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| Home - CEO Spotlight - Jun 06 Issue |
CEO Spotlight: Shellye Archambeau, MetricStream, Inc.
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Angel Mehta: What about MetricStream is different from the other vendors offering compliance management tools and business process management software?
Shellye Archambeau: Probably the piece that people don't understand is there are a lot of companies out there that offer compliance solutions and/or quality solutions but they tend to be very niche focused. One offers a Sarbanes-Oxley solution; another has a solution for addressing FDA regulations, etc. If you need one to help you manage the quality of what suppliers are providing, you buy a different solution. The problem is if you solve every element of compliance individually, it's going to cost you a lot of money. British Petroleum stated last year in their annual report that they spent over $130 million complying with various regulations. We have applications that sit on top of a platform, so as you handle more and more compliance requirements, it's less expensive.
A good analogy is that of building a house. Suppose you started by building a bedroom. You lay down the foundation for the bedroom, you ran the plumbing, the electricity, you put up the walls etc. got it all done, and then you build a bathroom and you did the same thing; lay the foundation, did the plumbing, did the electricity… you would never build a house like that. You build a foundation, you run the electric wiring, the plumbing etc… through the house and then you build out the rooms, right? Why do you do that? Because it's a lot less expensive. It also makes sure that you have a pipe that will run water consistently all through the house; that your electricity can be managed from one circuit box versus separate individual wiring. Well, we're approaching this world of compliance in the same way and we're changing how it can be done, by providing multi-regulatory solutions that sit on top of a compliance optimized software platform. We're also giving companies what they don't have today. When you have 20, 30, 50, or hundreds of different applications that are managing different aspects of compliance, it's almost impossible for the CEOs and the Chief Compliance Officers to have visibility and a sure understanding of what's happening and where their risks really are. MetricStream fixes that problem.
Angel Mehta: So when customers don't understand your offering, what's the strategy? Does it essentially turn into hand-to-hand combat where you're relying on the direct sales organization to win on a customer-by-customer basis?
Shellye Archambeau: Certainly there is still a lot of hand-to-hand combat. But we also invest a lot of effort in establishing strong partnerships and helping educate analysts about what we do, as customers tend to rely on analysts for advice.
Angel Mehta: Is this a market or problem that you foresee getting bigger with time?
Shellye Archambeau: Absolutely. There is no indication that governments are going to roll back regulations. Just look at the trend, over the last 20 years, 50 years… every year there are more and more regulations, new requirements, new mandates on the marketplace – not less. So yes, this is going to continue to grow and if companies don't sit back and look at this thing strategically, it's going to continue to be a huge hit to the bottom-line.
Angel Mehta: Let's talk corporate politics for a minute… I interview so few female CEOs that I always like to ask: in your experience, is there really a glass ceiling in the high tech world?
Shellye Archambeau: I don't believe that there is this conspiracy that says we're going to keep women out of top jobs. So if we talk glass ceiling in terms of conspiracy, the answer is: No – it doesn't exist. There are, however, some factors that cause the image of a glass ceiling that we all talk about. Sometimes women in the 'growth" stage of their careers don't make time the same way that men do to become part of the social networking relationship establishments. One reason is that they may have families and children. They make trade-offs by working very hard, and when they're done working, they focus on the other hat they wear called Mom and or wife. In doing so, they don't take the time to go for a drink with folks after work or to participate in some of the professional networking organizations – be they alumni groups, or trade networks or whatever. Therefore, they don't always have the informal access to both jobs and operations that exist in the marketplace. Men tend to spend more time doing that kind of thing, and so the result is that women are just not necessarily aware of what's going on 'after-hours'.
Angel Mehta: Did this happen to you?
Shellye Archambeau: Not exactly, because I became conscious of it. I'll give you an example of how the principle works, from my IBM days. If your goal is to be CEO of IBM, you're constantly asking: "what have the people who are in direct report to the CEO done in their career?" One of the things that quickly became clear to me is that everyone who was a real mover and shaker at IBM did an executive stint in the Asia Pacific region. And it was no coincidence that very few women had done the Asia-Pacific stint. I was the first African American female they sent overseas as an executive.
Angel Mehta: Was that because you were the first to volunteer?
Shellye Archambeau: I did. I asked for that job. I let people know, as we were doing career planning, I want to go to Asia. So after a couple of years of letting them know I want to go to Asia, I got the job. The problem is that only happened because I saw it as a step to get to where I wanted to go. A lot of people weren't asking for that position. Again, it's not that IBM said to its female executives, 'You can't go to Asia-Pac" – nobody prevented them from doing it. But if you have informal relationships with people who are at the senior level, they'll tell you things like, 'You really have to do a tour of duty overseas if you want to get ahead', etc. Nothing gets published in a handbook explaining this stuff. You become aware of it by networking, building relationships outside the office, etc.
Angel Mehta: What kind of hours do you work?
Shellye Archambeau: I was speaking to a group of Stanford students recently and somebody asked me the same question… Not to be trite but I had no idea how to answer that question. I carry a Blackberry, everybody has both phone numbers and emails, and I'm accessible all the time. If I were to give you an example of a day, it might start in the morning at 6 am. I'm on a call with India, then go and workout, get to the office, have a staff meeting, an investor presentation, a strategy session on a customer account etc.; go home, eat dinner, on the phone again with India because I have operations in India. During basketball season I hit all my son's basketball games that I could when I am in town but every time there was a time out or whatever I'm on the Blackberry to do emails or doing whatever; so a lot. But I do try to balance my time so that I am where I need to be like making almost all of my son's basketball games.
Angel Mehta: You mentioned operations in India. How do you deal with the enormous wage inflation?
Shellye Archambeau: Wage inflation is obviously concerning, but even with the wage inflation it is still a model that works for us. The skill sets and capabilities that we're able to draw and attract are good and we have a strong team with great skills that we're all very proud of. Going forward, I do think you'll see the market balancing out and wages leveling off. There was crazy wage inflation in the valley in the 1990s also, and we know how that turned out.
Shellye Archambeau is CEO of MetricStream, Inc. She has a proven executive management track record and over 20 years of experience driving sales growth in the technology industry. Prior to joining MetricStream, Shellye was Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales for Loudcloud, Inc., responsible for all global sales and marketing activities. For interview feedback, contact Shellye at SArchambeau@MetricStream.com
Angel Mehta is Managing Director of Sterling-Hoffman, a retained executive search firm focused on VP Sales, VP Marketing, and CEO searches for enterprise software companies and lead investor in http://www.softwaresalesjobs.com, the # 1 site for software sales jobs. Angel can be reached for feedback at amehta@sterlinghoffman.net
 
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