Kay - An introduction to our experience dialog here, in these interactions. We just picked a HotTopic.We don't have a straightforward answer and then we bring in speakers. So being there seeing this product, I broached it in very different ways. This is a space for healthy, disagreements and discussions, but in a very respectful way, just by the nature of how we have conceived this, we will see passionate voices of opinions from friends. Having a dialogue and thereby even interrupting each of their finishing. At the end of this, we want our audience to leave with approaches that you can try in the workplace and we continue the dialogue in our slank and Linkedin channels. There are three different slack channels and around eleven. Different LinkedIn groups where the questions are coming in. So as we start with it, we will start with some pride questions, but feel free to have the interactions and we'll bring those questions in and make that or comments and make that. As part of the discussion, I want to introduce us to the topic for today. Teams want to encourage diversity in all forms, including socioeconomic education, thinking, gender, race, age, and culture. The topic is very large. And with the brake Tobias team this year with the international women's day, we planned a three part series and the part that we are discussing is how to attract and hire diverse talent. Attracting and hiring diverse talent entails everything from the job description. That caters to diverse candidates. By the interviewers, the interviewing Styles, communication culture of the company onboarding, and so forth.
It is my honor and privilege to announce the speakers here today. David is the chairman and president of women and technology international and they are a Global organization. They founded in 1989, and they have around 160,000 members and 300 plus corporate partners,87 percent female,and32%in leadership positions, the interesting thing, That I learned recently is participated in a glass door, sealing research in1995 that they are redoing as a 2.0,
research coming up and we would be. It would be wonderful to hear a lot of insights from that research today. The other speaker we have is HarryConnick. Arica is the spp of the executive programs at witty and she's also a techie. So she has written a book for cybersecurity for project managers, she has both corporate and nonprofit experience and it will be honored to have her as a leader. But the few questions today as we are talking about the research and as we are bringing up all of these discussions, we may pop in a slide or two here but other than that it's going to be pretty much a dialogue. You could have called David pleasure, welcome. Yeah, thank you.

Let me start with the first question. Why? Why is it important to even have diversity? And what benefits does it bring to the organization?

David - Sure. Look, I think there's a lot of data out there. Some of which will have and I'll share a little bit more about the kernel research, we're doing, and let me go back, one of the Inspirations of witty starting back in the 80s and the mid-80s one of our big clients wasHP Labs over up in your neck of the woods. And we worked with their technology Group. And when you'd walk through the halls of labs, they have it. All these focus groups focus group rooms have doctors and lawyers. People of different genders, ethnicities, and colors. All Just looking at how technology can improve their lives and that's really when they did their work looking 10 years out on their technology. Roadmaps that reallybecametheinspirationforwitty once we decided to start it in 1989. So there's just and there's unlimited Data about just how different opinions and how do you know? Different people? Use technology differently, right? So I think it's Money Employee Engagement and serving the people.

Niharika - that's great. David and I'll start with I kind of don't like to date myself. But 25 years ago, when I started my career, I was the only woman in a switchboard manufacturing plant that was way back in l&t, India, and kind of, I thought what is it? I mean, is it really kind of rocket science why it's designed by their women, not there and then I came to the U.S. in the u.s. I was managing infrastructure projects and they're also I felt myself being the Only Woman at the table and when I look back, I see that there had been diverse diversity at Time. Maybe the things that were designed would have been different because ultimately our business users are not just men. They are diverse people of all colors, races, and gender, and whatever we are doing, in terms of our business and products has to cater to all our users.

Kay - I would love for you to bring in some of the topics that you have seen in the research process and witty and we can continue the conversation that way we have questions about teaching, but let's continue with the topics that you guys have researched and have a lot of data to substantiate with police.

Niharika - Sure, it sounds good. So, David, you talked about witty starting in 1989, if you could share with the audience, how did we start? And where did it come from?

