3 Takeaways learnt from Vodafone's President APAC in CEOx1Day

"I went in with the goal to understand what the key daily touch-points for a CEO of a large MNC are. I had 3 takeaways:

1.) Stakeholder engagement is extremely important for the progress of a company.

Yen Yen started the day off with a SLT meeting ensuring that all of the Senior Leaders are updated on the latest on goings of each department/division. I believed this ensured that all of her one-downs are on the same page with key business progress. The All-Hands meeting at the end of the day ensured that Yen Yen is able to engage majority of Vodafone employees across APAC on Vodafone’s business outlook and key activities. Positive growth also acts as a motivation for the people within Vodafone.

2.) Top-line and Bottom-line performance of the company is one of the top priorities of the CEO.

Of course, this goes without saying. I have learnt from my Organisation Behaviour module in school that financial performance is one of the top priorities of the CEO. I was very fortunate to see the above concept for myself through the 2 meetings that Yen Yen had. The first group meeting she touched upon the sales performance of Vodafone with key clients and leads. The second SLT meeting touched more on the OPEX for the coming FY. Being able to see the key issues a CEO handles from a top-line and bottom-line perspective was incredible.

3.) Breadth of learning and development is important for one’s career.

At the end of the day I had more opportunities to speak to Yen Yen and asked her a few questions with regard to her career. I have a keen interest in strategy consulting and one of the questions I asked was “What advice would you give to an undergrad who is soon to start his career in the corporate world?” Yen Yen went on to share with me about how important strategy is, but a strategy will not be “wholesome” if one does not have proper understanding of how the different operations within a company function together. She had the opportunity to develop such an understanding through her previous experiences in multiple departments across HP, Oracle and SAS. This is definitely a key takeaway that I will have with me to guide key career decisions in the future.

 

I would hence rate my one-day experience with Yen Yen a 10/10! I learnt a lot from the various activities throughout the day and I enjoyed the lunch session with JP, the Head of HR in VGE, who shared with me about his >12 years of experience in Vodafone. The CEC exhibition was also really cool as I got to see the different products that Vodafone had to offer. Leo was an extremely great presenter who explained each product to me."

 

Click here to view Jie Le's day with Yen Yen at Vodafone