Ep 41: Dr. Denise Mahoney: Building the Future Diverse Workforce

Diva Tech Talk was thrilled to chat with Dr. Denise Mahoney, the Pre-Apprentice Liaison for the Kent County Technical Career Center, situated in the Kent County, Mi., Intermediate School District. Her current work is funded by a U.S. Department of Labor grant obtained by Grand Rapids Community College in partnership with Macomb Community College to increase the number of technology-oriented apprentices in West Michigan. Denise is focused on identifying and fostering technical opportunities and educational paths for 11 th and 12 th graders, poising them for successful life missions.

“Companies should keep their eyes open to the apprenticeship model,” Denise said. “It is just another way to get qualified employees into the workforce.” Our discussion with her ranged from college affordability to the paucity of jobs available to traditional college graduates to mentorship to the usefulness of practical, employer-driven apprenticeships, and everything in between!

Denise found programming early in her academic life, since Fortran and Cobol were part of her initial undergraduate curriculum at the University of South Dakota. Originally aimed at a business career, Denise worked for a financial company serving the Kodak Corporation, but was quickly drawn into another love: teaching. So, moving to

Michigan, she went back to Western Michigan University to get her teacher’s certificate in business subjects, with an additional certification in occupational education for grades 7 through 12. She then moved over to Michigan State University for her Master’s in Education Leadership. She primarily taught business courses including Microsoft applications, and then migrated into teaching IT courses. Denise ultimately obtained her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at New Mexico State University, and her dissertation concentrated on issues of gender diversity in technology. She described her personal evolution as “not super-exciting but fairly typical of people who moved into IT from other areas.”

Denise truly enjoys working at a high school career tech center that has served over 2300 students, to date. “Our students come to us, and they learn core content (like math and English) through their technical classes. And then we are passionate about teaching them ‘employability skills’ like teamwork, problem-solving, resume-writing -- anything to do with getting a job. So, we are heavily into whatever the next step is for students, whether they are going to college, going to a tech school, or going out into the workforce.”

70% of Denise’s students are placed as apprentices in information technology roles, while the other 30% are situated in manufacturing environments and/or mechatronics. The benefits for her students include the ability to “earn while they learn;” the opportunity to test their fitness for a specific technical career; the chance to test a company’s culture; the option to attain a recognized credential; and the ability to gain a career mentor, with “real life” experience. The companies who participate in the program increase access to a talented, expanded workforce and the chance to “try before they buy” in terms of potential job candidates. Denise is overjoyed that the companies involved in the program are routinely surprised at how prepared her student apprentices are. “Our students are well-positioned to do great things,” she enthusiastically stated. As Denise sees it, it is a “Win/Win” solution for both sides.

Leading the program has also increased Denise’s knowledge of the “real world” economic needs of major employers particularly in terms of technology skills necessary today, and in the future. Denise offered key advice for students.

“Learn everything you can,” she exclaimed. “We are training you for jobs that don’t even exist,” today. For her doctorate, Denise gathered data, in a phenomenological approach, about women in technology fields, and the factors that influence them to choose technology careers. She found five key themes. Per her dissertation on women in technology:

• Were influenced by others including parents, teachers, friends, boyfriends etc.;
• Had a supportive network, comprised of people who encouraged them;
• Mentored others, and were automatically turning around to give back to their profession(s);
• Had technological aptitudes, despite “myths” and preconceptions that women are not as technically proficient as men; and
• Had well-developed communication skills, that helped them succeed.

She sees the female technologist’s success paragon as collaborative and creative. Roles rewarding those traits are what women in her study needed, and she believes that is what the field should offer them. Many of the employers with whom Denise works tell her that what they want in employees are not just the technical skills but the “soft skills”: teamwork, collaboration, problem-solving, and the predilection to help and collaborate with others.

Denise stressed that “IT is a great career for women.” It offers flexibility, the ability to be “hands-on” if that is what you desire, and strong opportunities for leadership. “You just have to figure out where your niche is,” Denise said.

Please feel free to contact Dr. Denise Mahoney at: denisemahoney@kentisd.org.

