WME Book Project

Simmons School of Management-Special Event

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

This past summer the Simmons School of Management in Boston Massachusetts held a special event discussing Women and Engagement at EMC. On the panel were Natalie Corridan-Gregg, Polly Pearson, and Marisol Arroyave. Three women who are passionate about EMC, their careers, and being working mothers. All three are essayists in the Working Mother Experience book which was one of the topics for discussion that night.

There have been several panel discussions since the book launch in April, 2009, but this one was distinctly unique. This blog post has been hard to write just because so many great conversations happened. It is rare to find an entire room of accomplished female leaders fully present from every generation. It was tempting to just create a blog post that says “You just HAD to be there.”

The event was audio taped and when editing is complete and with Simmons SOM permission it will be posted here for you to enjoy.

The facilitator was outstanding. Great questions, accurate paraphrasing, and simply got the room engaged quickly.

The audience was so inspiring. The quality of the questions, the enthusiastic discussions, the passion these women showed gave me hope for the future of the country. These women are here to shake things up!

The women in that audience clearly think beyond themselves.  They are ready willing and able to tackle the world’s issues while simultaneously setting themselves up for success.

There is definitely an affinity between EMC and the Simmons School of Management.  Their annual Simmons Leadership Conference is a tremendous source of inspiration.   In their own words :

“For 31 years the Simmons Leadership Conference has set the standard for women’s professional events, presenting an extraordinary blend of thought leadership, motivation, and above all, networking.”  The next one is Friday, April 30, 2010.  Mark your calendars.

Recently a Simmons School of Management alumni received an Executive Education Newsletter from the school and forwarded it to this blog.  The Working Mother Experience blog along with other resources online were among the recommended reading list.  What an honor!  You can check it out here.

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Meet EMC Working Mother — Raquel Abizanda

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Marketing Manager, Spain
I am very satisfied with my personal life and professional life. I believe I am one of the few executives of a large multinational corporation with four children and, moreover, that I am valued in my work and that I don’t have to make sacrifices in my professional life to be a mother also. The other day I read a very interesting article in a Spanish newspaper that said, “Companies don’t discriminate against women; they do it against mothers.” This is definitely not my case. On the other hand, I won’t paint a picture of Utopia. My level of stress, on occasion, is extremely high. In fact, between my personal life and professional life I have a twenty-four-hour-a-day job. I don’t deny that it’s a challenge.”

Why she wanted her story to become part of the book:

This was a great project!! I enjoyed sharing this experience with other colleagues around the world. It demonstrates that even with different countries, different cultures, different ages, and different roles there is one common objective – to show that despite the difficulties it’s possible to manage and enjoy both your business and personal worlds.

Our main Marketing campaign is about “Thriving in the hardest environments”. That’s exactly what we working mothers do…successfully!! It’s just about EMC efficiency.

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EMC World 2009

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

Back at my hotel after the first day of events at EMC World 2009. Lots of energy and excitement.

The day started off well.  My husband and son were ready for me to go.  The shuttle arrived on-time.  I was at the airport early, had lunch and there were no security lines to speak of.   Unfortunately, the day veered a little off track from there.  The plane arrived late at the gate.  We arrived late in Orlando and then the transportation out of the airport was a two hour disaster.   However, always being one to make lemonade in these situations I met a few new customers of EMC and enjoyed chatting with them.    After I brought a few of them through registration I turned around to see this poster:

WLF Event Poster at EMC World 2009

WLF Event Poster at EMC World 2009

(Sorry for the photo quality), but this put a little spring in my step. It reminded me that we were going to have a session at EMC World focused on the book. I am so excited for this session and can not wait to hear what customers and partners have to say about their experiences and what, if anything, this book has meant to them. The session is Wednesday 7:30-9:00am. I will write more from EMC World and will post thoughts from the session as soon as my schedule allows.

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Meet EMC Working Mother — Catherine McKeithan

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Catherine McKeithan

Principal System Test Technician, USA

Mother of five: two teenagers; three adults

Excerpt from Catherine's essay (p. 184)

My husband and I have always stressed strong family values for our five children. We’ve taught them that good manners, honesty, and hard work are essential to building a good life. We’ve promoted teamwork and responsibility with our children through daily chores and employment in the family business. We’ve also stressed the importance of good grades and the importance of striving to achieve your best. Consequently, we’re proud to have three who have graduated from college, one preparing for college, and one who entered the Marine Corps in September ‘08.

