Marissa Freeman & Rashmi Kumar, HPE | HPE Discover 2020
![Marissa Freeman & Rashmi Kumar, HPE | HPE Discover 2020 Marissa Freeman & Rashmi Kumar, HPE | HPE Discover 2020](/pic/marissa_freeman_and_rashmi_kumar_hpe_hpe_discover_2020/WWNJNXgweVkydXc_.jpeg)
From, around the globe, it's the cube. Covering. HPE, discover. Virtual, experience. Brought. To you by HPE. Everyone. Welcome back to the cubes coverage, of HP discover virtual, experience, John, for a host of the cube I'm here in the palo alto studios, for the remote interviews, we're, all sheltering, in place and, we have two amazing guests, on a great topic women leaders in technology strategy. For growth Rashmi. Kumar senior vice president chief information, officer. At HP e and marisa freeman chief brand officer of, HP e welcome. To the cube and looking forward to this great conversation thanks for joining. Thank. You John yeah Before, we jump into, it can you guys explain your roles at HP I'll see the chief information officer, role is pretty well defined but it's changing these days Rashmi. And as. A brand officer with the remote workforce Marisa. These are changing. Times can you guys take them in to explain your role Rashmi, we'll start with you. Yeah. So my organization, and my role is in the middle of digital. Transformation which. Has become even more critical in, these days of. Landscape-level. My. Team is involved, in end-to-end. Process, transformation for, HPE as well as a key part of the pivot for as a service, and. Running. The operations, as smoothly or as well as making all 60,000. Employee 20,000, partner, moved. To work from home we. Are engaged in this from later. Part of January so. To say when it, first started in China so the organization, is super critical for, the success of HPE to, keep our operations running, as well as all the employees engaged in, their work. Marisa. Your role I. Am. The chief brand officer of, Hewlett, Packard enterprise and my. Responsibility. Is to. Help. Tell our story to. Customers. Prospects. Analysts. And press and, beat. The drum for our employees, so, as we, pivot, our company, and our, strategy. We. Work with Antonio, to ensure that. Everyone. Understands, why HPE, and how we can, be your best transformation, partner. You. Know one of the exciting things, that's coming out of this new. Reality is, that, the workforce, when, the role, of work is changing actually, workforce, workplace, workloads. Workflows. Variety. Of topics, but one of them is the personnel, piece and you guys have women. Leaders and Technology, program. That's really phenomenal can, you talk about the mission and vision and what are the goals, you. Know women in technology something's important and leadership as well could you guys explain the mission and vision women. Leaders in technology. Yeah, sure so. The women, leaders in technology, established. By Hewlett. Packard Enterprise to connect with our customers at our annual conference, who. Share our common belief, in inclusion, and diversity. Specifically. Advancing. Gender equality and, empowering, women with, the support of the men at the workforce, as well the. Event is a collaborative. Poem for, women and men allies, who, are committed, to drive learn and leverage, best, practices, in technology, innovations, to. Make a difference in their businesses, and communities, our.
