from the VMware campus in Palo Alto California it's the Cuban covering women transforming technologies hi I'm Lisa Martin on the ground with the cube at VMware in Palo Alto at the third annual women transforming Technology event and we're here with a cube alumni Betsy Sutter SVP & chief people officer at V and we're so great to have you back on the cube thank you it's great to be here this is a very exciting day yes I love these types of events because you walk in and you just feel the sense of community and empowerment and and that's one of the great things that WT squared is in in and of itself its acronym of organizations that's right industry academia and nonprofits to help women connect learn from each other and support each other not just here in Silicon Valley but beyond and this is 30 annual this was sold out like within hours yes amazing amazing momentum that you guys have brought now to the third year great yeah we're really excited we're really excited and it's a new approach right it's creating as you said a consortium of companies to come together and just have real-time conversations about what's going on around gender equality and so yeah I'm really proud of this conference mostly because it just brings such a diverse set of people together men and women we have more men attending this year than ever before and so the conversations are just elevated they're fun yeah so you started at VMware when I was a startup with about a hundred people and here you were now managing this organization that of 20,000 people yeah big undertaking yeah talk to me about kind of the cultural change in shifts that you've seen and probably been able to drive from you know the last 15 years or so yeah you know the culture has been a pretty deliberate strategy from day one and I give the first CEO and founder Diane Greene a tremendous amount of credit for being really clear about what she wanted to build and she really wanted to build a sustainable company and a culture and she knew culture was the differentiator and even the current CEO today Pat Gallagher and I know that this is the single biggest differentiator that we can continue to strengthen in the company and then all the diversity inclusion and conversations are just part of that at this point in time but it was a deliberate regi plain and simple always keeping an eye on that and the values are at the core of that right and then the culture and the behavior reflect the values and so it's just been steadfast and stalwart on who we want to be over the past 20 years it's our 20th anniversary as a company and yeah I've been here for 17 of those but that's the work that I've really focused on it's been terrific that being deliberate is really key there yep so this third event inclusion in action is the theme yep how do you see that Bing how do you how do you live that and infiltrate that at VMware yeah well you know we are a company that has wanted to disrupt the tech space and so in order to do that we've had to stay focused on innovation innovation innovation and we really innovate in everything not just in our technology and our products but how we bring them to market how we support them but it also affects a lot of the work that I do in my space and in order to innovate you have to be inclusive of just a lot of different viewpoints and I like to say that we started out sort of in as an industrial research kind of company we were born out of Stanford a lot of computer science you know graduate students creating what we've now become and that's just been kind of the path is just collaboration even though we're 22,000 people now we still kind of take that approach to everything we do and speaking of Stanford big news out yes morning yeah gratulations thank you is investing 15 million dollars in a new women's leadership Innovation Lab that's right Danford that's amazing yeah we're thrilled we are so excited and Shelly Carell professor of sociology at Stanford we our partnership has been with Stanford since 2013 I think they've really helped us navigate everything that we've done in the inclusion and diversity space and so this is a new chapter and it's around women's leadership and it's around women's leadership and innovation and this lab I think is gonna reap some great results research based work is sort of at the heart and soul who we are right and so this is just more of that it's gonna be great to take progressive research groundbreaking research and put it into practice and so Shelley and I couldn't be more excited about what's next awesome well one of the interesting things is I was reading in the press release this morning that came out that according to McKinsey companies with diversity at the executive level 21 percent write more profitable that's right why aren't more companies even paying attention you know that that is a great question because most companies are about making money and wanting to be profitable yeah so it's it's perplexing that people aren't really honing in on what research is showing but you know suddenly it comes down to power and influence it's all about who has the power and who has the influence and so part of what we're doing with Stanford VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab is figuring out how to get women into more leadership positions and get them into more powerful and influential positions and that will be the thing that equalizes you know gender inequality so in the last six months we have had big movements me too yeah time's up yep growtopia there I'm Emily Chang published recently right how when you when you when that first came out with all the Harvey Weinstein stuff teachers say good we need to be able to get to leverage this moment