(funky electronic music) >> From Phoenix, Arizona, theCUBE, at Catalyst Conference. Here's your host, Jeff Frick. (music muffles) >> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in Phoenix, Arizona, at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. About 4,000, or excuse me, 400 people, kind of a small conference, fourth year, growing in size. Going to be back in the Bay Area next year. Wanted to come down, check it out, always like to get, you know, kind of early on some of these conferences and really see what's going on. And we're really excited for our next guest, Monique Morrow, the CTO of New Frontiers Engineering inside of Cisco, welcome. >> Thank you very much, it's a pleasure to be here. >> So we've had a ton of Cisco guests on over the years, but I never heard the New Frontiers Engineering title, so what is New Frontiers Engineering? >> So New Frontiers is exactly what you think. You can imagine it's really forward thinking in terms of technology and research. This combinatorial intersection, if you will, with economics, and what could be potential portfolio for the future business of the company, so that's what I look at. You know, that's a special position, I could say, because you really want to make sure that you're not too far out to your core business, and you care about your core business always. >> Right, I was going to ask, how much of it's kind of accelerating the core versus, you know, kind of green field? I know, you know, we've had some of the team from the UCS group, and, you know, it's a growing business inside of Cisco, not really kind of core, what you think about, in terms of core switches, and stuff. It's servers, and a data center for structure beyond just the network. Is that some of the stuff that you guys look at? To go, kind of out on new branches? >> Well, certainly cloud, so data centers, with that is cloud computing, and then you've got mobile, and you have video. I would also say you have cyber security, internet of things, very, very important business analytics. So that's core business. And it could be accelerating what we have, but it also could be creating a new business opportunity. So the modus operandi, or the modality, if you will, is not to steer too far away from your core, the network does count. Software is going to be very, very important for us, service is absolutely important. So, you know, it's really steering the ship mid way, in such a way that you de risk what you're doing as you look forward. >> If only McNeely had said the cloud is the computer, (laughing) the network is the computer, right? >> So true. (laughing) >> So I want to touch base on your talk, Changing the Landscape of the Digitized World. >> Yes, yeah. >> What was that all about? >> So, you know, setting the landscape, there are several points that I wanted to make during that presentation, and really, to fire up the audience. One is that 51% of the global population are women, and women do count. That is change is extremely, it is exponential, probably always has been. That this is all about how do you keep your skills up at the end of the day? This is all about it is never too late to understand what's happening out there, and hear the skills buckets. So cyber security, analytics, what you do with data, mobility, collab, collaboration is probably the 21st century currency in anything that we're going to do because we're so global. The notion of what you do with other components here, not only the internet of things. And with the internet of things, you've got interesting aspects with privacy and how you handle privacy, privacy engineering, privacy by design, and all kinds of modality of cyber security. Because, you know, companies and customers are very concerned about ransomware, so think about phishing attacks. And I would say that that's just a start. >> Right, right. >> But, you have to juxtapose that with critical thinking skills, and something that we call T skills. It's interdisciplinary skill sets that are going to be asked for in this century, along with intergenerational teaming. So it's not just about working with millennials, but it's about working with people who've been in the business, it's the power of the and here, and that's really, really the focus. >> We're going to run out of time way too early, I already know this. But there's so many things you just touched on, specifically back to your skills comment. What's interesting is the technology is changing so fast, it's the new skills that are the kind of the driving new programming language, that you're almost in an advantage if you don't kind of have the legacy behind you. Because everyone is learning all these new languages, and these new ways to do things, that didn't exist just a short time ago. >> Well, coding is fundamental. I think that coding is going to be fundamental, but you can learn new programming languages if you learn at least the fundamentals of coding. What's really, really important is to be able to pivot your skills sets in such a way that you are keeping up with it. It's never, ever too late. Once you have a knowledge of a particular language, or a knowledge of a particular algorithm, or a way something works, you're going to be able to learn anything. My message was it's never too late. You can start to learn now. >> Right. >> So that's really important. >> And then the other piece on the T skills, again, the IOT's is a giant bundle that we could jump into for a long time. But, you know, as the machines start to take more and more of the low level work, and increasingly the mid level, and the higher level, it is incumbent on a person to really start to bring some context, bring some relative scale, bring, you know, a lot softer skills to help influence that activity in the correct