Polly Pearson's Blog

How to Network in High Tech

I was out with a friend the other night and we found ourselves at a swanky Boston establishment -- the type with cool lighting, music, and martini menus.  Seats were sparse in the uber-cool layout. We asked a couple of ladies if we could share their couch and coffee table.  Soon enough, they asked us where we worked.  When I said "EMC," one of the women purred, "Oh! My friend works there. He joined you from a company you acquired called, 'Astrum.'"

 

I lit up at hearing the word "Astrum," as just that day I learned that Astrum brought something special and surprising to EMC's culture.  Tea Time. I started to share my new wisdom with this woman.  She immediately interrupted and said, "Oh yes, I know the people of EMC have Tee Time all right."

No, the other kind of tea time.

An excerpt from EMC's internal social network, found in our "Culture Talk" community:

It's 3 PM on Thursday. Where is everyone?

Oh, right, tea time!

Our group gets together every week on Thursday afternoon, puts a kettle of tea on, and cracks open some cookies or pretzels. ... Some people would say the value of tea time is getting a free cookie and a short break from the work day. That's a fine approach, but for me the true value comes from getting everyone together in a more social environment. People talk about their vacations, their weekends, their families, their hobbies, and of course, work. The connections that we make during tea time carry directly over into our jobs. It's kind of hard to fire off an angry impersonal email at someone in QE after you just shared a laugh about a movie you both like over a cup of tea. ...the ties that we make when we're talking about nothing directly lead to better connections when we're dealing with something.

One of the other benefits of Tea Time is that a few different cultures have tea traditions, and we get a chance to experience teas from around the world and learn a bit about their cultures in the meantime. We've had teas from China, Russia, India, and the UK ... and perhaps more.

 

A colleague of mine, David K. Spencer, whom I've come to know through our social network but have never actually met in person, is writing a blog series on diversity at EMC at his external blog, "Dave Talks Shop." Dave is an engineering manager who is also passionate, it appears from his blogs, about software design as well as interpersonal and group dynamics. I encourage you to check it out.  It is unlike anything I've ever read on the subject.  His first post was really interesting, his second even more so. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

One phrase that has been popping into my mind a lot lately -- that hatched during our recent, internal  Visual Talk Radio show with EMC sales people is --  "The New EMC."  Tea time, who knew? 

(For EMCers reading this, the Radio Show broadcast is available on EMC ONE in the Culture Talk community.)

------------ Talk Back -------------------

Let me know if Dave's take on Diversity  -- or The New EMC -- strikes a cord with you, too. 

EMC Culture Talk: "Visual Radio" -- Live!

Pictured:  EMC's Steve Todd, founder of EMC's CLARiiON product and author of The Information Playground blog  (CLARiiON is the world's first as well as the world's market-share leading modular information storage product based on RAID technology), Monya Keane, EMC's Editor-in-Chief of our award-winning, Global employee news magazine EMC.now, and me, during EMC's first Culture Talk Visual Radio show broadcast in the EMC sound studio.  Our other guest, dialing in from Cork, Ireland, was Mark Twomey, aka "Storagezilla," from the title of his famous 'Zilla blog.  Mark knows information back-up, recovery and archiving like no other. 

The program was a blast to host. Mark and Steve kept the laughs rolling. Everything was unscripted and very real.  We talked about what it was like to work at EMC, what was cool about EMC and what was challenging. We learned that Steve was the first engineer on the planet (we think) to productize a 1987 white paper out of Berkeley on the RAID technology concept.  We also learned he met his wife while washing dishes at a camp in his teenage years.

We learned that Mark started his blog when the editor of the EMC Cork newsletter rejected a movie review he submitted. He figured, "I'll show them," and published the review on the Internet. Ha! Mark is one of the first people to have a blog at EMC (maybe THE first?) and, most likely, one of the first in the information storage industry. He knows his technology cold, and has a killer streak of fun (and funny) running inside of him.

We also heard first hand from these EMC folks, in real term, what keeps them at EMC and what inspires them about working here.  Good stuff.

We took questions from EMCers around the globe, either live or via text. While EMCers listened to the program, they were also able to see a photo show of sorts on their PC of our guests in their natural habitats -- both at work and in their personal lives.

Today, we're hosting our second program. Our guests will be from the legendary EMC sales group -- the organization that has been a HUGE contributor to EMC's phenomenal growth. Just this morning, EMC announced our financial results ... marking a half decade of double-digit growth.  We'll talk about what it is really like in 'New EMC' sales (a lot different than you might think!) and what makes them successful.

For all EMCers, register for today's program -- happening at 12:12 EST via the front page of ChannelEMC.  If you miss it, we'll be chatting about it and will post a replay within the EMC Culture Talk community on EMC ONE (our internal social network).

This next program will have fewer questions from Monya and me -- we want to hear from you right off the bat!

My apologies for non-EMCers reading this post.  At some point, we'll likely share these broadcasts with the world, but for now, we thought we'd get everyone at EMC comfortable with this new medium and the level of sharing we're encouraging behind the firewall first.

