CARLY FIORINA

Crossing the so-called digital divide is no different than crossing any other divide between the haves and the have nots.

Among the college students who have received HP scholarships and internships is Oscar Banuelos, a bright first-year student at Santa Clara University. In high school, Oscar was president of Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement and received many academic accolades. He believes being Hispanic in America is great, but there are times when he's made to feel differently—like the time he walked into an advanced math class on the first day of school, and the teacher assumed he was in the wrong class.

I share this story, not to highlight such a shameful assumption—although it is truly shameful—but to celebrate the remarkable talents and individuals that make this world more enriching.

To help bridge the digital divide—the gap between the technology haves and the have-nots—we at HP believe we must create digital opportunities for youth, families, and communities. That is why HP has donated money, technology, and many hours of volunteer work to community technology centers whose mission is to ensure that everyone in the area benefits from all that the information revolution offers. From its beginnings, HP contributed to the community—before it was trendy. Our commitment began in 1939, our first year in business, when our founders took a portion of their first year's profit, a whopping $1,650, and donated it to a local charity.

Today our efforts are focused on education because we believe life-long learning is at the heart of everything. Life-long learning means that we must make technology available and accessible for our young people so they are prepared for the digital world. Today there are two billion children in the world under the age of 15—children who are getting ready for the future. Given where technology is going, a generation of children who don't get plugged in is a generation lost. Young people are inventive, and we need to nurture that inventiveness. We need to inspire the bright, young, passionate minds that will pursue a future as we will one day know it—a future where technology transforms our experiences and interactions with everyone around us.

Why? Not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because we need their skills. We need their perspective. We need their diversity. Diversity inspires creativity, and creativity is at the heart of invention.

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were all about the invention of useful and significant things, and we at Hewlett-Packard are returning to that spirit.

Isn't it amazing what can happen when diverse groups of people band together for a common cause? We don't want any of the gaps in education, workforce, technology, access to capital to get any wider than they already are.

We want to narrow the gaps—and hopefully one day—close them completely. We want to give everybody the tools to work, to play, to live in the new economy. Closing the gaps is not only the right thing to do, it's good business.

While the so-called Digital Divide is news right now, it's not new. It's merely the digital expression of divides we've had for hundreds of years—the divides between the haves and have nots. So, we must create solutions that enable everyone to participate in the digital world.

While our country may have taken enormous steps toward embracing a diverse culture, we still have a long way to go before that embrace enfolds every community, every company, every classroom, every individual.

Three Ways to Help

In the technology industry, I believe we need to focus on three things:

1. Stop the rhetoric. We must stop the rhetoric or “lip service.” We must stop thinking that about this issue not so much as what “we”can do for “them,” but more about what “they” do for “us.” Diversity nourishes the soul of our companies, and great companies have souls. Diversity fills critical roles in our organizations. Diversity inspires creativity and inventiveness. And inventiveness and creativity are core virtues of this new economy. So to be successful in the 21st century and beyond, we must look at the people around us and pursue their differences, value their differences, embrace their differences. This industry needs to stop ignoring minorities because minorities are vital to our success going forward. We need their skills, their perspectives, and their diversity.

Part of HP's strategy for reinvention has been to hold up a mirror and take an honest look at ourselves. That's been hard to do—hard because some things we like, and some things we don't like. Our strategy of reinvention has been to “preserve the best, reinvent the rest.” Now, when we hold up a mirror to our workforce, when we take an honest look at ourselves, we don't like what we see. While we may have a reasonable track record, we are far from being where we want to be; where we should be; where we need to be as an organization and industry. And if we're honest with ourselves, we will admit that we have a big problem in this regard.

At the root of this problem is the virtual wall between available talent and available jobs. And the fact that diversity is not a hiring practice nor a hiring priority in many technology companies. And the less-than-open perspective of many hiring managers. As a result, this industry has far too much conformity. Companies with a high-degree of conformity are not easy places to join if you are different. Conformity is not productive when you want to attract new talent. Conformity is not productive when you want to be creative and inventive. So, how do we break the cycle of conformity?