David - Sure. So, one of the things that prompted the start of witi and my mom and I had a company called Criterion research that I started working with her in, in 1987. And what we did with Criterion research, we worked with Silicon Valley companies, and then the few companies down in, l.a. identifying people with core competencies in different areas of tech.
And then we give them a report and they'd hire them from their companies. That type thing in 89, there was an article that came out of their coin, the term glass ceiling. And at the time, the conversation was about women approaching 50% of the workforce but still only four to five percent in upper management positions. So the first President Bush and then shortly thereafter, Wonder President Clinton is what our Administration started to study about. out to look at this we wanted what my mom's idea was she had been, I was very young at the time, but she was in, more interfacing with our It's that we're sharing just some of the challenges they were having and these were amazing women that were PhDs in physics mathematics those types of things. They weren't necessarily getting upset and angry about it. Groups were protesting and they had every right to do that, but they were just more disappointed because the more Junior people would go golf with the director and then they would get overlooked. So we wanted to start with witty, as people are just starting to use email and it's like how can we create this network? That's very proactive. Business Centric and supportive to help our members get any connection resource piece of information. They need to get to the next level, how we can include men in the conversation because we want them and many of them. And most of them were holding the executive roles so we wanted them to have an open book and see our amazing community. And then on the company side, just educate. Why is this beneficial to the business? Not just to check a box or try to look good or that type of thing and that's how we evolved back in 89. Things have changed a little bit since then
Kay - David, it would be wonderful to hear about the glass ceiling research in itself. Could you just speak a little bit about it before? , the hurricane goes too deep into it.

David - Yeah, definitely. And I had, that time in 89 I landed this company Borland that's over in Scotts Valley as a client and worked with them to grow bored with Philippe to grow Borland. Witty grew, Grassroots. And then in 1995, we had our first women in technology conference and everybody said, oh, you'll get a couple we had 2,500 of hundred people, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, so, is exciting and that word started about what we were doing, we
had then been contacted by a woman named Renee Redwood and who was the executive director of the glass ceiling commission. And then you know, it's and she was, she was she had headed up this four-year research project. So they came to us and said, hey, could you help share this information with technology companies and a lot of the research had to do with, what are some of the systemic issues that are preventing women and underrepresented minorities from getting to the next level in all companies. And what can they do to not lose this opportunity? Because again, all this stuff is about the growth of the business company engagement making the shareholders happy. So we had Renee and our second conference. If you go into the conference archives on our site and think there's even a If she talked, we had, I think 40 companies in Silicon Valley, listened to technology companies, listened to the research. So, that's how we initially got involved in it. So, yeah, that's why, why 2.0, and why now, sure. So, what we were looking at is, you know, all of us have been affected by the pandemic and I think just leaving up to the pandemic. You know, we just saw a lot of Changes our members would constantly give us feedback about challenges. They were continuing to just get fed up when they got to certain levels and companies and left. And then we had talked about one of our first virtual conferences in 2020 because of the pandemic and Renee was on a panel talking about some of the things that she had implemented. Because after leaving the glass ceiling commission. She just wanted to do Consulting and was brought into companies that needed support in these areas. Now, a lot of times, the two big ones that I will talk about were Texaco and Coca-Cola. There were lawsuits racial and gender discrimination lawsuits. That prompted them to bring Renee and to look at the organization and what they were doing, she had been brought in. There's a guy named Cyrus Meter. Who's also famous for putting the Rooney Rule into the NFL and Renee was brought in, and implemented? Many of them think about the learnings from the glass ceiling report and things she had learned since and worked with the companies to shift their environments. And now we've got six or seven years of data. Texaco Coca-Cola prophets through the roof. These are staying, they're engaged stockholders are happy and David, is that segues into the question, which we are getting is whom all participated in this research. So yeah and that's so anyways. Okay, that's why I said well let's update the glass ceiling report and we're going to call a glass ceiling report 2.0. We're not 100% sure. That'll be the name that comes out right now. The pandemic I think what we've seen over the last three years now is that everything's a fast-forwarded digital transformation. How we're dealing and serving our customers is so different from how we're all working. So we thought It would be a great opportunity. Now to push this forward, take a lot of the good things and promote
that from the first glass ceiling report and update. So we did. So we had about 1,000 people fill out this hour-long survey so far. We're doing many interviews, it's going to be based on qualitative and quantitative research.
Niharika - Yeah, so we're getting some exciting information that I think is going to make it a better place for everybody.

