Manoj Leelanivas, EVP Chief Operating Officer, Juniper Networks

Be Bold Podcast: Importance of Workforce Diversity - Episode 1

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Proven methods to foster success by promoting workforce diversity.

In this inaugural episode of the Be Bold podcast, Microsoft’s Chris Young shares ways to overcome the tough challenges underrepresented groups face in tech careers. Chris grounds his advice on personal experiences and common-sense approaches leaders can adopt today for tangible results.

Don’t miss his reminiscing about the central place a Commodore 64 had in his childhood home in Ohio. He also shares how an informal college network helped him navigate an early job.  And catch his advice for career growth by acquiring new skills, taking risks, and learning from mentors.

With millions of unfilled tech jobs, this is guidance you’re sure to put to good use.

Show more

You’ll learn

  • Why there’s a real need to expand technology access and educational opportunities

  • Ways mentors and networks help overcome feelings of isolation for those launching a tech career

  • Why a service-oriented style is needed to navigate rapidly changing leadership roles 

Who is this for?

Business Leaders

Host

Manoj Leelanivas Headshot
Manoj Leelanivas
EVP Chief Operating Officer, Juniper Networks

Guest speakers

Chris Young Headshot
Chris Young
EVP Business Development, Strategy, and Ventures, Microsoft

Transcript

0:00 being a person of color definitely has different

0:05 challenges as well as opportunities in one's career access not only to basic

0:11 things potentially like broadband or technology but also access to people and networks

0:17 that you know that would that would bring you along or who might encourage you or teach you

0:23 to follow a certain path in your life [Music]

0:30 [Applause] [Music]

0:37 welcome to the debut episode of be bold my name is manoj liyaniwas

0:42 chief operating officer juniper networks this new series aims to go beyond

0:47 technology go beyond speeds and feeds and instead focus on the people driving

0:52 the technology and business innovation chris i'm excited to have you on today's show

0:59 you have had an amazing career trajectory starting from aol rsa then

1:05 going into cisco and eventually now at microsoft walk us through a career trajectory

1:11 um thank you for having me with you i uh pleasure to be your inaugural guest for

1:16 your your podcast and i appreciate you taking on a challenging topic you know one that is top of mind

1:24 for so many of us but it's certainly an incredibly important topic and you know a challenge that we all got to go

1:30 through and solve you know if you think about it if i think about my own career trajectory as

1:35 you mentioned you know today i'm at microsoft i lead our business development our strategy our ventures teams spent a lot of my career you and i

1:42 know each other from you know me being in cyber security uh so i've had a great career in and around that

1:48 you know i will tell you though my first introduction to technology it's kind of a little bit of a fun story you know

1:53 like my i had a commodore 64 you know when i was a kid and uh you know for many of you who are you know over 45 you

2:01 can relate to this uh you know this thing had a had a disk drive that was about a foot and a half long

2:07 and six inches well it was a huge thing like i just remember this huge disk drive

2:12 huge cpu monitor keyboard all separate components um and i you know of course like a young

2:20 boy i did a lot of you know playing games on it and things like that but it was my first introduction to to

2:26 technology uh you know sort of as we know it you know today and i learned a program in basic on the

2:33 machine and you know you can you know write little you know write you know little different you know pieces of code

2:39 it was a different very different than what we were used to you know having like like the 3.5 and

2:44 actually the five and a half inch floppy disks in uh in those days and i will tell you um it got me sort of

2:51 interested early on in technology and look in my house man like i remember this like

2:58 literally that computer sat in the middle of our living room i grew up from cleveland and

3:04 there were no other furniture in the living room and like that like but that was a priority that got made at

3:10 some point in time in my family's journey and i'm thankful for that um and

3:17 you know when you start talking about you know diverse workforces and people coming from underrepresented communities

3:24 think of that image of the kid in his or her living room with maybe all they've got is an

