Aruna Ravichandran - Chief Marketing Officer at Webex by Cisco

 As a marketer, you know, you have to learn the art of distilling between the forest and the trees.
 As an engineer, you think about the features in your product and you're not actually programmed
 to think about the larger picture. The thing which I've always stood at is
 have the ability to take the risk, but never give up on it. It's a W, right? It's a rotating
 helix, but if you look at the logo, it actually represents, you know, two hands coming together.
 We're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford.
 Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. I'm Ryan Alford, your host.
 We're getting radical today, folks. Got a good one today. We've been working on, hey,
 you know, we talk about this at the agency. We've been working on some Cisco. We've been helping
 our partner, ScanSource, and I'm really excited to have Aruna Ravi Shandran on the show,
 the CMO of WebEx by Cisco. Aruna, welcome to the show. Oh, I am so excited to be here and thank
 you for having me this morning. It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. I trust that you are staying safe
 and sound there in California, and all things are sunny and beautiful like it. Here's isn't South
 Carolina. It's still steamy here. Still 92 degrees yesterday. You got to sit and eat
 fall with her yet. Not it. And that's why, you know, we have the beta weather tax living in California.
 Exactly. Hey, I'll be in California in a few weeks. I'm going on another podcast and
 being some clients out there. So I'll be on the West Coast. So maybe we can hook up. Who knows?
 The Aruna, I do want to start. You're the CMO of a gigantic company and group within WebEx.
 Video calling is all the rage in work from home. It's kind of moving that direction anyway,
 but certainly the pandemic for good or bad has had a lot of impacts on technology and other things.
 I know we'll get to some of that, but I love. I think you're such an inspiration in your position
 in what you've done and your kind of your history. And I'd really love to just kind of start there
 for everyone just giving your background and professional highlights and things like that.
 Sounds good. So I was born raised in India and very earlier on, you know, my career path in
 India was actually chosen from him and mom, who's a big inspiration. And I was told that I had to
 pick three career paths. I had a choice and I had to pick only one of them. It's an engineer,
 doctor or loser. And very earlier on, I loved loved math and I decided to basically pursue a
 career in engineering. And so fast forward, got my bachelor's in computer science, came into the
 United States, had a very, very successful career as a group from an engineer to an architect
 into an engineering director at Hewlett Packard. And these were the days, you know, the pre.com days.
 And 10 years into a very successful career, I decided that I'm going to make a pretty big
 and a risky move and decided to go into the darkest side of the business, which is all about
 marketing because I knew that I could make a bigger impact because even while I was in engineering,
 while I was a really good engineer, I always, always gravitated towards the voice of the customer.
 And I also believe that the symbiotic marriage of technology and marketing together was an
 untapped supercharger, which pretty much will help in terms of innovation and growth, not just
 for my career, but also I could play a big role in terms of being able to help technology companies.
 And now I see the world in a very different way through the lens of a CMO. And I also believe
 that now technology can change the world, connectors in different ways and also can make it a very,
 can give us an opportunity to create an equitable and inclusive playing field where no one is
 actually enough behind. And so given that, you know, I've now been on the marketing side for
 about 15 plus years and it's been a continuous journey of learning. And as a market year, you know,
 you have to learn the art of distilling between the forest and the trees. As an engineer,
 you think about the features in your product and you're not actually programmed to think about
 the larger picture. And so the part which I love about marketing is the ability to basically,
 like I said, distilled between the forest and the trees, but it's about the story. It's about
 creating a narrative. There's where you have the ability to have both an emotional as well as
 a connection to your audience, which are the customers. And so that's been my career path.
 It was a pretty risk career path because, you know, when you make a change like that, after
 a very successful engineering career, you don't know what you don't know. But I am blessed,
 grateful and really happy from actually taking the chance and making a shift into the marketing
 side. I love it. A lot to unpack there. You know, I guess you can go back, you know, you should have
 told your mom, engineer, doctor, marketer, or was it loser? Yes, throw a marketer in there. But
 hey, you know, but you bring a lot to impact there. But it's like you bring the technical side of
 the engineering, which is the science, if I can call it that. But you had this natural,
 we're kind of spirits. This natural humanity that comes with, you know, the art of storytelling.