What it is like working for Joe Tucci? One woman’s view.

Shortly after Joe Tucci was named CEO of EMC, I became one of his direct reports. I ran EMC’s investor relations at the time. I’ve worked with him for about 8 years; 2 as a direct report, the rest as “one removed.”

What is it like? Following, in no particular order, are some observations:

• He cares – big time. When I worked directly for him, he was always available to me. He returned my phone calls promptly; my emails personally; accepted ‘pop in’ visits; and accepted my meeting requests with no question. He still does.

• He puts himself last, his customers first, and leads with humility. He travels with no handlers; offers praise to his people profusely; and seeks no accolades.  He spends most of his time in the field, not in any executive suite.

• He can talk tech with techies and understand engineering specs better than most execs. He has a brilliant understanding of business strategy – both by the Columbia MBA teachings (which he has quoted when trying to show me the logic of a business transition) and by intuitive business savvy.

• When we traveled together for events such as product launches, I would inevitably get included to join him for dinner – or at the casino table if we were in Vegas. Generally I was the only woman. I never felt out of place.

• I’ve witnessed him handle brutally strategic situations and confrontations with such wisdom, conviction, and blunt honesty it took my breath away. He does not fear doing what he sees as the right thing. I saw him do this on the subject of EMC-coveted personnel, products, business models, governance, and branding.

• His primary Monday – Friday residence, last I knew, was a modest townhouse. He’s on the road on EMC business most of the time; why waste money on ego-trappings?  He drives a basic car to work (himself) and leaves anything flashy away from work. The only thing I can see where he indulges? His suits.

• He is generous and thoughtful. My expectations were exceeded on many fronts – including when I asked for a longer than normal maternity leave. His reply was, for me, ideal. It was far from the candy-coated, “I-don’t-know-how-to-talk-about-this-woman-stuff” norm. I recall him telling me in his ever frank manner that my timing was not perfect (the tech market was still imploding.) He let me know that my leave would be a loss. At the same time, he allowed me to have a guilt-free maternity leave that went about 4 weeks beyond the norm.

• What about job change and professional development? When I shared with him that I wanted a job change and outlined the job I wanted and what it could do for the business, he gave it to me – though on his terms. When I debated his terms, he acknowledged my concerns, conceded what I identified as challenging, and still asked me to take the path as he outlined it. I did.

• If he has a vice, I never saw it. Well, it might be the Yankees.  When we invited the Red Sox brass to our headquarters to celebrate EMC’s sponsorship, he even made it clear to them that he would not back off being a Yankee fan. 

So what is it like working for Joe Tucci? In my opinion, pretty darned good, just like Joe himself.
 

EMC in Action

A major cultural pillar at EMC is, "Passion."  I saw this in action on the 4th of July. In America, this is a day filled with parties, parades and fireworks. About 3:00 in the afternoon, I peeked at my Blackberry to find an email string from passionate EMCers from around the company. The subject? This smart blog by EMC's Storage Anarchist, a.k.a. Barry Burke.

Another element of passion in the EMC culture? We're pretty passionate about our customers and our technology. The company is filled with people who, when they find FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) being spread to our customers about our technology, they work swifty to set the record straight -- holiday or no.    We cherish that type of action, and find it kind of fun.

Thanks Barry for the dose of Smart Fun and for what became my favorite firework on this year's 4th of July.

You can read this sparkplug of a blog here.

Your digital addiction result ... a Must See!

See the living ticker marking the growth of digital information from (y)our collective habits with mobile phones, You Tube, email, iTunes, digital TV, digital pictures, social networking (and more). 70% of this information mountain is created by individuals like us. Though companies ultimately get the responsibility for security, privacy, reliability and compliance for 85% of it. Another interesting fact -- a whole lot of this digital footprint growth comes from our "Digital Shadow" -- digital happenings such as surveillance photos, web search histories, and financial transaction journals.

For more on this:

http://www.emc.com/leadership/digital-universe/expanding-digital-universe.htm

What do you think?  There is actually quite an environmental impact from this as well.  Data centers today are running out of available power to run their information infrastructure. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that data centers have more than doubled the amount of energy they are using during the past five years. According to the newly published EMC 2008 Annual Overview, (page 11), customers are telling us they simply cannot get enough power and cooling into their data centers to run today's advanced technologies.

What are we doing about it?  Designing and delivering energy saving technology. We're also getting the word out that energy reductions of 50% or more are possible using existing technologies and best practices.  Some of our customers are making amazing strides. One customer, for example, quoted on page 12 in the above mentioned 2008 Overview, deployed EMC's tiered storage and VMware virtualization software.  Their CIO reports, "Resulting from this, the amount of storage deployed was reduced by 60 percent and over 600 physical servers were migrated to VMware. The kVA (kilowattVolt-Ampere) and BTUs per hour for the storage environment were reduced by 50 percent. The VMware 30:1 virtualization ratio led to significant energy efficiencies as well."

How cool is that?