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Ep 40: Logicalis: Celebrating Girls (and Women) in Technology

Diva Tech Talk was honored to be onsite at one of the largest Midwestern offices for Logicalis U.S., during its recent GIRLS IN TECHNOLOGY DAY. Logicalis (www.us.logicalis.com) is an international information technology solutions and managed services provider that designs, builds and supports enterprise technology solutions for customers throughout Europe, North and South America, and Asia Pacific.  The day included the CEO of Logicalis U.S., other Logicalis executives, executives from Logicalis customers, an executive from CISCO’s Meraki division, CISCO staff members, high school teachers, and MCWT (Michigan Council of Technology) members ---- who all volunteered their time to part of the agenda.  Volunteers found that they gained as much from helping at the event, as the girls who were hosted.

During the full day, Logicalis entertained 56 high school and early college girls, offering tailored discussions of practical topics related to succeeding in a technology career. Horizon-broadening sessions covered topics as diverse as: uncovering what you are good at, communicating with confidence, the wide variety of career options in the technology field, how to use social media to build your personal brand, how to ace a job interview, and how to write an excellent resume.  The day included a tour of the Logicalis offices, highlighting the latest technology the company uses to enhance employee productivity, and featured “hands on” interactive sessions, as well as affording the participants the opportunity to get professional headshots done, throughout the morning and afternoon.

Logicalis supports an internal group dedicated to fostering the missions of its own women employees.  Two of the veteran leaders of that group (Logicalis Vice Presidents, Renae Johnson and Julie Spiller) were in the cohort interviewed during this podcast.  WOMEN OF LOGICALIS has introduced a variety of programs to inspire and help its women employees.   Julie mentioned their “Empower Hours,” a bimonthly phone session, to serve Logicalis women throughout the U.S., featuring topics and speakers of unique interest.  Both Renae and Julie are enthusiastic proponents of community service and mentoring (including spontaneous “mentor moments”), and feel that they receive as much as they contribute when participating in those activities.

Ghazal Asif, Director of Global Channels of Cisco Meraki, was a key participant in the day. The older sister of three younger female siblings, Ghazal was enthusiastic about having the chance to be one of the main keynote speakers since “the idea of women having equal opportunity is very near and dear to my heart.” She spoke eloquently about the need to be fearless in the face of any setback, or any opportunity.  “We get so scared,” she said. “We are scared someone is going to say ‘no’ to us; we’re scared to raise our hand; we’re scared to negotiate. If we can just learn to harness that fear, and realize that feeling is natural.  We’re human beings, we are wired to be scared.  But go and do it anyway. More women would progress within their careers, if there wasn’t a fear that was holding them back.”  

Ghazal is passionate about her role in leading the WOMEN OF MERAKI effort in her own company, and contributing to events, like this day, to encourage girls/women. “If we look at the data and the stats, it is sad to see that over the last couple of decades, we haven’t made much progress” in diversity building, she said. “Yet, as of today, there’s more awareness, more research on why diversity and inclusion is so good for companies. In every industry, across every function, women are under-represented. More women should step forward so that in 10 or 20 years from now, we can look back and say ‘we made a difference and we changed some of those stats’ for the next generation, and generations to come.”  Ghazal also discussed how she works on building diversity in the teams that she personally leads. “Every single person has biases,” she said. “I try and make sure that I am very aware of any self-conscious biases that I might have. And I encourage other leaders, particularly hiring managers, to do the same thing.”   Ghazal additionally exhorts other technology -oriented women to “let young girls know how rewarding of a career technology is!”  

Finally, Vince DeLuca, CEO of Logicalis, took time to present to this audience because “these young ladies are our future.”  DeLuca was encouraged by his interactions with the girls and women.  “Knowing that they have interest in technology is really important,” he said.  “I also think that overall diversity in the field is wildly important to our (Logicalis) success. When we have a male-dominated organization, with just male leaders, we don’t enough of a flow of ideas.”   DeLuca spoke about other initiatives that Logicalis is implementing to address the gender gap.  “We have a full-fledged diversity program that we kicked off recently,” he said.  “We’ve brought in outside consultants to help us really understand what that framework should look like. We firmly believe that having more women leaders in our organization will really help us.”