David - Great. Yeah. So that answers that question in the chat that it was our members and we also reached out to some leaders of the organizations to get insights. Yes, right. So I take, yeah. And Intel's one of our lead Partners on that. So they had about 200 about 20% of the people were Intel and then the rest of them were we're qualified witty members, that worked at larger organizations, either in technology companies or technology
organizations within tech companies. Yeah, and I'll add here is that one of the insights they got is that 31 percent of the respondents changed their jobs last year, the great resignation here. Great.

Niharika - So David we talked about that. It is so important to have diversity, but something is missing. Even if we are talking about diversity, people want to attract diverse talent, but hiring is not diverse. As we have spoken to our members, they say that they go, they apply but they are not getting a response. So what are the challenges of hiring? Managers and candidates are facing now.

David - Sure. And I can speak to where I'm coming from and what I hear and speak to a lot of people every week but just being in the search business for many years kind of before starting witi, I think it's there's wait, there's a lot of automation. I think that makes it easier for certain roles and these 80s systems and just the overwhelming of just overwhelming. I think for many of the companies I think right now joining communities tail. you've created either with several other buildings. Those relationships are just key. So I'd say, if you're a person looking for your next opportunity or if you're a company that wants to engage people, I just think the days of just posting jobs and going to Career Fairs and stuff like that for most positions or over, I think it's really about, a connecting with the people and Intentionally building your network so that you're going to be exposed to jobs. And I'd say probably when I my search business, maybe
60% of the jobs. There was never a wreck. It was more. Oh, this person's available. Let's open a rack. This is an opportunity that's one and then I think n ber two is just getting your brand out there and writing a contribution. There are so many great platforms now and we are seeking support. So many of my friends and I have friends from the technology industry that I might have placed or just worked with 33 years ago that I'll still speak to once a month. So I think it's for those of you that might be watching this, that are maybe a little younger than may not have been born when he started. This is a small world, would you agree with that Kay? I think so. Right.

Kay - Yeah, most definitely and, we, it's interesting. We have a lot of people who interface with customers here in what you are talking about. Things have changed, it has and I think the pandemic has brought a little bit more Dynamic into all of this. It would be wonderful to see and hear from both of you. What do you see in? The research has changed just in the pandemic times, for example. We can speak a lot about customer support. Customer success and customer experience are areas where people are not able to go even people who are servicing hospitals. We're not able to go and they have to do things remotely, education has changed considerably. As we know SAAS's business changed considerably, trying to do everything from support to Enterprise support. So I would love to hear from both of you here, how have you seen the employee expectations change during this pandemic? Give me, give us some data exhaust.

Niharika - So as for those, with the report, which we did the survey, which we did. So we have some loud change demands like 49 percent of the respondents had dependent children, 22% were primary caregivers to an elder or dependent and 33% were providing financial support for extended family members. Now, these are the demands of the employees and if the companies don't understand and empathize with this, it will be very difficult for them to understand what the diverse employees need. And another thing, which we figured out, was that there was a burnout. There was a requirement in the supply chain area. So 32 percent reported burnout, and 29 percent supported work from home. Working from home during the pandemic was working out for them. So now the understanding that a working parent, a mom or dad has to be in the daycare by 4:00 to pick up the kids if companies and the hiring managers and the managers understand this, it will be easy for them to provide that flexibility, which is needed by all kinds of employees.

Kay - David, it will be great to hear your, on the same question. On the plan to make, have you seen what changes have you seen from a cultural standpoint? I envy no hybrid is coming up quite a bit and to address the same data that Niharika shared: people getting burnt out, people taking care of somebody else and people living working from home. How have you, what have you seen amongst the members concerning culture change?

