EMC's Leadership Meeting

Sorry I've been away from the keyboard the past few days. 

Every year EMC holds a beginning-of-the-year "kickoff" meeting to bring people together.

And, if you're an EMC watcher like I am, it's always interesting to see how the themes -- and the company -- has evolved year to year

A Smaller Format

This year, we only had 200 or so leaders from across the company meet in Boston for two days.  Part of that decision was driven by economic realities; part of it is driven by the fact that more can get accomplished in smaller groups.

Now, generally speaking, EMC has more than its fair share of smart, passionate and experienced people.  Filter that 35,000+ number to less than 1% (200 or so), and we're talking about a pretty intense group of people, IMHO.

As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio was excellent: we ended up spending most of the time talking about things that really mattered, and at a level that was quite refreshing.  It was at once intellectually exhilirating as well as intellectually exhausting.

Now, for those of you who might be cynical about big corporate meetings, this wasn't one of those.  The style is open, conversational and completely transparent about what's good, what's not, and what we have to do about it. 

Put differently, there wasn't much cheerleading going on -- just serious, intense discussion.

No Greenwashing Here, Thanks

Good news: going forward, all of EMC's internal meetings will conform to green and sustainability guidelines, and this one was no exception.  The message was pretty clear in word and deed. 

For example, we chose a recently constructed hotel that itself represented current thinking in sustainability.  There were no paper handouts -- think how many trees we saved!  And we all got re-usable water bottles rather than disposable cups and bottles.

There was more, but you get the idea ... we used the event to help send a subtle yet powerful message. 

Now, if we just could get telepresence in each of our offices :-)

A Refreshing Keynote or Two

You'd expect we'd here a word or two from our leadership -- Joe Tucci and a few others -- but we were fortunate enough to hear an extended presentation from Paul Maritz, CEO of VMware on his personal views regarding technology evolution.

Personal note: if you ever have a chance to go see Paul speak on technology topics, you should make the effort.  He has this way of making complex topics simple and accessible, as well as bending the space-time continuum around him in a powerful way.  And I'm no easy grader.

The Working Sessions

The best part of these events -- for me, anyway -- are the working sessions.  We tee up a half-dozen or so thorny problems for which there is no simple or easy answer, and assign teams to work together to make recommendations for EMC to consider.

Not only are the sessions themselves fun -- full of bright, passionate people who are not shy about sharing their perspectives -- but the topics themselves reflect what's on our strategic agenda.

Now, I wish I could share with you the list of topics we worked on, but let's just say you'd find the breadth and the sophistication somewhat refreshing.  And, just to be clear, when we do this, we're not just going through the motions -- much of what has been suggested in past years has come to pass.

The People Side Of The Equation

If you think about it, meetings are really more about people, and less about content or topics.  A lot of us who were there have been at the company a l-o-o-o-n-g time, and it's always good to catch up with the good people who are on the same sort of journey that you're on.

But, at the same time, there were a lot of new faces -- people who were new to the company, or have been elevated to new roles at the company.  We welcomed them as we would new family members -- and they found themselves being expected to contribute just like anyone else -- even if they were brand-new to the company.

The Bottom Line

Sure, 2009 is going to be a challenging year.  But it was absolutely clear that we had a unique opportunity to not only weather economic uncertainty, but grow and thrive during 2009 -- and we all could see it.

All the pieces were there:

• We have products and capabilities that are either clear market leaders, or entirely in categories of their own -- with more to come in 2009.
   
• We had entered entirely new markets like cloud and consumer that complemented our traditional markets -- and there was more to come in 2009.
   
• We were getting much better at orchestrating and leveraging the technology and market ecosystem that EMC had evolved to -- and coming up with more combined capabilities each and every day.
   
• Operationally, we had made vast improvements in our business year-over-year, and we could see the opportunity to do even better for our customers, our shareholders and other stakeholders.
   
• Information wasn't becoming any less important to anyone -- good economy or otherwise.  More opportunities to save money, make money and mitigate risk were continually presenting themselves.

Most importantly -- we once again realized we were the right company, at the right time, with the right leadership and the right people to make things really happen in our industry, and now was no time to be shy or timid.

Now, I'm not going to say that 2009 is going to be fun, and there's plenty of work to do, but -- when all is said and done -- I think we'll look back and see 2009 as one of the most transformative years not only for EMC, but perhaps the IT industry as well.

We'll see, won't we?

Comments

[Devang Panchigar]

Mr. Chuck,

A blog very well written, the point gets across great. I have heard Mr. Maritz on one occasion and he is a great speaker. I almost feel the same about your writings, have never heard you in person.

This blog does give out the vision for 2009 as you grasped it from the Leadership meeting.

As pointed out, this year will be full of economic challenges, but with vision, goals and good management practices these things can be overcome.

Again nice blog..great writing.

[Chuck Hollis]

Hi Devang -- thanks for the kind words -- best of luck with your blog as well!

-- Chuck