Ruth Porat, CFO at Alphabet and Google It\'s important for women

education is your passport for life

Ruth Porat, CFO at Alphabet and Google

Stanford Graduate School of Business

 

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264,716 views May 21, 2019 View From The Top

“You’re at the table because people want your voice. It’s easy to forget that. Don’t keep second guessing. If you have a point of view, the reason you were hired is because people want to hear it.”? ? Ruth Porat, CFO at Alphabet and @Google, spoke today on campus for the academic year’s last View From The Top. Not investing for the long term could be one of tech’s greatest vulnerabilities, she said, and advised students to keep thinking about investment for the long haul. ?”What I’ve seen is that if you don’t invest in the long term, you’re sowing the seeds of your own destruction.”? Porat was interviewed by Lepi Jha Fishman, MBA ’19.

** It's important for women to have a career/voice, my mother told me when I was 8 YO. 

Work with people (sponsorship) who are willing to take a risk on you. 

Make sure everything you do, you do high quality way. You are at the Table because people want to hear your voice.  Put everything all out there, make sure you left nothing unsaid. Because you might be surprised to see that people might come back to you many years later, saying you know you're wrong about it and how about you come to us to approve you're right - a career switching opportunity (from Morgan Stanley to the US Treasure to Google CFO). “You’re at the table because people want your voice. It’s easy to forget that. Don’t keep second guessing. If you have a point of view, the reason you were hired is because people want to hear it.”? But, use your voice at the right time to right people, but make sure not let people speak over you, which might spell out a habit of suppresing your voice.

Google was known for its slogan: Don't be evil, less so for its processes. Not investing for the long term could be one of tech’s greatest vulnerabilities, she said, and advised students to keep thinking about investment for the long haul. ?”What I’ve seen is that if you don’t invest in the long term, you’re sowing the seeds of your own destruction.”?

People have to make choices. You have the will (innovative ideas) and the means (tools) - the balance. 

The quark test: If you can't articulate what and why to do something, you don't think clearly. (my father used to tell me). Numbers are accountable!

Constantly to raise the bar on yourself: the guiding principles. Data is your private data -you can take your data with you, which has been Google's practice. 

Navigate on vulneriability: Invest on long-term vision and innovation: 20% time to try out. What is the next thing on horizon?

Q? What do you look for in a sponsor?

A: smart, respectful, and ethical and earned the right. First date, can we have a child? no. A sponsor not only thinks of me solve his/her problem but also thinks of what (the sources and the tools) is needed to solve the problem, it's mutural respect.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq1kvyC-6ek Ruth Porat, CFO at Alphabet and Google , was interviewed by Lepi Jha Fishman, MBA ’19. at Stanford (she did research and asked specifc questions: the date, the event, the people in the room).