Goal Is to unite influential. Leaders, from around the world with a charter. To increase. Attract, and retain diverse, talent, by showcasing, great contributions. Made by women. While. Their careers, in stem, plus see science, technology, engineering mathematics. And. Computing. And I see that. All our leadership, are. Very passionate, about making, sure that, we get the right level of engagement both. From women and men allies to be able to advance this, cause. At, the company, and with, our customers as well. First, on the leadership side we've talked about something in the past a you and I and you're. Passionate about the the women leadership piece what's your take on this. Well. We. Know that when. Women leaders, are. At a company, the company is more financially, successful. We, know that women lead differently, and bring a unique, point of view to the table and so. Diversity, and inclusion generally. Speaking, is, so very, important, to the, success of a company to, the happiness and retention of their employees, so. Yes. We we focus a lot on that and I think importantly. We think about. Reward, recruit. And rapport so, it's. Not just something diversity. Inclusion is not something, that we wish for NHP, it's something that we. Action. And we work towards, um. And it's a journey you know we want we aren't there yet but we are on a path and it's something that we. We. Report. On internally, to to, each other we understand, exactly where, we are. We. Recruit, with purpose, and. Intention. Of. Widening. The aperture, and bringing, in people who are different, from each other, to, to add to to, the fabric of our company and. Then we also reward, our leaders. For doing. The right thing and being inclusive, in hiring diverse, talent so it is very much part of our culture, and, performance. I always, ask the question because I'm male and I wanted to have watch me brought it up as well how, are the HPE male leaders, impacting. And enhancing, and participating, in the strategy because it, takes everyone. Involvement. To make women in leadership successful. And beyond, this, is super important, can you share your, thoughts on how that's going. So. As we. Form, our teams as well as these. Specific. And, employee. Resource, group to be, able to focus on younger. Women or women technologists. We. Do it alongside our, main allies at, some, point it, is, technology, is, so critical, digitalization. Is such. An hyper growth mode if we, need to be successful, with our product or services in the marketplace, we need to have equal, participation. From. Talent, from across the. Bodies, of men and women and. Irrespective. If I'm a women leader or a man leader I need. To be able to tap to that talent, to be able to kind. Of bring our product and services to our markets or run our operations, well. In the in the company so we. We really when. We strive, to fulfill. The cars as Marisa mentioned. Growth. Perspective. We. Have it, there. We, are equal partner, in making. This. A priority. For, the company to ensure we get women. And. Both. And in smartest, when it men and women from across technology. Areas to come and work with us first. I want to ask you before I go it back to rush, me about the whole workforce. And workplace and technology, from, a customer perspective how. Are you guys seeing their workplace, changing, from a business perspective because, you know you and I again talk about about experiences. And that's something that you really believe in I was having great experiences that the physical events now you're doing the virtual event but, your customers, are also living, a changing. Workforce. And they need to equip, themselves with with, us how do you see the, big picture there because that's a big part of you. Guys aligning, with the customers, and I, won't. Say change the experience but you know aligned with the new expectations is there these are new things that are happening in real time. Part. Of running the brand is also understanding. Culture and what's around the corner and I think that our company does that by nature anyway because we are a technology company and we have to think about where our customers, are going where they're heading, skate.
To Where the puck is going and meet them there so, trends. Like. Approximately. 50% of, workers, will probably, not go back to the. Office full-time so. We have a whole suite of products. And services that we, are we, have been talking, about very much in recent times that. Help customers, debt. Help everyone work from home. So. Many of the offerings, that we, have for. Example during, kovat, many. Of our customers, couldn't. Or wouldn't send. Their, employees. Into. The data centers, or into, their offices, to work. On their technology we had our. Service, people able, to, help them remotely and in some cases actually show up twenty, five thousand, people around the globe there, to help in. Fact that was our campaign, and it still is and it's the theme of HP, discover. HPE. Is here, to help so. As your workplace, changes, as you go through the recovery, as you return to work as you, continue. Your digital, transformation. HPE. Is here to help with very, actionable. Instantaneous. Solutions. To. Help, with komen and and beyond, you. Know we've been following HP you know I've been following HP for many many years and. Decades and I know and, for the folks watching that you guys have a really robust. Internal, intranet, and system that you guys have, built out and and, yearly on the leading edge as well of your own HP equipment. And technology and software always, been resilient from my perspective so, Rashmi I got to ask you you, know this disruption, we're seeing hasn't been forecasted, it's not like disaster, and recovery, scenarios, a hurricane, it's not a flood. Or a hurricane sandy. Like we saw in the, past this, is was a new kind of disruption vector, not seen on cybersecurity radars. This, is new so, at the end of the day it's still a disruption it's. A challenging, time but there was an opportunity for cxos. Out there to look at the projects, and saying where. Are we exposed, where are the gaps and I think we're, seeing new, app, development, with seeing new kinds of technology, projects, kind, of being tweaked a little bit some kind of being sunsetted, it's, an opportunity for cxos to really double down on this I want to get your take on how, you see, the challenge, being, met by. The customers, and the tech opportunities, that they can lead through this. Absolutely. So, anything. This pandemic, has taught us that. Digitalization. Are way forward, we. Have. Been engaged in the. Transformation. For HPE, on. A journey, for last couple of years of entire. Code. To cash process, as well as our supply chain and full, process. Entire. Experience, for our customers has. Been changing as well. As for our employees, so as, our customers, look, at this. Pandemic. And think about what, they need to invest, in is the. Poor, the employees, work from anywhere anytime and, be available, to work for and we have technologies. Which. Enables, that at, the same time we. Are right in the middle of. Providing. The best ERP. Solutions, best. Code. To cache type solutions, and our infrastructure. And, capabilities. Power that if you take our edge. Aruba, solution, we, were in the middle of, powering. Up all the, makeshift, hospitals, as well, as the cruise ships which were transitioned, as hospital. To, be able to provide them in Internet, for, connectivity if you, look at the initiatives, we had here in the South Bay Area and on providing.
