Women of Vision Leaedership Award
Thank you.
Good evening. I am very fortunate to work in the center of the technology field, Cisco systems. I see many professional women who are devoted and leading their teams. Therefore, it is such an honor for me to be awarded tonight, because there are really a lot of women leaders out there doing wonderful contributions. So, I want to thank Anita Borg, and a lot of you that have supported me.
So, I took a step back to think “What made me deserving of this honor tonight?” The conclusion came very quickly to me that it has been the contribution and recognition that my entire organization Linksys and Cisco has received. I have simply been in a position to help drive the passion, expertise, creativity and vision. It has personally been a great honor to be apart of technology that has helped change the way we work, live, learn and play.
Seventeen years ago, my husband Victor and I started our own business from the garage after a few years of corporate experience. That is Linksys. It was a pure opportunity at the time. The experiment and adventure soon turn into passion, and eventually leads to a 17 years journey and is still going.
Some of you might be familiar with the name of Linksys. We connect your broadband service into the rest of the devices in your home by offering a gateway product and a lot of connectivity adapters. So, we help millions of broadband homes connecting the PCs, printers, stereos, TVs, phones, gaming consoles, and more. The key is that we not only connect, we also distribute the contents in your home. Content like photos, music, movies, phone calls, are touching our lifestyle and forming the way we live. So, the Linksys technology is not something remote, our technology is actually embedded into your new ways of living.
Let me give you a scenario that you are throwing a party Sat. night with a few good friends. You just want to share your last vacation and have a good time. All of your vacation photos and favorite song lists are all on your PC. We have a device connecting to your TV and stereo that will stream your songs to the downstairs stereo and the photo into a slide show onto the TV. So, you have the right atmosphere and your goofy vacation pictures are on TV slide show. But, the excitement does not stop here. We have better vision and more products that will fulfill your digital dream and shape the next generation’s lifestyle even more. With that vision, networking giant Cisco acquired Linksys over two and half years ago. Of course, I am bias when thinking Linksys is unique in its own way.
Unique, indeed. After the acquisition, we have been operating as an independent division of Cisco systems for over two and half years. In order to fit a 14-year old & 400 plus million totally entrepreneurial company into a large organization does take quite a few different elements to manage the operations. Because we are independent, we are measured of our own success. It is not like we suddenly gain ten thousand sales forces when we are part of Cisco. To take or not to take help from corporate, and balance the morale is a science and art of its own. And, it is even more critical that we keep our responsiveness because our market dynamics can change in a very short period. So, emerging our old culture to adapt proper process so the organization can scale into a multi-billion dollar organization takes more than just leadership. It takes everyone’s commitment to form and shape the right elements into our new culture.
Therefore, today, the leadership of this award comes from the company’s market position, our culture, our technology innovation that changes your and my lifestyle, our business model, and our can-do attitude of managing the day to day business and being successful. I have to admit that without my team’s dedication, and devotion, I would not be here standing before you this evening.
For the young audience that is here tonight thinking about getting into technology either by entering into a large organization or owning your own business, at certain time, you will be searching for a crystal ball to guide you and lead you to success. Let me tell you the bad news first. There is really no crystal ball. But, the good news is, that just because there is no crystal ball, that means we are all starting out at the same point with a dream of a successful and meaningful career. It is up to us individually to pull ahead and make something of ourselves. As women we must make use of our talents and our nature such as being more thorough on tasks, more detailed oriented on presentations or even more methodical on how we use our time and work space. By default of those nature & talents, wouldn’t you think that you have a head-start of the opportunities that come your way?
So, I want to share with you that for all the years of my career, I have been passionate and persistent in reaching my goal. I learn to listen carefully to understand the situation. With the passion, I get to devote myself and not let anything or anymore really discourage me. I earn my confidence by achieving one small goal at a time. To share this with you is because I want to encourage you to do something you really love for I promise it will show in the work you do, the relationships you build with others and the success you will have throughout your life. Trust in yourself, be honest and don’t give up on your dreams.
Thank you all again for this honor tonight. I wish a lot of our young audience here tonight with the best of luck.