Go Big Or Go Home

It's funny how memes circulate within a larger corporation, especially one as socially connected (internally and externally) as EMC.  If you work in these sorts of environments, they're an interesting reflection of the organizational psyche.

And "go big or go home" is certainly on the rise here in the halls of EMC.

The Three Corporate Perspectives

Being a fan of oversimplification, I usually put corporate mindsets into one of three categories: (1) play it safe and steady, (2) we're under attack, or (3) we see a huge opportunity, and we're going for it.

Since I've been at EMC now for 15 years, I can safely say I remember times where we've done all three.  However, over the last year or so, the movement has definitely been shifting to #3 above, and it continues to accelerate.

This "go big or go home" mindset can be seen in our overall corporate strategy, our individual product strategies, our approach to new business models, the investment in social media proficiency -- it's becoming a tenent of our corporate culture.

Change Is In The Air

At least, in our IT industry.  From how technology is built, to how it's operated and consumed -- there's multiple themes of consolidation and disruption everywhere. 

It starts at the top.  For example, at Pat Gelsinger's event yesterday, I think he said something to the effect that our goal was to do nothing less than disrupt the industry: technology, integration, ecosystem, consumption model, etc.  You're free to offer up your opinions as to whether that's achievable or not, but -- you've gotta admit -- it's a nice mindset to bring to work every day.

You'll see it in many of our products -- storage and otherwise.  V-Max was disruptive in its own way.  Certainly object oriented storage is a bold bet -- both Atmos storage and Centera.  Buying Iomega is perhaps another variation on that theme.

During one of the previews we gave on the virtual storage / global federation / distributed cache coherency materials, one of the most common reactions was "bold" and "breathtaking".  And that's in a business where we'd have every right to play it safe and keep doing what we'd been doing for years.

RSA's "secure the cloud" initiative can be similarly breathtaking when fully considered.  The $1B bet on next-gen resource management (Ionix) is certainly in that vein.  The information management and governance strategy being worked at our CMA group gets me excited.  Even Mozy to get into the consumer end of things.

Or, perhaps you might see this theme reflected in our M&A activity.  I guess the first (and most pronounced) example of this was the VMware acquisition back in 2004.  People thought we were completely nuts at the time.  Lots of other visible examples in this vein ; many more that you don't see in the press.

It's Not Just Technology

Throughout our company, it's the new ethos.  When we tackled customer satisfaction, we didn't just focus on quality, we built an entire strategy around TCE -- total customer experience.  Every year, we add more to it to drive it further and faster.  Good enough isn't.  Go big or go home.

When we tackled social media proficiency a few years back, the mindset was the same -- don't settle for "good enough", set out a clear goal to be the best, and build a plan with that in mind.

Marketing is moving in that direction, as is sales and other corporate disciplines.  In fact, sharing a 'well, that's good enough" thought in many meetings is somewhat career limiting these days. 

Our customers don't settle; neither should we.

A Few Customers Are Starting To See It As Well

It's now getting to be a predictable sequence -- a forward-thinking customer (or service provider) wants to talk about private clouds, which leads to a discussion around VCE, vBlocks, Acadia as well as our partner ecosystem, which in turn leads to a discussion of the end-to-end architecture that we're collectively assembling between EMC, VMware and Cisco.

I had one customer put it succinctly -- he stopped me and uttered "you're building a next-generation IT stack!" as if this was a major revelation.  Yep, we are.  I took him through not only the technology elements, but the rationale behind them, and how the ecosystem would interact with it.

I don't think he was expecting that sort of all-encompassing view from EMC.

Will everything we're trying to do (both individually as EMC and collectively with our ecosystem) work out as we hope?  Most certainly not -- there will be successes, and there will be learning experiences.

The real failure is to not try -- go big or go home.

So, What Does This Mean To You?

Please, forgive me if this is coming across as shameless self-promotion.  There's plenty of this in our industry already, so we don't need any more :-)

Here's what I'm leading up to: if you're an IT professional, or a business person with an IT-centered focus, this message is for you. 

Change is in the air.

Now is the time to propose and execute on bold and breathtaking strategies.  These might be personal strategies to further your career, these might be business strategies, or something else.

It doesn't matter.  The timing is right.  Now is not a good time to play it safe.

Go big or go home.

Comments

[Alyson]

Dear Mr. Hollis,

I subscribed to the EMC feed and now to your blog, because my husband is in trouble and I am trying to find a way to help him. For five years, since he was downsized at HP, he has been trying to find a way into EMC. He has had two very successful experiences as a contractor at EMC, and made a few connections, but no permanent job or further contracts have been forthcoming.

Richard is not a social guy; he's a storage engineer--the smartest man I know. He's a big-hearted person, doesn't drink or smoke, and believes in the old-fashioned paradigm of "you represent your company even on your own time." It is so hard to watch him struggle so.

Despite ongoing efforts to find employment, he has not been successful. He does ALL the things the books say, and he attends a workshop, etc. He has tried everything. We rewrite the resume, we write cover letters, we thank everyone, we keep a database, etc. And now, although we are both optimistic people, we are beginning to sink beneath the weight of depression and worry about our ability to keep our life intact, and to keep our home and our life built over 30 years here in Hudson.

I am reaching out to you because you may have some insights about EMC, about how to be seen and alternative methods to apply for jobs. I am asking you for your help and advice.

Sincerely,
Alyson Button Stone
Editor, Bixbe.Biz (www.bixbe.biz)

[Chuck Hollis]

Hi Alyson

I am deeply empathetic with your husband's situation. Certain companies can be tough to crack into, and I believe that EMC can be one of them.

This is made more difficult in that we source talent globally these days, and most of the employee base expansion can be literally anywhere in the world.

I'd like to offer up some suggestions. Some of them may work, some of them may not.

In addition to the "posted job openings, resume, cover letter, etc." routine, I would suggest adding a "social" mix to his efforts.

We find many interesting people through their blogs, for example. We find many interesting people via Twitter, and through comments on various industry blogs.

Put differently, the 2.0 world is yet another important way to meet people, get your brand out there, and get engaged. However, this might be challenging for someone who "isn't social", as we are progressively creating a social workforce.

The other suggestion might be to consider a non-engineering role. Product marketing and product management benefit from a strong engineering backgroup. Technical presales and postsales support do as well. If he can look at complementary disciplines within EMC where his storage engineering background can help in a related area.

As a small starting point, I'd suggest heading over to www.pollypearson.com -- she's a great person to engage with online regarding this specific topic.

I hope this helps in some small regard.

-- Chuck