Wi-Fi. In the parking lot for schools so the students, could complete there so. HPE, has, this. Kind. Of end-to-end, solutions. Around these technologies. Which, could create. Resiliency. In our customers, and provide, them product and solution, to be able to continue their operations. Seamlessly. Even during these times you, know it's interesting I've always loved the future of work kind of scenario. And discussions, but, they all kind of felt a, little, bit too fuzzy around just collaboration. You, know future of work which is cool I'm not against that but, when you look at what we're living now what you were just talking about is it's, not it's work place, workforce. Workloads. Workflows. It's. Not just, collaboration. That's just one aspect of it I think we're seeing now this new reality is that it's, going to impact the entire end-to-end, as you point out are. There areas that you see are opportunities, for customers, because you know we've heard DevOps has always been on the fringe of kind, of the tech community always leading-edge on the cloud for the past 10 years but now you've got operations. IT operations network, operations, all these, other systems that, were kind, of on a nice. Nice, path before. Disrupted. This is not just work, collaboration. It's everything. What's, your thoughts yes yeah. Great great point so if you look at collaboration. Collaboration is, kind of the facade, versus. Everything. That happens behind the scene so if you look at a TV show what. You're seeing is the end result but, there was a huge production effort behind it to, be able to get you that content, and if you look at a particular transaction today, from ERP perspective. Or a customer. Buying a product from you this, is the facade there is a lot of stuff that goes behind it, for. Providing, our employees the, right tools, keeping. Our, networks. Connected. So that employees, can use those.
Tools Successfully. As well, as securely, so, this, time has taught us to quickly pivot and bring in some. New capabilities, from technology and digital, capability. Perspective, in every, area of, of, the business starting. From the facade which is the collaboration, tool at the same time ability, to run your business through these technology. Capabilities. And do. It very securely. Providing. Connectivity. From our, data center to. Manufacturing. Factories location, to now employees, home to, our partners, and as. Well, as clouds and that, has. Created a very complex. Ecosystem. Of connected, universe. For. Every company I feel we. Are a global company so, we were a little lucky, in getting early, warnings in, January, and preparing. To. Come to where we were coming and. And. I'm. So, proud of the IT team here, we, did a major release, of our transformation program. Which we call ndit, on 13. 14 15 March, right before, we started shelter-in-place and, there, were thousands, of people working globally to bring this capability, for our ERP, systems, and it, went, flawlessly, and since then we have done four. Or five releases, and the organization, had been able to carry through it preparedness. And resiliency. Great features Marisa you know back to this brand experience, that you're in your role. The facade our collaboration, of the user experience is the, front end of the back end so you have, a real, hyper digital, or hyper virtual, as my word for it environment. Where people's, businesses, and the business impact is going to be severely. Impacted because people can leave a brand. So, if I'm a customer of yours I'm like look I need to get busy reinventing. And and getting, my apps meeting. The expectations of the customers so you know you got to bring the experience piece of it as well as at an ableman this, is a new, expectation. Radically. More accelerated, than it was in the past what's your thoughts. Well. You. Know Antonio a couple, of years ago said the. Action is at the edge and. The. Cloud is an, experience. Not a destination, so, in order to create those very, meaningful. And differentiated. Experiences. For. Their customers. Our, customers. Need to have one, single platform that's. Open and secure so. That they can innovate from end to end every workflow, from beginning to end so that there. Are experiences, they deliver their customers, are. Intuitive. Intelligent. Differentiated. So. That is what we have been working for this. These, entire last few years is to provide that cloud experience, to our customers wherever their, apps and data