00:00
You learn what you felt to be successful.
00:03
You have to fail so many times and you fail every single
00:08
day. So you need to be humble and understand that the
00:12
learning process is hard and you learn from everyone.
00:17
Hola, I'm Claudia Romo Edelman and I'm Cynthia Cleo Milder.
00:21
And this is a podcast,
00:22
a La Latina, the playbook to succeed being your authentic self
00:25
today. Natalia de Grave Vice President Automation IBM Americas.
00:30
And here are the three key takeaways of this podcast.
00:33
Number one, she makes the case for why Latinas should consider
00:37
studying engineering. She explains that it's a career that gives you
00:41
a framework and methodology to think and operate.
00:44
Number two, she talks about being prepared to pivot your career
00:47
with the changing industries.
00:49
She even gives us access to tools to upskill and revitalize your
00:54
career. Number three,
00:55
how tenacity has been her superpower and why she attributes it to
01:00
growing up in Medellin in a time of turmoil,
01:02
all of that and more here at a la la tira stick
01:06
around today, a very special guest and a friend of mine
01:19
Natalia is the Vice President of Automation at IBM America.
01:23
She's been with IBM for 20 years in different countries of Latin
01:26
America. She studied production engineering,
01:29
has a master's in marketing and spends her time traveling the world
01:33
Natalia is so incredibly fabulous to have you here.
01:37
I'm so happy to be with you here,
01:39
as you said, friends for many years and we do a
01:42
lot of things together.
01:43
This is going to be a new one.
01:44
Exactly. We want to start with you.
01:46
Tell us a little bit more about you.
01:48
What made you who you are and what you do today.
01:51
What made me who I am today's family?
01:53
That's what that is my feeling who I am.
01:56
I was born in Medellin,
01:57
Colombia, out of three sisters,
02:01
I study engineer. I wanted to be a doctor and then
02:06
I received a recommendation before I graduated and said you're too good
02:10
with numbers. Not that good,
02:12
not giving opinions. I always have an opinion and doctors at
02:16
the beginning of the year don't have opinions.
02:18
So you better consider another line of work.
02:21
And that's when I made my decision.
02:22
So I studied production engineer.
02:25
It was a long career.
02:26
It was almost six years.
02:28
And when I finished,
02:29
I said I choose the wrong one and I never practiced,
02:34
to be honest, I try it at the beginning,
02:37
but I didn't like like the area of expertise.
02:40
And then a friend of my father invite me to work in
02:44
xerox. I started working in there.
02:47
He said, you're gonna be a salesperson.
02:48
I said, you're kidding me.
02:49
I never sell anything in my life before I learned how to
02:53
sell. I like it and I start my career.
02:56
So why it made me what I am today.
02:59
Like I said, it's my family,
03:01
my support system, my son,
03:04
the center of my life.
03:06
So a lot of learning through the years and I I
03:10
think that we have heard from a number of our guests that
03:12
they studied one thing and they,
03:14
they just pivoted and changed.
03:17
What we haven't discussed is actually that piece of being the
03:20
eldest of your, of your siblings and how much that affects
03:25
And I, I am absolutely not surprised you're the eldest,
03:28
I'm the eldest as well of my family.
03:29
And I think that that's when people say that you get attracted
03:32
to the responsible role of your friends and so on.
03:35
So are you mostly the most responsible of your families?
03:38
Is that it? I believe in the family.
03:40
Everyone has like a role,
03:42
like the financial role,
03:44
kind of the leadership role is on me,
03:47
but we complement each other.
03:50
We have a nice family.
03:51
So we are three sisters,
03:52
the two of them are married,
03:54
pretty good relationships with my brother in law.
03:57
So we travel all the time together,
03:59
do things together. So it's,
04:01
it's really good. I sometimes wonder if we put a lot
04:04
of weight on what we are going to study and then you
04:08
end up not using what you studied.
04:10
Can you trace things that you learned in college that you ended
04:14
up not doing production engineering?
04:15
But did you use anything that you learned in school?
04:19
I believe engineering is a formation.
04:21
huh So when you have the engineering information gives you opportunity
04:25
to pivot in different areas.
04:29
you have a methodology and a way of thinking that planning that
04:34
development, that expertise that you start in the in the university
04:40
then you complement through the process in their career of the
04:43
learning. So if you ask me what I like to do
04:47
today, I transform business.
04:49
I grow business, I develop people how I get to that
04:53
one through the expertise that I develop with the background that they
04:58
that the university gave me that the formation of engineer gave
05:01
me, I guess we're gonna talk more about this probably in
05:04
the episode. But why do you think there's engineering is not
05:08
a, a career that invites women or it historically hasn't been
05:12
the type of career that a lot of women choose?
05:15
I believe we are improving a lot of in that,
05:18
And when I talk about future generations,
05:22
newer generations in IBM,
05:24
we focus a lot in how we develop minorities.
05:30
Hispanics and women, how we can help them.
05:33
And I believe companies and especially IBM is really open to develop
05:38
that, how we try to adopt and embrace these new leaders
05:43
and women and open them a new opportunities in the workforce.