way. >> Interdisciplinary skills are the ask for the 21st century. So for example, I was just at the school of, I was actually on a strategic advisory board for the School of Computer Science, a particular university here in the United States, and one of the asks was not only have the skill set of computer science, but oh, by the way, go take an improvisational class at their school of fine arts. So to have the ability to communicate, because communication skills are the number one skills that companies and enterprises are looking for. So interdisciplinary skills, big currency for the 21st century. >> Well that's interesting, 'cause I wonder how aggressively that communications message is weaved into, kind of, your classic STEM conversation. >> They are, well, they are very much weaved into the classic STEM conversation, and I would say it's STEAM, because you have to put A for art there. >> Well, there you go. (laughing) Fixed. >> So, to the classic conversation, you can be a savant in a particular science, but if you don't have the ability, and this is with enterprises essentially, to communicate and to be able to work in teams, it's going to be a dead end for you to come into the enterprise. So it's really, really important to have those skill sets. >> Yeah, so I want to shift gears a little bit. >> Sure. >> 'Cause not only do you have your day job at Cisco-- >> Yeah. >> But you're involved in a lot of, kind of, advocacy. >> Yes. >> So tell the audience some of the work that you're doing there. >> Yes, I mean, so one of the areas that I really care about is advocating for women, and women creating technology, women who were actually in technologies, so there is also the UN component of that. I think that's very, very important, tech policy component for it. The UN women's organization received the lowest budget of all of the UN, so getting more, remember the context, 51% of the worlds population are women, and so we have to go up, and down, and across the pyramids. And so we need that, that's the level of advocacy that I'm involved in, not only from a company and an industry perspective, but also from a UN related perspective, and a standard setting perspective. Because it is about about the power of the and, and our ultimate goal is to achieve gender neutraility, I think, at the end of the day. I recall one thing is that there are 17 UN sustainable goals that were contented and approved, really, by the United Nations this past September. Number one is ending poverty, number five is achieving gender equality. >> It's just those are such big problems, just, you know, you look at hunger. >> Yes. >> And it just seems this continual battle to try to make improvement, make improvement, make improvement, and yet we're continued to be surrounded, probably within blocks of where we're sitting now, with people that are not getting enough to eat. So how does education compare to that, or how tightly are they intertwined? And then, within education, is STEAM a leading edge? Is STEAM, you know, kind of a way to break through, and get more education? How does STEAM fit within the education broader? >> Oh, well, it's, (chuckling) it's all intertwined. >> I told you we weren't going to have enough time. (laughing) >> Yeah, so, it's all, it's really all intertwined at the end of the day. It's what is taught at what age group, it depends on whether you're in a developing country or a developed country. So we're, you know, in the United States advocating, and most of other countries advocating that technology STEAM be really taught at a very early age, you know, primary school. If you get skill sets really broadened and developed at and early age, you also develop the capacity to actually be able to work, or to be able to create, and to be able to add to your household. And if you're in a village, to be able to do some very creative things, too, because of what you're dealing with. So think about connecting here's the bigger problem that we, as an industry, want to solve. That is connecting one to two billion people on the internet in the next several years, and they're not going to be in North America, and they're not going to be in Europe. They're going to be in Africa. They're going to be in other countries of the world, and so we need to think creatively, working with people on the ground, learning from them, and not being techno, what was told to me, not to be techno colonialist at the same time. Because there's some very interesting solutions that are coming out of the countries that we could actually tap into. >> Right, and just to wrap, not that you don't have enough to do in your day job, (chuckling) or your global advocacy, but you're also a very prolific writer. >> Yes, I'm a, well, a prolific writer, and I'm so proud to have coauthored three books this year. one that is already out, is Disrupting Unemployment. The other two will be out in June, which is Inner Cloud Interoperability with our three other coauthors. And the third book, which I'm almost most proud of, is The Internet of Women Accelerating Cultural Change, and that will be out on June 30th of this year. >> You're a busy lady. >> Busy. (chuckling) >> Alright, well, Monique, thanks for taking a few minutes-- >> Thank you. >> Out of your busy day. You probably could've written another couple chapters-- (chuckling) >> In the 20 minutes that we've had together. I really appreciate the time. I look forward to really kind of looking for where your guys imprint starts coming out of the Cisco machine on the back and with the products. So thank you very much-- >> Thank you. >> For all your work. >> Well, it's a pleasure to be here. >> Absolutely. Jeff Frick, here at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Thanks for watching. (funky electronic music)