Satya Nadella’s reply to the growing awareness of inequality among women leaders in technology at the Grace Hopper Celebration was an ordinary response; if the listeners comprised a unique cultural circle. Nevertheless, the ordinary commentary fell on the ears of an extraordinary audience. There is a expanding subliminal sense in humanity for social parity that will shape global socio-economies for generations. Let the truth be known that if Satya were not CEO of the globe’s largest software company…his unfortunate audible would go unnoticed. He said…
On October 9, 2014, while speaking at the Grace Hopper Celebration, a women’s technical conference, Nadella stated: “It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along,” Nadella said, according to a recording on the website of the event, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
“Because that’s good karma,” Nadella continued. “It’ll come back because somebody’s going to know that’s the kind of person that I want to trust.” – Wikipedia
Thanks to the modernity of technologies such as tweets and Facebook connections, those unscripted utterances went viral instantly to millions. Mr. Nadella’s commentary was in response to a highly charged political nugget. His talk was classic if you follow many age-old Asian ideologies. The sentiments driving the words were not meant to garner support of the inequity or to ruffle feathers. Rather it was meant to teach and assuage. Worldly commerce now dissolves sovereign borders creating a new need for serious social studies. How do we shift into the new norm of “political correctness”?
In the late 1980’s, when the EU was still just a suggestion, many economists pondered whether the fact of variance within cultures could create a “more perfect monetary union”, a monetary system that would rival the dollar. The cultural divides between southern and northern Europe seemed obvious then.
The concept of “moral hazard” has become the great bell weather in how the ECB and Northern Europe will conduct the monetary reconstruction of the current liquidity trapped Southern Europe. If regulators of shared monetary systems built on post war economics, struggle to regulate within western culture’s social diversity. How do we build a bridge of understanding amongst our thought leaders on how to think before addressing the most fundamental of global cultural norms?
Universal C Suite occupiers grapple daily to avoid such political moments. Rest assured that these tiny parcels of time are unavoidable. Going forward there are varied cultures that compose leadership within global commerce giants that dictate how our socio- economies will behave. It is needful that business leaders become culturists and learn to think and listen in global ways. Their audiences must learn how to listen, and then appreciate the richness of our multicultural world while making allowances accordingly.