Differentiation Makes the Difference

[Music]

i was six years old

and i was exploring my father’s office

one evening with my older sister who was

eight

we were tiptoeing around the dimly lit

hallways

opening drawers and cabinets when we saw

a big door

labeled files slightly cracked open

curiously we opened this happy door

and my sister and i went inside boom

the door slams behind us locking us into

the tiny fire room

we pull the door handle but it doesn’t

budge we are stuck

and my sister stops to stop i take a

shaky breath

and think to myself what can we do to

get out

i see the piles of paper on the table

grab a pen and start writing in big

letters

help we are stuck inside on as many

pieces of paper

as possible and start shoving them under

the door

eventually my father must have seen the

trail of paper

and realized we were stuck inside

this story happened 40 years ago

but was important because it was the

first of many doors that i had pushed

open with my own curiosity

and courage the world is full of doors

do we enter do we push forward

do we step out our comfort zone to

discover

today i will share with you about my

experience

breaking such doors and my mindset as i

push

forward into the unknown

in the early 1990s china started open

door policy

which allowed all foreign nations to

enjoy equal assets to the chinese market

at the time i was a fresh college

graduate

and i had to make a choice between a job

opportunity

with a traditional government-owned

company

which means i could have an iron bowl

for life

means a job for life or a job

opportunity with the very first

joint venture between the us and china

which meant

i could get myself into a non-territory

with huge risk i decided

to open the open door policy door

i joined a male dominated company with

many manufacturing sites

soon after i joined the company i became

the very first

and only i.t staff a few years later

i became the head of it for greater

china

when i went to meetings and different

work sites

i was always the only female in the room

for a long

time five years later i was approached

to join one of the top five global

personal computer maker companies

in singapore i still remember vividly

my father as a traditional chinese

father

said to me you are doing so well with

the current company

you should start thinking about getting

married and settling down

i don’t really think it’s a good idea to

move to a foreign country that you have

never been to

i decided to open that another country

door

moving from china to singapore

i was the very first to start working

overseas

among my classmates from high school and

college

when i decided to pursue a master’s

degree

i had to choose between master of

computer science

or mba i knew my interests were

with business and leadership and so

i picked pursuing the mba in spite of my

friends advising me to stick with

the other more normal choice

when i finished my mba i decided to open

one of the top 5 fortune 100 company

door

i joined general electric company i

became the youngest

female i.t leader for ge health

southeast asia region

four years later i decided to open

another continent

door moving from asia to europe

i become the head of it for europe

middle east

and africa for honeywell another four

years later

keep listening keep listening i decided

to open

financial services industry door i moved

from europe to u.s

and became the first female officer

who was hired from overseas for a

company in its 150 years history

seven years ago i decided to open the

motherboard door

at age 42 i became an older mother with

a beautiful

girl breaking the norm again

two years ago i decided to open the

united nations

ngo door moving from the private sector

to the public sector

i became a um representative and chief

administrative

officer for an uni ngo

at this point you might be wondering

is emma just reading her resume or

giving me an interview talk

no i just want to illustrate

that my past 29 years since i graduated

from college

i broke i don’t know whether you are

counting i broke seven

norms by opening seven very different

doors

each time i opened a new door

it led me to another door to another one

and another one

to an interesting fulfilling and

meaningful life

as women from asia

english was not my first language

as a regional and global i.t in a

discipline that used to be

or maybe still is dominated by males

or an older mother as a leader moving

from

private sector to public sector i always

been

asked how did you do it what’s your

secret recipe

i wonder about this too i also want to

know

so i start a small survey with 15

of my family members close friends and

business partners

i wrote please list the top three

qualities

you think make emma who she is today

the top three answers were forty percent

perseverance 35 resilience

and 15 self-confidence

this is a really good answer however

my mind my heart did not agree

except my husband said well honey you

are a fighter

since sometimes i fight with him

[Music]

i don’t feel right about answers i start

reflecting i have a day of hard thinking

i realized that what my family members

close friends and business partners saw

at

representation of my behaviors

but not my inner drives not my

motivations

my inner drive and my mind have very

different answers

from them

as business school students we’ve

learned

how to differentiate products services

and the strategies and so on

have you ever thought about yourself as

a product

how do you differentiate yourself how do

you define

and build your own competitive edge

that is what i wish to share with you

today

the need to continually differentiate

yourself by taking

big steps so that you can fulfill your

professional potentials be winners in

life

and be able to enjoy all the benefits

that come with great success

right here i have good news for you

i’m proof that this is not as difficult

as you may think

i applied my inner drive to different

different ships myself

ima drive drive or simply drive define

more like motivation

or self-discipline so my two

key inner drives are first

dare to break the norms

my willingness to take big risk to take

on opportunity to

differentiate believe me

when you come to breaking the norms

it’s never easy for anybody

the hardest norm for me to break

and took me two years to break

was when i become a mother and i was

also juggling between

in charge of a big transformational

project for the company

i tried to do both but reality show

reality showed me

that i could not be the best for both

roles

i opted for motherhood at the height of

a successful career

i did it and this was the best norm i

have

broken so far and ever

second reinvent itself to bridge gaps

reconfigure reinvent myself to act

positively on every situation that comes

my way

one day i received a phone call from a

un officer

and asking me to join a un ngo as its

leader

i did not have solid track records in

the public sector

especially for a new ngo but

i took on a role after a three hours

phone call with the president

of the organization

then i quickly studied the situation and

applied

my past skills and experience to my new

role

now i’m glad to say i really enjoyed

this new door

because i could balance my work and

motherhood

i can give more of myself to my daughter

and meanwhile allows me to apply my

skills for the meaningful causes

you might be interested to know what are

the specific steps i took to

keep differentiating myself here’s my

secret recipe

i have generated a formula here for you

all

b squared equals c squared h

c squared

first curiosity just like that

six-year-old girl

when she pushed open that door curiosity

allows us to always find the door

or build the door because every new door

is an opportunity for

differentiation when then when that door

appears take the opportunity without

hesitation

because if you don’t take it others will

and aim for the door that is high don’t

settle for something

that is easy second

courage every time i step through the

door

of uncertainty of course i feel

nervous but i didn’t let myself be

intimidated

recognize that you will be nervous

and quickly take steps to understand the

situation around you apply your strength

go network and make things work

third be humble never stop listening

and learning there is always someone who

knows something interesting or important

that can boost your own growth forward

fourth be confident

you don’t have to be the best remember

this

you don’t have to be the best but you

just need to be the most

unique one don’t doubt yourself

it has a negative impact on your

conscious and unconscious mind

as soon in your strength one suggestion

from

gallup strength finder theory is

try not to spend too much time to fix

all your weaknesses

but focus on excelling in your strength

don’t worry about your race gender

experience

if you are confident you have already

won

half of the battle

fifth continue to lean into big

being different no matter

if a differentiation is big or small it

adds up

it will grow into large differentiation

someday

every door brings you a new learning

opportunity

once you get started if you keep working

at it

consistently you will continually grow

and change

and you will continually surprise

yourself

because this process of imagining

differentiating and winning is a

lifelong process

one which never stops

let me leave you with one final thought

change is guaranteed progress is not

it is differentiation that makes the

difference

it’s what makes the difference between

mediocrity and

greatness success or failure

is what will make you a winner in life

take my secret recipe and go open your

door

i don’t know what my next door will be

but i’m ready for it