 And it sounds like, you know, you've been able to kind of bring those two sides together,
 because a lot of times, you know, marketers don't necessarily a lot of them. That's not a
 standard career path. It's usually like one or the other. Like I'm into the building blocks of
 engineering of how these things happen or these products are built versus the art of telling about
 them in some unique way. That's a pretty unique path. It definitely is a huge advantage,
 because if you think about B2B companies, technology tends to be pretty complex. And so like I said,
 I'm definitely grateful for my engineering background, because it gives me the ability to,
 you know, build a narrative at a higher level, but also gives me the ability and the seat of the
 table with my customers, so that I can dig deep into the product side. So very, very grateful for
 that. And enjoy actually doing that. And a big part of that is on the marketing side,
 it's opened up a lot of doors, especially at least for me. And through my 25 year career,
 I built a lot of very, very positive relationships with a lot of sweet like CIOs and CTOs. And
 definitely, you know, grateful for my engineering background, because I have an opportunity to have
 a deep technical discussion with them if needed. What do you think about, I mean, you know,
 in the US, you know, the engineering path is not a common path for women, you know? Like I love,
 I have to think and know, you know, just from reading about you and leading into this that
 you've been an inspiration in a lot of ways. But how would you compare those paths, you know,
 growing in India versus, you know, US and how a lot of women, you know, come in marketing for sure,
 but like it seems like the engineering path isn't as common. I mean, is that something you take on
 or you talk about much? Yes, very much so. So like I said, in India, it was made easy for me,
 because my mom actually gave me a career track to actually pick. But coming into the United States,
 I am a mother of two girls, one who's 19 years old and another one who's 23 years old,
 and it was a challenge to basically get them to start thinking about embracing the STEM career,
 because growing, I watched both the girls as they grew up in the United States, both of them were
 born raised here. And it's, I fundamentally believe that in high school is when kids actually
 make up their mind, right? So if you go to a college, you can take an, you might not have to
 pick a major and people don't know what they don't know. And I pretty much had to have a lot of
 armed wrestling both with my girls in order to basically get them to start thinking about STEM.
 And now one of my daughters is a data scientist, works with William. And while she basically
 armed with me throughout her high school, when she went into college, she realized, you know,
 what an amazing opportunity it actually provided for her. And there are not many people who actually
 go into a computer science degree over here. And I think out of her class, she went to Cal Poly,
 San Luis Obispo. And out of her class, I think of about five hundred six hundred people,
 there was less than two percent of the students who actually were in her computer science major.
 So I think in fundamentally what I've seen is the younger generation, the girls don't know.
 And so they pick a path being influenced by whoever they actually meet at that particular time.
 And I do believe, and I'm very passionate about that particular topic. And once they go into college,
 it's very hard to basically make the switch. And so you need to start in middle school and high
 school in terms of being able to influence the younger generation, especially women, because I think
 girls tend not to choose a STEM career because they probably feel that it's a tough choice,
 even though they're smart enough. And being able to stay at it is also very hard to do.
 So agree with you. One hundred percent.
 Yes. And you know, there must be some smart genes in the family because those are not easy.
 Like you nailed it there at the end. Some difficult career choices. But hey, the path to greatness
 isn't always easy. It does not. You know, and I want to talk about your book. I want to talk more
 about WebEx and all those things. But I do want to stay down this path of, you know, kind of your
 background and being a mother in the career. I think there's some interesting things there.
 I think it'd be interesting for audience. But what's it been like? I mean, I don't want to say
 there's no telling where you're headed, but you're at a very high point in your career a place
 where a lot of people would like to be. And you've done it as a mother raising children. I mean,
 what's that experience been like? It's definitely a balance and it's tough, right?
 Like I always tell people, you can probably be very good at two things. Two things. And that is
 a true statement at least from us. If you want to be a jack of all trades master of none, so be it.
 But if you really want to be good at your discipline or really want to be good as a mother,
 you have to make a lot of hard choices. And I did a lot of hard choices during my career
 in order to raise my two girls. One of them is, like I said, I have to tell you a little bit about
 the risk I took. It was not just about making a switch from engineering to marketing. I actually
 was an engineering director managing a global team around the globe. And one day came back home
 when my younger one, Tony, I was I think about seven years old and I decided that, yep, I have
 decided to pursue my passion, which is an unknown passion and move into marketing side. And I
 remember at that time, my family thought I'm going through middle-life crisis because nobody
 actually wants to give up a very successful career and went back, started to interview internally
 at that time and worked at Hewlett Packard. And I realized that, you know, it was not very easy to
 make a panel move. It couldn't move from an engineering director into a director for marketing.
