Rose is the Chief of Staff and Americas Partner Leader at Teradata Corporation. Her journey began when she was a young girl, who was born and raised in Montana. Her mother was single for most of her childhood, working multiple jobs to provide for Rose & her younger brother. When Rose reflects on the strength and courage that took and recognizes the example her mother has set for her, she is filled with admiration for her.
While talking about her journey she recalls a verse by Edgar Guest titled, “Good Enough” that her mother would often read to her. It reads as: My daughter, beware of “good enough,” It isn’t made of sterling stuff; Because at “good enough” women stayed. Who stops at “good enough” shall find Success has left her far behind. There is no “good enough” that’s short For this is true of women and stuff— Only the best is “good enough.”
At a young age her mother brought focus to the power of will, which set the tone for Rose’s life.
Once Rose left home and finished University, her journey focused on gaining new experiences and following leaders that gave her opportunities she never knew would have become possible. Once, one of her professors teed up an interview at a start-up right out of school. There, she fell in love with software and subscription-based businesses. This led her to move to Silicon Valley.
She took her first director role at a company that sent her to live in Australia and turn around an underperforming division. She returned to the states to take that company public and then later sell a company to Cisco. Through her experience she has truly learned what it meant to lead teams and grow companies at scale with an expected outcome. Now at Teradata, she can carry forward a legacy and transform how people live through the power of data and partnership.
Practice, Practice and Practice
Rose relates her journey to an old story about a traveler who asked a New Yorker how to get to Carnegie Hall and was told, “Practice, practice, practice.” Whenever Rose thinks of her journey, she feels it is only beginning. She is yet to arrive at her full potential and so she practices and pushes herself. She practices delaying gratification because all good things take time. She remembers to breath, practice mindfulness, and practice gratitude because it truly is all about the journey.
A Chess Match About
Teradata, Rose mentions that the company is in a chess match with some of best and brightest companies in the world: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Dell to name a few. In order to compete, businesses need to put the customer first, find alliances, and look for partnerships that have joint meaning and value to each other’s success.
“In a business world that doesn’t often look like you or work like you, you must have courage – courage to be you, courage to speak up, courage to use your voice, courage to lead from the heart.”
Teradata wants to see its software taken to market together with its partners. That will be the only way it will be able to compete going forward. Rose mentions that competition today, in a cloud market, looks different than it did before. At times companies find themselves competing with the same company they call a partner. Only when they put the customer first, they will find a winning strategy that will allow them to partner together and compete to win.
Going Forth and Conquering
Rose is of the opinion that overcoming adversity is part of the path to success. One should focus on what he or she can control and look for ways to pay it forward to those less fortunate than them. She is grateful for the opportunities she has had because she believes that the challenges, she faced were nothing compared to what others have faced or face today.
“Look at what we are going through as a country, the hate we are experiencing, the hurt we are causing. If you look at the challenges, we are facing today as a country and what we must do to overcome them, I would say it all starts with listening, having empathy, and truly wanting to understand how we make it better,” she says.
With the passing of the beloved Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she recognizes the privilege she has been given and the adversity others have gone through and sacrifices others have made to ensure those that come after them have a better path. She asserts, “It is crazy to think that only as far back as 1970, employers could legally fire a woman for being pregnant. We have come far, but we still have a long way to go. Roadblocks and challenges will always be there. Progress. It is all about how you approach them, because at the end of the day to move forward and to overcome adversity it is much easier to do it together than to try and go it alone.”
Giving Back to the Community
There isn’t a morning Rose doesn’t wake up thinking about how she could provide more opportunities for the next generation of women. There were many courageous women and men who fought for her to have the opportunities she has today, and she will be eternally grateful to them. She owes it to them and to the next generation to keep pushing the boundaries and fighting for equality and diversity. When Rose & her partner were thinking about what business to open, they thought long and hard about how they wanted to serve the community and what they wanted to give to their team. They ended up deciding on opening a Spa, Peak Day Spa in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Spa fits their wellness and mindfulness lifestyle, but most importantly it gave Rose & her partner the opportunity to empower women. Their Spa Manager, a young woman deciding where she wanted her life to go, now has a career path. Women who choose bodywork or skincare don’t always have a safe and healthy working environment to own their craft or a place that gives them flexibility to have a family life and a career. They wanted to give women this. Rose also serves in leadership positions on two Boards of Directors – Utah Animal Adoption Center out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Huckleberry Youth out of San Francisco, CA. The missions of both organizations give her the opportunity to empower, protect, and promote women.
Utah Animal Adoption Center rescues animals from the kill lists around the Salt Lake Valley. Their mission draws in many women looking to protect the innocent. Huckleberry Youth provides young people with services that promote safety in times of crisis, social justice in communities facing inequality, and educational success for under privileged youth.
Rose only wishes she could do more on this front, but she is grateful for the opportunity to serve such impactful and noble causes.
Listening is the key
According to Rose, to cope up with capricious technological trends one must listen to their customers, partners, industry leaders, mentors. She suggests upcoming leaders to listen to anyone and everyone that may have a fresh or different perspective. In her experience the number one threat to any business or person is when someone overestimates past success. Also, specifically, in business one must never underestimate the incumbent, customer loyalty, and distribution.
“Personal growth and business growth will come from disrupting yourself, because if you aren’t disrupting yourself – someone else will. Listen to your customers and partners, and then disrupt yourself,” she adds.
Continuing to Empower
In a world full of ambiguity, Rose plans to continue to be mindful, focus on her health, give to noble causes, love her family and friends while building her career. The near future means something different during a pandemic. She thinks that everyone is struggling to understand what the near future looks like but hopeful we will all come out on the other side of this stronger than we were going in.
In the near future, Rose wants to ensure that she can keep her spa open, her team employed, funding for the non-profit sector, and Teradata on a path to keep doing the amazing work it does. Her long-term goal is to run a company, empower women to be champions for each other, protect the innocent, and inspire those she leads to make the world better than we found it.