Why she wanted to contribute her story to the book: One of the best things about this project is that it shows working mothers that they can face just about anything. My story is a perfect example; changing careers at forty can be scary and going back to school even scarier, but that is exactly what I did when I came to EMC ten years ago. At the time, my oldest son had just graduated from college, and I had two others still in college. I also had a son in second grade, with my youngest in the first grade. Somehow we managed, as a family, to get through those busy years.  A culmination of faith and hard work makes anything achievable!

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A few photos

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Above:  A happy group of  people involved in the book and launch event come together for a photo before the festivities begin.

Below:  A display of  some of the books at the registration table.  It was a beautiful sight!

Natalie kicking off the Working Mother Book Launch festivities at EMC on 4/3/09

Photos courtesy of fellow EMC’er Tom Faidell

More photos and reactions to come, but wanted to get a few up on the site as soon as we were able.

Polly Pearson wrote a terrific recap of the day here complete with a short wmv video of compiled pictures from the event.  Enjoy.

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Book in the Local Press

Monday, April 6th, 2009

The Metrowest Daily News was in attendance at the book launch on 4/3/09 and wrote an article. Posting it here for everyone to enjoy.  The photo is my favorite part of the article.  It shows Polly Pearson with her daughter, Margo, whom she wrote about in her contribution to the book.  The photo really captures the reason the book was put together…connecting  people at a great company at the level of family.   BTW, it was Margo’s birthday.  What a fitting way to celebrate; balloons, cupcakes, and her picture in the paper!

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LAUNCH!

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

What an amazing, energy filled day! We officially launched the Working Mother Experience book and in our employee cafe and it was a wonderful event. Much like my experience of the book. It was better than I could have imagined. I was honored to kickoff the event. I was able to share the story of how the the book came about to a room of about 150 people enjoying color coordinated cupcakes. The event gave me a brief forum to talk about how important this project was to me and how much I love being a working mom. Most importantly I was able to thank the people ( from the contributors themselves and the extended team who helped us create something really special to the employees in distribution who got 3000 copies shipped out and into the right hands. Yes, I said it all and still managed to keep it under 5 minutes.

My open was followed by Frank Hauck, EVP of Global Marketing and Customer Quality who spoke to the crowd about how he loved reading the book. He spoke to the fact that the stories resonated with the same themes internationally. People want to be good at their jobs, and good members of their families and communities.

ML Krakuer, new executive co-sponsor for EMC’s Women’s Leadership Forum and Sr. VP for Delivery, spoke about how the book touched her and made reinforced her choice to come to work at EMC. She is relatively new to EMC, but says that she has seen we have great people and looks forward to getting to know us better. A working mother herself, she said that the book was very real and relevant to her.

The last, but not least, formal speaker was our EVP of HR, Jack Mollen. Jack had the crowd chuckling about the experiences he has had as a working dad.  He talked about the importance of family as part of the EMC culture worldwide.  The crowd seemed to nod in understanding when he spoke about the caliber of employees we have at EMC and how he is proud of our accomplishments as a company.

It was outstanding to see so many thought leaders at EMC attend the event. Here are some of the names of those who attended that have an external presence so that can get to know them better. (I highly recommend it). Barry Burke, Polly Pearson, Gina Minks, Steve Todd, and David Spencer.

Overall, the event was the perfect culmination of the connections we have built during this book process. Stacey Yeoman, Project Coordinator wrote a whole piece about those connections at the open of the book. It is definitely worth reading (PDF link is in upper right hand corner of this blog).

Thank you to all who participated in the book’s completion. From the reactions today at the book’s unveiling, it is clear we created something very special!

P.S.  Thanks to all who tweeted today #WME!

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Greetings & Welcome

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

This blog is in support of a book published written by employee volunteers and published by EMC Corporation.

The book started out as an email.  One working mother recounted a day spent with her newborn and sent it to a friend, another working mother.  That friend replied with a story of her own.  A deeper connection was formed between these two moms.  They chatted about how reading each other’s stories positively impacted them and mused that other working mothers might feel the same.  They wondered how many others were out there.  The seed was sown that this might be “something”.

The idea was pitched to a mentor, an EVP at EMC.  One woman asked for financing and support to create a book.   Within moments the answer was yes.  An amazing team was assembled and employees volunteered their stories from around the world.

EMC is a unique culture inside of the high tech world, a company that prides itself on planning and execution.   Innovation is the cornerstone of this culture.

An idea like this book could never have been strategized or mandated.  It was based on a network of women and the credibility of the team entrusted to create it.

Every woman’s story different, all are compelling.  A new way for these EMC working mothers to connect, contribute, and be celebrated.

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