05:48
And why hasn't been so attractive for women because I believe the
05:54
image that we have from engineering in the past is that it's
05:58
too tough. And in the past,
05:59
women were like designed or pre educated,
06:03
not to focus on things that are too tough or the soft
06:09
You do the soft feminine.
06:11
Yes, but I believe we are pretty good in the engineered
06:15
information because like you said,
06:17
right hand left side,
06:18
they complement really well each other.
06:21
And if we put the expertise on the learning,
06:25
everyone develops different things and different skills.
06:28
Is there also something to be said about engineering historically being
06:33
taught us something that you really just need the mathematical side of
06:37
your brain. And in reality,
06:39
you need both sides and you need also being to be maybe
06:43
you're a better engineer if you are empathetic,
06:46
if you can put yourself in the shoes of someone else.
06:48
But we've never told women like your characteristics as Latino or as
06:53
women are actually good for engineering or am I just making this
06:55
own? OK. So let's be honest,
07:00
you need math and engineering.
07:02
There's no going to be a good engineer if they don't are
07:06
at least decent in math,
07:09
the math capability. And I believe math give you a lot
07:14
of analysis that you need to be a most successful person or
07:19
a better manager or a better coach.
07:22
So that thing of the math is really good because it's gonna
07:26
allow you to do the analysis part.
07:28
Now, what you said about,
07:29
like I said, the right hand side is the ability to
07:32
create empathy with the people,
07:34
the ability to develop relationships,
07:36
the ability to build communities,
07:39
the ability to build ecosystem is really good as,
07:43
as a compliment. So the more skills you have,
07:47
the better prepare a better professional can you can be the better
07:51
salesperson you are? Yes.
07:53
But I wanna, I wanna go back because I know you
07:56
and I know how incredible capable you are and you know
08:02
like structured you are and I admire you dramatically.
08:05
So I do want to go back to the past Medellin,
08:08
your family, the core beliefs,
08:10
what you were taught everyone that I know over 40 years old
08:14
in Medellin had some background of crisis,
08:18
conflict, uncertainty that made everyone that I know really resilient,
08:23
resourceful and really optimistic as well.
08:25
Because if you were able to navigate that Medellin at that time
08:29
probably you're not scared about anything.
08:31
I want to know more about your background as a Medellin as
08:36
a queta. How do you call yourself like the people from
08:38
Medellin Paisas as a paisa?
08:40
But also, what were the beliefs that your family installed on
08:44
you? What were the core beliefs?
08:45
Like they said, Natalie,
08:46
you can do anything or you know,
08:48
like Natalie, you're responsible for everyone.
08:50
What were those? And what of those are you passing on
08:54
to your son? So I believe when you were born in
08:59
Medellin and you live in Medellin,
09:01
as you said, like four years ago that we were surrounding
09:04
by drugs and drug dealers and all the insecurity,
09:09
you develop resilience. That's one of the things.
09:11
Then you stick to the core values of the family.
09:14
They become more important than any other thing in life.
09:17
Like being respectful, being honest,
09:21
being someone that always overcome any obstacle,
09:26
try to achieve those things are pretty important because they are,
09:32
You couldn't succeed without that one thing that I profoundly admire about
09:38
the people in business,
09:40
the owner of business of Medellin at that point is we never
09:45
gave up, they never gave up because I was young.
09:48
I was just a student in high school,
09:50
but they could just sold everything and left the country.
09:53
No, they fight for the city,
09:55
they fight for the industry to keep the industry open.
09:59
And Medellin succeeded. And it's a beautiful,
10:02
beautiful place. There's cycles in life,
10:05
you know, things that are nice today,
10:07
maybe get down, then get better.
10:10
You know, this coming from Mexico and you know that I
10:12
love Mexico as my second home.
10:15
So we learned a lot about this.
10:16
But I, but I believe the foundations of my family was
10:20
always is community, how we build the community,
10:24
how we help the community,
10:26
how we trust each other,
10:28
how we challenge each other.
10:30
I always said to my bosses,
10:32
no one is gonna be having a higher bar than myself.
10:35
I always put the higher bar on me.
10:37
So those are the things that I say that keep me aware
10:41
of the things every day and you never can forget about them
10:45
And that's what has been very present in your career.
10:48
Like your promotions have been remarkable and ta ta ta ta just
10:52
like, it's like a like one of those games that is
10:55
don tell us more about your career in IBM.
10:59
Like when I have these conversations and I see interviews that I
11:03
have 20 years ago when I became a the fir a
11:08
first line manager. The first thing that I learned is the
11:13
success is based on the people that you have,
11:15
how you manage people,
11:17
how you really integrate with people,
11:20
how you understand that are human beings in the position that you're
11:24
working with. So if you ask me,
11:27
what is the key for success is how you lead your teams
11:33
how we become the leaders that our teams deserve to have
11:39
So would you say that the ladder that we see?
11:43
Well, when, when we study your career.
11:46
It, it looks like a ladder.
11:49
Like no, nobody else's resume looks like yours.
