Microsoft Chairman Thompson on Racism and “Assimilating” to Succeed in Silicon Valley

"We do not care about people of color in our store, but do not want in our office ..." was part of the examination of a racist incident that President John W. Thompson Microsoft has experienced during his early days as IBM vendor.

In a fascinating informal discussion, Thompson spoke of cases of racism hard he suffered during his years at IBM and also spoke of the need for blacks to "assimilate" the corporate culture.

The talk took place during a gala evening at the economic summit week on Wall Street Project in New York. The discussion also included the Rev. Jesse Jackson and was moderated by NavArrow Wright, president, Solutions maximum leverage.

How racist incident was beneficial

"The first time that the question of my ethnicity wine, which had been at IBM for six months and I was riding with the sales rep who was a year and a half or two before me," Thompson said in response to being asked first time in his black being intercepted his rise in the technology industry.

Thompson remembered the day he and the chief representative of IBM sales resulted in Dade City, Florida, to complete a sales order to a parts dealer Napa.

"Tom [IBM sales representative] gets the type of signing the order and he punishes three cigars And the guy looks at me and says."? So what to do "and I said, 'Well, I'm an intern and sales in 12 months or more, when I return to my training program I'm going to be a sales representative as Tom" Thompson said public.

"And he said," Really? "I went, 'Yeah, really." So Tom looks, looks at me and says: "Do not get back." The NAPA Parts then dealer explained that blacks are not received in the same office if they are allowed in your shop.

Thompson explained that the unpleasant incident actually helped accelerate his career at IBM. It is feared that as a seller would have to try to sell computers to "morons like" to support his family. IBM, a company with a track record of supporting diversity within its walls, acknowledged the difficulty of being black posed for Thompson as a seller and the sale of the main accounts of the company accelerated.

"I immediately started selling to large accounts and cut literally five years of my career in the early days. And I have a lot of support teams in the industry," recalls Thompson.