"press here" is sponsored in part by -- the father of xbox sits down to talk about the future of your living room. we'll look at the subscription economy, and she looks like an engineer. the strange journey from developing software to leading a movement our reporters, laura mandero of "usa today" and bloomberg's mark milian, this week on "press here." good morning, everyone, i'm

scott mcgrew. a few weeks ago, a company you've probably never heard of launched a new ad campaign, ton sell you anything but to advertise for engineers. that's how it works in silicon valley. you have to entice new employees to work for you. so these ads went up in places like b.a.r.t. stations, ads that promised potential new employees a fun work environment, the tools to get things done. this says, "my team is great. everyone is smart, creative, and hilarious." this billboard in particular came under some criticism. not for the message but for the model. people of both genders questioning when the woman in the ad was, well, too attract n attractive. some were critical of the company saying it was a blatant appeal to men. others wondered if the picture was an accurate representation of a woman engineer. it is. it is a very accurate representation because the woman in the ad is an engineer. isis angelie is a real person.

an employee roped into a last-minute ad campaign who never expected such a weird response. it's what she did next that got our attention. joined by mark milian of bloomberg and laura mendero of "usa today." tell us the story. the ads go up. somebody on facebook gets pretty critical of you. >> the ads went up early. they weren't supposed to go up until sunday, and all of a sudden on friday, i was getting messages from people taking photos like, hey, i saw your face at the b.a.r. t. people were having facebook discussions about the validity of the ad or if it was possible that i could be what my title said. so i went to write this blog post on saturday just as a means to point people that were talking about the ad in that direction like, hey, this is my response to everything that you're saying. and so that's how everything got started. >> it is funny. when somebody starts talking

about you, when you start to add into the social conversation, you'll be like, no, i'm the person. i'm the person in the sign. i'm a real person. >> yeah. it's really interesting because when i look at ads, i don't really think twice about them. i think that they're there and they exist. but i don't read deeply into them. it was shocking to me that people seem to care. >> i read your posted, and it was great, honest. what struck me is that you say everybody who knows me knows i don't like drawing attention to myself. yet, that post and the ad and then you talking about it subsequently and kind of going public with the whole situation made you very out front. first of all, what was the backing of your company? were they okay with it? did you have to get their permission? how do you fool bei-- feel beinn the limelight? >> i didn't tell the company when i originally wrote the post. it wasn't until monday my

manager sent the link like, hey, this is a great read. i'm like, gosh, you guys are so supportive. >> to be clear, the company's the one that asked you to do the actual ad. you were advertising your own company. >> yeah. i wasn't alone in the ad. at the same time, other ads went up. two of my male co-workers. i was honestly expecting that my co-worker wearing a large black top hat and shirt that read "hacker" would have been more controversial or, perhaps, be 16-foot-tall people wearing unicorn masks. >> pretty standard. >> tell us your response. people said you don't look like an engineer, or this is not what an engineer looks like which, as we established at the beginning of the show, is -- you are an engineer. >> well -- >> take it from there. >> i mean, so it's really interesting because if i saw that, i wouldn't think twice about it. but unfortunately, the

experiences that i listed on my medium post are -- they're kind of shocking if you were a genuinely well-intentioned person. i don't think those experiences are that uncommon. my medium post took off. it resonated with a wider demographic of people i ever imagined. people were reaching out. they wanted an opportunity to continue supporting the message. that's how the hash tag #-ilooklikeanengineer was created, an attempt to allow people a singular platform to showcase and normalize s.t.e.m. >> when you were growing up, did you have a visual send of what an engineer was? did you have role models that look like you, or did you say i want to do this regardless of what the unconscious bias out there is? >> i actually had no idea that

the tech industry even existed as a thing until i moved up to go to school in berkeley. didn't we come a startup was. i taught myself to code when i was eight building websites for neoped skills. you know, i loved it. i would sit in front of the computer for hours. i was an only child. i spent a lot of time by myself and learned how to entertain myself. at the time, it literally wasn't an option. now even if you ask me who are my role models, i -- somebody asked me that after a talk last week. i thought about it really hard, but unfortunately i couldn't think of anyone particularly whose story resonates with mine. >> on the one hands, your response to the vitriol and controversy on line created mainy movement on twitter of women who -- a mini movement on twitter of women who heard you -- >> i want to correct you for a empty. it's not just women. i meant engineer as inclusive as it reads -- >> minorities -- >> anyone, you know. so the whole point is that it