David - Yeah. Well, first of all, I just feel like the generation coming up wants to work for companies that align with their, with their core values, right? The Earth, the planet, what's going on in society? You know, I think, when we had incidents like mine and what happened to George Floyd, and a lot of companies will say they're doing things and some authentically want to do things, some it's just stayed there trying to say the right thing. So I think companies are people going to look a little deeper. We're in kind of an open world now, right? Employees, at people laid in, you can find people, back in the day, it was just hard to find names of the people. I was trying to bring Borland Scotts Valley. So now it's like, okay, people they can leave if they want. So what are we going to do as a company? What are the important things to keep them there? You know I think the family type environment as Niharika mentioned is flexible work, Jules when she ran, she when she stated some of those numbers, most of pretty much all of the people that we surveyed were women. So the rights of women do have, you know, need maybe more flexibility. schedules are supporting Elders, kids, and whatever else they have going on, how can companies want to engage women and have more women work for them. Should be the job description and way. They're working. Look like. like, for people like me, because all the people Like me created a corporate structure for how we work and compete. You guys weren't involved yet right now. Fast forward to more than 50% of the workforce and I know that you and I might look at the same problem, you may have one way of having a solution. I may have another way but they both work, right? If companies can offer us a way we could be fully authentic and how we're working. The company's going to harness unbelievable power. They've never experienced it before and yeah. So some good things are happening now. I feel that again I think the fact that I think what happened in the past two to three years of the pandemic is now just fast-forwarded to the conversation so we can look at this right? These original Promises of the internet or finally here. Now one slot on one side Joe was just kind of a before covid. It was the right nine percent of the people who would work at home. Sorry about nine percent would work at home, 11% unlimited limited office 41%, mainly office. And the rest of 39% office, only, where, you know, then it went to 65% of the people who had to work at home. Only in the next 12 months for seeing as 20% worked from home, only 52% limited office for maybe they'll go in for a
meeting or two offices. Only now has it been reduced to six percent. I think, as we move forward, it's like, what do we want, as he does? Do we want to spend our time in traffic, right? For those of us that work in Tech if we're working in customer success. Abort. Do we have to be sitting in an office? I don't know if it is right and how can companies leverage the technology to serve their companies, serve their customers more effectively. Number two, make sure they have engaged happy employees because that's just going to lead to the success of the company. Right. And I think a lot of this stuff without all the traffic and everything else is going to see some great numbers. Hopefully, coming out on the planet and how we're going to. Save our planet as well, you know.

Kay - Yeah, it's, it's important, that thing that you're bringing up or even sharing some of that information with the attendees. Some of those beautiful graphs that have come up with the research and some of the information that came from the research. So it definitely Dynamics the burnout. The people working from home. Finding Talent has changed before covid to right now. Absolutely. And we are seeing that even when companies do the propaganda of looking, doing remote work or hybrid, even if they bring in some of the flexible work schedules, even if they bring in the language that's needed in the job description and also the ability to do interviews in multiple different ways. There are two ways of attracting diverse talent. So why is hiring not that diversion, , what challenges in addition to what we talked about so far bubble up for either of you?

David - yeah, I feel it's, I think a lot of them, as I said earlier, Many of the racks, never get open till there's somebody they want to talk to. So they are kind of reaching out to their Network. There are a lot of opportunities now to expand your network to leverage places, like a sin, do what you guys are doing. Witty, there are tons of them out of different verticals. How do you make sure that the pipeline? , I think the company's approaches have diverse recruiters. I guess those people are going and looking for names of women or underrepresented people or something. Some things confuse me, what they're doing. I think it's, I think it's just making sure that and I think we can do this for the people that both of us serve to have them hone in, where did they want to go? What companies align with their values, and who are the people they'd be working with, they'd be working for in the next couple of years, in the next 10 years. Let's help them. And build those relationships because this is all just relationship driven, right? It's not a, it's not my tits and then they're going in, I've been single school, right? And I'm thinking, like, some of these, subspecies, several members. It's like a 20-year architect job at IBM. They're getting interviewed by a very Junior person on Facebook. I'm like, Why is this person interviewing you asking you technical questions when they should be rolling out the red carpet? Carpet for you, right? And I feel, so I just feel like that piece is out of whack and that's something. We're in the process of fixing now because I'm not, we're not going for that many more, right?

Niharika - And I'll add here, as David said, that ways of hiring are still old and until we innovate until we think out of the box. So in one of the health insurance companies, I was managing the development and we wanted a tech lead, and when we first opened the wreck all the off. Res es was All on men, but we had to kind of go out of the way to make sure that we got not only the hiring person. But also, we had to post on LinkedIn to get responses from diverse candidates. So again, it's until, and unless we think out of the box until we innovate in this area, it will be very difficult to reach out to the candidates. We need it.

Kay - Yeah, I would love to share. I'm sharing one of your graphs it shows a, it's this one carry it, captures the employee expectations, we talked about the employer expectations, and while this graph is here, it'll be great to understand what you guys see from a mismatch of employee expectations and the hiring manager expectations or even company culture. Any mismatch that you see is for sure.

