In the growing furore that followed Google’s decision this week to fire James Damore, questions have been raised about whether the Silicon Valley giant was right to dismiss him. Among other assertions, the sacked engineer's memo suggested that gender representation discrepancies in his industry may be at least partly down to biology.

In an email on Monday, Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai described Damore’s comments as “offensive and not OK," but stated that much of the content within the memo was fair to debate.

BBC Capital asked six experts to weigh in on the best potential solutions for improving diversity within large tech companies, how to discuss policies internally, and what they would do if placed in Google’s shoes this week.

Solat Chaudhry, CEO of the National Centre for Diversity in the UK

“They [Google] moved too quickly. I don’t think I would’ve sacked him. You create a siege mentality. In the long term, I think what will happen is people will go underground. If you have these opinions you will find people that are like-minded who will have secret discussions.

“It should have been taken through the normal process – people should’ve talked to him and found out why he has these views. It is not helping the debate.

“Google is a large player with the power to buy anything – but one of the things it cannot guarantee is diversity – that has to be done over a period of time.”

Charlotte Sweeney OBE, author of Inclusive Leadership and Diversity

“Get employees talking about the issues they see in their part of the business and discuss how to tackle them – senior leaders don’t have all the answers, they need insights from across the business and from across all levels of the hierarchy.

“By creating a workplace where people can be themselves, feel valued for their contribution and can get on, you’ll then have a great basis to increase the level of diversity across the firm.

“Start a conversation. Be open and transparent and get a conversation going – enable people to disagree, allow controversy and different opinions. After all, isn’t that what diversity is about?”