 So I ended up taking a demotion, a three-level demotion, which is why I said that the family thought
 I was going through my life crisis and became a product manager and a product marketing manager.
 And why is this important? Because many times in life, you don't want to take the risk because it comes
 with, you know, you have to take a cut and pay and you don't know what you don't know. You don't
 know whether you have the ability to get to the next level. But the thing which I've always stood
 at is have the ability to take the risk but never give up on it, right? So that, and in order to
 basically pursue a career and marketing or an engineering, you have to, if you really want to be
 good at your discipline, like I said, pick only two things and I pick two things. That is, you know,
 pursue a career in marketing and I was damn good at it. And the second part is to be a good mom.
 And there are other things. And so because of that, you know, I did not have a lot of social
 life because you have to be razor focused, you have to prioritize, you have to make time for,
 you know, their soccer game, many a times. It couldn't go to those soccer games and even now,
 when I think both the girls have now, you know, no longer with me at home and I wish I could go
 back in time and go to those soccer games or their water polo games. But regardless, you know,
 I would say that I picked those two things and I'm also grateful because I couldn't have done this
 without the nannies I had in my life and they were almost a second family to me and, you know,
 that's how I raised both my goals. I love it. And you know, a lot, a lot there as well, I think,
 especially the part where you talked about, and I can relate to the family part, like I have kids,
 I have four boys and so it's, we literally choose two things. It's family and work. It's like,
 there's no way between like, there's no, I don't know, sometimes my friends that don't have kids,
 like, well, joke, hey, you never do this or that. I'm like, well, you've got, I've got time for
 two things and sometimes one and a half. So I can relate to that. A lot, I had a t-ball game last
 night. I did make it to that one, but I get relate. Yeah. But I get, but what you talked about,
 about sometimes being willing to take three steps back to take 10 forward. I mean, you took three
 steps back and you've gone about 100 forward, you know, because you obviously embraced something
 you were good at that you've obviously excelled at. I think there's a lot to learn there for people
 because, you know, there's inherent risk in going after what you want to do and what you love.
 And you may not always start down that path day one, but when you want to make that turn,
 you can't be afraid of, especially when you can, you know, it's not, you know, as long as you're
 not completely going off the cliff, you know, with your steps backwards, but, you know, but to take
 a pay cut or do those kind of things to, to really go after something you love, I think is really
 critical. It is, it is definitely the case. And I also will say that I also learned a new discipline
 and that also has played a big role through my entire life. And I actually had my
 daughter, my older one, I gained a substantial amount of weight. And I was always raised to be very
 confident. You know, I was an extreme extrovert that is my personality. And I never knew what it
 is to actually feel uncomfortable or, you know, go through a situation in life where, you know,
 I probably gained about 80 pounds with my older daughter. And that was a low light in my life,
 not because I gained that weight. It's because I also had a premature baby. My older daughter was
 actually born at, you know, eight weeks before my due date. And she was just like two pounds and
 eleven ounces. And so I had to deal with two important, two tough situations. At the time,
 one was gaining that weight and then also raising a premature child. And as, you know, time flow,
 I realized that I had to find a way to basically keep me sane and find the motivation to get back
 to form. And that is when I basically decided to pick something which I'd never explored before.
 And I decided to basically embrace kickboxing or body combat our martial arts at the time.
 And fast forward 10 years later, you know, I took it to the next level. Like I said, like anything
 I do, I'm a perfectionist. And I take it to the next level. I became a kickboxing instructor.
 And that discipline has played a big role in shaping who I am because it gives, it taught me
 the ability to have self control and gives you the power to follow through on your actions
 without actually losing motivation along the way. It also gives you the strength to not really
 procrastinate. And most importantly, what kickboxing actually taught me is to persevere,
 especially when things get off. And that discipline is something which I learned, you know,
 and practice, even now, which is how to begin back in my life.