“We have a formal mentoring program when people come into Logicalis, and it’s not meant to be just a ‘one time’ thing” DeLuca shared. He points to his own career having been strongly assisted by having a mentor. “Having that individual be there for you is ultra-important to your success.”   Encouraging a variety of mentors, DeLuca also said “You can never have enough input.” DeLuca really enjoyed his event participation.  “To see the amount of interest, the general attention of these young ladies is really rewarding.  The benefit that I get out of this would be seeing every one of these folks succeed in their own passion.  I may not get to see that individually, but as a group I think they will do that; and that, to me, is the best reward that I could ever get.”

DeLuca waxed philosophical about how the overall education of our youth can be helped by everyone in their environment. “We live in such an interesting world right now.  I think, as a society, we need to do a better job educating everyone about what’s happening out there,” he said.  “There should be ways to educate people who are not in technology-centric, urban areas.   That should be a foundational element.  Then, as you do with your own children, you work with them, day in and day out, making sure they have a platform for success. It does start at home. From a technology perspective, we need to make sure that the moms are just as equipped to understand what’s happening out there. And then, I think we need some programmatics in the school system. There’s a bit of a foundation that is ‘real world’ that needs to be applied in the classroom.”  DeLuca sees some key tech trends that can help with this.  “Collaboration has to be near the top,” he said. “There’s so many ways to connect vast amounts of resource groups or information.”   DeLuca is proud that community-building is part of the Logicalis culture. “Giving back to the communities we serve is a core value, across all our offices,” he said. “It’s so important to us, not just to reap the benefit of what we are trying to do with our customers, but making an impact into the community."

Learn more about Logicalis: www.us.logicalis.com/

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Ep 39: Janet Tyler: When to slow down and when to accelerate

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Janet Tyler, Chief Operating Officer, at Red Level Networks (www.redlevelnetworks.com) a Microsoft partner company. As a child, Janet admits that while she was drawn to math and science, she “was not particularly good at math and science.” But her early tech interest was fostered by her father who encouraged her, consistently, to explore it. “That carried me in through college” where Janet earned an MBA in Organizational Development at Eastern Michigan University, and says that her computer interest was a continuous underlying theme for her. “I had a unique ability that was recognized early in my academic career to talk about the true transformative power of technology,” she said. From then onward, Janet recognized that she was and would always be “an early adopter” of tech solutions.

After getting her master’s degree, Janet’s first job was at New Horizons (www.newhorizons.com)where she initially trained customers on emergent applications (like Microsoft DOS). “I really loved teaching. I had something to offer the workforce, struggling with DOS, WordPerfect, all the Microsoft suite. At the time, a graphic user interface was brand new!” Janet traveled extensively, training end-users on relatively new applications, and then moved into a New Horizons marketing and operations management role. “I got to take my love of technology and share that with the masses!” After 4.5 years at New Horizons, Janet moved to the Franco Public Relations Group. “The common thread in my career,” Janet said, “has always been Microsoft. (www.microsoft.com ).” Bill Gates (founder and then CEO of Microsoft) had been instrumental in making a $1 million grant to the Detroit Public Library system and Franco saw the resulting opportunity to build a fledgling PR practice around technology. Janet was hired to lead that technology practice. Some of her Franco accounts included Microsoft, Omnicom, T-Mobile, Supply Solutions Inc. and various tech startups. This new challenge taught Janet invaluable lessons about growing and building teams.