11:51
We studied resumes for these interviews and it's usually like more like
11:55
a monkey bar or like a wall where people take lateral moves
12:00
Yours looks very much like you were climbing every 23 years
12:05
Do you attribute to the way that you lead teams?
12:08
Why you succeeded and why you were then given a bigger scope
12:14
I always said this when they,
12:15
they invite me to speak with people in IBM or outside of
12:19
IBM, I believe I've been privileged in the company that I
12:22
work with because IBM gives you two things in particular,
12:26
we have access to develop all the skills that we want to
12:30
develop and we also have opportunities to challenge ourselves.
12:35
So I always said you always give me businesses that I need
12:38
to transform and grow.
12:40
But I believe I developed that expertise with IBM through the years
12:45
So you're gonna get in this company,
12:48
whatever you wanted to get.
12:50
If you're decisive, if you work hard,
12:53
you prepare yourself and obviously do you deliver results.
12:57
But it's a combination,
12:58
we can, we have the best technology in the world.
13:00
I'm sure of that one.
13:01
We are a hybrid and A I company,
13:03
hybrid cloud and A I company.
13:05
And I'm sure that we have the best product in the market
13:09
and in the industry.
13:10
But also, we have the best people selling those products and
13:13
supporting those products and deploying those products and having technical expertise.
13:18
So it's that combination.
13:20
So if you guys have the best people,
13:24
how did you manage to be the one that climbed the ladder
13:27
Because not everybody could get promoted.
13:29
What was your superpower that made you like stand out in such
13:33
a great, I have a boss that,
13:36
that said to me the other day,
13:39
two years ago, I said,
13:40
I'm a stubborn and Rob said to me said to me,
13:43
no, you're not a stubborn,
13:44
you're tenacious. And that is my learning in English.
13:48
I, I I learn expressions every day being speaking Spanish
13:54
you learn expressions when you speak Portuguese,
13:56
when you, when you speak English,
13:58
you learn from the people.
13:59
And I believe that is a good description.
14:01
I'm tenacious. I don't give up.
14:03
Yeah, she just flipped the script because maybe they think that
14:07
Latinas are stubborn and we're not stubborn.
14:11
We are tenacious, which thank you for flipping the script before
14:15
we ask you to flip the script.
14:16
OK. So it's that one I believe I'm not designed to
14:19
give up. I don't give up if I truly believe that
14:24
something is the right thing to do.
14:27
I'm gonna fight till then.
14:28
OK. Great. And what is the price of like,
14:32
I just want to understand for because I do think that a
14:35
lot of Latinas are very tenacious and are very hard work.
14:40
And I don't know the difference between hard work and tenacious
14:43
And I would like for our audiences to understand that it
14:48
comes almost to greed that drive,
14:52
that combined with passion makes you unstoppable.
14:55
And that makes you to be sort of like the one that
14:58
wins the Olympics and the ones that are like in,
15:00
like in the military services,
15:01
the ones that survive.
15:03
So let's go deeper into tenacious and tenacity.
15:06
And I understand, you know,
15:07
like that where credit come from.
15:09
But what is the difference between tenacity and hard work?
15:12
And I don't know if we are all hard workers in every
15:16
way because the people have different priorities in life.
15:20
And that's one thing that you learn through the life.
15:23
You gotta be understandable of the priorities of people.
15:27
They need to be different otherwise will be robots.
15:30
So when you said hard work is not only to do the
15:34
hard work, you need to understand what is critical when you're
15:39
leading a team, what are the critical things that you need
15:43
to focus for your team?
15:45
So you're gonna be successful and you set the path for Latinos
15:50
And I love that because I do think that Latinas particularly
15:54
Latinas are absolutely hard work.
15:56
If there's one thing that unites us is our values and our
15:59
desire to progress. 90% of Latinos identify on that one
16:05
thing which is like we want more,
16:07
we want better, we will work hard for that.
16:10
But I think that the big difference here on the learning would
16:12
be to make sure that you have the clarity of where do
16:15
you need to hard work for?
16:17
Where do you need to work smart for so that you can
16:20
turn yourself into a more strategic tenacious leader.
16:25
One thing for, for Hispanic in general,
16:28
for Latinos that I have seen through the career is and when
16:32
you don't have English as,
16:34
as your first language,
16:36
we overcompensate talking more.
16:39
Yeah, you can tell me I do it all the time
16:42
So, so you need to stop and listen more.
16:46
And one is one thing that,
16:48
that I've been developing and learning and I keep doing it now
16:52
that I work for Americas,
16:55
how you develop a more listening,
16:57
pay attention, learning more and then active.
17:01
And that is that is a question we had for you.
17:05
You were the same leader you in Latin America,
17:08
different countries. Now you moved to the Americas in the
17:13
What cultural changes do you see?
17:16
All right, it's a different one.
17:18
So when I came here in 2021 I came to run the
17:23
ecosystem for America to drive the transformation of ecosystem ecosystem is all
17:27
the business that we do with companies that either resell our,
17:32
our products embed our products to create solution or integrate our solutions
17:38
in the things that they do.