 I love that. And I circle that for a highlight clip from this episode. I like that, the power of
 discipline. But I want to ask you something. Like obviously I know at this stage and your successes
 and all of those things, you know, where confidence comes from. But where does your confidence
 originate from? Because I sense it in you. And I certainly could see, you know, where you've
 gotten to your to this point where it would come from today. But I sense that you've probably
 always been confident. And I wonder where that comes from. It comes from my mother. And that's
 why I said like she's always been my alma mater, the light of my life. Very earlier on, you know,
 she taught me three things. And I grew up knowing those three important things. One is she said,
 Alive at 25. Number one is to be independent. And number three is to make a charitable contribution
 to the society. This rings in my ears. My girls also resonate with this because I raised them with
 these three important principles. Why is it what? And people ask me, what is about Alive at 25?
 And what I learned out of that is that, you know, the mortality rate is, you know, goes like this
 between the age of 60 through 25 because people look crazy things. You drink, you drive,
 you have DUI, you have accidents and the, you know, the death rate is very high. After 25,
 it pretty much is like a straight curve. And then it basically goes up again after you reach
 60. And so as a parent, if you are a daughter, you just 25, good job mom, because that is an
 accomplishment, especially in this, in today's world. The second thing is independent. Being
 able to raise, whether it is a man or a woman, doesn't not matter. Being able to be independent,
 being able to make, you know, choices of your own and being able to, you know, live a life
 independently is not very easy to do. And so the choices you make, like whether it is a career
 choice or whether it is a choice in terms of practicing the discipline, it's you have to own it
 and take accountability for it. And so that plays a big role. And I was always raised, you know,
 to think independently, especially at a time in India, this was at a time in India when women never
 worked, my mom worked for 40 years as a public relations officer for a Canadian company. And so
 that is where, you know, I learned what it takes to be, you know, a very confident, you know,
 career woman. And last but not least, you know, you have to think about the society. Is there
 some way where you can actually get back? Because, you know, it's a full circle, you know, I
 always believe in actually giving a little bit back in the little time you actually have. And so
 these are the three principles I've carried through my life. And my mom has played a big role in
 terms of being able to shape how I was as I grew up in India. I love the alive at 25 as the father
 back to my boys. I, you know, right now, you know, they're 12, 10, 9, and 5. And so right now they
 don't, we keep them out of harm's way. But when they get to, you know, that, like you said,
 maybe 15 to 25, all I can think about is how how do we keep them out of harm's way when they're
 not in our purvee at all times. So it's a struggle. It's, you know, you teach them right from wrong. And
 you, you know, you discipline them and you, you do those things. But, you know, it is a precarious
 time in life for when things that I've never looked at that as a plane. I'm going to look up that
 when I, as the date, I'm really curious now because it makes a tennis sense. I'm like,
 was even thinking of my own life. Like, yeah, that sounds about right. Let's talk about the book,
 DevOps for digital leaders. You know, what was your inspiration for the book and, and what was
 like some of the key takeaways you want readers to get from it? So this was my time, you know,
 before I came here into Cisco, I used to be the CMO and run all of DevOps marketing for the
 previous company. So one of the key things I also realized is, like I said, given my engineering
 technology background, I always gravitate towards the voice of the customer and I had built a lot
 of relationships with CIOs and CTOs. And as I talk to a lot of the CXOs during the time, I realized
 that DevOps is like a discipline and there is no framework. There is no gothness magic
 quadrant. There is no forest or wave. And everybody, you know, used to DevOps wash everything.
 And as I talk to a lot of the C-suite customers and I learned about some of the best frameworks
 and practices they have actually adopted, I looked around and I saw that there were a lot of
 technical books on DevOps, but there was no book which was like a Chronicles of DevOps,
 which talks about, you know, good frameworks and disciplines which customers have actually adopted
 and deployed. And so that's how, you know, my DevOps books was actually drawn. I would actually call
 it Chronicles of customer stories with respect to DevOps. I interviewed about 10 Fortune 500
 companies, CIOs and CXOs and they're all listed in the book and then wrote about what are some of
 the frameworks they've actually created and why did it work for them and what is the ROI they
 actually got out of their best effort. And I will always be a technology-oriented CMO and
 I will gravitate towards that. And one of the reasons I also wrote the book is because it basically
 helps build talk leadership. So because there are so many different opportunities out there and
 like I said, I am really obsessed with the voice of the customer, customer is the king and
 above and beyond in order to make sure that we keep customers happy. And so this was one way to
 basically build talk leadership, learn from customer stories and build that book so that it would
 add value to other customers. Very, very cool. Hey, I mean, you are, I called you to CMO to start,
 but we're author, mother, CMO and badass kickboxer. I mean, like, you know, like we got all kinds of
 titles going here. I didn't do you justice, Aruna. Very multifaceted. Let's talk, let's shift a
 little bit to today and what's going on with technology and video calling and, you know, everything
 that's happening. What's been, you know, some of your key initiatives with WebEx and, you know,
 both maybe in the last, you know, year or so, but if certainly moving forward, what are some of
 the priorities for you with the brand? Okay. So I would say, you know, this, you know, the last year
 and a half or almost two years now with the pandemic, you know, things have changed radically.