3:31 opportunity to have a machine if they've got that opportunity and so those are some of the things that

3:36 we're up against as we you know seek tackle leveling the playing field for people from a variety of different backgrounds

3:44 uh in tech you know this is fabulous to hear that we are both dating ourselves

3:49 you know the commodore technology uh what was that you know do you remember that specific age when you said like

3:56 this is it for me you know i'm gonna go down this path this is this is it was it like very early you know you know before

4:03 your teens or was it in the teens you know can you give us an idea of when i think when i had that commodore i want

4:09 to say i was probably i don't know i definitely wasn't in my team i think i was early maybe pre-teen age at that

4:15 point um but you know there was never a like i would for me there was never a seminal moment where i was like okay i'm gonna

4:21 go be in tech i mean i you know back when when i was when i was growing up i i wasn't sure

4:27 what sort of career opportunities would be available to me and like i literally didn't know

4:34 anyone in a technology career when i was growing up i mean most of the people i knew were

4:41 working people and they worked in you know manufacturing plants

4:47 you know they worked in offices schools you know you name it they were service

4:52 people many of them so you know my father was in manufacturing my mother was uh you know she worked in a hospital

4:59 uh as an admin so i didn't know i didn't know anyone until much later in my life

5:04 till probably college that was actually in tech like that road software

5:09 or did anything with with technology i mean and that was a different time too i mean we're talking about many you know

5:16 many many years ago at this point in time and some things things have changed but growing up i

5:22 didn't have access to to these kinds of career you know these sort of career opportunities and so therefore

5:29 you know when i had a commodore 64 i wasn't thinking oh wow there's this great career that one could have as a

5:34 developer um and and but over time you know after college is when

5:40 you know that kind of that sort of set of opportunities really started to open up for me

5:46 you bring up a very good point i mean in those days there were different industries and tech wasn't actually in

5:51 the forefront right you got interested in computers you got interested in you know how things come together you know

5:56 in an automated fashion and then you applied the two together right but these days things are different right you know

6:02 tech is right and forefront of everything right your company microsoft apple all these companies are what

6:08 people you know kind of thrive to be part of right and when you're growing up they see all the equipment and the

6:14 gadgets they're playing with so tech is a little bit more forefront to everybody including everybody in the you know

6:20 underrepresented communities but still tech is not a go-to career you know from an unrepresented community point of view

6:27 how we how can we look at getting people to embrace this as a go-to carrier uh especially if you look

6:33 at the the communities in the minority you know i think it starts menos early in like i think we need to start early

6:40 in the life cycle for a lot of people you know as children you know look the reality is and this is from some of our

6:45 own work you know we estimate that like in the us alone there are still nearly like about 14 and

6:52 a half million households that don't have access to broadband to broadband right something that we all take for

6:59 granted you know we in silicon valley all take for granted uh in our lives but

7:04 there's just and and unfortunately as you pointed out earlier it's underrepresented minority communities

7:10 that are disproportionately represented in that 14 and a half million household

7:15 number and so you know first thing we've got to do is level the playing field in fact it's one of the reasons why microsoft

7:22 actually we actually have a broadband initiative to try to bring broadband into communities that don't

7:28 have access because it starts very early like if you don't have access to technology if you don't have access to

7:35 you know to the internet if you don't have access to the cloud it becomes much much harder

7:40 for you to get on the path of a career in that direction that's the hard part and that's that's a

7:46 part of the work that needs to be done and then from there how do we make sure that curriculum in schools

7:52 is such that people who are in a variety of different school environments have access to

7:58 education that would set them on the path for a career in technology and that's at all levels right that's you

8:04 know primary school that's secondary school high school and then obviously

8:09 on to college and making sure that we have education we have skilling available so that people can

8:15 you know sort of people have as much access to you know sort of learning how to code for example as they might to learning

8:21 how to type when they're in high school like i remember taking a typing class when i was in high school but you know