and was that do you see that as being pulled into the tech industry and and helping to accelerate making this diversity change i I think things are getting accelerated and amplified because I think voices are being used and heard and I think there's a movement and I think women are coming together as a consortium around their gender and understanding that the real issues are around power and influence and tackling it head-on and the quality of the conversations around all of these movements is it's inspiring to me after spending 30 odd years in tech so I think things are really starting to change because women are using their voices yeah speaking of women using their voices you had Laila Ali as a keynote yeah that was so fantastic strong confident woman yeah who the daughter of Muhammad Ali who tried to talk her out of becoming a fighter right tried to - I love how she said he tried to actually kind of get me I think it was my idea to not go into it right so obviously a woman probably born with a lot of natural confidence but I loved how she kind of talked to all of us and said he sometimes that light goes out or its dimmed and I need to remind myself with you our best yeah so you probably see a good amount of females that have that sort of innate confidence that love engineering and I'm gonna do this how do you encourage those women to may be mentor some of the of the either younger or not other females who want to do something but are intimidated by you know maybe don't have that natural confidence how do you kind of facility at that empowerment yeah well I do think Leila's story is amazing and you know most importantly she's an entrepreneur and a businesswoman right I mean what she's done with her career with her foundation but what she's done with her career is most impressive and I love that digging deep and find that warrior from within yeah but I think for women today I think the difference is that we're able to have the conversation with each other and even with the opposite sex and I think companies are starting to understand that if you don't have diversity you're not going to have innovation and you're not going to win and most companies that I've worked for and VMware in particular we want to win we want to lead we want to disrupt and we want to impact the world and we want and need to make money as well but I think for women now the conversation is allowed I know that people are listening on both sides of the fence and we do a lot of VMware just to make sure that conversation is alive one of the things I'm really proud of it VMware and that I really believe is it's been the quality of the conversations since day one that have put us where we are in the world and in the industry and as a company and so the conversation shifting a little bit right we're talking more about this and it's those quality conversations that just keep it going and and that's sort of core to who we are so we'll just continue that trend and it's great being able to talk to the cube because you're allowing us to amplify the quality of the conversation so I'm grateful and we're happy to be a part of that so just just the about the event there are a number of tracks right also that was something that I was mentioned to you before we we started filming was I loved that when I walked in there was a jot yeah I love that and as well as a LinkedIn profile right resume clinic all of these you think minor things those can be really impact that's right if a woman has a great head challenge wow this is fantastic or somebody guiding her on what or what not to put on a LinkedIn profile just even providing some of these things that are foundational yep that's really huge it is really huge and it's also just a new platform for these conversations to continue whether it's just a visual because you're looking at my LinkedIn headshot or my Twitter feed or whatever it is but these are all really small things but matter really small things really matter yes and so building those up into people's psyches and their abilities is sort of what we're trying to do as part of the conference so in context of the third annual event the sold-out events and this great announcement of what VMware and Stanford are doing yeah what are some of those quick wins or exciting ones that you're looking forward to seeing the rest of 2018 yeah I think I love that question I think the key is continuing to join forces to continue to lock arms and continue the conversations and so a lot of what I love to do professionally and personally is create those platforms for people to do those kinds of things and that's what women transforming technology is about this year and has been about the last two years and I think we'll just continue to do that and people will tell us what we need to know and where we need to go awesome if you look back at your career would you have forecast your success being you know the chief people officer is c-level or would you yeah you know what was that yeah I met such that's it I'm just starting at this point in my career to really reflect on that no I never imagined having this amount of responsibility and privilege never in my wildest dreams it wasn't an aspirational goal I knew that I wanted as much influence as I could have to achieve results I'm a professional problem solver this is a pretty meaty problem that we're tackling but no I I didn't a dream it now I feel a huge amount of responsibility to start to talk about it I'm a I think I mentioned you I'm a behind-the-scenes kind of person I like to work back there understanding the problem diagnosing it coming up with a solution and then helping implement it but now it's time to kind of talk about what's happened and where we are