17:41
the first challenge was not only to understand how the culture of
17:47
America's work because it's not only us,
17:49
it's also Canada as well and also how to work with people
17:54
that sometimes when they see you,
17:56
they said, why is she in this position?
18:00
She's a person from Colombia which is already like,
18:04
yes, like it's a small country.
18:06
I remember there were many people used to say to me,
18:13
why aren't you from Brazil?
18:15
No, no, I'm from Colombia because normally from L A
18:19
So everyone believes that if you're coming here,
18:22
you should be coming from Brazil and that's the good thing.
18:25
And I'm so grateful for IBM for IBM.
18:27
It doesn't matter where you're from.
18:30
They will always support us if you're delivering the results and you
18:35
get prepared and you and you are committed to the company.
18:39
So, so when I came here,
18:42
trying to learn the culture,
18:44
trying to learn the business,
18:45
trying to learn about the people.
18:48
But I was so privileged.
18:49
I developed a great relationship with the distributors in,
18:52
in, in America with the partners.
18:56
I have so many friends now that I changed the position that
18:59
they called me and said,
19:00
we're gonna miss you and we are missing you.
19:02
and tell us now that you're leading another brand.
19:04
What, what do you want us to do?
19:06
How we can help you.
19:07
So it's a good experience.
19:09
OK. So, but let's try to get spicy here.
19:12
All right. So you move from Latin America.
19:15
hey, how do you miss Brazil?
19:17
But you're rocking it,
19:19
you develop all these relationships.
19:20
You come, you demonstrate results seriously,
19:23
you didn't find any stereotyping.
19:25
Seriously. You didn't have to dial down like your Latinidad to
19:29
into this new culture where it's not,
19:31
you're the majority. You like.
19:33
This is truly a different set up where Latinos do have these
19:38
unconscious biases that are against us.
19:40
I believe one thing that we always have to do when we
19:43
go to another country is you have to dial down to understand
19:47
Like when I went to Mexico,
19:50
I had to learn so many things that in Mexico were different
19:54
from Colombia and I live in Mexico almost seven years.
19:59
So not everything was the same thing.
20:01
Same in here. I came here.
20:03
You dial down, you listen a little bit more.
20:06
You learn about the culture without stopping being yourself.
20:11
So everyone knows me within the team.
20:15
I'm crazy but that's who I am.
20:17
And they, I mean that I'm impulsive.
20:20
I, I go in a different speed.
20:23
I run, I don't walk,
20:25
I run. So I push the teams.
20:28
I, like I said to people,
20:33
yes, we are close to people that is not that normal
20:37
when I schedule one on one with people,
20:40
people get prepared to present me something at the beginning of my
20:43
position. So I always do that.
20:44
I schedule time to talk to every member of my team and
20:48
they're getting ready to make a presentation.
20:51
no, no. This is to get to know each other
20:53
If you want to tell me something about your family,
20:56
about what you like to do about your career.
20:58
Tell me about yourself.
21:00
And so many people within more than 100 conversations that I have
21:05
had through the years,
21:06
they said this is the first time that someone does this.
21:10
It's different. That is the Latinidad that you said it's something
21:14
that is different. It's common for us,
21:17
but it's different. So you do it with respect because you're
21:20
in a different culture,
21:22
you are learning about that culture.
21:24
And I always said to people,
21:25
if you don't feel comfortable,
21:26
you don't have to talk about this one,
21:28
but that's who I am.
21:29
Yeah. And I I've seen the,
21:31
the impact in performance that can have when your team feels like
21:35
yes, you care about them.
21:36
And I truly care that we have heard a lot of our
21:40
guests that are leading us a mother or that care about their
21:44
teams because we're so family oriented and,
21:47
and that probably is more,
21:49
more stark in a tech environment,
21:51
let alone in any company.
21:52
But in a tech environment,
21:53
I, I assume people are more binary in their conversations and
21:57
in the, in the relationship.
21:59
So when you add like to divine,
22:01
like let alone the corporate protect,
22:03
then, then you're Latina probably becomes even a bit more.
22:06
And we have a different energy.
22:08
I, I believe so because that's the way who,
22:11
that's the way we are.
22:13
You told me the other day,
22:14
karaoke? No, I cannot do karaoke.
22:16
Remember that we were together.
22:17
I was sitting there,
22:19
But if you ask me to dance,
22:20
I'll dance and I will put the whole room to dance.
22:24
But I, that's who I am.
22:26
And I'm not gonna change that because that's who Natalia is.
22:30
Then you learn how you respectfully do who you are,
22:35
who you are within the community that you're part of.
22:39
Now, I learned I manage a team that's in Kuala
22:43
Lumpur in Malaysia and in the US and every Monday,
22:46
I send a message in our Slack channel saying what I did
22:49
over the weekend and ask them,
22:51
what did you do over the weekend?
22:52
And pictures just to get to know each other.
22:54
Nobody from Malaysia ever said anything until I,
23:00
Why weren't they? And in some countries in Asia,
23:03
you have to ask them to participate.
23:05
They don't participate unless you tell them.
23:07
Hey, Gavin, what did you do this weekend?