8:27 why why wouldn't we make sure that you know sort of develop sort of learning how to code is something that's as

8:34 sort of part of it or considered as much part of our educational experience as

8:39 learning how to type or you know learning math reading science you know any of the other subjects that we

8:46 expect in in our early educations it's like so i would say it starts with the

8:52 foundation and then obviously as as people get older as people move through the the

8:57 educational process making sure that there's availability for people to learn and then on-ramps

9:04 into technical careers because clearly we've got a need there's so much demand for technology you know

9:10 people in technology careers that we're not meeting certainly not meeting with people who

9:16 are born and raised here in the u.s and i think that's a huge missed opportunity for so many you know so many people look

9:23 my own you know sort of the place i spent a lot of my career in cyber security you know we're we always you

9:28 know there's there's literally millions of jobs that are not filled today and and there will be millions of jobs that don't get filled over time

9:35 because people don't have access to education about it they can't get the right skill sets

9:41 and uh that's a problem we got to solve well said chris if i summarize you i

9:46 think i heard two aspects one is access which all of us can do something about it whether it's a microsoft it's a

9:52 juniper whether it's a cisco whether it's an apple all of us can do something about that right for changing that the

9:57 second thing is the curriculum having more emphasis on things like you know programming maybe even cyber security

10:04 elements like that so people get a little bit more better exposure about things just like math and physics and

10:09 everything so the combination of the two well said chris i'm going to take you down a different path now i think you graduated from

10:16 princeton if i remember correctly and then you had an mba from howard business school and then you are this like

10:23 brand new kid getting into the first job out of you know all these wonderful accomplishments you've done in education

10:30 getting into your first job so what was your first job you know out of college and like how was the

10:35 how did you how did the cultural embracement happen in that first job you know from your perspective

10:41 you know my first job actually i was a i was a consultant and uh you know there was a

10:46 little bit of of tech work it was more mathematics and and you know statistics and

10:53 and analytics in those days than than writing code uh it wasn't actually until

10:58 a little bit later when i ended up founding a company i founded a company called surveillance with you know a number of my colleagues

11:06 from that consulting firm and that's really what sort of got me going in uh in technology you know again

11:12 that's uh you know in today's world it's very normal to to do a startup when you're young

11:18 uh in those days that was a little bit and i was on the east coast in those days in those days that was a little bit

11:24 unique you know that wasn't something that a lot of people were doing but it was it was a tremendous amount of fun

11:30 and uh you know that was my first foray into technology um we also were a cyber security company

11:37 which at the time it wasn't called cyber security i always tell people that it's like one of the few people you'll meet

11:43 who's actually been in cyber security longer than we've actually called it cyber security because we used to call

11:48 it itsec or infosec um but you know those are but you know any

11:55 industry has that story where there's origins that you know take on you know different meaning over time and and uh

12:01 you know obviously today cyber security is a it's a much different part of our you know our diaspora in the tech

12:08 landscape and certainly a huge thing that a huge topic area for companies of all types at

12:15 this point fast forward now you know from those days you know those beginnings where

12:21 you're just getting involved in technology cyber security i think it looks like you're a cyber security person at heart

12:28 right from the beginning and you're still a strong cyber security advocate and now fast forward all the way to

12:33 microsoft you are leading one of the top companies in the world in terms of where the company is looking at from a

12:39 strategic direction you know what are the areas to develop i mean it's a role very few people in the world can't ever

12:45 even dream to be you know driving in such a role you know

12:50 and when i look at the comparison of your trajectory i mean what were the important things which helped you figure

12:56 things out to build your career tours here is there a secret sauce which you can share with all of us

13:02 you know a couple of things that i think are really important that that you know

13:08 i have gotten i got advice on this early in my career one of the most important things to think about when you're

13:13 developing a career is to not think of your career as a linear

13:19 function that goes up and to the right i have always thought of my career as a little bit more like a