live so. That they can have the, freedom, to innovate, across, the entire estate. And, do. It securely. That. Is the only way you're going to really provide these truly, differentiated an insightful, experiences. At the edge which, is where, the action is yeah you guys are really putting out some really insight there and I would just say that this highlights what I've always believed as making, the innovation. Strategy, concept, not just a cliche, but you, if you don't have an innovation strategy, with tech and people it's. Going to be exposed in the table stakes are there because of the of the marketplace if you don't deliver the, the stakes are really high and this brings back to the women. Leaders in IT you, guys are doing how do how do people get involved I mean what's the. Take on this you guys doing a great job, what's. The. Process is, it do, you join do you guys recruit I mean. As. Someone who's watching or participating, HPD discover virtual, get involved let. Me do a quick commercial because it is HP discover, and the best way to get involved with women's, leaders and technology is to join. A, register. For HP discover, and, join, us on, July. 1st. Managing. The workplace in a new normal, July. 8th navigating. Changed, the mindset for success in, turbulent, times and, the. First one leading through recovery with Rashmi, right, here. And. I, believe that's on the, first Friday so coming, up next week so. Those are three, ways in to. Get to at least be able to get involved with what we're doing but we also do, throughout. The year events. With our customers, in multiple. Offices, around, the globe where, we get, together as leaders we, talk, about leadership we, recruit. Then. There's all of the other things that we support, and, Rashmi baby you want to talk about that from Grace Hopper and all the, way through some of the other wonderful.
Organizations. That are women leaders and Technology are supportive, of and engaged in Rashmi. Yes. Absolutely. So first. Of all our global, women. Leader, ERG. As well as there, are couple, other energies, within business. Unit which works diligently. To. Create engagement. For men allies, and women employees so, my. Last travel before, this. Pandemic hit and shelter-in-place, came, in was for, international, women day celebration. In sofia bulgaria and. What. We did, as women. Leaders of the company is created, a competition. For. The location, to host that event there was enormous. Amount of energy when I was in Sofia, but, guest speakers, with. Beautiful. Speakers and our men allies who, were speaking at the event as well and it, was webcasted, across the globe for, all HPE, employees. To experience, they, were watch parties, there was enormous amount of energy. Going. Into the event, similarly. When we participate, in grace, or it's, like carnival. For us we, have our boots we do interviews. Marisa. Hosted, a great. Event at. Disney. For our college. Students. Who were attending Grace Hopper to, come experience, what. HPE. Is all about and how, dedicated we, are to the cause of women, and stem, and and young women to showcase. Our leaders there and what, you can be once you are at once. You're at HPE so. A lot of such events also happen, at various locations, and. As. Being women we create everything fun everything, more engaging and, everybody. Wants to participate in these events certainly. Now, John. I. Don't, want to overlook. The Allied, ship, the. Men at HPE are very, very, much a, part of this and very supportive of everything, that we do it's, it's, not just all women it is a lot, of women but but our men are definitely, part. Of the part. Of the whole fabric of it including that Grace Hopper, and. It's always great talent coming out of schools and seeing a lot of jobs out there right now there's new jobs so this brings up you, know the shift you, look at cybersecurity and all across them in tech it's the aperture of computer science has changed you don't to be a coder you can do a lot of different things this, brings up the culture question I really love to get you guys personal, opinions, on this for. Folks watching, wants. To see the new kind of Instagram, picture of HP if they wanted to look inside what. How would you describe the culture of HPE, these, days obviously the innovation you guys are super impressive, what's. It like inside what's. It like to work there how. Would you describe the culture of HPE. Well. It's it's. A wonderful place to work and our culture