David - I think it looks right. There are some of the French shaders, who pay work-life balance supportive management, right? I think some of those are things people want, but you know, anybody can offer more money, maybe have some similar things, you know, where we see some of the opportunities is in this. I'm moving my mouse, but I realized no one can see that, but in the upper left under opportunities, right? You know, how can there be opportunities for going, we're going in. Into we're going to be going and this is what I hear from some very in the know people is that in June, it's going to be the great resignation 2.0, that's going to be much bigger than the first one, right? So, flexibility and schedule. We're getting, we're getting so much, so many comments of people, white men, white women. They want to work with diverse teams. They get it. How important this is. Is. And then I'm speaking to many of our members that might be black women or women of color and you know that we have unbelievable experiences. But when they're getting hired by some of these companies, they make it a mandate to recruit a woman for every time they are having well, that's what might seem like a good thing to do from a PR standpoint. I guess, but then it's like many of the women. They're going into these interviews where the people are half listening to them. they do get hired, they feel like they're seen as I get a token higher, so then they're not getting the props and respect that they deserve, because many of these people that have commented to me. I look at their backgrounds and I'm like, oh my God. And I see, they know people that I know from way back in the day so I can get like, so I think it's horrible. What a lot of these things have created. , when I can, but hopefully we're coming out on the other side of it, right? There's a new ISO standard now on h a capital and eei, right. We're working with some investor groups on the east, on Wall Street. That controls trillions of dollars in Revenue, right? They want to look at an investment. They want to look at what companies are doing for diversity. Is this just let's check the box. Let's, you know, try to look good when there's an incident, or did they get the business impact of these things and are putting in programs to have people be included in the solution and contribute? Because we will see so much more Innovation, which we have seen with some of the companies that get it, right? And just happier employees that want to work give 110% and can do that within the environment, right?

Niharika - And the quadrant in which you shared one thing, which stood out was the opportunity. career advancement. So, women and other diverse candidates, are not just looking for flexibility in schedule or work-life balance, they want to grow, they want to learn and that's a key thing that if companies can provide that will help them attract and develop diverse talent and when we surveyed the members, also they mentioned that they are looking to learn technology. Like they want to learn technology in a short amount of time and like they don't want to spend 8 hours learning something, Sayegh, Computing. They want to just know, what does that Computing do? What are the use cases in 30 minutes also, they are looking for professional development? So, these programs provided by the companies will help them meet the objective of their career growth and advancement,

Kay - So learning it's one of those things. Companies used to invest a lot into learning and building Talent from within the company and that kind of fizzled away and it was left to the individuals themselves and it feels like it's all coming back and investing in the people growing them. Teaching them new skills, giving them new opportunities But maybe, in a much faster way. Pace. Did I summarize this, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, there is a question, we are 35 minutes. There is a, there are, we'll go through some questions that come in from the social media channels, and then we can go back to some of the research once. So one is, how do you create a job description? That breaks the buyers and attracts diverse Talent.

David - Okay, I'll get this one. Have you prayed for a job description?

Kay - So interestingly I know of a few startups that are doing and in this area, I should probably bring some of them in one act. One looks at multiple colors from a candidate and puts out. This is a personality from the psychology of this and how they would fit in and how diverse thoughts and ideas are. They would Bring it into the team, I'm sure utilizing AI. So there are things like that that are coming up in the market. That helps hiring managers look at diverse talent, and I also know certain verbiage in certain kinds of language that need to be utilized to bring in diverse talent to. Those are the That come to my mind, David, Niharika,

David - yeah. Well, I think, you know, I think to look, I think some things right. There are job descriptions and at, right? And they call Headhunters, and I was like, being called a head on her. That's what I would do when I worked in that business. You have to hunt if you're fishing right now, the lake is empty. So job descriptions, you know, I think people will use them in different ways. , now that they are using these AI tools, right? So a four-year degree is a four-year degree necessary. , when I was putting together the Quattro pro team, which I'll date myself for Borland. You know, I'd have one guy that went to a community college for a year, but his parents bought a Mac computer when he was eight, he learned to program that way. Another guy, a master in computer science, who was just and equal to the team, John was Right. So I feel like, looking, I'd say to focus on what they've been working on
skillswise, you know. I think, you know, I think we see that from several people or I've heard that as far as job descriptions go, just the education and the four-year degree are mandatory. I don't know if that is in a lot of spaces, especially software development,

Niharika - That's great, David. And I will add here, that if I'm looking for a job more than the job description, I look at the company culture because that I can find out. So is this company supporting diverse employees? Even if they mention it in one job description. If the culture I will find out from my friends, they are our go to the glass door to see if the culture is supportive of diverse employees. So that will be. I think that should be put in the job description that this is the company and this is the culture they are supporting.

