<i>They created this culture where people came from certain schools and certain backgrounds. That is a very, very hard culture to change.</i><p>What kind of 'background'? Economic? Social? Education? They're inter-related, yes, but for actionable initiatives to take place, the lack of diversity along these dimensions have to be isolated, acknowledged, and prioritized. Otherwise, it's just recasting the problem and expecting companies to spit out answers. If Engineering schools became more diverse, I have no doubt there will be more diversity of engineers in the workforce, too. Without establishing diversity in these earlier funnels, such that people's background are more diverse, companies will continue to have to "overcompensate" for diversity, as to avoid criticism.<p>In the case of these particular companies having a lack of diversity, I don't think it's inherently a 'culture' that has been formed, but more so about the network. Network and compound effects makes it harder for these companies to course-correct. A person's set of friend is not a random sample. Potentially, people are more likely to form friendships with people from their own race / culture. This is not to say they are discriminating or racist. An H1B worker who went to school in Asia will likely have a greater percentage of Asian friends, and by transitivity refer more Asian people. Again, if the earlier stages in the funnel, such as education, more diverse, maybe people will have a more diverse set of friends, in the aggregate, and refer a more diverse set of friends to their employer, in the aggregate.