23:11
so they participate and everybody is participating,
23:15
the tips that you learn,
23:17
let's talk about tech and the industry and stem and the piece
23:21
So I want to know so many things about this.
23:24
And I think that we have questions about you,
23:26
about the industry and about the future.
23:28
I would love to know about what's happening with automation and in
23:31
general. But so first question,
23:34
why don't I see more natalia in the tech industry at your
23:38
level, more Latinas leading tech companies.
23:43
I think you're seeing more and more like I said,
23:45
I mentioned Ana Ana is an example.
23:48
It is, I believe it is a personal decision.
23:52
You need to decide what you wanna do,
23:54
having a career, not only in a tech company,
23:58
in a consulting company in a manufacturing company that is going to
24:02
be a successful career comes with sacrifices and I believe during the
24:09
pandemic and this is an absolutely personal opinion.
24:13
I see that so many people change priorities.
24:19
Some people said, you know,
24:20
something in this new environment,
24:24
What we have been trying to do in the company is give
24:27
people like the openness to follow the priorities and try to merge
24:33
those with the priorities of the company if we can do it
24:37
And I believe those new generations that we are seeing and
24:43
starting to see the change.
24:45
But how are we gonna have more Natalia's more anna more people
24:51
in more Cleos? I have another Hispanic,
24:53
you know, Cleo as well,
24:54
more Hispanic women in the industry is I always said we wanna
25:00
be more in front of the schools,
25:03
college and universities talking about this one.
25:06
So NYU invited me the other day to the lava the Hispanic
25:10
community to talk about the career and the experiences we have that
25:14
responsibility. We need to spread the word that the stem community
25:18
is open for everyone,
25:20
not only women, for everyone,
25:22
and we wanna invite more people.
25:24
We are doing something in IBM.
25:26
We're putting an upscaling 30 million of people around the world in
25:30
new technologies free. Open to everyone.
25:34
We need to spread the word.
25:39
Something that we announced with Arvin about that.
25:41
I thought, I thought I just saw it in,
25:44
so is we are opening skills for everyone for free.
25:49
So if you wanna do it,
25:51
it's open, it's for you.
25:52
It's available. Where should our audience go look for it?
25:56
Ibm.com. We know that III I wonder and,
26:03
and then we should move on many years ago and you are
26:08
right. There's more Natalia's now than I think that even five
26:11
years ago when we started talking about that,
26:14
There is more role models.
26:18
I wonder whether there's the cultural shift and whether we have
26:23
the encouragement. I remember how research a research
26:29
indicated that the reason why there's only 2% of Latinas in Tech
26:35
is number one access to education which you're providing and many other
26:39
people are providing. But number two is no one told them
26:41
no one encouraged them.
26:43
No. Say like you Gavin now you speak you know
26:47
little Natalia now you do engineering,
26:50
Do you think that's still the case?
26:52
And how do you put that in combination with the our alias
26:57
Not really dreaming of us being software engineers like like other
27:00
cultures have that, that cultural barrier with the non encouragement.
27:05
How does that play a role?
27:06
If at all, I believe we have a responsibility,
27:10
going to universities, going to schools,
27:14
high school is important.
27:15
We do it around L A everywhere.
27:17
So I was with the director of software in,
27:19
in Mexico, Elida and she's going to two of universities talking
27:24
about data artificial intelligence.
27:27
And that's important is if you see someone talking about hybrid cloud
27:32
artificial intelligence, how artificial intelligence embedded in every action and every
27:37
function that we do today is gonna bring enormous power to all
27:42
of us. And you see a woman talking about that,
27:45
maybe you're gonna be less afraid next time.
27:47
And I always said to my team,
27:49
I set priorities this year and I said the first one is
27:51
the skills. If you're not ready for the conversation,
27:55
you're never gonna start the conversation.
27:57
Natalia. What advice can you give to Latinas who are considering
28:00
a career intake? Get prepared,
28:04
get prepared, get ready and don't be afraid.
28:08
And why should Latinas consider a career in tech?
28:11
Because it's a really exciting opportunity.
28:16
It is also something that is going to give you enormous like
28:23
joy recognition. You really can transform the world and the way
28:29
that we work and the way that we do things.
28:33
So you're talking about automation,
28:35
the way that you simplify process,
28:37
the way that you integrate processes,
28:39
the way that you automate everything.
28:41
It is something that we can be and create a meaningful impact
28:46
And also you were talking about something before is,
28:50
is well recognized and is well paid.
28:52
So tell us about that.
28:54
Like I learned that if you are an analyst,
28:57
it is the most the best paid first job that you
29:01
can have. And I think that Latinos,
29:04
we should know about that.
29:05
Like when you're making your choices in high school,
29:08
you know, all of us dream to buy a house to
29:13
a good way to do it is go engineering and go go
29:16
artificial intelligence. Exactly.
29:18
I believe if I can say anything in regarding the stem is
29:21
you gotta be preparing hybrid cloud and A I.
29:24
So talk to us about that.
29:26
What does that mean?
29:27
Let's get a little class.