Kay - I had one woman tell me, they would go into the website and look at executive teams and see how divergent the executive team is. And that's one way that they assess. If the team, the company culture in itself, promotes diversity, you are right on concerning The culture?

David - Yeah, no, I think that's good. And there's so much for us to get this information. I mean, I couldn't believe it. This one company, I work with and this woman CMO, amazing lady. They were like rushing her into sales meetings because the client came in, though those usually, like big governments with two women and two men, they had there for white men. Sitting there looked like rushing her into a seat, at the meeting, she had nothing to do with it. Right? mean I
just feel like, and that's it. , this is about the company getting business. I don't know if any diverse departments are involved in that piece of it. , listen. And that's what our goal is with a glass ceiling. 2.0 to move the D EI and departments or Jedi or, you know, from these vertical organizations and companies, these have to be horizontal in the DNA of that company, right? Because it's going to drive sales, it's going to help Employee Engagement. going to help communication with customers better. And just until we do that, which we're going to be doing soon. I feel like an opportunity is being missed. Yeah, it's Brinks since we've had we are talking about the high-level and Leadership roles. Brings up the Biden statement on having diversity in corporate boards and it will be a great thing to understand what kind of executive programs does witty have to enable Leadership women. Sure what we're doing. A few things. I mean, with, with the glass ceiling 2.0 initiative. And then Intel spearheading this thing called The Alliance for Global inclusion and NASDAQ is part of that. So, as we get the results are hope, you know what, we're starting to work on and what I can say, can't say, but is too, work with NASDAQ, right? We did, we did. The letter is on behalf of NASDAQ. When they requested that the SEC approve, their requests to have all NASDAQ listed companies have at least one woman and another diverse person on their board or explain. Why shouldn't it apply to them? Why did NASDAQ ask for this? Because they wanted to help the women know because they want to help the diverse people know because they understood. They want their investors to eat to invest in companies that are going to be here for the long call. You can't do that without diversity of thought. Now a lot of the nest companies weren't ready for that. So, how can we use this data just to help them understand? Right? This isn't like a witch chooses to do, bad blah, blah, blah. It's like, look, the shareholders. Now, we've been able to connect with some groups that control trillions of dollars of investment. Let's help them improve. Let's handle eyes where some of the gaps are where some of the opportunities are and, you know, help their stock goes up. So, everybody's happy, right? I mean, that's what it's all about, right?

Niharika - And what does Vicki do for that? So we spoke to the executive women who are in our membership, and we asked them what they are looking for. So they are looking for a leadership development program and based on their feedback, we did a session on the story. Link as storytelling is a key skill. Everyone needs to inspire their teams and communicate the vision. So we started storytelling last week which is going to be ongoing. We have other leadership development programs like emotional intelligence, which is so much as important as regular intelligence and social intelligence, and other than that, what are other things which we are doing is that we have started these industry networks like our agile DevOps No code, no code. Everyone is talking about LocoRoco but what is it? So just come and join our program and then you'll come to know what exactly it is and again cybersecurity. So these are the things which are focusing on technology and leadership development.

