Voice of Experience: Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream

by Heather Cassell (San Francisco)

Shellye Archambeau, chief executive officer of MetricStream, a market leader in quality governance, risk, and compliance process and management solutions for diverse multi-national corporations, always knew she wanted to run a company.

More than 20 years experience in the technology industry, Archambeau is one of the few African American women leading the way in government compliance software, but it’s no mistake she’s where she is today.

“I’m a big believer in planning,” says Archambeau, 46, pointing out that many people believe that by working hard they will achieve their goals, but “unfortunately it just doesn’t always work that way. For some people it happens, but if you just look at the odds the odds are actually against you.”

“So, therefore you have to do things that increase your odds and for me that was planning,” Archambeau continues.

With her focus on running a company and her interest in technology in the early 1980s, Archambeau set off after the commencement of her tenure at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business to run IBM.

“At 22 years old you are naive enough to be so big and bold,” says Archambeau laughing. “So, that’s what I did.”

Like many of the technology behemoth’s CEOs that she studied, she started her 15 year career on IBM’s sales floor, but she immediately differentiated herself from her collogues broadening her experience by utilizing her marketing degree. Keeping her focus she identified and achieved goals, such as obtaining a profit and loss position and eventually an overseas assignment, in spite of obstacles by making the “right decisions” to stay on her timeline.

“It wasn’t anything that was written down or part of a development plan,” says Archambeau about her path to becoming an IBM executive and ultimately the first African American woman sent on an international assignment to Tokyo, Japan to run a $1.6 billion dollar business for the computing giant.

Achambeau’s path to success was having a vision and filling in the details with careful research, planning, prioritizing, and evaluation, but she didn’t get there alone.

A variety of mentors helped her achieve success in her career goals as well as having a strong “personal cheerleader” in her corner—her stay-at-home husband of 25 years, Scottie, who she met while they both worked at IBM.

“I’m a big believer in mentors,” says Archambeau, but not just as a career resource or opportunity mine. She discovered mid-career that mentors help people “do their current job very well” and that an outside perspective is important.

“It didn’t occur to me to actually build advisors or mentors outside of the company,” says Archambeau when a colleague asked her about professional guidance separate from the company. Since then she’s developed an out-of-company team of advisors.

“Whatever job you have somebody has done it before,” says Archambeau about leveraging other people’s experience to assist you with doing a better job in the current position you hold. ”You won’t get the next one until you do the one that you’ve got exceptionally well.”

Planning and mentors have been key elements in her success, but the foundation has been her “phenomenal partnership” with her husband, she says.

“I owe a great deal of my success directly to him,” says Archambeau of Scottie about not only managing their busy family life with two, now college-age kids, and many moves around the world, but also in believing in her.

“Everybody, especially every woman, needs a personal cheerleader,” says Archambeau, stating that cheerleaders don’t need to be a “stay-at-home husband,” but people who counterbalance the negative messages by telling you no matter what happens, “‘Hey you are good. You are capable. You can do this.’”

“There are a lot of messages out there telling you just the opposite,” Archambeau tells The Glass Hammer. That support strengthens the plan both at home and career.

“You have to think through, “How are you going to do it and what has to be true to make it work?” she says about how she makes it all work saying that it’s a “constant self-check” asking yourself what is important and why it’s important as “elements of your life” and priorities shift.

The plan and examining the “elements” especially came into play when she decided it was time to transition from being an executive of a large company to becoming a CEO of a smaller company.

The market wasn’t a friendly environment in 2002 for a technology executive without experience at the very top tier to make the transition to CEO—it was flooded with more experienced CEOs vying for the very few open positions. Rather than going ahead with the original plan, Archambeau took advantage of the time to research the experiences of other executives who had left large companies to run smaller companies.

Finding that a great percentage of CEO’s failed at their first few attempts, she decided to increase her odds of success by accepting executive officer level positions at a few small companies in order to gain an understanding of the dynamics of running the business, she says. Her plan paid off. Three companies later, Archambeau turned around formerly challenged MetricStream to being the leader in compliance management technology as its CEO.

Archambeau starts her days off with an early workout at the gym, before heading off to lead MetricStream into its future and ending the day at a board meeting for Arbitron, Inc., Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives, IT Senior Management Forum or Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Just as much as she enjoys her professional life, Archambeau loves socializing with her family and friends. She runs a gourmet dinner club as well as going out to the theater, enjoying music, and dancing with her husband and friends, she says.