After four years at Franco PR, Janet “hatched an idea” with the President of Franco (Lisa Vallee Smith) to “spin off a company that was dedicated solely to the needs of technology companies.” That company was Airfoil Public Relations (www.airfoilgroup.com) for which she was initially President and Chief Operating Officer. Born during the “Y2K era,” Airfoil exclusively served tech businesses. “Business was great,” Janet said. Even when the economic downturn in technology that resulted from the Y2K “bust” caused opportunities to fade, this wasn’t an issue for Airfoil. “We started the company early enough so that when that crash happened, we were already so financially disciplined that not only did we withstand that economic downturn, we really thrived in it, because we were standing out as the young, scrappy upstart.” Janet’s role at Airfoil continued to evolve and grow as the company grew. “I thrive in a COO role. I love the HR component, which is rare for someone with my background; and I love the accounting function. I am still really good at reading a balance sheet, understanding a P & L, and how to plan for budgeting,” she said. As the company grew, Janet moved to Silicon Valley, with her two young children and husband, to strengthen Airfoil’s growth. She spent 3-4 years establishing the Airfoil operation in California, before moving back to the Midwest in the middle of the 2009 recession. “At the end of the day I completed the job I had set out to do.” In 2012, Janet then became co-CEO of the company. Among Airfoil accounts were eBay, eBay Motors, Microsoft, LinkedIn, PayPal, and many others including less renowned startups from whom Janet learned a lot. She loved the culture at Airfoil. “You’re working with really smart people. The culture embraced fun, collaboration, and teamwork; and embraced learning -- - we invested in training and development.”

Eventually, Janet made the decision to leave Airfoil to join Red Level to help them pursue their “mission to provide IT consulting and services to companies throughout Michigan, predominantly, who are invested in technology and who innovate.” There for two years, as COO, Janet has been having a “great ride.” A characteristic she brings to the company is process orientation, and the discipline to maintain it. “In a way, I am the internal Chief Communications Officer,” she said, citing clearer and more regular results-sharing with the Red Level team as a milestone in architecting an enhanced corporate culture. Overseeing all operations and marketing, she has her fingers on many facets of the company.

Janet’s personal strengths as they have developed over the years, and serve her well in her new role include:

• Strong communications capability
• Process orientation/discipline to enforce processes
• Start-up insight and skills
• Project management capabilities
• Broad future view/vision, born of being an entrepreneur
• Sincere team orientation

Being a woman has not negatively affected Janet. “I have rarely looked at myself as a ‘woman’ leader,” she said. “My lens is not geared to that.” But she admits, at times, to being “a feisty, spirited competitor. If I am competing against a man, I might roll up my sleeves even a little more.” One of her personal weaknesses, along the way, has been Janet’s occasional “negative self-talk, and self-doubt.” Now, she is achieving an even greater level of peaceful, internal balance through mindfulness and meditation. “Today, I have arrived at a place where I have spent a lot of time thinking about that. I have really had to separate thought from reality. I am getting much better at that.”

Janet’s top leadership lesson for other women includes the realization of the point where you approach individual burnout. Then, she counsels, one must learn how to train/develop others, build a team and lead it to remain effective in delivering results. “This can be very difficult for people who have a high need for control.” But she recommends it highly. “Let go of that need for perfection. You’ve got to be great a multitasking.” She also recommends that you learn “when to slow down and when to speed up” both in getting things done, and in making decisions.

A crucial issue with which Janet currently grapples is finding the right tools and environment for the Red Level team (many of whom are dynamically moving into more senior roles that involve increased leadership) to stay engaged with customers, continue to do great work, but also effectively manage growing teams of other people, without sacrificing their ability to use their individual, unique talents and skills at the highest level. She would love to hear the thoughts of the Diva Tech Talk audience on this topic.

So, if you have any tips, please feel free to contact JanetTyler at jtyler@redlevelnetworks.com or through Twitter at @janet_tyler.

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Ep 38: Julie Christ: Digital Disrupter Building Life-Long Client Relationships

Diva Tech Talk interviewed veteran tech professional, Julie Christ, Founder and CEO of TechSmart Solutions.  Julie originally thought she would be an Emergency Room doctor, but was challenged by chemistry in high school.  One of eight siblings, she was, then encouraged by an older brother-in-law to consider a technology career because “it was new and cool.”   So, Julie graduated from the University of Michigan, with a computer science degree, and a business minor, then a relatively new degree program.

