Happy New Year and Welcome to 2016!
The New Year provides us with an opportunity to pause, reflect, and start fresh. Almost exactly one year ago at CES, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced Intel’s bold goal to achieve full representation of women and underrepresented minorities, in our U.S. workforce, by 2020. It’s been a year of progress and we’ve accomplished amazing things for Intel and the tech industry. Brian said, “It’s time to step up and do more,” and we did. In addition to achieving our ambitious diversity hiring and retention goals, we announced a number of innovative programs. To invest in the future of the STEM talent pipeline, we launched Intel Capital’s $125M Diversity venture fund. By investing in five women- and minority-owned startups, we achieved our supplier diversity first-year goal of $250M in spending, and we published our first Diversity in Tech Inclusion Reports (Annual and Mid-Year). By all measures, it was a great first year of progress. As we look to the future, we believe we need to broaden the conversation.
Intel is evolving. Diversity and inclusion are driving forces for our future growth. We must grow our new and emerging businesses, while keeping our core business strong and relevant. To do this, we need a village. And not a village of “like minds.” We need individuals and teams with different backgrounds, new perspectives, and diverse ways of thinking and problem-solving. It’s this
diversity of thought, experience, and styles that will drive more creative, more innovative, and faster solutions to the complex challenges and opportunities required for our growth.
As we reflected on the progress we’ve made in 2015, both internally and externally, we’re proud of the work that Intel has collectively accomplished. We’ve learned a lot, too. To truly support Intel’s evolution, support our growth, and harness the power of ALL of our collective talent, we must broaden the conversation to focus on both “diversity” and “inclusion.”
These concepts are both independent and complementary; they go hand in hand. To be clear, we remain focused on achieving Intel’s goal to achieve full representation of women and underrepresented minorities by 2020. However, even more magic happens when we broaden the conversation, and our efforts, to focus on both Diversity and Inclusion.
What do we really mean by inclusion? Inclusiveness happens when very different individuals feel free to embrace their uniqueness and have an environment where they can truly belong. We must extend the idea of inclusion to comprise all of our differences—beyond just gender and race. This includes veterans, the LGBTQ and ally community, and persons with disabilities. And it’s even broader than this. Each one of us has qualities which make us unique, shape our perspectives and experiences, and influence our styles and thinking. These different individual qualities make us stronger as an organization. Our vision for inclusion at Intel is to create an environment where ALL of our employees can bring their full selves to work. We want employees to spend their energy solving Intel’s many complex and challenging problems, not wasting it trying to fit in or assimilate. Inclusion is about creating high-performance teams where every employee is empowered and capable of doing their best work.
Focusing on diversity helps Intel create a critical mass of difference. Focusing on inclusion helps us realize the true power of that difference, and create a place where everyone matters and is
valued. We need both to truly evolve Intel and drive our future growth.
Creating the most inclusive environment is up to each of us. This is just the beginning of a broader conversation. Our dream is that you’ll join us in making Intel a more diverse AND a more inclusive place.
Happy New Year, and here’s to a great 2016!
—Aicha and Danielle
Aicha Evans is Intel’s Diversity & Inclusion executive sponsor. Danielle Brown is Intel’s Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer.
