The Straits Times Interactive
Featured Woman
Lien Siaou-Sze
Senior Vice-President Hewlett-Packard Services Asia-Pacific
Never mind your gender. It's what you are passionate about that matters, contends Hewlett-Packard Services Asia-Pacific senior vice-president Lien Siaou-Sze. She should know - she was named by Fortune magazine as among the 50 most powerful businesswomen outside the US.
By Simon Wilcoz (correspondent with The Straits Times Money Desk)
In the beating heart of Singapore's computer industry is a woman who loves Mozart and Chopin and believes they have something to teach the 21st century Infotech (IT) professional.
Whenever she has the time, Ms Lien Siaou-Sze, 52, the senior vice-president of Hewlett-Packard (HP) Services Asia-Pacific, will catch a concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and find inspiration in that.
"I love the ability of the violinist or the cellist to focus and produce a piece of work to absolute perfection," she said in an interview with Sunday Review.
"And that's what I look for when I am recruiting talent for HP - that focus, that attention to detail and also that passion."
For the Singaorean businesswomen who was ranked eighth recently in Fortune magazine's list of the 50 most powerful businesswomen outside the United States, these qualities are far more important than gender or race.
"In today's knowledge economy, it's what you say, it's what you are capable of, it's what you are passionate about that matters. To me, gender is a total non-issue, If gender is not an issue, what must have certainly mattered in her case is her determination to succeed, a quality that emerged during the interview.
Slight of frame and dressed very neatly in a floral samfoo, her initial shy demeanour dissipated when she delivered her answers to questions.
Crisp, forceful, thoughtful answers that signal drive and success. Succeeded she has, and how. Explaining its choice, Fortune said Ms Lien is "arguably HP's most senior woman outside the US and, certainly, among its top 50 executives anywhere."
Apart from her, Madam Ho Ching, Temasek Holding's executive director - ranked No 6 - and Ms Chua Sock Koong, SingTel's chief financial officer - who came in at No 25 - were the only Singaporeans.
Born in 1950, Ms Lien grew up in a large family setting in Katong, being one of six children. At the urging of a "very good teacher", she got the "right grades" at school and went on to study physics at the National University of Singapore. This was followed by a year at Imperial College in London, studying for a Master's in Computer Science.
She began her career at HP Singapore as a systems engineer - the only female engineer there at the time, though she is quick to point out this is a "non-issue". Throughout the 1980s, she managed HP's application engineering activities in Singapore and South-east Asia before moving on to develop its customer-support activities.
The 1980s and 1990s were a fascinating time to be in the computer business, she adds. "You were working in a fast-changing industry and you were learning all the time. There were many times when I would learn some new technology just in time to be able to run a demonstration, give a presentation, share my new-found knowledge with others. It is this 'endless learning' that continues to drive her - a capacity she looks for in her new recruits."
Promoted to senior vice-president of HP Services Asia-Pacific in 2000, she now oversees all business activities for HP Services from India to New Zealand and from Korea to Indonesia. HP Services is the global consulting arm for HP - one of only two units in the US-based company that are currently profitable.
Responsible for 8 000 employees, one of her main roles is to "nurture all that talent", and also to help her staff achieve a good balance between their work lives and their home lives.
"Running a career is like running a marathon," she says. "Sometimes you want to sprint, sometimes you want to cruise. The important thing is to pace yourself, and I hope that at HP we have enough flexibility to allow our employees to do that."
Ms Lien, whose husband died seven years ago, makes sure she is involved in activities on weekends with her daughter, who is now at university. "On a personal level, I will sometimes work 20 hours a day but I won't do that 365 days a year. I pace myself," she says.
The Straits Times October 2002. Re-edited.
Photo from Nanyang Technological University. Accessed on 18 Mar 2011 fromhttp://www.ntu.edu.sg/NanyangAlumniAwards/Recipients/PreviousYearAwardRecipients/2006/Pages/MsLienSiaouSze(连萧思小姐).aspx