13:26 tapestry or a mosaic where you need to gather different experiences

13:31 that suit you wherever you may be in your journey and you have a general perspective on

13:37 where you want to go in your career but be willing to do things that are going to teach you

13:43 um be willing to take on opportunities where you're going to learn and you know

13:48 ultimately after you step back from the career it's the picture becomes more clear

13:54 i think a mistake some people make is that the because when you pick it when you're early in your career

14:00 you just come out of school right and that is a linear function that goes up and to the right you know you go from grade to grade grade you go from high

14:06 school to college and you go through and then you get a job and but but once you reach the work world

14:13 it's a little different and you know while you want to push yourself and achieve

14:19 it's you you need to make sure you're learning you're taking on new challenges you're building your skill set you're

14:25 building your networks you know sometimes it there is a there

14:31 is a factor of being in the right place at the right time that certainly matters in anybody's life or their career

14:38 um you know certainly there's a the effort you put it's like anything else in life the efforts you put into your

14:43 career uh you will you know it correlates to you know in a big way to what you get

14:48 back out of it but for me i've tried to focus on learning

14:54 along the way on taking on new challenges sometimes i've taken on challenges that

14:59 other people might not have been interested in taking on i'll give you here's a good example

15:05 early in my career i took an assignment to go to this this is i had never been out of the country

15:11 after college never been like from ohio didn't go out of the country except for

15:18 maybe like niagara falls or something like that and if you're from ohio that's like around the corner um

15:24 but i took an assignment to go to korea earlier in my early in my career

15:29 and i remember being on the plane with my manager at the time and uh he said he said uh

15:36 oh um you know how's the flight so far are you excited about the the

15:42 the project we're gonna go do and i said yeah and i just got my passport and i'm really excited and he looked at me like

15:49 in shock and he he said what do you mean did you get did your passport expire and i said no x

15:55 just got my passport i've never had one before until now as an adult when i got my first passport

16:02 and and but you know i went there you know tackled that assignment but it

16:07 but i did it because i wanted to get a different perspective nobody told me i had to go do it um no you know nobody

16:14 specifically asked me i said hey i want to go do something internationally because you know again like in today's world and

16:20 for like my children going to do something internationally will be like like it's not even a thought they just

16:25 that's what they would do um but considering where i grew up and what i knew about like it like it took me my

16:33 sort of initiative to go get that done and everybody's got their own story that's mine um

16:40 but it just it's an example of you know going and trying to do something early on that i thought would pay

16:45 benefit to me and not only did i i learned a lot i had a ton of fun um you know people thought you know people

16:52 thought it was you know it was great that i took on that and then and then that you know that opens up other

16:57 doors and you know those are the kinds of of decisions that you need to make in

17:02 your career in your life in order to you know to follow the journey that you want to follow and

17:08 that's you know that's one of my stories i would share i love the way you said tapestry in

17:14 terms of your trajectory looking at different pieces and you know not looking at things in a linear fashion

17:19 but almost always most importantly you were learning and adapting and trying willing to try new things right whether it's you

17:26 know taking an international trip and go take a assignment far away from where you've been for the

17:32 rest of your life or you know taking up a new opportunity in a new company i think so there is a definite amount of

17:37 risk taking as well as you know finding a true north through that tapestry in many ways that's very very very profound

17:44 to hear um a slightly different question on the same path right now you reach this you

17:50 know amazing you know it's probably the pinnacle of your carrier there is much more to be had for you but

17:57 this is such a amazing position you are in and as a person of color how how did

18:03 you find things for you you know how was it easy was it difficult to navigate was

18:08 it um you know it was completely new to do whatever obstacles you had how to overcome that

18:14 is there a a certain aspect you can share with us in terms of that journey

18:19 you know you you bring up an important point minoj being a person of color

18:25 definitely has different challenges as well as opportunities in

18:31 one's career and so some of those challenges and opportunities are related to the topics we were