Kay - We also know Athena Chief they are and women 2020 boats. There are quite a few organizations that enable those. Interestingly when we talk to Corporate women, women say that they want to join boards and startups. And they always ask how do I join the boards of startups and startup Founders? Women and men founders say we have so many people who want to join the boards but they don't know what they are bringing to the table so it's a matter of
what you're talking about with leadership development is right on. It's recognizing What can I contribute to what industry, and what kind of segment? How can I, how much am I willing to roll up, my sleeves to expand my experience and my knowledge, and my network to enable another company. And we see that most board advisors are the people who are thinking about this constantly and who know their strengths and What they bring to the people now and we yeah,

David - we are starting to answer that question. We are still, we just launched our needed talent management program last week. We're going to have a segment on that specifically to get women on boards and have them board. Ready, we have an amazing group of so far that have participated in it and really, it's like interaction a DD on a They just left, she just left Accenture to take on a role at DCC Technologies runs, huge, huge p&l, we have many women that run, billion dollars, PLL's, that want to support other women and, you know, we're just going to do it, right? I know I've heard about 20, 20, boards, Athena and some of these other things not sure exactly what they're doing. I know a lot of these nonprofits. we started this as a profit, not that, we've been making a big one every or even one with a lot of the stuff going on in the past few years, don't donate to women, right? We have to change the whole mindset. That this is an opportunity for companies when I see when women come to our conference. So this is this multi-billion dollar company. So generous, they let me volunteer in our internal women's Network and then pay me to go to the conference. I'm like, then they've got they're playing. They're sending them to the golf course, Golf Course, memberships, everything else. We have to shift that whole thing, right? And it's, you know, no handouts, don't help the women help yourself, and that's not our official motto yet. No one stands alone as Armada,

Kay - I love it. I love it. It's like, most of the business decisions and talks happened with colleagues on a golf course. That's right. The building is much more Network there rather than a
67 thousand-person conference where, you're lost at the right Lyrica time, totally right on you has something to add to it.

Niharika - Yeah, that's the point, right? Especially women in sales, they come. And they tell us, that's a problem they face. Because I mean, it makes all these decisions. Taking place on golf courses, then that's a disadvantage. Itís. They have and we have to find other avenues for them to build the same. Same relationships are built at golf courses. Yeah.

David - And speaking of women in sales, we have an initiative that's going to start in a couple of months and we've been doing all the data and just the performance of women and Enterprise sales and really within the whole sales ecosystem, from customer success to sales Engineers. There's so much great data on how successful women are in that space, especially in Technology. They're not getting the jobs on opportunity. So we're now creating something because we want to make sure that they're trained, ready to get those roles that we're giving them ongoing coaching throughout. You know, something we haven't talked about 2k today is just looking at a job description. If I'm a guy and I have 50% of it, I'm going to apply to women from the stats. We see. So if it's not E or 95% not going to apply, I can. So one thing we try to do is everything every week. Of course I teach on Friday is like, you know, we are, do you have Tableau experience? All these software programs, they change acronyms this and that give yourself credit for what you know and you know, right. Because you see that K A Lot in your space.

Kay - Yeah, yeah. It's an I'm right now, in a dilemma. He has a lot of questions coming in from social media and I'm trying to think which one I should pick and we have 10 minutes. So I think there's a lot of interest, a lot of questions coming in, and a lot of information that's being shared where we are touching the executive program. We were touching the leadership women and we were talking about that specifically and so I'm You're right time and it sits. There are two things here, right? So, what difference do we see with women in Tech, especially since there's a lot of appreciation for the comments that need to be changed? Both covid. There's a lot of appreciation. Just so you both know. So what do we see as a difference for women in Tech versus non-Tech? And I'm struggling with this question because all of us are pretty much Basis, see don't do anything non tech. So I'm not sure where that is, how best to answer that question, but if you have any yes.

Niharika - So here, I'll say that. Now, everyone is a woman in Tech because we all use this phone, which is the most amazing piece of technology. So it's kind of, if you are not in Tech, well, going to the resources where technology simplified because it's not that you have to
spend a lot of time, just What this technology is and what problem is this solving. So again, and again, answering even to get on board is very important for women, whether they are in Tech or in non tech, to understand what this technology is and what problem is, solving having this idea will help because now everyone has to say even an intact.

Kay - I Do some of our great hires in Ascendo, amazing marketing. And Of those experiences has been in non tech. So, we are talking to somebody who's from the film industry and it's, and it brings in a level of diversity. We are talking about David, Do you have anything to add here?

