selwyn College. In his
own words, his time spent at university
required constant balancing between
economics and the pursuit of other
interests (most notably music); the idea
of how his career might take shape was
not at all clear to him upon graduation.
He first worked as a graduate
accounting trainee for Legal & General
for four years until 1995, when he
decided to go into consulting by taking
a position at Ernst & Young. It was at
there that he discovered his career path;
he stayed with the company for another
eight years. Havelock then joined IBM in
November 2003, and was subsequently
made partner in 2008.
He then started to take on a more
proactive role in the company and
society at large. Within the company,
he became Executive Sponsor for the
IBM UK Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender community (a position
he held for three years) and sat on
the global IBM LGBT Diversity Council.
Outside of IBM, he became a trustee of
Stone wall, the main gay rights charity
fighting for equality in the UK.
When asked what had driven him to
get involved with the LGBT community
within his company, he emphasized
having fallen into the roles naturally
and by virtue of necessity. The initial
position had been suggested to him
more as a moral duty, given that he was
otherwise professionally successful
within the company. “I did participate
in the network group at IBM, but my
sexuality had never been anything I felt
a need to make a big issue of. But after
being promoted to partner, the team
started tapping on my shoulder, saying
‘Peter, you’re a model, you now need to
step up and take some responsibility for
diversity.’” He still cringes at the title
of “role model.” However, with time, he
has come to realize the importance of
being a personal example for others who
aspire to senior positions, so that they
can be assured their sexuality will not be
an obstacle to their success.
Diversity in IT: Important,
Misunderstood, or Both?
According to Havelock, diversity in
Peter Havelock
How Does the World’s Largest
IT Company Understand Diversity?
DOI: 10.1145/2602533
PROFILE DEPARTMENT EDITOR, ADRIAN SCOICĂ