29:29
OK. So remember when the cloud came out,
29:32
so everyone was saying,
29:34
everything is gonna go into the cloud.
29:41
the world is gonna be hybrid.
29:42
There's no way that we were gonna move all enterprises and everything
29:46
and we're gonna redesign everything and create everything cloud native.
29:51
We're gonna have a hybrid model of operation and what we have
29:54
now three years or four years later is a hybrid model.
29:59
So still 70% of all the work that we do is on
30:03
premise what I mean by on premises within the companies,
30:07
within the confine of the companies and 30% is on the cloud
30:11
But you have to integrate those words,
30:13
you have to have an integration between what you have in the
30:16
cloud, what you have on premise to make the work possible
30:20
and the process of efficiencies.
30:21
Today, companies are looking when we were talking about 2020 on
30:26
the pandemic. In 2021 everyone was talking about customer experience and
30:31
everything that everyone was doing is how we improve customer experience,
30:35
artificial intelligence, all the assistance and the things that we create
30:40
really help in experience and the customer experience and customer satisfaction.
30:47
Today, the studies show that people and the industries is looking
30:52
to have efficiencies because the economy is having those needs and companies
30:57
So having automation,
31:00
having hybrid cloud, having A I is gonna bring you the
31:04
opportunity to show those efficiencies to really target the spend that you
31:11
don't need the money that you are wasting in your companies that
31:15
you can allow. Don't allow yourself as a company.
31:19
It doesn't matter if it's big or small or it's a soho
31:22
company, a medium company,
31:24
you cannot have and be wasting money.
31:26
So, analyzing the processes,
31:28
analyzing the deficiencies and getting more productive and more efficient.
31:33
It is really important for all of us.
31:37
that need and you start developing the skills to tackle that,
31:43
then you can have an impact and you can have a successful
31:48
I'm very ignorant when it comes to engineering.
31:51
So I'm gonna ask you two very basic questions.
31:53
The first one is if somebody is thinking about studying engineering,
31:57
what type of engineering should they study?
31:59
Which one is the engineering that is gonna be,
32:01
they're gonna have a job forever.
32:02
And the second part of my question is,
32:04
where would you start your career in a big company like IBM
32:08
in a start up that like the scope be bigger but you
32:11
move faster. Like how should somebody think about the early years
32:15
of an agenda? And the third to that is what are
32:18
gonna be like things that are gonna be there for the next
32:21
20 years is artificial intelligence like AAA state or a flow
32:25
like metaverse. And OK,
32:27
so I gave the explanation really simple.
32:30
OK, without all the technical components or how we connect those
32:34
or API or the integration process.
32:36
But what type of engineering?
32:39
So everyone will say to you study computer science,
32:43
I will say to you and this is like my very personal
32:47
opinion study and engineer.
32:49
But within that study,
32:52
and I said this to my son,
32:53
it's not enough with just having a career.
32:55
Now, you gotta learn about more things,
32:58
you gotta participate in more things.
33:00
So complement that. Of course,
33:03
it's something related in my case with artificial intelligence or hybrid cloud
33:08
But you have that opportunity.
33:09
But if you are an economist and you don't know,
33:12
artificial intelligence, you're missing a big portion of your business.
33:17
If you are a finance person and you don't understand artificial intelligence
33:21
you are missing a big opportunity to be more productive.
33:25
So in anything that you do try to do that?
33:28
Yeah, we do that where,
33:29
where I work and is artificial intelligence here to stay.
33:33
Is it gonna eat up a lot of jobs from our community
33:36
I believe it's gonna transform a lot of jobs saying that
33:39
jobs are not going to disappear because of artificial intelligence is naive
33:43
It's like saying so many companies disappear with all the streaming
33:48
business, you don't go on a place and rent a movie
33:52
anymore. You stream the movie,
33:54
what companies does. So these disappear.
33:57
A lot of jobs are being created because of the streaming business
34:02
and that's the recommendation you're giving to Latinas,
34:04
go to the jobs that will appear that are related.
34:07
Exactly, prepare, get prepared.
34:09
There was an ad in the highway in New York that said
34:12
in big letters A I took my job and in small letters
34:16
to a whole new level.
34:18
And I believe the big letters should be to a whole new
34:22
level because at the end,
34:24
you are learning and developing a lot of new set of skills
34:29
that are gonna allow you to do so many different things.
34:33
I love it. Any other message to our audience on the
34:37
industry, stem cultural advice,
34:41
career, a message to young Latinas.
34:44
Follow your dreams, follow your dreams,
34:47
high, high, high dreams is and pursue them.
34:53
If you have a dream today and then I had another dream
34:56
in two weeks and then another dream in a month,
34:58
you're not consistent. You sound very confident.
35:03
What, where does your confidence come from?
35:05
Because one of the things that I'm really trying to get our
35:08
audience to know is that women like you who are so successful
35:13
and seem to just have gotten everything they wanted also had moments
35:18
of doubt or of problems like all the time.
35:22
where did you get your strength to come out?
35:25
And you said you're very resilient.
35:26
So where did you get that from?