is the primary, reason, why it is so, it. Started with Bill and Dave they. Were about community. They. Were not about building a conglomerate. They were built, about building, a community and, and that, has just stayed, with us throughout. Innovation. Is critical, to us being. Bold. Being. Inclusive. These. Are our values but they're not just words on a page they are actually, our values, and, we, live them and our. Belief system, and then they were put down on a page so that we can all look at them recognize. Them celebrate, them and it starts at the very top, Antonio. Has been with the company, 26. Years now I think it is. He, is a true, HPE. Dyed-in-the-wool. Engineer. Himself and. We. All feel really good about being here and being with each other we, have a mission, and a purpose and. That is to advance the way people live and work that. Is why every. HPE, teammate. Gets up in the morning that is what we do for a living and, it. Comes, through and everything that we do Rashmi, you know I would like to I would like to add there is. What. Bill and they have created for us and. The, good. Things that is, retained. By, HP as well, as our ability, to change and pivot so as you, talked about John we are a innovation.
Company, We are a huge, product, and research based company, now, it has a service so we are also looking at how. Do we, understand. More outside. In what, our customers, are looking for what kind of experiences. When, they interact with our products. And how, do we really understand, it and and drive. Alignment. Early, on with our customers, to be able to put these as a service, products. Out, to them and as well as quickly learn, and pivot. Again as needed so the. Points that Marisa mentioned, about take. Risk be bold, don't be afraid to be afraid. To fail, as well, as, customer. Focus relentless. Journey. To ensure. Our customers are getting what they need has. Been kind, of a new HPE. Culture. Manifesto. Which is really. Embodied. By Antonio, and the leadership team which is then taken. By our employees, so. Why we are keeping what's good from villain daytime we are also augmenting. It based on the changing, needs of our customers, and the industry, that we are in where we cannot be stagnant forever. I think, carrying that mission, and spirit. Of, Bill. And Dave is great in fact John Chamberlain notices on his, on the keynote here at, virtual. Experience he said to me privately that he has mad respect for HPE going back he was hiring all the, executives. That from Bill and Dave's cloth. There and brought him into Cisco now. He's out helping companies and I think that is really about the community and the respect for the individual, citizenship. Those, are values, that I think, stand. The test of time I think that's great that you guys are keeping, that going and, that's awesome and we appreciate, the community support, with, the cube and collaborator, so thank you very much for that oh and don't forget the innovation, I mean, Marissa go back with 13, events, you guys first coin hybrid cloud I think that was like happening, now like I mean. Innovation. Is still there got to be tech leaders welcome Green. Lake. Great. Stuff thank you guys so much for this conversation I really was was awesome great insight there congratulations. On the women leaders in technology final. Question for you both complete. The sentence women. Leaders and technology, is a competitive, advantage to your clients, because. Blank. Because. It's one more way that, they can partner, with HPE. To. Improve. The way their customers, live and work. Rashmi. Can complete, the sentence women leaders and technology competitive, advantage to, your customers, and clients because. We. Can collaborate, to bring better product. And services, for their customers, together. Awesome. Thank. You so much and congratulations on, the Middle East technology we'll be following it will be if you got to do the virtual events let us know we. Got the remote studio we always love collaborating, and of course we, got women Wednesday's on the cube every day every day every week on our site and thanks. For again all your support and it's a great experience thanks, for spending the time appreciate Marissa I'm Ashby thank, you. Okay. HPE, virtual. Experience. This, is the cube HP discover virtual, bringing, you coverage and, great interviews, from thought leaders experts. Community practitioners, and customers. I'm Shawn forever the cube thanks for watching.
2020-06-30 18:58