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