and set course for the future with so many wonderful women last question for you yep because the attrition rate is so high for females in technology yeah what advice would you give to a woman who's on the cusp of leaving not to sort of family but just going I'm not sure I feel supported here what advice would you give her yeah I would give that person and I do give this advice on the right to go out and have lots of conversations and just start those conversations you just don't know what you don't know and I've had women come to me and at the end of 45 minutes to an hour tell me they're thinking about doing something else and it saddens me especially if they're at vmware because i don't want them to leave but go out and have those conversations and explore what's next don't be afraid of the conversation and sharing what's happening to you with you at your work and events like women transforming technology are only going to help continue to get more eyes and ears on every side of whatever gap we've got aware of this and help all of us become part of the solution that's right to accelerate diversity because as the data show companies could be far more profitable if they've got that thought diversity that's exactly right and it's just that simple but it's just that difficult exactly yeah it was that simple well Betsy thank you so much but a pleasure joining us and allowing us to be part of the voice and getting this away it's out there for women transforming technology as well as helping to hopefully empower and inspire all of the current and future generations yeah attack no I really appreciate you being here - thank you our pleasure yeah we want to thank you for watching the cube I'm Lisa Martin on the ground at women transforming Technology thanks for watching [Music]

>> Announcer: From the VMware campus in Palo Alto, California, it's the Cube, covering Women Transforming Technology. >> Hi, Lisa Martin with the Cube, on the ground at VMware in Palo Alto, at the third annual Women Transforming Technology event, we're excited to welcome to the Cube, Caroline Hubbard, an Analyst at LinkedIn, and the founder of ThreadBred, Caroline, nice to have you here. >> Thank you for having me. >> So you, as young as you are, you're a speaker at this event, you spoke in >> Caroline: I am. >> The Emerging Leaders Track, tell me the name of your session, and what >> Caroline: Yeah. >> Some of the key messages were that you delivered today. >> Definitely, my session was called, "Stand up, Stand Out, "How to Become and Advocate for Change in the Workplace," and my session detailed my experiences thus far, navigating corporate America, not only as a woman, but as a person of color, and some of the really eye opening experiences I've had, in terms of the toxic cultures that are rampant in our organizations across America, and through this experience, I learned really valuable lessons. And two of those lessons are that performance and how you're perceived can only take you so far in an organization; ultimately, if you're not in a place that values your identity, or values you for your differences, not just in spite of your differences, then your chances of success are going to be limited, and if you allow toxic cultures to eat away at your own perception of self, then you're going to be in even more dangerous positions. So I sort of talked about how I learned those lessons, and provided a framework for which we can all go back to our companies and bring awareness to issues that are affecting underrepresented people. >> How did you hear about Women Transforming Technology? >> Yeah, so since I've moved here, 10 months ago, I've just been taking the city by storm, networking, joining lots of women's groups, to just try to find women with similar experiences as me; I'm from the east coast, so I don't really have that many friends or a network out here, and that's what I wanted to build, so through one of the women's groups I'm associated with, I was speaking with a friend, who was like, "Well, you should check out this conference," so I did that; I went online, and I connected with one of the program leads here, and we were able to talk a little bit about my experience, and I was invited to speak. >> Fantastic. >> Yeah. >> And now you can say you've spoken at an event where Laila Ali spoke this morning >> Caroline: I know >> That's an honor (laughing) >> She was so inspiring, because you know, you look at a woman like Laila, who's >> Right. >> Who you think is just born with confidence, and courage, and she talked about how a lot of that is true, very innate, but there was times where she kind of has to recheck >> Caroline: Yeah. >> Kind of do a gut check, and say, "Alright, I feel like "I'm kind of nocked back a bit," >> Caroline: Mm-hmm. >> I loved her recommendations for you know, like the Boy Scouts, what, always be prepared, >> Caroline: Yeah. >> But the preparation is really key; have you found that to be something that helps you kind of harness your inner mojo, your inner confidence? >> Absolutely. >> Whether you're speaking at Watermark, or you're here. >> Yeah, absolutely, and I come from a performing arts background, and I spent a lot of time on stage, and I just found that throughout my life, being on stage energizes me, and being able to connect with people and be fully transparent is something that's really refreshing, but with that, comes a lot of preparation, and I've spent hours, actually, last month when I did a similar talk, my mother and I were up until five A.M. the night before a big speech, just working and making sure it was perfect, and deliver the right message. So I definitely agree, preparation is always key; it helps you feel confident, but