NetSuite Values: A Quick Interview

Yesterday, I received an email from someone from our company's Social Impact team. The team is working on a landing page for our company's website and are looking for some quotes from the 4 global Values in Action awardees in 2023.

Here were my responses:

How do you feel that NetSuite's Values add to your work experience?

If there's one thing in common about each of NetSuite's values, it's being of service to others. I've noticed that as I've helped customers, my own product knowledge, my exposure to different scenarios, my adaptability or change agility all improved. On top of that, helping colleagues with their tasks multiplied that improvement tenfold. I concur with Walt Whitman, a poet who said "The gift is to the giver, and comes back to him..."

How do you bring the values to life? 

Changing how we view work is key to bringing the values to life. I like to treat my work as a form of art, and myself an artist. Artists create and care enough about their art that they will do almost anything to give it away, to make it a gift, to change people. I do this even if it means doing additional work I am not required to do, simply because of my passion for my work. I do my best to come up with tools, or possibly simpler processes to optimize how I work. Then I make connections to people that I could share these ideas with, in the hopes of innovating and making that change for the better happen.

How do you apply the values in your day to day at work?

We live in a time when providing the correct answers or solutions isn't enough. While our customers seek solutions to their business needs, they also seek "emotional work". I like to think that the solutions they look for aren't project-specific; moreover, at their core, they're people-specific. Realizing this, I actively remind myself to be more human in my conversations with our customers. I do my best to be genuine and amiable with them. And as Dale Carnegie puts it, even just a simple smile can be heard over the phone.

Is there anything you'd like to add about being recognized for a NetSuite Value? 

I'd like to share some wisdom from "Linchpin" (by Seth Godin), that has changed my life. Gifts are any effort we put in our work beyond the minimum requirements. These can include building rapport with a customer, or even reaching out to help a colleague who may not be relevant to your daily tasks. With that in mind, we may come to realize that as we stop asking "What's in it for me?" and start giving gifts that change people, then, and only then, will we have achieved our potential.