18:37 speaking about earlier access being one

18:43 access not only to basic things potentially like broadband or technology but also access to people and networks

18:51 that you know that would that would bring you along or who might encourage you or teach you

18:58 to follow a certain path in your life so that's a really important piece of it exposure is important right you don't

19:04 how do you know what careers to pick if you don't know those careers actually exist and as a child like you learn you

19:10 get exposed to different things and over time you can you can make better choices

19:15 about what may or may not be available to you and generally speaking this isn't true for everyone but

19:22 you know unlike people of color generally aren't in all the same networks that you know would lead them

19:29 into careers in technology careers in cyber security

19:34 and so this is where we have work to do right we have work this is back to

19:40 educational opportunities this is back to where do companies like microsoft or juniper recruit for people you know to

19:48 come join the company once people join the company how do you create opportunities inside the company for

19:55 people to thrive and do their best work how do you create networks of family familiarity that help

20:01 people be comfortable and do their best work here's an important you know here's a a story i would share or an example in my

20:09 own life that i would share that's helped me you know when i went and when i went my first job

20:14 you know i i you know there there weren't a ton of other there weren't there are a few others but just a few

20:20 other african-americans at the same firm that i joined when i got out of college

20:26 however there were a lot of princeton people a lot of people who had gone to princeton before so what was interesting

20:32 is while i didn't have a network necessarily to rely on that was robust of other african

20:38 americans i had a big princeton network and that matters um now think if you're the if you're the

20:43 sole african american somewhere and you went to maybe a college or a university that wasn't a mainstream you

20:51 know sort of recruiting bed for the company you've joined you might feel a bit isolated and this

20:56 this is a good example of you know we need to when we don't we can't just focus on

21:02 who we're recruiting to an organization we have to make sure that once we recruit someone and they're an

21:08 underrepresented minority that we also are thoughtful about the networks that they'll have the support systems that

21:15 they'll have once they arrive at a company so that they'll get the opportunities if things if they need to

21:22 learn something who do i who do i ask questions of when i'm not sure about something because everybody you know

21:28 regardless of your the color of your skin or your gender um you you're going to have questions

21:34 you're going to have challenges but the people who who thrive are the ones who are able to tap into their networks

21:40 they're able to get answers to their questions people give them a helping hand along the way

21:45 and we shouldn't take those things for granted because they're not that playing field for everyone isn't level and it's

21:51 not necessarily unlevel because somebody chose to make it that way some of it's historical some of it's some of it it is

21:58 because of just the way organizations have been formed over time but you know one thing that we can all

22:04 do is work to level that playing field sort of exposing that and in

22:09 conversations like this so that you know as we build our our systems as we recruit people as we bring them into our

22:15 companies you know look you're a leader at your company you know like one one

22:20 one one thing you'll do is go reach out to somebody to help them along because they'll see seek you out as a leader who can who can

22:27 help them in their career like but these are all things that we all have to do individually but systemically

22:32 it's very important as well yeah you covered a lot of topics there in terms of you know getting people

22:39 empowered to come into the workplace and thrive right you know how do we provide a a system where there's mentorship

22:45 there is a support system to you know for people to kind of engage so that they can thrive in that environment i

22:50 also love that example you gave right you know when you when you started you know you were the first sort of

22:56 african-american in that community you know in the company you joined but there were a lot of other princeton

23:01 folks so you used the challenges and opportunity right in many ways right you know okay i could use the tap on the

23:07 princeton network and then build on right so in many ways i think for every challenge there is an opportunity for

23:13 every cloud there's a silver lining right i think again your your approach to life comes through there too right now what you mentioned

23:19 earlier about your tempest tree you're looking at in another linear path and you can always look at the possibilities

23:25 and it's for you to take advantage of that but as rest of us we need to provide that

23:30 you know support system for people who are coming you know coming in in a sort of a diversified environment and give

