“Diversity Works” page 1 / 3

Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon.

Thank you for giving IBM the opportunity to share with you our experience that diversity
works. At IBM “diversity” has many aspects including gender, race, nationality, religion,
disability, and sexual preference. Many aspects, one idea: equal opportunity for all.

IBM started out almost a century ago (1911) ago as a computer hardware company. Thru
the years we have reinvented ourselves over and over again to become the predominantly
services company we are today. We believe that diversity is a corner stone of this
corporate agility. To us “Diversity simply makes business sense”.
Diversity is good business for a number of reasons:
1) we are looking for the best talent, and are not excluding anyone upfront from that
search
2) we believe and have the experience that diverse teams perform better and
3) we are a Globally Integrated Enterprise: we deal with colleagues and customers around
the globe on a daily basis. My expenses, for instance, are processed in the Philippines, for
HR matters I contact Budapest, and the last time I called the IT help desk I spoke with
Sheetle in Hyderabad, India.

IBM became the first US corporation to issue a corporate policy mandate on equal
opportunity. Let´s have a look.
* film *

Our founder´s son issued this policy mandate on equal opportunity in 1953, 10 years
before Martin Luther King´s “I have a dream speech”, 11 years before the US Civil Rights
Act was passed into law in 1964. It states: “It is the policy of this organisation to hire
people who have the personality, talent and background necessary to fill a given job,
regardless of race, color, or creed”

My name is Haydee Sheombar. I am a Client Executive at IBM. As a client executive I

have end responsibility for IBM´s business at three major clients here in The Netherlands.
I was born and raised in Suriname, South America. I come from a home with a Protestant
mother of African descent, and a Hindu father of Indian descent. Having friends of all
races, colors and creeds, to me, and to most people in Suriname, is the norm and not the
exception. Something I am very proud of. Just before my 17th birthday I left home in
Suriname for The Netherlands to study at the Delft University of Technology. I chose
Delft, because, in Suriname at least, Delft was considered to be “the best of the best”.
Today I have a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Economics
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I became an IBMer six years ago when IBM acquired the consulting arm of
PricewaterhouseCoopers. I joined PricewaterhouseCoopers because at the time they were
rated the best consulting firm in my area of expertise. So joining IBM was not a deliberate
choice, staying with IBM is. I choose to stay for a number of reasons, three of which are
relevant to mention here today.

First of all, IBM is the best in its industry. (I don´t expect any competitors here so
that is a safe statement …). And as you may have guessed by now, l like being with the
best.
Secondly, IBM is a meritocracy, ie it rewards people based on their performance
and unique contribution. I do not get any special treatment, nor do I want special treatment.
I believe my promotion to Client Executive was based on my performance and capabilities.
Period. If ever I would get the impression that my career advancement is based on
preferential treatment, either because I am a woman, or black, or better yet a black woman,
this would be my cue to leave.
The third reason for staying with IBM is that I like the fact that IBM is as diverse as
it is. Not so long ago we had a kick off meeting at one of my clients. The IBM team
consisted of 5 nationalities, and though diversity is not top of mind for me personally,
during that meeting, in that room, I was very proud to be an IBMer.

If you were to ask me why IBM is so diverse, my first, intuitive answer would be that
diversity is in our genes. The rational answer is that Diversity is a deliberate choice that
requires deliberate action. Since 1995 we have established 8 executive-level Diversity
Task Forces which have been praised by the Harvard Business Review as a model
program. More than half of our 45 top executives are women or ethnic minorities. (The
sheer fact that I know this, means that somebody is keeping score.) I am not suggesting
you replicate our programs. I do want to share with you some examples of IBM practice in
The Netherlands for attracting, hiring and retaining talent.

How do you create awareness for your industry and organisations? At IBM we think you
cannot start early enough. We organize Excite Camps for 12 year olds, mostly girls. We
invite them to our IBM office and get them acquainted with technology in a playful
manner. The schools we target are inner city schools: most of the children we reach have
an ethnic background. Another example of attracting talent is our elite summer internship
for students from Dutch Universities, called Extreme Blue. In this years edition of
Extreme Blue we had 15 students from 9 different countries: China, Bulgaria, Pakistan,
Rumania, India, Germany, Singapore, Tanzania and The Netherlands. These students have
such a great learning experience with us that they become great ambassadors for IBM.
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In terms of hiring talent my advice is not to discriminate: not positively, but more
importantly, not negatively. So how do you prevent the people who do the hiring in your
companies, the gatekeepers, from discriminating unconsciously? At IBM to make sure that
our managers are culturally diverse in their thinking, we have introduced a Reverse
Mentoring program. Mentors with diverse cultural backgrounds are assigned to managers
and leaders. They work with their mentees to make them aware of different cultural styles
and values.

And finally, how do you retain talent? By creating an environment in which people are
judged and rewarded for their talent and contribution. By being a great place to work,
where anyone can be their authentic self and feel right at home. Nothing more, nothing
less.

So , this is my story of how Diversity works at and for IBM. If you reflect on what I have
said, you may notice a paradox. On the one hand, IBM does not give people preferential
treatment. On the other hand we spend tremendous effort on attracting and understanding
the needs of a diverse workforce. I guess that in this paradox, exactly in this paradox, lies
the secret to our success.

So, can you make diversity work for your organisations? YES YOU CAN. ☺

Thank you for your attention.

Haydee S. Sheombar mmv Jelmer Letterie

IBM Netherlands
Hilversum, 6 november 2008