Steven Leonard
Mark Braithwaite interviews
Steven Leonard, Asia Pacific & Japan Vice President - EMC Corporation
In enterprise storage, the EMC brand is all pervasive. In recent years, EMC has made 23 acquisitions, repositioning the company as the leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions, keeping it ahead of its competition by staving off the commoditization and margin erosion of its offering. EMC’s Asia Pacific & Japan operations, led by Steven Leonard, has revenues of more than US$1bn.
The integration of 23 acquisitions, brand repositioning and the cultural change needed to exploit their huge investment is the challenge Steven Leonard accepted when he joined EMC last April. He also accepted the challenge of growing EMC in APJ at a rate that keeps step with the “infrastructure build out” of the Asian economies.
MB: “By your accent, I can tell you grew up in the US. How long have you been in Asia?”
SL: “I had 3 years in Asia with EDS in the late 90’s, then went to Europe. I then came back to Asia with Veritas 4 years ago then joined EMC last April, so all up, that’s 7 years.”
MB: “How did you go about learning how to do business in Asia and how long did that take?”
SL: “What I brought with me from my European experience was the ability to listen first, before jumping in and saying ‘this is what we are going to do’. That was probably the biggest thing. Then there are the country specific learning’s that are unique to different Asian countries, like which chair to sit in at a meeting or which seat in a car to sit in depending who you are with. After 7 years, I know a fair amount, but every time I visit a country I learn something new. Asia is many countries and many cultures.”
MB: “In a mature company like EMC, with over 10 years in APJ, are there still challenges communicating with the US in terms of what needs to be done and that things may need to be done differently in Asia?”
SL: “All the time. It’s a constant battle for anyone working with a US company and to a lesser extent a European company. The biggest challenge for leaders in Asia is trying to communicate the priorities and differences in our markets without appearing to be making excuses. So the idea that ‘this won’t work in Japan’ is too simplistic a statement. What we need to say is… ‘here’s what we need to modify in order for it to be more successful’. Trying to build those communication bridges is key, because everyone in the US gets tuned out to the … ‘it won’t work in Japan approach’. I keep inviting the senior execs from head office to Asia so they can get a better understanding. I spend a lot of time in this type of communication.”
MB: “How do you communicate and enforce appropriate business practices in a place like China, where US acceptable compliance is largely ignored?”
SL: “It’s challenging in the sense that there is always a coaching back into the centre of the field that has to occur. Sometimes people will get confused and wander too close to the edge of the field and that’s where we can get into trouble. This is an ongoing challenge. I don’t need to modify my message in each country. It’s a case of here’s my expectation, I am asking for your help. If you go outside these boundaries, there’s no way back. You will be separated from the corporation. Everybody who needs to ask a question please do so now. And that’s it. I need to make sure that my leadership team understands it and lives it.”
MB: “You just described your communication with your team as short and clear. Do you need to modify your communication when dealing with different cultures?”
SL: “No. And I say it in every possible medium. We recently released a video to the team and as part of this, I said…’always clean business. Any monkey business and there is no road back’. The whole idea is to say it on a repeated, consistent basis and if somebody does not live it, there are consequences. I don’t modify my message. Whether I am in China, Japan or Singapore, it’s the same message. I continue to repeat this message because there are always new team members and I want them to hear that message directly from me. You can’t just say it once. I like to make things simple. You can’t say …. ‘here are the 19 things you need to think about’, that’s confusing.”
MB: “Companies don’t just move from being small to large. There is an evolution that takes place and part of this is the type of leaders needed. You were brought in as part of EMC’s newest phase of evolution. What did you find when you joined EMC and how did you go about starting a process of change?”
SL: “One of the things we had to confront was that the sales culture that worked for EMC in the past, was not consistent with the needs of the market now. The things that had made EMC successful in Asia were now becoming a problem for us. We were getting negative feedback from customers on our aggressive style. We had people on our team who were willing to do whatever it took to win deals and we had to terminate some people because of this. We also wanted to bring in a whole of business view. We had to move people into other roles as some of the team just did not have enough scars on their backs to be effective. A lot of it was just doing an honest assessment of our talent and then making some changes. I try to do this in the first 100 days because it does not get any better 6 or 12 months down the road.”
MB: “It takes time to make big change. Are you complete after 10 months?”
SL: “Ha Ha, there is always more to do. The environment is constantly changing and people who are right today may not be right tomorrow and we have to find something new for them to do. There are people who are good builders, those who are forging the trail and those who are damage controllers. We have now left the damage/repair phase and we are back into the building phase of our journey. The first 6 months was about confronting some significant structural problems that were costing us millions. I still spend 3 or 4 hours every week talking with team members about whether they are in the right job or if we should move them to do something else.”
MB: “What have you changed in terms of go-to market strategy?”
SL: “We were not working with partners and now we are. Partners are a key way for us to reach customers in the market. We re-invigorated our partner program and went on an aggressive campaign to communicate with 100’s of partners across Asia. We have invested significantly in training and awards for our partners. We are also investing in training our team members in a different way than we were. A more customer oriented messaging campaign as opposed to a product focus. Finally the concept of going to market with messaging that changes how we are perceived by customers, because previously, we were perceived as a storage company, but through 23 acquisition and billions of dollars in R&D, we are now a great deal more than that, so we are on a campaign to change that perception.”
MB: “What are the three points of advice you would offer to a company wanting to establish a beachhead in Asia?”
- 1. “It’s not only important to have somebody here. You need to have some support back at home base, because sending somebody to Asia to establish a beachhead without having sufficient resources on the other end is a losing battle.”
- 2. “Don’t send somebody here to cut their teeth. You need somebody with local experience because there are a lot of differences.”
- 3. “The most critical thing is to set up a team that has more experience and knowledge than you do.”
This interview was conducted by Mark Braithwaite, an Asia based Director of Mosaic Global Executive Search at the EMC Singapore offices on 30 January 2007.