 A video conferencing was known by a selected few, especially large enterprises were the ones who
 actually knew about video conferencing. Now, even a three year old knows what is video conferencing,
 right? Because with the pandemic, the whole market around video conferencing, being able to
 talk to people in a virtual way has been completely democratized. And so in fall of last year,
 the Cisco leadership team, where G2 Patel, my manager, who's the EVP of a collaboration
 business, decided to basically make a big investment on the marketing side. And at that particular
 time, we realized that we faced a tough situation because with the pandemic, you know, we had
 a lot, even though we continued to be the leaders in the enterprise space, but, you know, we did not
 have the hearts and minds of the end users, right? Like we did not have a perception that we are
 cool and fun. And so it was a big challenge, which the team and I had to basically undertake.
 And that is where the team did a phenomenal job. First, we had to overcome perception issues.
 Second, we had to land big punches in the awareness fight that our new and louder
 competitors were already started to have a play in the market. And last but not the least,
 it's not just about video conferencing. It's about owning the conversation around hybrid work.
 While, you know, video conferencing is one of the areas when you think about the new way of
 working, this whole market around hybrid work has not been defined. And that's where our teams
 have now started to play a big role. And first and foremost, you know, I had to implement with my
 team three important strategies. One, I had to rebrand Bavacks. So in June 2021 of this year,
 for the very first time in WebExist 25 year history, the team rolled out a brand new
 rebrand campaign with VavEx. So what did this mean? It means that we rolled out a brand new brand
 system, which included not just a logo. It included a logo, a brand new fresh modern color palette,
 iconography, typography, photography, everything completely changed. If you actually go to
 VavEx.com, you'll see our entire brand system come together and we don't look like, you know,
 the previously, how we actually used to look. And so why did we do the rebrand? Because with the
 for us here at WebEx, our purpose, and especially here at Cisco, is to create an inclusive future for
 all. And a big part of this rebrand is to also to send that strong message. If you look at our logo,
 our brand new logo, because we are a SaaS based product line, the logo is in the app, in the app store.
 And it's going to be on a mobile device. And if you join a WebEx call, you'll be able to see the
 logo. It's a W, right? It's a rotating helix. But if you look at the logo, it actually represents,
 you know, two hands coming together. It is symbiotic about our commitment towards inclusive
 things. So the entire brand system focused on a core design principle, which is around inclusive
 a day. And you'll see our entire brand system reinforce that through our designs, through our
 imagery, through our photography. And everything across the board, we want to make sure that we represent
 a diverse group across geographies, across age groups, across location. Because with WebEx,
 now we have the ability to basically, you know, bring everyone together, regardless of where
 you're actually located, regardless of the time zone. And so technology becomes a big enabler.
 And so that's how the rebrand campaign was born in the first 25 years. And it was very important
 to do that in order to send a strong message to the industry that this is not, this is your
 brand new WebEx. So that's the first one. The second thing the team did is how it's not just
 about the rebrand. How would consumers basically, you know, get to know about WebEx? I don't know about
 you, but hopefully you've seen it is we basically then launched a global campaign, which is called
 Driving Hybrid Work. And this campaign we created with our favorite customer,
 McLaren, the Formula One team. And this campaign was about showing the brand new WebEx, how the
 McLaren team is able to do fan engagement. How are they able to communicate with their engineering
 team while they design the race cause of the future. So if you look at this particular campaign,
 this campaign video is now activated across several different markets. And hopefully you would
 have seen it on during the NBA playoffs across multiple different broadcast channels like CNN,
 ESPN, Fox Sports, so on and so forth, even connected TV like Roku and Hulu. And the exciting part
 of this Driving Hybrid Work campaign, which where we chose McLaren as our customer is that
 it's awesome to see the multiple different faceted use cases which Zach Brown, now a bit of
 fabulous relationship with Zach Brown. And he actually tell you the value he and team are actually
 getting with fan engagement with their slipstream technology with WebEx, especially now the McLaren's
 race car season is in full effect. And I don't know whether you know that, you know, last week,
 Italian Grand Prix, a McLaren took home P1 as well as P2 with both Ricardo as well as Landis.