like she said, there are times when preparation isn't enough, and you just feel a little bit unprepared or un-confident, and that's okay >> Yeah. >> What really matters is how you bounce back from those instances in which you don't feel as confident. >> I agree, I felt very validated with Laila Ali >> Caroline: Yes. >> Saying sometimes I don't always feel my best, so tell me a little bit, before we get into ThreadBred, I want to talk to you about a little bit about this program that you're in at LinkedIn, where you get to in finance, you get to work in different parts of the business >> Caroline: Right. >> Yeah, it's a really unique program, it's a two year long program, for people directly out of college, that gives you a lot of exposure across the company, so it's technically under the business operations organization, so your first year is split between rotations in sales operations and business operations, and then the second year, you can have more of an elective choice, where you can sort of dabble in product marketing or corporate developments, so it's a really unique experience in that it allows you to see multiple parts of the business, and currently, I'm on the consumer product growth team, which is responsible for getting people to use our app, and I also focus a little bit on our SEO strategy, so it's really opened me up to the world of tech, and how large scale enterprise companies work, which has been exhilarating. >> What have been your experiences, in terms of the diversity not just at LinkedIn >> Caroline: Right, right. >> But as you say, you've been in the valley now, for about 10 months. >> Yeah. >> What are some of the observations that you have made? >> Yeah, I think that a lot of the workforces, actual workforces are reflective of the actual diversity that's in the city, and if you look at the city, first of all, it's not very diverse, so it's kind of impossible for the organizations to have that same diversity, so it's been a challenge; I think that LinkedIn has done an incredible job, given the fact that there are not equal amounts of multiple different demographics, and I think LinkedIn is very conscious of the problem, and we're actively working to solve it, so I feel good about that, but I have noticed that in terms of gender, in terms of race, not everyone is represented on equal levels, and representation is so important, because for other people who are coming in future generations, you can't be what you can't see, so if there aren't people that look like you, you're going to be discouraged from pursuing an opportunity there, when that opportunity might be perfect for you. So I'm really empowered and passionate about trying to increase representation for all people in these organizations. >> It's refreshing to be at a conference like WT squared, because the accountability is so key, and what they announced this morning, with VMware investing $15 million into an innovation lab for women's leadership; the fact that they're together, expanding this stand in VMware >> Caroline: Mm-hmm. >> Relationship it's been over the last five years, but actively going to be looking at what are these barriers; the diversity barriers that women are facing, how do they identify optimal ways to eradicate those barriers? >> Mm-hmm. >> Because VMware knows, and the McKinsey report that was actually cited in the press release >> Caroline: Yeah. >> That they came out with this morning, companies that have more diversity at the executive level, are 21% more profitable. >> Caroline: Yeah. >> So they're understanding this is going to not just be benefiting our culture and diversity or our chief people officer HR function >> Absolutely. >> This is actually something that will benefit the entire company. >> Yeah. >> And what does this company deliver? Technology that other businesses and people use, to better our lives, so they get that, and that's saying refreshing is >> Yeah. >> Kind of an understatement. >> That is, yeah. >> But it really is nice to see companies that are willing to go, "Hey, we want to know exactly what these problems "are, so that we can then be strategic "in how we can solve them." >> Exactly, it is refreshing, and I think that more and more companies are realizing that diversity is not a luxury or just sort of a platitude, it's something that is intrinsic to the business, and to the health of the business, and the retention of employees, and as more and more people begin to realize that, I think that we will get better at increasing representation down the line. >> You know, I talked with a lot of women today and wanted to get their thoughts on the MeToo movement, Time's Up; in the last six months, that erupted on the scenes >> Caroline: Yeah. >> Unlikely alliance with Hollywood, and the resounding opinions have been, actually, that's momentum that we can take advantage of; we should be leveraging this, because when you have a platform that's that big, and that global, >> Mm-hmm. >> For an issue that affects every industry, including us in technology >> Mm-hmm. >> That they actually saw that as kind of an elevation of the platform >> Caroline: Yeah. >> I'm curious what your thoughts are about that. >> Yeah, I actually spoke about MeToo, and a couple of other social movements in my talk earlier, and one of the reasons I started my blog, ThreadBred, is because I started to realize this really unique cultural moment, in which I've emerged into the workplace, which has been characterized by these social movements, and a lot of these social movements have been galvanized through social media; social media's been able to bring so much attention to important issues, and shift public perceptions, so with MeToo, a movement that was