“It was pretty leading edge,” said Julie.  “Throughout my career, I would be the only female in a room of 40-50 people.  It was a differentiator for me.  It never inhibited me; it never bothered me. I just knew that I would be remembered!”   As a woman with a long career in tech, Julie said it saddens her that the percentage of women graduating in computer science curricula has significantly dropped since she was at her university. “I definitely look out for opportunities to bring females forward,” Julie said. “Because it’s really about empowerment.  It gives you that opportunity to earn an income that gives you a very nice lifestyle.  I think it’s important to coach and mentor women to pursue tech.”

Julie’s first job was as a business analyst at Compuware (www.compuware.com) in the 1980’s.  In that role, she said “You were working with your customer to understand what their needs are from a tech perspective.”   Julie’s first customer was behemoth General Motors (www.gm.com).  “We built training for a corporate graphics system. It was one of those defining experiences.  I embraced it.” Julie soon had other automotive companies, like Ford Tractor, and Ford Marketing (www.ford.com).  “That work was ‘bleeding edge’ for the time.  We created a marketing solution, and sent out disks, back in the day, to direct consumers.   That has become my niche, working closely with advertising and marketing teams. Those groups have funding, and more often than not, they are doing leading, ‘bleeding edge’ work, which is my passion!”

Julie then had the opportunity to move overseas, and lived in London, U.K. for a year working for Little Caesar’s.  When she returned to the U.S., she continued with Little Caesar’s (www.littlecaesars.com) in their corporate headquarters as a technical project manager. She also assumed complete responsibility for that private company’s gamut of financial systems.  “It was really an honor to be able to do that for them,” she said.  “They’re very successful and very loyal to their people.  So, it was a great experience to be part of their organization.”  

Julie left Little Caesar’s to seek futuristic tech challenges, and commenced the consulting segment of her career, working for EDS (www.eds.com), where she underwent rigorous leadership training.  “I had a team of 45 working for me, and that was really, really fun.  That aligned with Y2K work; everyone was so worried that the world was going to crash, and, of course, it turned out to be nothing.”  Then Julie moved, for the next 5 years, to $9 billion automotive supplier, Meritor, where she is proud to have had a career of “firsts”, and was part of “some amazing projects!”  As one example, “we were the first organization, that I know of, creating applications for mobile phones.

On a Blackberry, we could provide inventory numbers to the V.P.’s, of Operations, so they could walk into a plant and say ‘Hey. This number is too high; or we need to ensure that we have enough coverage for this product line.’”  A director at Meritor, Julie was responsible for web infrastructure and development, with a direct-reporting 20-person team; and she also created an offshore resource center, in Bangalore, India. “At that time, we were one of the first organizations to be doing that.”

Julie thinks of herself as a “generalist.”  She said “I like building things or fixing things. The apps we created at Arvin Meritor, for example, saved the company millions of dollars.   At that time, many suppliers were filing for bankruptcy; we did not.   We were able to move through that time, partially because of the savings our team was able to create for the organization.”  Continuing her love for the automotive industry, Julie went, subsequently, to Volkswagen, under the aegis of Compuware, to launch VW.com (“which was a significant project, re-launched in a very tight timeframe, in multiple time zones and multiple countries, with no issues.”).   

Then, she migrated to R.L. Polk (www.rlpolk.com), a supplier of market research and data for the automotive industry.  “I purposely took the role as a Director of Sales Operations,” she said, “because I wanted to learn how to get more integrated into a sales solution.”  Her team was over 150 people, and the role comprised “a lot of travel, and the opportunity to coach and mentor.”   

Leaving R.L. Polk, Julie became an entrepreneur, founding TechSmart in 2008, with a fundamental mission of providing overall company solutions (“whether that’s a technical solution, or a business solution”).  Her client base includes organizations in hospitality, municipal government area, food services, banking as well as several core automotive customers. “When I spend time with clients, they ask me back, because they see the value that I bring.  And I treat people with respect and regard, which I think is ‘where it’s all at’ in life, right?”

