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Bee Kheng Tay is the President of Cisco Systems in Southeast Asia and is responsible for driving the networking products giant’s profitable growth. She also leads its go-to-market operations across the ten countries in the region.
Tay brings more than two decades of experience in the enterprise technology industry across Asia-Pacific and Japan. She is a seasoned leader with a proven track record in building innovative sales organisations.
Tay is passionate about encouraging women to pursue a career in STEM. Outside the world of IT, she has a keen interest in history, psychology, philosophy, and science.
In this candid interview, Tay talks about his personal life, professional life, and hobbies.
Excerpts:
How would you explain what you do to a 5-year-old?
I work for a technology company that builds the internet to connect people, things, and data to make the world a better place. My team helps businesses in Southeast Asia use technology to transform the way we work and play, scale their organisations and offer better services to people.
What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?
Like many other women, balancing and navigating the demands of my career and parenthood is challenging. It took me some time, but I have realised that these different aspects of my life are not at odds with each other. Instead, they complement and enrich my life. Staying present and focusing on the task at hand when the time calls for it has been a valuable skill for me.
Once I overcame that mental hurdle, I could accomplish many things. Some of my career highlights include becoming the first female Managing Director for Cisco Singapore and Brunei and the first female President for Cisco ASEAN, all while bringing my two children up as a single mother. In and outside of work, I continue to champion women in tech and advocate for a hybrid work model that empowers employees to work from anywhere and juggle their different roles at home and at work.
How do you envision the next five years of your career?
The tech industry holds tremendous potential to help bridge the digital divide and power sustainable innovation. Cisco’s purpose is to power an inclusive future for all. With the opportunities around us, I genuinely believe that technology is one industry that plays a crucial role in bridging the social divide in the world. This will not happen overnight, and I want to drive this momentum in ASEAN as I grow my career in IT with Cisco over the next few years.
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I look forward to working with my team to ensure that people and communities in the region can access the information they need seamlessly and securely and enjoy meaningful digital experiences powered by innovative, intuitive, and automated technology.
What are some of your favourite work tools?
I love that collaboration, like many other technologies, isn’t just a business for us. It helps us power our entire organisation.
Especially in a hybrid normal, it is understandable that employees feel distant from not seeing their team and colleagues in the office daily. However, with collaboration tools like Webex, we can reimagine the employee experience so it is engaging and consistent for our people, no matter where they connect.
We have designed Webex to level the playing field for all participants and enhance their engagement with features such as noise cancellation and voice enhancement technology, as well as real-time transcriptions and translations.
These not only facilitate and enhance communication but also ensure that the meeting experience is inclusive for everyone regardless of working locations and circumstances.
For us, inclusivity is more than a physical location. It supports your work style, whether you are an introvert or extrovert, digital native or occasional user, frontline worker, or remote knowledge worker. One of my favourite functionalities on Webex is People Insights, which provides insights into how employees spend their time and who they engage with most often.
The insights can only be seen by the employee and no one else, and this helps them uncover blind spots in how they work to empower them to stay more engaged, be better teammates, reduce potential fatigue and enhance well-being. This has helped me customise interactions with colleagues and plan my day to get the most out of work.
What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?
Despite my years in technology, I have always gravitated toward the arts. I am a voracious reader, and my favourite authors are Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Over the years, I have also developed an appreciation for art in its different forms. I’m not an art connoisseur, but I enjoy collecting and displaying paintings and art pieces in my home. Ironically, despite my inclination toward the arts, my favourite model is the Standard Model of Particles Physics, which describes the basic building blocks of all known matter. I am full of contradictions!
Do you prefer WFH or WFO or hybrid?
Cisco has always been a big proponent of hybrid work and is here to stay. As a leader, I have seen how hybrid work has helped achieve the fullest potential of employees by empowering them to be their best selves with the flexibility and convenience to work from anywhere and in a way that best works for them.
We are seeing improvements in overall employee performance, work-life balance, and well-being for employees not just in Cisco but across organisations in Singapore and globally.
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64 per cent of regional employees have shared that hybrid work has improved their productivity. As a result, they are taking more time for themselves, and 80 per cent say that their total well-being across various aspects of social, emotional, physical, financial, and mental has improved.
But challenges remain in fostering an inclusive environment and a sense of belonging for every employee. This fundamentally requires a rethink of various factors that underpin successful hybrid work, including inclusive culture, employee experience, and well-being enabled by technology and led by trust and empathetic leadership.
As leaders, we need to incorporate empathy, active listening, flexibility, and continuous learning in how we lead and engage with people. For example, Cisco conducts Quarterly Engagement Pulses to evaluate and spark conversations about how each employee feels about their team, the work environment, and themselves.
All employees take part in weekly check-ins with their managers that allow employees to have a focused conversation about their work sentiments, priorities, and strengths. This includes what they loved and loathed doing and the support they need from their managers each week.
What would you tell your younger self?
I would tell my younger self that everything is possible. You just need to want it hard enough, be passionate enough, and set goals to guide you consciously and unconsciously during your journey. But don’t be too hard on yourself and enjoy the journey. Beyond that, it is about believing in yourself and recognising that challenging times too will pass.
Can you describe yourself in three words?
No fear, no guilt, no regret.
What are you most likely to be doing if not working?
I love to read. I am very interested in particle physics, psychology, and philosophy. In my free time, I read non-fiction books on these topics.
Earlier this year, I set myself a target to read the top 100 books of all time on the TheGreatestBooks.org site.
What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?
I am currently in the “Great English Writer” phase. The book I am currently reading is Great Expectations, written by Charles Dickens. I am learning more about William Shakespeare and politics, which extends to watching lectures, reading novels, and watching plays on Macbeth, Hamlet, Henry V, Julius Caesar, Tempest, Merchant of Venice, and Twelfth Night.
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