shouldn't matter what you look like, and that people shouldn't be judged based on their physical appearances. on whether or not they're capable to do their job. from people who want to meet you, you'll be speaking later this month, right? i mean, you're kind of now on the speaker circuit. >> yeah. there's a bunch of events coming up. >> is there a particular one you'd like team come to? >> so i'm actually -- i'm speaking at one called cloud now for cloud network of women. they're doing an awards for the top women in cloud. basically their organization is showcasing prominent women in tech. i'm working with them now to set up scholarship funds, and they're organizing a networking event for women, and they allow mentorship and knowledge sharing. >> laura mentioned that you said in your blog post on medium that you did not want any of this, you -- i think you said you'd

rather fall to a porta potty s. that right? >> being famous is up there with -- with falling into a porta potty. >> you seem to be handling it okay. are you having any fun? little sfwhit. >> you know, it's -- little bit? >> you know, it's interesting. as uncomfortable as i generally am with public attention, having the platform and opportunity to really speak out about something that i feel so passionately about is an incredible opportunity. and i have so many emails in my inbox like, hey, thank you for inspiring my daughter to want to be an engineer. this is her with a lego car. >> that's got to be thrilling. >> it melts my heart. >> isis, the hash tag is #ilooklikeanengineer. check it on twitter. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you for having me. up next, a creator of xbox when we continue.

welcome back. this past week, apple announced a refresh of its apple tv device. >> today i'm thrilled to show you the new apple tv. >> among the features, you can now use it to play games. most gamers were quick to say

they doubted very much apple could replace the xbox in millions of american homes. we thought, well, why take their word? we'll ask the guy who created the xbox what he thinks. robby bach is former president of microsoft. he led the team that created the xbox. since that time he's become an advocate for children, as the chairman of the board of boys and girls clubs. sits on the u.s. olympic committee, as well. so many things to talk about. let's talk about this race to the living room. i mean, it's been a long race because xbox tried it and was accomplishing it to some degree. still, i use my xbox to watch -- play my games, i use my r kooku play movies. there hasn't been one device to bring it together. >> the tv in the living room is a complicated place. it's odd because it should be the simplest place because it's the place we do most of our entertaining and experience most of our entertainment. it's complicated. you got content providers, cable

companies, satellite companies, you have companies like apple and microsoft and sony. and people have been sort of wrestling with literally control of the remote. thus far, i don't think anybody really has won that battle. it's an ongoing competition. >> where would you score apple? i realize you haven't played with the device yet, but you saw the presentation. >> i think it's interesting for sure. it will appeal to a different audience probably than a playstation or xbox 1 will. that's one of the challenges in the living room is everybody in the family uses them. so you're going to have people who will use it for tv, like they use their xbox for tv. you'll have people use it for casual gaming could maybe like they do their phone. somebody who wants to play, if there's a little bit more deeper experienced game will play on an xbox or playstation. >> apple spent a lot of time talking about gaming on their presentation in terms of minutes. what is so attractive about the gaming demographic or -- or are

they capturing? who are these people? >> i think one of the challenges for apple tv is you pay a certain amount and ask what does it do. it turn out my set-top box for three movies and gaming box for movies. what does there add? people like the experience. that's why they've been successful selling it. but gaming is a purpose. it's a thing people go to do as an event. attracts people. part of the reason xbox and playstation have been so successful and why people watch so many movies on the devices. they have it there already because they want it for gaming. >> i think it often comes down to the software. and with xbox, you've got halo as an exclusive game that has millions and millions of fans. malala yousafzai islam pret apple is good at attracting

developers. >> they're pretty good at developing for the ipad and iphone. they have developers not just for halo but other third party. so the idea that you'll have applications on your television is going to come to the market. it's happened already to some degree, and i think that's going advance more going forward. >> it it was an unusual project for microsoft. it -- when we heard about it at first, we thought, microsoft, you know. but you were in the room. you and steve ballmer and bill gates -- an office, no windows. and it was -- you know, go-no go. are we really going do this. what was the thing that said, all right, let's go? >> ultimately the discussion we were have, microsoft wanted a position in the living room. we had the discussion let's not do this. we talked about it for 2.5, 3 hours and said let's not do it. we talked about it for another hour after that. the conclusion was we had to have a place there. our team had a certain approach

