Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder and creator of Facebook, is now its CEO. He was born in 1984 to well-educated parents: His mom was a psychiatrist and dad a dentist. He went to an exclusive preparatory school and was captain of the fencing team. He liked the classics and writing. He also had passion and skill for working with computers at a very young age.

Zuckerberg created his first messaging program using Atari BASIC around age 12. His family used it to communicate, and his dad used it in his dental office. He entered Harvard in 2002 and quickly became known as a skilled software developer. Zuckerberg developed computer skills at Harvard working on projects like CourseMatch, Facemash, and Harvard Connection. The Harvard Connection experience resulted in the famous lawsuit between the founders of Harvard Connection and Zuckerberg: Zuckerberg settled for around $65 million. He started the core of Facebook from his dorm room and left Harvard in 2004 to work full-time on Facebook.233

In 2018, there were more than 2.2 billion active Facebook users.234 The most common demographic of users is age 25-34 (29.7%). The company's revenue grew from $7.8 billion in 2013 to over $40 billion in 2018. Facebook is clearly the largest, and potentially most influential, social media site on the planet. 235

Zuckerberg's Personal Characteristics

Zuckerberg, or Zuck, as known to most of his acquaintances, is pale, medium build, and about five feet eight. He stands erect and generally dresses in T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. "His affect can be distant and disorienting, a strange mixture of shy and cocky," according to a New Yorker writer. "When he's not interested in what someone is talking about, he'll just look away and say, 'Yeah, yeah.'" He's known to come across as flip and condescending, but "face to face he is often charming," says the writer.236

Zuckerberg does not prefer speaking to the press or participating in public appearances. He is highly motivated and turned down offers to sell Facebook for billions in the early 2000s because he wanted to keep running and growing the company. Founding and growing the company demonstrates intelligence and risk taking. It certainly took courage to drop out of Harvard to pursue a dream.237

He's generous and believes in equality, world peace, and happiness. In 2013, "he donated $100 million to the failing Newark Public School system in New Jersey" and "signed the 'Giving Pledge,' promising to donate at least 50 percent of his wealth to charity over the course of his lifetime."238

Zuckerberg is driven to achieve and has high expectations of others. He stated, "Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough." He also cares about building something that improves the lives of others. "And if you can make something that makes people's life better, then that's something that's really good," he said.239

Facebook's Mission, Values, and Culture

Zuckerberg did not start Facebook to make money. Rather, he was pursuing a social mission "to make the world more open and connected." In Facebook's IPO letter, Zuckerberg wrote, "Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries. . . . We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services."240

Facebook's five core values include the following: focus on impact, move fast, be bold, be open, and build social value.241 These values compose the core of Facebook's culture, which Zuckerberg refers to as the "Hacker Way."

Zuckerberg described the hacker way as "an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete... Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always winnot the person who is lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people."242

The company encourages this culture by conducting hackathons every few months. People build and share prototypes at these sessions. At the end, the best ideas are selected for further development.

Employees are happy with Facebook's culture and work environment, according to a survey conducted by jobs site Payscale. Ninety-six percent of employees reported high satisfaction, and 44 percent had high stress. These results are better than those from peer companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Tesla. 243

Facebook Lacks Diversity

Managing diversity is a hot topic among technology companies. This is an outgrowth of the demographic composition of people working in this industry. Rather than hide from this profile, companies have started to display transparency by publishing their diversity profiles.

Facebook's diversity report showed 68 percent male and 32 percent female. Ethnicity data for its U.S. workforce revealed 55 percent white, 36 percent Asian, 4 percent Hispanic, 3 percent two or more races, and 2 percent black. This pattern is similar to those of Google and Apple. Google's diversity report showed 70 percent male and U.S. workforce diversity of 61 percent white, 30 percent Asian, 4 percent two or more races, 3 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent black. Apple's U.S. demographics found 30 percent female and 55 percent white, 15 percent Asian, 11 percent Hispanic, 7 percent black, 2 percent two or more races, 1 percent other, and 9 percent undeclared. 244

Facebook executives acknowledge that the workforce is not overly diverse and committed to improving its demographic profile. Maxine Williams, global director of diversity, commented that "diversity is central to Facebook's mission of creating a more open and connected world: it's good for our products and for our business. Cognitive diversity, or diversity of thought, matters because we are building a platform that currently serves 1.4 billion people around the world. It's vital for us to have a broad range of perspectives, including people of different genders, races, ages, sexual orientations, characteristics and points of view." 245

Facebook has initiated a number of programs aimed at improving its demographic profile. They include the following:

1. Diverse slate approach. This pilot program ensures that every job opening considers at least one candidate from an underrepresented group.

2.Facebook University. This program invites college freshmen with exceptional talent from underrepresented groups to work on summer projects with Facebook mentors.

3.Managing Bias training course. This course educates employees about stereotypes and implicit biases.

4.Computer Science and Engineering Lean In Circles. This program partners with LeanIn.org, LinkedIn, and The Anita Borg Institute to make a community of support for women and some men as they pursue technology and engineering careers.246

Question: How do hackathons promote more employee commitment to Facebook?