 So it's been an amazing campaign where and the I see on the cake because everybody launches a
 lot of different campaigns across the board. And the highlight for the team and I was
 in during one of the episodes of Mad Money, Jim Kramer unsolicited and he was talking about Zoom
 during Mad Money. And then he basically called out the WebEx ads and he said, oh my god, have you
 seen the new WebEx ads? I think they're quite compelling. That was awesome. Hey, nice plug there,
 free plug. Exactly, right? And so how many times as a team do you get a shout out from Jim Kramer
 on Mad Money for a campaign which the team actually launched during this particular time? And so
 so those are some of the key things the team has especially done and more things are actually going
 to come with the marketing team as we look towards the future. Yeah, and it's interesting, you know,
 growing up in the enterprise space like WebEx was always kind of the band-aid of video calling,
 you know, in the enterprise space. And then the pandemic happens and you know, you've got consumers
 and enterprise using it. Competition comes in the space and you know, you guys are definitely
 positioned well to kind of fight off. I think and what's interesting, I think that people don't realize
 and hybrid is a good word, especially rates to a WebEx. It's kind of a one size fits all with some
 of the other competitors like it's one experience. And I think what separates WebEx is the hybrid
 approaches for how you can customize the experience based on what you're doing. And I think that's what
 you kind of brought to life with how McLaren's doing it and how different teams are. We ironically
 work with ultra fabrics, which is the fabric in McLaren sports cars, one of our clients. So I'm
 very familiar with McLaren and that campaign. But I do think, you know, hybrid work, hybrid approaches
 and WebEx is hybrid, right? It does. And the unique thing we actually have to bring to the market
 when you think about hybrid work is about enabling new ways of working, right? Like the world is not
 going to go back to the pre pandemic side. People are going to continue to work from home. People
 are going to continue to work from the office and people are going to continue to work anywhere
 in between. So how do you ensure that everyone has got an equal seat on the table? That's not
 something easy to do because when people come back into the office, you want to make sure that
 remote participants don't feel left out. And with technology, you can absolutely make sure that
 whether you're in the office or whether you're at home, everybody's got an equal seat on the table.
 Here is an example on what we are actually doing with WebEx. We call this feature functionality as
 people focus. Let's say you're in a conference room with four different people and you're in the
 meeting with about four different remote participants. How would it appear in a regular video conference
 in call? You will see one window with four people in the conference room and then you will see
 another three windows with the remote participants, right? Which means that everybody's not got an
 equal seat on the table. What we have done is those four people who are in the conference room
 will no longer show up like they're in the conference room. We have actually extracted them
 and each one will show up as a separate two by two gray so that everyone is got a equal seat
 on the table and it does not appear that you're actually working in the office or you're working
 from home. And so these are some of the key innovations we actually brought to market and if you
 looked at, you've seen the measure and add, the other thing we have done is to break down the
 barriers across geography location so that we give people potential for everyone around the
 globe. So one of the other key innovations we brought to market is while you're on a WebEx
 call, if you want to basically consume, I could be talking in English and the person could be
 in Poland and they want to consume it in Polish or in French. You can basically pick the drop down
 menu and change the language and I could still talk in English but they'll basically, it'll
 automatically translate it into 108 languages in real time. And so that's how you create an
 inclusive world because it's no longer about technology just doing statistical. It's about how can
 you bring those kinds of inclusive features so that you level the playing field so that everyone
 has got an equal seat on the table. It's really fascinating. I did not know that language technology
 you guys already implemented that. That's crazy and amazing at the same time especially that it's
 in real time. But what I don't think we've completed digested as a society, especially working
 society is the complete picture of the hybrid work environment. And it sounds like WebEx is at
 the forefront of kind of helping define different things. I hadn't thought about the equal seat at the
 table. But when you think about the mindset of participating in these things and where you might
 be and some people look, we're going to be in a hybrid work. It probably forever. I just don't
 know. I don't think this genie's going back in the bottle. And so thinking about it in a smart,
 concise way about how to make people feel truly included, no matter where they are in the world,
 be it home, be it work, be it office, whatever that might, I say, is really fascinating and really
 forward thinking about some of the psychology involved with the hybrid approach.