we wanted to take, to build xbox, a nontraditional mofrtd a-- microsoft an approach. they were serious and backed us every step of the way for the project, an amazing commitment to us. >> it was almost killed on several occasions, right? they were expecting the windows box that also happened to play games -- >> which would have been a disaster. >> would have been awful. >> in fact, that's in large part what happened -- the meeting that we refer to as the valentine's day massacre because it took place at the end of the day on valentine's day. >> nobody could go to their meeting -- >> nobody could go on their dates. that's what it was about. us taking a nontraditional view, a box dedicated to gaming, with an operating system that was single purpose and controlled by the game, not by the box. that was a new approach. it was a way for microsoft to step out -- >> almost a little bit of mcintosh and apple. go ahead and be different and take your team and be independent which could be a good lesson for a lot of big fortune 500 companies. >> yeah.

it is, and of course the challenge is, you have -- we wanted to use a lot of microsoft tech technology. figuring out how to be independent and part of microsoft was something i worked on for five years. i call it intra-preneurship. like inside a company, how do you do innovative, entrepreneurial things? >> i'm curious since you're not a gamer per se, there's a lot of talk of virtual reality, augmented reality. it seems that gaming would have a big part in that. and also maybe in other aspects, including civic, you know, improvements. what do you think about that? do you think that is going to be the cool next thing? >> i think virtual reality and augmented reality are permutations of similar things. both have a real opportunity to play a role. the technology is very cool. so at a technology level, it's very attractive. when you go do the demo, it's pretty amazing. the problem, of course, is how do you bring it to market.

all the challenges to me in that space are about commercialization. and who's going to be the first company to commercialize in a way where you don't feel like a moron running around with a helmet on your head, and at a price point that the average person can experience it. i don't think anybody's there yet. >> who's close incentive. >> well, they're all -- frankly, they're all pretty far away in my opinion. i think there will be cool stuff. will be very small audiences that will experience it. but if you want to shop in a store in a virtual way, if you want to take a virtual vacation to the bahamas, that's a ways away. you really have to figure out how to reach a broad mass of people. >> is there a point -- use mention civic duty. you've written a book about xbox. you bring in a lot of civic duty into it, as well. my friend, john ford, asked you on nbc snooen, are you run -- o cnbc, are you running for office? you're part of a respected community in washington, president of the boys and girls

club. you got the qualifications. and now this book that mentions your duties to america -- >> the chairman of the boys and girls club -- the president wouldn't want me to -- and on the olympic committee. >> well, i don't have any intention to run for office. that's not why i wrote the book. the book is about providing a toolkit. my mantra, my purpose in the second part of my career is to inspire and empower people to be civic engineers. and not just senior leader but anybody. for people who want to do that, they have to have tools. they have to know what to do or how to do it. in many respects, xbox, while it tells the story of the xbox, that's a vehicle for delivering tools. the tool i deliver in the book is this framework, purpose, principles, and priorities. a way for people to take a problem and attack. when problems look complex, something as simple as writing down in three pages purpose, principles, and priorities changes your view.

suddenly you can attack the problem. lord knows we have plenty of complex problems to attack. >> what do you think about the xbox 1 in the sense that i didn't see the same -- yes, there's video, people lining up and excite period it. >> sure. >> were we ready for an xbox 1? did we need an xbox 1? >> i think the market was long overdue, in fact, for an xbox 1 and playstation 4. that cycle of xbox 360/playstation 3 was the longest cycle in video game history. and the market was dying. in fact, people were concerned before the products launched that the console market was dying. in fact, what happened was xbox 1 and ps4 breathed new life into it. both have sold more product than at any time in history. >> robbie bach, co-creator of xbox and not running for office. we appreciate you being with us this morning. >> thank you. what you need to know about the subscription economy when "press: here" continues.

