028: The GENDER LEADERSHIP DIVIDE w/ VMWare & Lean In Singapore's Uma Thana Balasingam

04/12/21 • 64 min

In recent years, we have seen an increase in the number of initiatives that have raised global awareness about the importance of gender diversity, the challenge of the gender pay gap - as well as the issue of a lack of women in senior leadership positions.

But while these initiatives draw more attention to these issues, what I want to understand is has this attention led to progress. Are we getting any closer to closing the Gender Gap?

And today’s guest, Uma Thana Balasingam, is ideally suited to help me delve deeper into this question.

In her day job, she’s the Vice President of the Partner & Commercial Organization for VMWare in Asia Pacific. She has also been recognised by CRN in their “Most Powerful Women of the Channel” global list, and she also features in Singapore’s Top 100 Women in IT.

But she does so much more across the ICT ecosystem than just that.

She’s also the Co-Founder of Lean In’s Singapore Chapter and the Founder of Lean In Women in Tech Asia and Women in Tech Singapore.

Show Notes:

02:00 Intro to Uma - how she got where she is today

07:20 The opportunities the pandemic created for VMWare

10:00 How has the pandemic affected how you communicate with your internal and external teams?

14:00 What do you understand today from a business perspective that you wish you understood 5 or 10 years ago?

17:00 How has an introvert thrived in what many would think are extrovert roles?

20:00 We hear about gender equality and the gender pay gap, but the question is, are we really making progress?

24:00 The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 highlights the massive gender gaps in emerging jobs - what do we need to do to improve this?

31:30 Intro to Lean In Singapore

33:30 What is unconscious bias? And can you give us examples of where you have experienced it?

42:40 The Provocative Questions. Uma and I agreed that I would be intentionally provocative in this section - asking her questions that some men might want to ask, but won’t because they are concerned they will be branded as sexist.

64:30 What can men do to help create fair and equal environments for women?

But while these initiatives draw more attention to these issues, what I want to understand is has this attention led to progress. Are we getting any closer to closing the Gender Gap?

And today’s guest, Uma Thana Balasingam, is ideally suited to help me delve deeper into this question.

But she does so much more across the ICT ecosystem than just that.

She’s also the Co-Founder of Lean In’s Singapore Chapter and the Founder of Lean In Women in Tech Asia and Women in Tech Singapore.

Show Notes:

02:00 Intro to Uma - how she got where she is today

07:20 The opportunities the pandemic created for VMWare

10:00 How has the pandemic affected how you communicate with your internal and external teams?

14:00 What do you understand today from a business perspective that you wish you understood 5 or 10 years ago?

17:00 How has an introvert thrived in what many would think are extrovert roles?

20:00 We hear about gender equality and the gender pay gap, but the question is, are we really making progress?

24:00 The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 highlights the massive gender gaps in emerging jobs - what do we need to do to improve this?

31:30 Intro to Lean In Singapore

33:30 What is unconscious bias? And can you give us examples of where you have experienced it?

64:30 What can men do to help create fair and equal environments for women?

Previous Episode

027: Addressing AI's ETHICAL ISSUES w/ the former US Dept of Defense's Chief Data Officer Michael Conlin

The amount of data that we create, capture, and consume is growing exponentially. In fact, according to IDC, the amount of data we will create in the next three years - will be more than the data we created over the past 30 years. That sounds great, but it does raise a lot of questions.

What are companies and governments doing with that data?

Is our data being used ethically?

Who should be responsible for setting the regulations about how data captured can be used?

These are just some of the questions that we will discuss in this podcast.

Today’s guest, Michael Conlin, will help delve deeper into these questions. He currently is the Chief Technology Officer for Definitive Logic, a US-based analytics and digital transformation specialist vendor, and was previously, the first ever Chief Data Officer for the U.S. Department of Defense (and almost the U.S. Data Czar - listen in to find out what happened).

Show Notes:

02:00 The journey that led a psychology major to become the first Chief Data Officer for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)

09:00 The transition from the private to the public sector - what attracted Micheal to the DoD?

14:30 What was it like on Day 1 when you realised you were responsible for straightening out the data structure and strategy for the DoD’s 3.2 million employees and across its 13,000 operational IT systems?

20:00 The U.S. has a Border Czar, Bird Flu Czar & Cybersecurity Czar - was he the Data Czar?

23:30 What are the main differences between being a CTO/CDO in the public versus private sector - and what unique challenges did you face with the DoD?

33:15 Why do we still trust Facebook despite its data breach that released the personal information of 533 million users - but don’t trust the government with our data?

43:15 The role of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence

52:15 Who should be responsible for setting the rules and regulations relating to the acceptable and ethical use of data captured by companies, governments, etc.?

60:00 Microsoft recently signed a USD 22 Billion contract with the US military to deliver 120,000 HoloLens mixed reality headsets. If you were the CDO/CTO overseeing this for the military, how would you mitigate the risks - and what opportunities would you see for the devices?

67:15 You recently left the U.S. DoD and its 3.2 million employees for Definitive Logic and its 250 employees. What led to the change?

71:30 The Fun questions

How does an introvert like you thrive in situations that require you to play the role of an extrovert?

Tell us about your interesting hobbies, including being a blacksmith, enamelist, glass gaffer, goldsmith, sculptor & lapidary.

Prince William was recently crowned the world’s sexiest bald man - are you disappointed that you weren’t nominated?

Next Episode

029: Your 2021 GADGET FIX: The latest trends in SMARTPHONES, WEARABLES & AIRTAGS w/ IDC's Bryan Ma

This TechBurst Asia podcast will give you your gadget fix for 2021. We will discuss Smartphones - which ones are doing well (Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi), which ones are struggling (Huawei, LG), and what features you can expect in the coming years.

We will look at the smart wearables market to see if Smartwatches have finally lived up to the hype, and to find out if anyone can catch the Apple Watch.

And finally, we’ll get the lowdown on the latest announcements from Apple about its latest iPad innovations, the launch of AirTags, and the new colourful iMacs.

To help us with this analysis, we are joined by one of the world’s leading device analysts, IDC Asia Pacific’s Bryan Ma.

SHOW NOTES:

02:00 Who is winning the smartphone race?

04:00 LG exits the smartphone market - what mistakes did they make?

06:30 Why do so many smartphone vendors fail (Nokia, BlackBerry, LG)

08:50 How the China / US trade war has led to Huawei’s chipset crisis

14:30 What are the latest features (cameras, foldables, rollables) that are driving the market?

18:00 What impact is 5G having on the smartphone market?

20:40 What the hell is a rollable phone? And do we need it?

22:00 When will Apple come out with a foldable phone?

23:00 Apple is releasing an iPhone software update with a new privacy feature that requires apps like Facebook to ask for the user’s approval to track them. Facebook hates this, I love it, what does Bryan think?

27:20 Can 5G’s speeds and low latency save AR/VR?

31:00 The latest on wearables - the big three vendors (Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei) are running away with it. Can Google save Fitbit? Should Samsung give up on the smartwatch market? And can anyone catch the Apple Watch?

39:00 Apple’s new product launches - the slick new iPads, colourful iMacs and surprise launch - Apple goes into tracking with AirTags.

49:00 Bryan’s predictions - what will the world look like in 5 years for smartphones, wearables and AR / VR / Mixed Reality headsets.