founded by an African-American woman in 2006, and then it sort of gained more momentum in 2017 when Alyssa Milano tweeted it out, and then to have, a month later, Jackie Speier, congresswoman of California, introduce the MeToo Congress Act, you know, changes happening at such a rapid pace. More so than it ever has in the past, so I'm really excited to be a part of that, and I'm really excited that we are seeing this much progress on this rate. >> We need to keep that going. >> We need to keep it going, absolutely. >> Tell me a little bit more about ThreadBred. >> Yeah, so ThreadBred started in 2014, just as a fun, personal blog; my friends and I were getting our first internships, the summer after our Freshman year of college, and we were all in different industries, and couldn't really, or didn't know where to go in terms of where to get advice about what to wear, and of course, we wanted to make a good impression, so I just started creating outfits, dressing my friends up, telling them, this is what you should wear when you go here or there, and it sort of turned into this personal branding, as a young professional blog, and I started writing more about what are some of the experiences that young people have, directly out of college? What are some of the things they wish they knew before they started their jobs? And then I restarted it when I entered the work world now, and because of what's happening in society, I wanted to shift the attention to focus on these important social issues, such as women's empowerment, the representation of underrepresented minorities, and I've been able to have a lot of great dialogs with people that I know, and people that I have just met, who might have opinions that are different from me, and I think those are the most interesting ones, because they're the learning opportunities, and it sort of transformed into this story space, where we can consolidate information and learn from each other. >> I love that; one of the things that I thought was really cool, when I walked into the event today, was there's a headshot area >> Caroline: Yeah. >> And there's a resume writing clinic and a LinkedIn profile clinic, as well, and you kind of think, those are really foundational pieces to help someone have a professional looking photo, that doesn't have like somebody's arm that you need cropped out. >> Caroline: Absolutely, yeah. >> Or you know, a strong LinkedIn profile, especially if you're young, maybe just finishing with school and don't have a ton of experience; those are really important foundational elements, and it sounds like what you've done with ThreadBred, >> Caroline: Yeah. >> To advise young people on how should you look professional; that's a really cool thing that you've done, there. >> Caroline: Thank you. >> It's an area where you might think it's a small thing, but I think that can be very impactful. >> Yeah, it's kind of like the things that nobody tells you once you go in, it's just we're trying to capture all of that knowledge in one place, and share it with as many people as possible. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So if you look down, finishing in the next what, year or so, >> Caroline: Yeah >> Your two year program at LinkedIn. >> Caroline: Yeah. >> What direction do you think you'd want to go in? >> Well, I love LinkedIn, and when I interviewed, I actually said that I was like the physical manifestation of LinkedIn; I am a networking person, I love connecting people with opportunity, and I love LinkedIn's message of trying to create economic opportunity for the global workforce, and I think that it's really rare that you find a company that's for profit, that also has this really social impact admission, and I want to stay in this space as long as possible, but years down the line, I could envision myself being an entrepreneur, and starting my own company to focus specifically on problems affecting people of color and underrepresented people around the world. I think that that's what I've identified I'm passionate about, and that's what I want to pursue. >> I can feel that from you, so I think definitely entrepreneurial. >> Caroline: Thank you. >> Kind of in summary, what are some of the things that you're going to be taking away from this third annual Women Transforming Technology event? >> Yeah, absolutely, well, from the keynote earlier this morning, it's about listening to the inner voice inside of you, always finding that inner warrior as Leila Ali mentioned, because I think that's so important; I think life is about just having good days, and then having days where you're encountering adversity, and it doesn't matter how much adversity happens to you, it matters how you respond to that, so always leaning into that inner voice and then using your voice to empower other women around you, who might have similar experiences, but who don't necessarily know how to navigate the same situations is where you can be most helpful, so supporting women and always finding your inner strength is what I'm going to take away from today. >> I love that; I'm going to borrow that from you, that was fantastic >> Caroline: Okay. >> Well, Caroline, you're going to be a big star, I can already tell >> Caroline: Oh, thank you. >> It's really nice to hear someone that's so young, that sees the opportunities here, and wants to very naturally, make a difference in it; you're one to watch, >> Caroline: Thank you. >> For sure. >> Thank you. >> Lisa: Thanks for joining us. >> Thank you. >> We want to thank you; I'm Lisa Martin with the Cube, we are on the ground at VMware, at the third annual Women Transforming Technology event, thanks for watching. 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