Throughout her career, Julie has always enjoyed the mentoring role. “My gifts are being able to build relationships, and help people through whatever situation they are in.”   To Julie, her consulting practice doesn’t just cover the analysis of infrastructure and business processes. “It’s also at the individual level.  If you can help an individual become more high-performing, the business wins.”

Julie’s key leadership strengths include her energy/drive, her adeptness at mentoring, her skill as a business diagnostician, and her ability to form “life-long relationships with my clients.”   She exclaimed “I have had people tell me life-long secrets that they’ve told no one else. And I feel very honored that someone would trust me.”  She foresees her ongoing life’s mission as being involved with leading edge technology, which helps her “keep my brain sharp and interesting” and helps her serve TechSmart’s growing client base “when there’s a gap or a situation we need to solve”, by looking at “the bigger picture” and figuring out “what other technologies can we use going down the path.”  Julie sees artificial intelligence and machine-based learning as being two of the most promising emerging technologies today.

In terms of overcoming challenges, Julie views the latest U.S. recession, layoffs in which she has had to participate, and managing the survivors of layoffs as some of her most educational periods.   Her leadership lessons for other women/girls in tech include:

• Deploy kindness – “treat people the way you want to be treated.”

• Recognize diversity – “to me it’s about the fact that each one of us has gifts; if you can figure out the gifts that a person has, the individual wins, the team wins, and the organization wins.”

• Be humane and human.   But DON’T over-apologize, because that will lead people to question your credibility.  In terms of women professionals, Julie said “It’s our own ‘glass ceiling’….”

• Make sure you have mentors.  “Look for people who have alignments to what you think makes up a good leader.”

To achieve balance in her life, Julie has a philosophy that “life is like an isosceles triangle.”   She emphasizes personal health and self-care, but she acknowledges that “life is not always an equal triangle.”  

Julie’s only daughter is currently working for a Massachusetts-based start-up.  And as a single mother, Julie mentioned that it is “about finding the joy in everything you do.  Just enjoy the moment where you are at.”

On an ongoing basis, Julie is involved in a CIO online “chat” devoted to emerging technologies and she can be followed on Twitter at @DigitalDisruptr.  She can also be reached via email at juliechrist@techsmartsolutions.co.

Great additional read on
10 Ways to Improve The Customer Journey 
https://instrktiv.com/en/blog/usability/customer-journey/

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Ep 37: Jennifer Pfaff: Running with her Career in Focus

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Jennifer Pfaff, a woman with a rich history of technology leadership accomplishments.  Jennifer is now the Director of Store IT Services for Domino’s (www.dominos.com), a company averaging $2.3 billion in annual revenue, ranking as the 2nd largest franchisor of pizza retail outlets in the world.

Jennifer did not originally intend to pursue information technology as a career.  She initially envisioned her future as an electrical engineer designing cochlear implants to improve the hearing of those with damaged inner ears, since she suffered an auditory loss at a young age. (“Listening and really hearing someone is very, very important” is one of the key lessons that Jennifer learned from her disability). But while at the University of Arizona, she interviewed engineers at a research facility in Los Angeles, and quickly came to the decision that electrical engineering was not her life’s mission. She changed to a double major in Business, with a concentration in  MIS and Operations Managmement; and took her first job in Battle Creek, Mi. at the headquarters for Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) in the information technology department, subsequently moving into sales there “to learn how we really did our business.” She then managed a Kellogg sales territory that encompassed Montana, Washington State, and Idaho, before returning to Michigan to the automotive industry as a consultant with Ernst & Young.  From that sales stint, she learned “You have to understand your customer.  You have to put yourself in their shoes.  You have to gain trust of the people you are talking to.  It’s about understanding what he or she needs to learn from you.  It’s not all about the technology.”