23:37 them the ability to grow and thrive so that's that's great i i'll tell you that i did some homework

23:43 on you oh you know i know you and i know each other for quite a long time but i did a little bit of reading up on your

23:49 you know profile and whatnot and recently i kind of noticed a couple of aspects right one is the philosophy you

23:54 kind of you know leaning leaning forward on in terms of leadership agility and

24:00 also english inclusive leadership right the combination of leadership agility and inclusive leadership so that seems

24:05 to be something unique you're bringing to the table and you know something which you are kind of your passion also

24:11 coming through very clearly there what do you want would you want to share something about that especially in the context of this diversified workforce

24:18 absolutely i mean look i i am leadership is is is changing

24:23 like like as we speak you know the the requirements of leaders

24:29 are are changing they're in influx i mean we the environment around us is changing the expectations of leaders are

24:35 changing you know the the speed of innovation and change in in our industry

24:41 is only increasing that puts different requirements on us as as leaders and so

24:46 yes i believe in a few elements of leadership that i think are are important and this is certainly not exhaustive but you know i do believe

24:53 it's important to be inclusive in your leadership style i mean look you know

24:58 companies need and this is this is something that that's proven over and over again

25:04 is that you know leaders who find ways to create inclusive environments for people

25:09 with different points of view backgrounds um and and and all in different just

25:15 diverse perspectives are going to are going to ultimately deliver

25:21 better results all other things you know being reasonably constant um i also believe very much in in servant

25:28 leadership you know i believe that you know the best leaders there's there's there's good leaders who

25:34 may not consider themselves servant leaders but i think the best leaders are very servant leader oriented in the

25:39 sense that they they focus on putting others out in front they po they focus on how they

25:45 build up other people around them and they focus less on themselves it's about the organization it's about the team

25:52 um it's about how can i remove roadblocks and obstacles for others as opposed to

25:57 what you know sort of what can i do for you as opposed to what can you do for me um

26:03 and that's you know i think i think you know i i've had the privilege of working for

26:08 as well as with a number of great leaders and i will tell you the ones who

26:14 had that mentality really are the ones i think have found the ways to unlock the best in their people and their

26:21 organizations uh and do it in the right way i work i work for one right now he's uh he's

26:26 that's who he is as a leader and and obviously none of us would argue that he's one of the best at what he does

26:33 um you touched an important point about teamwork makes everything happen right you know if you can enable your team to

26:40 thrive you know you're doing a fantastic job as a leader i think that's what you said talking about inclusive leadership which

26:46 you touched on you know to to kind of encourage this you know what are some of the skill sets uh you know people need

26:53 to have to evolve to this kind of leadership which you're referring to i think one you have to hold yourself

26:59 and your organization accountable to be inclusive um and that's you know

27:07 inclusivity is a set of behaviors right it's cultural uh and you know culture's something that

27:12 you drive it's i mean it it'll happen to you if you don't sort of actually

27:17 actually work on your culture but i think inclusivity is a cultural element and part of that is how you operate as a

27:24 leader it's what you expect um in terms of you know how you show up at meetings how you personally include

27:31 people in uh you know sort of in interactions you know in various ways those could be

27:37 formal they can be informal it's rewarding others for you know having the courage to and

27:44 the bravery to to speak and speak up when when needed i think

27:49 it's about making sure you have the right representation sort of it's hard to be inclusive if you don't have

27:54 anybody there to include who's who's from a diverse background so representation of folks from a diverse

28:01 background is really really important and you know a good example of this is that you know you've gotta you know rep

28:08 in order to get the right amount of representation just given the natural uh or the i would say the existing state

28:14 of tech requires that you have goals around you know sort of bringing people in from

28:20 different backgrounds um but much to the conversation you and i have been having here

28:26 it's not just about uh representation it's about you know getting you know helping people thrive

28:32 and grow because you can you can recruit people to an organization earlier in career or later in career but if you