 It is. And I'll add another thing, right? Like there is this growing concern about
 you know, mental video fatigue. People are, you know, if you look across the board in the market,
 it's all about, you know, mental wellbeing. And that is another area where I think technology can
 play a big role while no. And so one of some of the key things we have actually done in order to
 basically focus on employee wellbeing is to come up with partnerships. So we recently created a
 partnership with Ariana Huffington's company. She's got an app which is called a reset app.
 So with that particular partnership, like if you are going from meeting to meeting to meeting to
 meeting, research has shown that if you take a five minute break between your virtual meetings,
 it has a tremendous role to play in your mental health. And so with this reset app,
 it will automatically give you a notification and it will say, hey, you know, I don't know,
 you'll be the meetings back to back. Do you want to basically go and do a kickboxing lesson?
 Or do you want to go for a walk? Right? So it's about being able to bring a little bit of a break
 in your long days because with this new concept of hybrid work, the days have gone extended.
 And it's blended between your work life as well as your personal time.
 And so technology now is going to become a bigger labeler because we all know that hybrid
 work is here to stay. And with us, we not just make the technology in order to help hybrid work,
 but we also make the beautiful devices. And I have to say that with our beautiful devices,
 I personally don't go through this video friday and I can go from meetings to meetings across
 the board without having to go through that. But again, that is where technology is going to become
 even more important as we think about the future of work, which is going to be hybrid.
 I love it. As we start to close out here, Aruna, you kind of talked about it throughout the
 discussion a bit. But I mean, where do you see the future of technology and work? I mean,
 there are innovations that are coming or different things either with Cisco and web
 X or as holistically with your crystal ball. And I know you must have every CMO has a crystal ball,
 right? You got to have review mirrors and crystal balls, right? Well, any big things out there
 that you're seeing coming? It's going to be hybrid work. That is the future of work. And I do believe
 it's not just with web X and I think it's with Cisco and web X and our underlying technology with
 networking with security. You know, we are going to be one of the leaders and the most formidable
 player in the market when you think about hybrid work because hybrid work is not just about
 remote work. It's about being able to ensure that employees have the ability, flexibility,
 inclusivity, security and manageability to basically work anytime, anywhere that you're working
 from home in the office and anywhere in between. Work is not about where you work. Work is about
 actually what you do. And technology now becomes a huge enabler to ensure that work gets done
 regardless of whether you're working from home, office or anywhere in between. And I think
 I am extremely excited for what Cisco can actually bring to the table to our customers,
 our prospects and everyone around the world in terms of being able to help everyone to embrace
 hybrid work. Well, speaking as someone that has been fortunate enough to touch parts of your
 business, I can speak to how great a company Cisco is and their commitment to that.
 You got Tom for a quick rad or fad. I give you like four key words and you tell me whether it's
 rad or fad. Okay. All right. Number one, TikTok, rad or fad. All right. Oat milk.
 Fad. Fad? Yes. Video calling.
 That was a layup. You know what can I say? And finally, finally, we're I think all our
 hearts and minds are the hybrid work. Rad or fad. Rad. I know it is. Aruna, it's been really
 enlightening a ton to unpack there for everyone listening. You're an inspiration. And you know,
 I think, you know, I do a lot of personal motivation stuff and I was like, you know, I didn't know how
 obviously we had a lot of technical discussion. But I think a lot of people are going to take
 some really keys away from this and really, really appreciate you coming on the show today.
 Thank you so much for having me. We're going to keep up with you. We're working
 everyone. Keep up with everything Aruna. I mean, obviously WebEx.com will tout that. But
 work and everyone keep up with anything we talked about today. So you can follow me on Twitter,
 Aruna 13 or, you know, connect with me on LinkedIn. And I basically, you know, put out an article
 on my LinkedIn profile. And I talk about a topic which is very near and dear to my heart.
 It is about being able to get younger girls and women into a STEM career. And so
 would love to basically connect with the audience. And you can always find me on social.
 Love it. Love it. Well, she just told you where to find you. You know where to find West. We're at
 theradcast.com. Search for Aruna. Search for WebEx. You'll find all the highlights from this.
 You know where to find me. I'm at Ryan Allford. I'm verified all on all the platforms.
 We'll see you next time on the Radcast.