35:28
Because you learn what you felt and and to be successful,
35:33
you have to fail so many times and you fail every single
35:38
day. So you need to be humble and understand that the
35:42
learning process is hard and you have to learn every single day
35:48
and you learn from everyone,
35:51
different things. I wanna talk to you now about identity.
35:56
Our Latinas are every time more reclaiming their Latinidad,
35:59
reclaiming language, reclaiming,
36:01
being proud to be Latinas.
36:03
And we wanna make sure that they do that by coming to
36:06
work being their authentic selves.
36:08
You and I have spoken about like how important it is for
36:11
companies but also for Latinas to,
36:12
to be themselves, to be themselves.
36:14
But I believe that's what I said is,
36:16
is everything is in the package.
36:18
So when you get Natalia or you get Claudia or you get
36:22
Cynthia, it's you in a package.
36:25
It's come with everything.
36:26
Now, understanding that now I'm working in a different environment in
36:32
a different culture. I have to be open to learn because
36:36
I cannot pretend that I come here like I am and I'm
36:40
not gonna just to be and learn and be more successful in
36:46
a new position and a new country.
36:48
So we have to be open to learn.
36:51
So when you said a scale down for me,
36:53
that is scale down is like to breathe pause,
36:58
learn, listen, take feedback.
37:03
And then we start again when you said so are you successful
37:10
Is yes, but I we fail and we learned from
37:13
that one and it's part of the Latinidad that you said the
37:17
the way that we are.
37:18
Now when I said everything is coming in a package,
37:21
I have peers of mine that said you're like a hurricane.
37:25
it's coming within Natalia is everything included.
37:30
And that's the passion that you put in the businesses and the
37:32
passion that you put in the things that you transform.
37:35
So that diversity of cultures that we have and that we build
37:42
is what make us successful.
37:44
So in the teams that we have and obviously,
37:47
I talk about the IBM experience because that's where I am is
37:51
we build, that we build diverse teams that have different ideas
37:56
different ways of seeing things and also different ways of doing
37:59
things. So you've never felt like somebody,
38:03
it's not accepting you because you are a Latina woman because you
38:07
in an industry that I imagine many times you're like one of
38:10
the few women at the table.
38:12
So you bring like double the double whammy of the diversity in
38:15
a table with maybe mostly men.
38:18
So you've never felt like your Latinidad is is something to
38:22
hide. I have felt that I have been well accepted many
38:29
times now I need to decide if I'm gonna let that take
38:34
me down and pursue a different thing or I learn from it
38:39
and keep going. My belief and my decision always is understand
38:44
what is happening and keep going.
38:47
But I just like on the hurricane and I don't wanna go
38:51
there. But at the end of the day,
38:53
I think that it is different when someone calls you a hurricane
38:57
it is different than just like the mild wind that everybody
39:00
is probably used to,
39:01
right, or whatever it is.
39:03
So it might have caused you to not be invited to the
39:09
places where they make the decisions after work where,
39:12
you know, like not to be fully integrated if you're a
39:14
hurricane. And he said it in a really positive way because
39:19
he said you got something done in three hours that no one
39:24
else could ever get done.
39:27
So I believe we need to take those opportunities to make a
39:32
difference and flip them.
39:34
it's almost like a hurricane could be something that is negative,
39:39
but let's make it a positive because you get things done in
39:43
half the time. And he said that because of the spirit
39:45
of a hurricane, he was doing that analogy,
39:48
you got this done and no one believed it was going to
39:52
be possible. I mean,
39:53
it is known that in the US,
39:56
the, the way that you build trust in a company is
39:59
by delivering results, unlike in Asia,
40:03
maybe in Latin America,
40:04
the way to gain trust is by building a personal relationship and
40:09
like you bring somebody to your house or you go actually to
40:12
have drinks and that's what opens the trust of people.
40:16
And I think you're doing both.
40:19
You're building a personal relationship,
40:21
but you are delivering results.
40:22
Yes. And I will never,
40:24
I if anyone said to me it is only doing delivering results
40:28
and not building relationships and not developing trust with people.
40:33
you need a different person for the job because that's not me
40:37
Natalia. We created the A La Latina network and we
40:41
had our first a La Latina dinner a couple of days ago
40:44
where we heard firsthand,
40:46
not only the experience of these trailblazers,
40:49
like you sharing it with the next generation with the rising about
40:52
what would they do differently and how,
40:55
what advice would they give to themselves if they would be 30
40:59
years ago? But we heard from one of the rising stars
41:03
that she just started incorporate America eight months ago.
41:07
And because of the technique of flipping the script that she heard
41:10
in the podcast, she was able to come to it and
41:14
so I have to flip the script.
41:16
Now, I understand that there's values that are hurricane could be
41:20
negative. But in reality,
41:21
it's a very positive one.
41:22
And when you learn how to flip them,
41:24
you, you start in a position of advantage.
41:27
I'd love to start debunking with you.
41:29
Some of those things that are true values of us that
41:33
could be debunked and trained to reframe so that Latinas get more
41:37
power. But also corporations get to understand us in a better
41:42
way and understand that those are positive attributes to a company.
