CIO Story 14: Breaking through the Ceiling
Hu went into a teahouse on the weekend for an appointment with his friend, where he unexpectedly met Chen Li, the CIO of a state-owned enterprise. Chen had always dressed plain and neat. Now, with such fashionable attire, she was hardly recognizable to Hu at first sight.
While Hu’s friend was on the way, Chen sat opposite Hu and they started chatting.
At the beginning of her appointment as the CIO, some of her subordinates were quite scornful and regarded her as nothing but a “little woman”. Even her boss was not fully confident in her capabilities. With Hu’s patient and meticulous instructions, Chen rapidly “incorporated” those troublemakers, consolidated the disunited IT team into a crack unit, and transformed the computer on the boss’s desk from a decoration to practical use. Chen won the boss’s trust and support in this way, which was of paramount importance in her early period in the saddle. She developed a sincere gratitude towards Hu, and thanked him every time they met.
“That’s because of your own capabilities. You are becoming a great CIO,” Hu said with a smile. A veteran CIO himself, Hu appreciated the difficulty for IT women at work. Of IT personnel, no more than 20% were women, and a female CIO like Chen was even rarer. But Chen could ride the whirlwind at work and seemed never to believe her sex was an obstacle, and never came across the formidable “invisible ceiling”.
Much to Hu’s surprise, however, Chen said, “Invisible ceilings are everywhere.” The first “ceiling” after her assumption of CIO was the “men’s room”. At that time she had secured a firm foothold in the enterprise, and proposed an overall re-arrangement of the company’s information system. She had obtained verbal support from the boss in advance, and most leaders expressed their agreement at the CEO conference as well. But after a short break, the tables quickly turned and her plan was rejected. She couldn’t figure out why, and secretly asked a male manager, who was on good terms with her, what happened. To her surprise, the proposal was voted down in the men’s room during the break.
Hu kept nodding his head. He admitted it was absolutely true that quite a few problems were discussed and preliminarily resolved in restrooms. As a matter of fact, “sauna meetings” and “KTV meetings” were also the places where men formulated resolutions of grave importance.
“So how did you solve that kind of problem?” asked Hu.
Chen blushed slightly, and said, “I did not fear them at all and joined the ‘men’s club’.” With this lesson in mind, she intentionally spent much time merging with male colleagues and groomed some influential ones as her confidants. During each recess, she would ask her “spies” for information or directly ask about the secrets of the “men’s room” in a humorous way when the meeting resumed.
“With you, the ‘ceiling’ has holes in it,” Hu said jokingly.
Chen smiled complacently. Her passion for IT prevented her from compromising with pressures related to sex. Just like most women, she had experienced helplessness and pondered over the difficulty in balancing job and family. But these problems were never an insurmountable gulf in her eyes. She was confident in her ability, and believed that women were more sensitive and talented by nature with regards to teamwork and the allocation of assignments, which were advantages over men.
Chen said, “There is a prevalent saying that CIO stands for ‘Career Is Over’. To you it’s only a joke, but to female CIOs, it’s almost a fact.” A mutual acquaintance of Hu and Chen, Wen Hua who’s a celebrated heroine in CIO circles, collapsed from overwork on the frontline of the project after years of service as the CIO of a foreign firm. Seeing no hope of promotion after years of toil, two other female CIOs in the same trade as Chen left their offices.
On account of all these, Chen was even more reluctant to give the battle. Thanks to her extraordinary vigor and valor, and with the support from the “men’s club” and trust from the boss, this female CIO eventually succeeded in implementing the all-inclusive information system, which enabled the company to be the epitome of information management in the industry. Her achievement also turned her into a heroine who ushered the company into the information age.
“I have just been appointed vice-president of the company this week,” said Chen delightedly. “So I’m here celebrating with my female friends.”
Being an engaged carder of a state-owned enterprise, Chen broke through the system obstacle and got promoted as an exception to the management core. Seeing this, she was filled with unutterable joy.
“Congratulations!” Hu praised with a heartfelt gratification.
中文原文：CIO故事之十四：突破天花板