2. Recognize the value in diversity. We need to recognize the value in diversity. Not everyone must be the same. To build great teams, we need to encourage differences. As a nation, industry, and company, we must start valuing differences—all the way, not just part way. We need to value differences not just in entertainment, sports, and style but in finance, technology, and corporate management. This isn't just the business issue du jour—it's a strategic business imperative. All-the-way diversity is essential to creating a winning workforce. And I mean diversity in all its forms: diversity in terms of skin color, ideas, style, self-expression, lifestyle, experience, and perspective. Diversity drives creativity, and creativity is at the heart of invention.

If any industry wants to reach its full inventive capability and potential, we must do better. With this inventive spirit in mind, we need to accept Jesse Jackson's challenge to the technology industry: “We challenge the industry and public sector to formulate and implement a three to five-year plan to educate, train, prepare and employ 200,000 youth in local communities.” We need to accept this challenge because we believe the echo: “It's not only the right thing to do, it's good business.” We need to accept this challenge because the future of this inventive, idea-centered industry greatly depends on a more diverse workforce. I believe we can achieve great success because of a diverse workforce, not in spite of it. Of course, we can't solve the workforce diversity issue overnight. Real solutions require real understanding. Real understanding is a growth process that begins with the root of the problem.

3. Change through E-inclusion. At HP, we believe that real growth and systemic change start with e-inclusion—a small seed that spreads, enables change, grows, and gathers momentum until it engulfs every one and everyplace. We have a vision of e-inclusion—to empower all people to participate in society by sharing the benefits of information and skills through technology, philanthropy, and community outreach. We believe in full e-inclusion, not just stop-gaps or giveaways. In our view, e-inclusion more than bridges the digital divide—a term that sounds far too remote, far too antiseptic, far too impersonal for such a people issue. It's not enough to tolerate and accommodate differences; we have to include and embrace differences. E-inclusion delves deeper and gets more personal. E-inclusion is not just about technology; it's about people, relationships, and personal commitment.

We know that to get to the root of the problem—to make a real difference and to be truly committed—we must give more than technology, more than just money, although these are essential. Giving money is the easy thing to do.Giving people career development paths, mentoring, and training is the one-on-one important stuff. And it is hard to do. For example, Steven Romero, another HP scholar, said he would have left engineering had it not been for his HP mentor. What we hope to achieve with the HP Scholars program—part of HP's Diversity in Education Initiative—is to reach minority students early, so they have the support and encouragement they need to finish school and realize their dreams. All young people have the right to learn, the right to technology, the right to an inventive future.

Today I'm privileged to be the CEO of a company that has been passionate about education for many years—a company with a spirit of giving, a company with a shining soul. We have a unique, holistic approach to our education programs and to e-inclusion. Holistic in that it involves hands-on assistance. Holistic in that people get very involved in a very comprehensive way. Holistic in that it touches people's lives. Holistic in that item powers people to learn for a lifetime, not just one small period in life. Holistic in that our approach conquers change by challenging the whole person, challenging the heart as well as the mind, and challenging the creative side of the brain as well as the analytical side.

We believe that educating the whole person is important to our future. To maximize the full potential of the future,we need to spark the creativity in all of us to meet the challenges of the new millennium. We need to begin with e-inclusion—to make technology available and accessible so that people have the tools to explore, communicate, collaborate, and invent. We need e-inclusion for everyone so that everyone can begin to move forward in the growth process.

We must be ready and wholeheartedly committed to the changes and challenges ahead. We also understand the importance of community, government, and corporate partnerships in our vision of e-inclusion for all. We can't do it alone.

To conclude, I'm going to borrow a Spanish word that's a favorite of Oscar Banuelos. The word is ganas, meaning desire or inclination. For Oscar, it means “The determination, the desire to achieve, the effort you provide, the willpower when necessary, and the perseverance you must act on.” It's up to all of us to have the ganas to change. It's up to all of us to embrace and empower a culture where diversity thrives—so that brilliant, ambitious, inventive minds are not made to feel like outsiders and so that all of us may enjoy the spiritual richness and economic prosperity that a diverse world brings. It's up to all of us to create an environment that embraces diversity, rather than one that simply accommodates it.

I know we can do it—if we work together as partners with passion—because it's the right thing to do. EE

Carly Fiorina is CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, CA. This article is adapted from her speech at the Digital Connections conference and used with permission.

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