28:39 don't but but you also then have to provide mechanisms support systems that allow them to thrive so that they grow

28:46 their careers and they can become highly contributing members to the organization and then that you know sort

28:53 of that ability to thrive be gets others like them who are able to thrive and

28:58 that's really when you know that your leadership style is inclusive when you've created an environment not just

29:04 where people will sign up but where they stay and they do well and they're part of the success of the organization

29:11 very well said chris because you're talking not just about recruitment of people you're talking

29:17 about how to make them thrive and you as the leader providing that environment where they can thrive right and most

29:23 importantly it also talked about the accountability part measure what matters right if you're going to aspire to something hold your

29:29 organization responsible for it and you yourself hold yourself accountable to it so that is very well said

29:35 uh in kind of closing out i mean we are living in a very interesting time once in a hundred year pandemic

29:41 uh you know look at you know recession you know you know kind of peeking at us from from somewhere inflation at a multi

29:49 you know four decade high right now and a raging war too right it's a very very

29:54 different place than you know some of us are used to in the last you know two decades or so uh in this changing world you know

30:02 for technology professionals do you have an advice on how we can help make the world a better place

30:08 you know i think technology is actually one of the the ways in which we can

30:13 work our way through the challenges that we have today manoj and so in some ways

30:19 i think we have a unique challenge and opportunity as technology leaders to lead through

30:26 what we're doing now like like microsoft our mission like this is one thing i do love about microsoft i joined during the

30:31 pandemic but our mission is to help you know every person and organization on the planet achieve more

30:38 and you know if you think about the role that technology companies us

30:43 juniper many many others included played certainly in the early part of the

30:48 pandemic when everybody went immediately remote the cloud our tool sets

30:54 video capabilities you know that allowed us all to keep working in a way that you know was trying to keep people safe

31:00 right so they could be at home they could be distributed um you know in many ways

31:06 the the capabilities that were provided by our technology companies were really

31:12 really important to our ability to navigate through the pandemic now if you look at what

31:18 we're facing today inflation um you know labor market challenges

31:24 like you say conflict in in uh in europe you know we've now

31:29 the opportunities we have are are they're changing right and now it's about how do you improve productivity

31:36 how do you help organizations move quickly how do you help organizations be more agile to meet the needs and the

31:43 challenges that we face seen as well as unforeseen that we'll get to

31:48 um in the future you know cyber security near and dear you know you and i both

31:54 share that as as a as an element of what we care a lot about and you know

31:59 for example you know microsoft played a role in in the protection of critical

32:04 infrastructure in the ukraine you know throughout the early parts and and you know ongoing in the conflict that that's

32:12 happening with russia and so you know that's the kind of role that technologists can play you know

32:18 there may be a very direct role like you know protecting critical infrastructure during a war like microsoft's doing

32:24 today um and then there's also the longer term elements of how do we leverage the power of the cloud you know

32:30 to help organizations move faster be more agile cut cost

32:36 uh you know i i just i think those are all some those are all the kinds of things that we can do

32:43 as technology companies and the last thing i'll say is it's back to a little bit of something you said a while ago which was

32:50 technology is a much more integrated aspect of our lives certainly than it was when when i was growing up

32:57 or when you were growing up and we have an opportunity to shape uh trends we have an

33:04 opportunity to be part of to lead the change that we want to see and uh you know i think we need to take

33:10 that responsibility very seriously not just you know delivering product but helping to make sure that we're good

33:16 stewards of the technology that we you know as we bring new capabilities to bear we do it in the right way with the

33:23 right principles you know that help people thrive and and become you know sort of a leg up for society not

33:29 something that's a challenge chris there were a lot of thoughtful comments to this entire conversation thank you

33:36 for spending the time with me you are always a class act you're welcome back anytime

33:42 have a great day manoj thanks very much i my pleasure great to talk to you as always and uh

33:48 uh happy to be the first uh first guest thank you

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