David - Yeah, no. I was going to say, kind of similar to what Neha said, it's about being tech savvy, right? You're pretty or higher from the film industry. Like, that's knowledge. They're bringing I know people say they're R not Talk when they have the supercomputer in their pocket and people are intact. That always makes me laugh, right? So it's like, I think it's like leadership being tech savvy software companies have spent trillions of dollars to make things easy and have us not think about technology but just use it to do what we do faster. So yeah, I think it's just owning it being confident speaking to it just you know Don't have a computer science degree, whatever. I learned how I learned about tech. I landed Borland as a client, you know, and I was, I left school because I'm like, oh, this company is growing and I said, oh
What's the printer driver? They'd go up on the board and show it to me and, and then I could understand where I needed a hug for my people right. But I just think it's like, I almost think like we have to Rebrand technology, right? Because I think people, Will sometimes get intimidated? Oh, I'm not technology. I've got to go to candidate companies at the company. It's growing up. And so we've got to look at rebranding technology, rebranding stem steam wherever you want to go. Because I feel like yeah, people are more technical than they give themselves credit for in a lot of cases.

Kay - You work with 300 and soul, large corporate Partners, one of the questions. That is what you're talking to them about. You go like oh my gosh that's an awesome policy and procedure is a procedure that they have that's a best practice for somebody else. Can you speak a bit about some of those things that you saw?

Niharika - I will not name but we have one corporate partner who's like unto they like 50/50 like I mean I'm just taking the women example that they have read communicated that whether it's res es higher. It has to be 50/50 and they have been kind of doing good. They have added some flexibility here and there to make sure. That happens. So again, it's coming from the top down and going and kind of expanding everywhere in the company that everyone has to make sure that the 50-50 things happened. So again until it becomes a mandate until it comes from the top and until it gets ingrained in everyone. In DNA it will not happen but our partners are making that happen.

David - Yeah. And I'd probably say yeah, I mean Salesforce we worked with and I'd worked a bit with Our Benioff back when he was at Oracle and he had called me. After I left Borland, I helped him with some things and, now, what we're doing. Now, we have a whole Hub on witty dedicated to helping train our community on Salesforce technology because they want their customers to have a great pool of diverse people to kill into. And then also to, to get out their programs. They have the flexibility and work schedules, more focused. The result rather than how you get there. And I think we'll start seeing a lot of that in some of these people's leadership roles, right? Because I mean, that was, you know, if the history of Salesforce, he used to walk around like the demo conference with like, the no bozos thing for software, right? Because that whole thing, it's in the cloud, the in, back before that, with the internet with 3com, we should be able to do anything from anywhere. And that's I think that just helps us I think, I'm not, especially women, I think men want this stuff too, but companies that can move to this type of environment, we get all the great people.

Kay - Yeah. And now, interestingly in product development, when I was in product development core engineering, the number of women was less than the number of women, Founders doing B2B core technology companies were even minuscule. Last statistics that we did the tides less than 1%. B2B companies are owned by females. So we do have a large gap in some areas but areas like for example, customer support and success. As we see a lot of women, we see a lot of diversity of women of people, from the various geographical regions participating in success and experienced roles. So in a way, It is wonderful, so what we would love, we have five minutes, one question, and then we can wrap it up quickly. Women back to work. We have a few organizations and a good friend of mine also doing a women back to work program. So have you seen any of those implemented within your corporate partners and if they, you know, what can the women back to work do? And that amount of world.

David - Yeah. Look, I think that we've all learned which can be very agile and how we work now. So, I think it's up to the companies to create roles or just be open to people working at their pace and in their environments. I think people that are so customer-facing. Like many people listening on this call, that should be a direct route to The Boardroom. So I'd like to figure out how we support these people that might be at this stage of their careers. Now, the customer success, customer service role and make sure we work together to get them a path to the executive suites and then to the board, if that's the direction they'd like to go because I just think they're the knowledge they have is unmatched.

Kay - So after Yamini from HubSpot CCV, the chief customer officer became the CEO. There is a huge trend going on, like CC was becoming CEOs mix, right? So people are recognizing the people who are talking. The customers are the ones who are in touch with the customers absolutely. Absolutely. I think it 's right on. It's been a pleasure hearing, a lot of the research, the data, and Communications and policies procedures, we touched a lot in the last one n ber we did. And, there are plenty of amazing graphs that we D has done. In glass ceiling 2.0. We will dissipate that to the teams. Any other questions or comments? We will figure out a way to get you guys engaged and participate in those social media discussions. But thank you both for joining today and dissipating your knowledge.