Tim Cook deserves praise

“So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in an essay last week, thus ending one of the worst-kept secrets in Silicon Valley and becoming the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to publicly come out as gay.

Does Mr. Cook’s sexual orientation matter when you look at Apple as a company? Does it, and should it, affect Apple’s relationships with customers, suppliers and shareholders?

Conventional wisdom would tell us that the only criteria by which a CEO should be judged is by whether he or she is able to crank out quarter after profitable quarter. While this is a largely correct — and certainly objective — perspective, it suffers from a one-dimensional approach.

Companies, like any other institution, are part of a larger social context and, of late, it has become harder to separate a company’s politics from its business.

For instance, earlier this year, the CEO of Mozilla Firefox, Brendan Eich, was ousted from his position after news broke that he had donated money to support pro-traditional marriage legislation in California.

Fast food chain Chick-fil-A similarly found itself at the centre of boycotts after a top official made a series of anti-gay marriage comments.

And yet, despite the fact that corporates can be harshly punished for voicing their stances on social issues, there are more CEOs speaking out than ever. It is in this context that Mr. Cook’s decision to ‘come out’ must be placed; the ramifications of which are far more important than the movement of Apple’s stock price over the next few days.

Not only will it help push a more inclusive and better workplace, it also shows that Apple (and its board, which was completely supportive of Mr. Cook’s decision) is willing to emphasize certain values that may not make business sense or in some cases, even prove inimical to the interests of the company.

There are currently 29 states in America that lack legal protection against sexual orientation discrimination and in which an employee could be fired for doing what Mr. Cook did last week.

This is Apple’s message to its customers and shareholders and it isn’t the first time that Mr. Cook has taken such a stand. Earlier this year, in response to a lobbying group that wanted Apple to stop pursuing environmental initiatives that didn’t improve the bottom line, he said “We do things because they are right and just and that is who we are. I don’t think about a bloody ROI and I don’t think about helping our environment from an ROI point of view.”

But perhaps the most important question is one that isn’t being asked: why did Mr. Cook write a piece for the economy and corporate-oriented Bloomberg Businessweek over the New York Times or Washington Post, where the essay would have been read by a much larger and more general reader base?

The most likely answer would be that the Apple chief is looking to address the corporate ‘glass closet’ that has claimed victims such as former British Petroleum CEO John Browne, who resigned in 2007 after lying about an affair with his gay lover.

Mr. Cook’s decision to reveal his sexual orientation, despite the possible backlash, stresses the need for similar transparency amongst other companies across sectors and industries.

Though it should not be, it is also inherently linked to the issue of corporate governance. In the case of BP, if Lord Browne he had felt comfortable in disclosing his sexual orientation, perhaps the incident may not have snowballed into a controversy that ultimately affected the company’s employee morale, productivity, stock price and reputation.

India Inc needs to promote an environment in which any issue, not only sexual orientation, can find its way into the public domain for debate and discussion without CEOs having to worry about the potentially damaging consequences. It is in pursuit of this mission that we should not worry about whether Tim Cook’s or any other CEO’s sexual preferences are news worthy.

Tim Cook deserves the praise he is currently receiving; it is now for India Inc to follow his lead.

(This article first appeared in The Hindu on Nov 3, 2014)

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