Voice of Experience: Lilly Chung, Partner, Deloitte LLC

by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

Lilly Chung, a Partner in Deloitte LLC’s San Jose office, loves a challenge. When she and her family emigrated from Taiwan to the United States when she was in her early teens, she barely spoke English. Yet, as the oldest of three girls in her family, she became the de facto representative of her family. “We came here when I was 14 and I had to be the spokesperson for the family. (My parents didn’t really speak English that well. They never really became part of society, never had a formal English education.) I did the family tax returns and all other documentation [among other things]. I also always worked while I studied; even in high school I had a job to support the family. It taught me not only to really appreciate what I have today but also that even when you have a hard life you can still be happy, feel very loved and have a lot of hope for the future.”

Shy and unsure of herself and her place in US society during her high school years, she focused her attention on excelling at school, which efforts resulted full scholarships to USC/UCLA for her in electrical engineering. “From a personal perspective, I was very shy and lacked confidence [in high school] because I lacked a social network that comes when you grow up together with classmates in the US – I never fit in. But that’s why the way for me to excel was to study very hard and be a good student.”

After university, she continued to pursue graduate level education in engineering while working, ultimately earning two master’s degrees in two different disciplines of engineering. It was then that she discovered her love of the management side rather than the technical side of things. “During second masters, I started to discover that I liked the business aspect better than the actual engineering work. I liked the strategic planning work. I went into industry engineering and management.

It was around this time that she decided to leave the company and return to business school full time. “The company saw me only as an engineer. In the end I got bored. So I applied to Harvard Business School because I wanted to go to the East Coast and, I decided that if I was going to go to business school, the only one I want to go to is Harvard.”

Once there, she found herself, learning that she was quite different from the quiet bookish engineer she once thought she was. “I found out that I am naturally a people person and extreme extrovert. I love people.”

“At age 31, I was one of the older students in my HBS class. Most of my classmates were at least four years younger. Also, I was one of only two women out of a class of 800 with kids. When it came to the recruiting time, the top consulting companies didn’t see where I would fit into their model. At the time, consulting firms paid the most but [none of the big firms] wanted me.”

Instead, a small consulting firm called Index group, the firm that started the business process re-engineering trend, hired her and moved her out to San Francisco to help start the office out there. She adored the work. “I loved that kind of work because it was not just blue sky strategy which just sits on a shelf – this company really did process. It was the bridge between strategy and implementation. That’s exactly what I love. That company had become very successful and well known in the marketplace and because I worked there I became a hot commodity when the big four wanted to start their own practices.”

She was recruited by KPMG to start the business re-engineering practice, which she did so successfully that she was then recruited by Ernst and Young to do the same thing for them.

When E&Y sold their consulting practice to French IT services company Cap Gemini, the culture of the organization changed, leading Chung to leave consulting two years later to start up a software company with her husband. “I found out that I really don’t like startups,” she said with a laugh, “It is hard when you have your own business — on weekends, you never stop working.” So when a headhunter called her almost six years ago to talk about bringing all her experience with her to Deloitte, she happily accepted.

Chung credits most of her success to her ability to foster close relationships with clients and potential clients. “My job is really to build high level CXO relationships and be their trusted advisor. When I joined the firm, I was given the accounts that they traditionally had difficulty acquiring. I started building trust with those potential clients thorough small engagements. Ultimately, I was able to sole-source one of the largest consulting projects at the time for the firm because I had earned the client’s trust. I had worked with the client, planting the seeds through close relationships so that by the time this large project came along, I was there to capture it.”

It helps that Chung is a world-class networker. “I am not forcing myself [to network],” said Chung, “I just love meeting people, I don’t care who I meet, whether you are a business acquaintance, my daughter’s friend’s mom. I just enjoy meeting people because everyone is interesting to me. So I think that helps me in terms of the ability to connect with people.”

Chung also cites her drive to surpass all expectations in whatever job she is doing as another reason for her success. “I always strive to do it better than it has ever been done before. Also, whatever I do, even the mundane, I always see the positive side of everything. I see the way to fix a problem as well as the opportunity to learn from it. There is a good reason for everything – even if I lose a competition or proposal. If the client tells me ‘no’ now, to me it is a deferred yes because I’ve built this relationship and people still come back to me.”

Chung certainly surpasses all average benchmarks. She was the first person from her class at Harvard Business School to be made partner in one of the big consulting firms. She is the Women’s Initiative Leader for Deloitte’s Northern Pacific Region. And, this past summer, she was one of only 10 partners elected to be part of Deloitte board nominating committee. “I know firm values me a lot to put me on committee and I’m extremely appreciative,” Chung said of the honor.

And while Chung is proud of her professional accomplishments, she is equally proud of her personal ones – her close relationships with her son, daughter and husband. “The last thing one of my HBS professors said to us was: ‘Don’t sacrifice your family on the altar of your success.’ I remember that vividly; it has always stayed in my mind. So, for me, throughout my career I may have been able to reach positions much higher up if I’d have been able to transfer overseas or traveled more but I deliberately chose the work so that I could be home every night. That makes a huge difference because my daughter can tell me what happened during the day.”

She continued, “I’ve found is that work is a marathon not a sprint. At the right time, throughout my career I decided to either work hard or play hard. That has rejuvenated me and helped me to be more effective at work.”

But Chung doesn’t rule out some greater career move though once her daughter gets into a good college. “I want to build something valuable for the company,” she said.