welcome back to "press: here." the next time you open your credit card bill or, these days, look at the statement on line, look at how many of the charges are recurring. mine include netflix, spotify, "the new york times," and a gym membership i -- i never use. i really should get rid of that. they're all subscriptions. subscription economy extends beyond the consumer, case in point the cash register.

used to be a storeowner bought a cash register from ncr, and that was. the new cash registers from square turned that into an ongoing relationship. the shop owner basically subscribers to his cash register. our expert on the subscription company, his company helps businesses navigated the new economy. so the subscription economy, give me another example or another idea so i can sink my teeth into it. >> what's going on is you might notice that you and i are buying less and less stuff. we don't have to buy things, dvds, we can get any movie you report from netflix. you don't have to buy cars. you can get from point a to point b on uber, spotify, and the business software. you don't have to buy expensive software. you could point your browser to the web and get stuff from a google. our belief is anything can go toward a subscription economy. why buy the product when you can get the outcome you want from

the service. that's what we're finding. >> i can remember downloading "dora the explorer" to my computer and paying for it. we had one episode of "dora the explorer" that the kids could watch. now, on net fliex flix -- i don "dora the explorer" anymore. >> look at music. we used to by c.d.s and the shift from digital -- we go from a c.d. to a physical song. you're still buying the digital song. you get all the music you want, spots few, pan door aapple -- spotify, pandora, apple music. music streaming is going up. it you look at the whole music experience, it goes beyond the song. the idea of discovering new things, the idea of sharing music with each other, the idea of signaling who are you based on the bands you like or music you listen to. there's a music experience that goes beyond the song. when you get that prosecute from spotifi, it becomes less

important. >> how sticky do you think it is? it seems that if the economy's doing well now but if we have another downturn or recession and people are cutting back, they look at their monthly bill, you need to keep paying for electricity. you need to pay the rent, and, you know, netflix, spotify, all these things are sort of easily ticked off and maybe save $50, $80 a month. >> the great thing it subscription services, you're right, you can turn it off at any given time of because of that, you know the other person on the other side cares about what you want. really cares about the experience. and they've got to earn your business every day, every month, every year. that's why these sources go better and better. when you buy a product -- you think about the phones. you used to buy an iphone, but every year another iphone's coming out. why -- you want these things to get better and better. we expect this. this is why apple, they announced you subscribe to a phone. you pay a monthly fee.

when the new one comes out, they take the old one out, and you get the new one. >> are there areas where you -- i'm in the new minority that likes to still buy songs and download them. i can give them to friends. i can -- don't have to continue to pay subscriptions in order to get the music that i like. there any areas that you still have that personal -- you own your car? >> i scrapped my car. i don't own a car. i live in san francisco. my office is down in foster city. i use a car,ish better, whatever happens to be more convenient. today i'm driving around a few locations, so zipcar might make more sense. if i'm going to one place, i'll grab an uber. >> it sounds silly, but renting is a lot easier than buying skis. then you have to haul them all over -- they're just at the mountain. there are business owners thinking incould get a subscription -- thinking, i could get a subscription system going. what do they need to know? maybe let's try this model. >> if you want to be successful

at subscription business, there's a lot it figure out. pricing and packaging is very hard. when you have a product, you think, i'll sell it for $50, but for this, do you charge by day, hour, gigabyte. there's ways to price and package. the companies are realizing it's not about renting a product. it's about building a subscription experience that goes beyond the product. innovation doesn't just end with a product. it ends with the services you wrap around it. the iphone would have been successful without the app store. the -- wouldn't have been successful without the app store. the ipod wouldn't have been successful without the itunes store. things that touch the customer, everything from how you price, quote, take orders off the web, how you bill and pay for it, they all have to change. we provide a platform that

allows companies to wrap everything around the concept of subscriber i.d., turn customers into subscribers, and build the stable recurring thing that becomes better business. >> we appreciate you being with us this morning. >> great to be here. >> we'll be right back.

that's our show. thanks to my guest. isis who looks like an engineer. robbie bach, author of "xbox revisited." if you want more, you can go on line to presshere.com. you can find these shows in itunes, watch it on your apple tv or roku in high definition any time you want. i'm scott mcgrew. thank you for making us parts of your sunday morning.

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