Telecommuting from the Top

By Paige Churchman (New York City)

“Phoning it in” used to be an insult implying a lackadaisical performance, but now that many of us have phones practically implanted in our skulls, phoning it in is de rigueur at least some of the time. Telecommuting is everywhere. Even the denizens of the corner offices, who once shunned anything with a keyboard, now carry them in their pockets. The Glass Hammer asked two women from the C-suites—one a technology thought leader, the other on the trailing edge—about how telecommuting has affected their work life.

Feet on the Ground, Eyes on the Sky

Padmasree Warrior is Chief Technology Officer at Cisco Systems , where, as she puts it, “we are very big users of collaboration and communication tools – they are a mainstay of our business.” She came to Cisco after 23 years at Motorola. When Motorola was awarded the 2004 National Medal of Technology, it was under Warrior’s leadership as CTO. In 2006, Fortune named her a rising star on its list of Most Powerful Women in Business. But this doesn’t really tell you who she is. Her Twitters and blogs show an inquisitive human side that many high-level execs keep hidden.

On the Communications Revolution: “We live in a very different world than even three or four years ago,” she says. Now mobility means a lot more than voice, and Warrior finds this liberating. “This has changed the way we work,” she says, “Because, when we need to get information and be ‘on,’ we can. Now you can have a seamless work environment regardless of your location.”

Connecting. Cisco is all about connecting, and Warrior is an avid user of its magic. “The quality of communications using these tools is amazing and enhances my productivity, because I no longer have to spend hours and hours on a plane to visit with a key customer,” she says. “It is a simple as touching a button on my phone.” She’s not kidding. Not only does Cisco have better tools than most companies, it knows how to make them all work together. (They call it their United Communications technologies.) For example, Warrior could use Cisco WebEx at her PC for an online meeting with colleagues in London, San Jose and Mumbai. When she has to leave for the airport, she can continue the conversation on her cell phone without redialing. She can even check her office voicemails, which can be shown visually on her cell phone. On the plane, she can pick on her laptop (a Mac) without losing a beat.

Communicating Onsite. Her office, at Cisco’s headquarters in San Jose, is a few steps from CEO John Chambers’ office. She spends a lot of time in the Executive Briefing Center, meeting with customers and in TelePresence sessions. But she likes the impromptu conversations with colleagues that sometimes lead to in-depth discussions. “Sometimes you miss that when you aren’t interacting while grabbing tea in the break room or sharing a ride in the elevator,” she says. She also enjoys chatting with Rhoda, her assistant, and with team members who drop in to chat.

Traveling. Warrior’s husband and son are in Chicago, and she spends time there whenever she can, often working out of Cisco’s Chicago office. For business travel, she keeps a pre-packed bag of power adapters, chargers, etc. so she’s always ready to go. “I once forgot my power cord for my laptop. I borrowed one from a peer until mine could be mailed to me.”

Why Twitter. “It is quick, easy to use and I find it intellectually stimulating to think out loud virtually and hear the thoughts of others.”

How She Guards against CEO Disease. With all her success, how does she keep her ego in check? Her advice: “Have your eyes on the sky and feet on the ground. Be true to yourself.”

A Lawyer Goes Electronic

Ria Allison Davis is general counsel and managing director at Utendahl Capital Partners, a boutique investment bank. She’s learned more in her 18 months there than she thought possible. “I’ve been a professional for 25 years,” she says, “And it’s really great that I can still learn new things.” It’s always been that way for Davis-when she’s growing and learning, she’s happiest and most motivated. She moved to New York as a young attorney. “It was the go-go eighties, and I learned a lot really fast,” she says. She dove into the legal ins-and-outs of cross-border business. “Most attorneys didn’t want to touch it, but I could read, speak and write Spanish. And I learned Portuguese. It gave me a niche.”

Davis telecommutes at least part of every day, especially after 8:00 PM when New York’s cavernous financial district no longer feels safe. She’s found that, even at her small firm where the CEO and her boss count on face time, electronic presence can be almost as good as the real thing. One day, not feeling well, Davis stayed home and put in her full hours via Blackberry and PC. Good enough, it seems. When she walked in the next morning, Kathy Carter, her assistant, told her, “No one even realized you weren’t here.” Of course, it helps when your assistant rarely leaves her desk, is unfailingly prompt, and perceives herself as your teammate.

Weekend-What’s That? “My boss and colleagues expect, and get, 24/7 access, including week-ends and holidays.”

Connecting. Utendahl Capital uses logmein.com, which Davis finds easy and reliable. She uses a company-supplied Blackberry for e-mail and texting. “I get a new phone every time my boss does” and since he must have the latest models, this is every few months. She forwards her personal number to her BlackBerry so that she doesn’t have to carry two phones.

Communicating Onsite. Email wins. “We either just walk to someone’s office or cubicle or, more likely, just e-mail them. Everyone in my office prefers e-mail, except my boss, who prefers face-to-face on-the-fly meetings.” If she does have to send him an email, she’s learned to text him as well. She’s also instituted Monday morning management meetings “which they all really like because it’s the only time we all sit in a room and talk to each other.”

Her Onsite Office. Davis has a large multi-windowed corner office on the twenty-first floor. On her desk are photos of her with her husband, her goddaughters and her late cat Sammy. But the desk is dominated by two large screens, one for her PC work, the other streaming a CNN feed from the trading floors. She’s also got a landline on her desk, but it’s pretty much silent. She likes her wireless mouse and keyboard. “Pretty cool, except when the batteries die.”

Her Home Office. When Davis sits at her desk in her New York apartment, she looks out over Central Park. But she’s smack in the middle of their living room and fair game for anyone who wants to talk. If she wants to use the computer (a Dell), she has to go to her husband’s desk. This suits her just fine. “I could have an office laptop at home, but I don’t really want it,” she says.

Unplugging. There have been rare times she’s refused to answer the BlackBerry. She ignored a call from the CEO during her father-in-law’s funeral. She also refused calls on her twentieth anniversary when she and her husband renewed their vows. And on the day of her husband’s surgery, she didn’t answer calls though she did respond to emails during her long hours in the waiting room. “Otherwise, there are no boundaries. I check my e-mails first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I check it frequently during the weekend and on vacation.” She does draw a personal line for herself-no dinner at her office desk. She’s out of there by 8:00 PM and finishing her workday via the air waves.