41:46
Is there anything in particular that you think of our values?
41:49
The typical ones that were associated with,
41:52
I will say that there's so many things in that 11 is
41:55
the commitment. We truly develop commitment.
41:59
So it's not only that we said we're gonna deploy this technology
42:03
but also we made personal investments and making sure that the
42:08
teams and the customer gets what they,
42:10
what they really need when your teams comes to you and said
42:15
we're not gonna be able to do this because I have
42:18
received five nos. And if you believe that makes sense,
42:22
then you take the problem and you follow through until you get
42:27
a solution for your teams.
42:29
You show that you work in a different way like pivot in
42:32
something that is negative to something that is positive,
42:35
leading by example, that's not different from a person in us
42:39
or in Europe or Middle East.
42:42
It is, I believe one thing is the passion that we
42:45
do it and the way that we do it is something that
42:48
is normal. It was in a,
42:50
in a conversation the other day and we were talking about priorities
42:53
in the business. And I said it in a way that
42:59
but someone said, if I said that in that way,
43:02
I maybe was going to be thrown out of the room.
43:05
You said it and everyone was like happy with you saying it
43:10
no, no, I don't care about the year of implementation
43:13
Let's talk about Americas and then we start talking about America's
43:18
and the the reason of the meeting was the European one,
43:22
but I needed the Americas one to be first.
43:26
And, and my peers said,
43:28
if I said that I was gonna be thrown up and you
43:31
got it in the agenda,
43:33
I don't know. It's the natural way that we say things
43:36
because we're natural. We are spontaneous,
43:38
respectfully, but spontaneous.
43:40
So maybe the, the flipping the script is we,
43:43
people may think of us as shameless,
43:45
but we are actually straightforward.
43:48
I'm pretty straightforward. Now I learn every day like English is
43:53
my second language. And I didn't learn English when I was
43:56
12 or 13, I took English classes.
43:59
But I learned English really when I was 20 I learned every
44:03
single day. So I said to my team,
44:05
I in my broken English,
44:07
many mistakes. And sometimes you see people that laugh at you
44:11
because you pronounce it incorrectly and you can feel bad.
44:15
And one of my bosses once one day said when I came
44:18
here, you never apologize again.
44:20
You speak three languages and some of us barely speak one.
44:24
So when you start learning that and,
44:28
and let people know that you're not ashamed of learning.
44:32
I'm not ashamed of learning.
44:33
I, I learn every day and it's an excuse when you
44:36
don't speak well, the language to somehow you know,
44:39
like flow, go with the flow.
44:40
My husband would say that that is the that is the
44:43
formula for our happy marriage because he understands only two thirds of
44:50
It's right. And also is the icebreaker.
44:54
When you make a mistake,
44:55
people is gonna say to you what I said,
44:57
I'm so sorry, is my broken English.
44:59
So let's get back and teach me how to say it correctly
45:03
and my son is totally different.
45:04
Yeah, my son corrects me all the time.
45:06
And I said with love,
45:08
if you don't correct me with love,
45:10
you're gonna be in problem.
45:12
I'm gonna learn now.
45:14
We have two more questions.
45:15
OK? If you could go back to your own 30 year
45:19
old self and tell her,
45:21
give her some career advice.
45:23
What would you tell yourself the same thing?
45:25
Follow your dreams? But you did.
45:28
So something that maybe you,
45:29
you wish somebody more senior with this with the perspective of you
45:35
made it, you're at the top,
45:36
you're confident you're killing it.
45:38
Your English is great.
45:39
What would you tell your learn English before?
45:42
Yeah, maybe learn English before.
45:45
Learn technology before. Now,
45:48
younger generations don't be comfortable just having your career,
45:53
build up your resume,
45:55
build up your expertise,
45:58
get exposed to new technologies,
46:00
to new people, to new cultures.
46:03
Don't be afraid. Incredible.
46:05
So, is there anyone that you think we should have in
46:11
this podcast? Is there any woman Latina that you admire that
46:14
You think that we should have Anna?
46:16
Anna should have. Ana Yes,
46:19
Anna is great. Anna is an amazing,
46:22
amazing person and just to close Natalia,
46:26
what I'm like, just like a summary of everything we just
46:29
said in the, in the last couple of minutes.
46:31
What would you say is your playbook then?
46:34
II I don't have a playbook.
46:35
No, just you just gave us a,
46:37
a pieces, pieces altogether.
46:40
be truly to yourself,
46:44
be prepared and be open.
46:48
So thank you for being open to sharing your story.
46:51
Thank you for coming prepared.
46:52
Thank you for being,
46:54
I know, I know I'm just like closing the podcast with
46:57
some, with some love with your sons.
47:00
Exactly. So thank you for being super prepared for being true
47:05
to yourself and for sharing all your wisdom with our audience,
47:08
Natalia. It was amazing having you in the podcast.
47:11
Thank you for your wisdom and generosity.
47:13
Thank you for inviting me.
47:14
It's been a pleasure to be here and with you,
47:16
we're gonna be able to lead and succeed at La Latina.
Series