Coming back to Michigan, “I worked for all three of the Big 3 U.S. automotive companies either directly or through consulting,” Jennifer said. “Early on, I discovered that my passion was in the project side of IT.”  One of her favorite early projects, a breakthrough personalized car owner website for Ford, is very characteristic of the rest of her career.  Jennifer and her team began the project with few requirements or resources, but a very aggressive development timeline. “We had to come together as a group. We didn’t know what the site was going to look like.  We didn’t know how we were going to deliver it. We didn’t know what the technology was going to be to deliver it.  All we knew was that we had a deadline, and a very eager customer.”  In Jennifer’s view the amorphous nature of the project and the quick timeline “drove creativity.”  Crediting her “fantastic team,” this shaped a crucial career philosophy for Jennifer: “If you have the opportunity to try something new, out of your comfort zone, with high visibility” do it!

Jennifer’s next challenge came when she went to another Fortune 500 company, Jacobs Engineering (www.jacobs.com), an international technical and engineering professional services firm, with over 80,000 employees, and 127 offices all over the globe.  Jacobs is one of the top 100 contractors to the U.S. Federal Government, and Jennifer led their global technology project office, managing a worldwide team on several continents. There, through several projects -- including one that was the creation of a structured representation of the $10 billion company’s total enterprise architecture, globally -- she and her team “learned to take a leap,” and move swiftly and fearlessly toward large project goals.

From Jacobs, Jennifer migrated to her current technology role at Domino’s. Among other things, her team is working on strengthening and securing the online, ordering and transaction system that allows consumers to place orders.  She has also just joined Domino’s product strategy group, where she will be helping to roll out new digital innovations for Domino’s franchisees and consumers.  “We’re a technology company who just happens to make pizza,” she exclaimed! Among other exciting developments she described Domino’s web-based “Pizza Tracker” that allows consumers to track orders, in real time online, and coupled that with other innovative solutions that save consumer ordering preferences, to speed up transactions and service.   

Jennifer is clearly strongly enjoying her new role at Domino’s and is looking forward to going to “Pizza Class” very soon, so that she experiences the business from the ground up.  At work, Jennifer also stresses developing an unofficial learning culture in the corporation.  “I look for opportunities for taking team members in my group to meetings.  I offer intern spots on my team.  I make sure I provide coaching and mentoring too.”  Her advice to our audience is that, through observation and questions, leaders ensure that everyone have the chance to speak up and “have a voice.”   According to Jennifer, the culture of Domino’s is “if you work hard, good things happen.”

In assessing her own personal strengths, Jennifer said “I think I can apply ‘big picture’ vision, and take it right down to execution.”  Comparing it to running (a sport she avidly pursues), Jennifer said “focusing, driving forward, getting to the end goal” are characteristic of what she loves to do.  “And I think having a passion for learning and listening to customers or team members” also contributes to Jennifer’s success.   She is very grateful that “I have had the opportunity to model leadership skills from some of the top leaders in the IT world,” through her community involvement in The Michigan Council of Women in Technology (www.mcwt.org).  “I could practice my management and senior leadership skills” by doing extensive volunteer work, over 13 years, at that nonprofit.

Speaking of work/life balance, Jennifer says “You can have it all, but maybe not at the same time.  Don’t compare yourself to everyone else. Keep in mind what’s important for you; and do whatever works for you.”  One of the things that helps keep her balanced and focused is daily running. She has run 6 marathons and carries the lessons from the running experience into real life.  From the creativity perspective, Jennifer also mentions she is a “crazy knitter.”  She also said: “You can find leadership lessons in places where you least expect them, if you are really open and looking around, in whatever industry you are in” citing unexpected advice and counseling she received from customers along the way, and an unofficial mentor she was fortunate enough to meet through her community involvement.

Jennifer’s 3 pieces of cogent advice for aspiring women leaders and girls in tech is:

1. “As you are building your brand, focus on what you do best, make sure that you give some thought to what else it is that you think you want to do, in the future.”  (And try those other things!)

2. For all students, “take as much math as you possibly can. It teaches you to think.”

3. And “If you think broadly, give things a go and you are willing to try things, good things will happen.  Be ready; be flexible.”

Domino’s is hiring in the technology arena, in strategic planning, and in general, and Jennifer urges anyone interested to contact their Human Resources Department. Jennifer Pfaff can be reached via email at jen.pfaff@dominos.com, and on Twitter at @jenpfaff1.

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