Sherrie Simmons is the Chief Operating Officer at Ultra Mobile, leading engineering, customer support and initiative management functions. Sherrie was brought to help Ultra Mobile transition from start-up to scale-up leveraging her skillset in both technology and operational management. Simmons began her career as a developer, before shifting into project, technology and systems management at Toyota Motor Corporation. Following a long tenure there, Simmons moved to MedAssets, Inc. where she became Senior Vice President of Operations. As a consultant, she’s worked with major corporations, including Nissan Motor Corporation, Avery Dennison, Guthy-Renker and SDI – the world's leading media translation services company – and, most recently, served as interim-CTO for Defy Media. Simmons is Six Sigma certified and holds a bachelor's degree from California State University-Fullerton and master’s degree from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
It started when I was 11 and began working for my Mother in one of our family businesses. My Mother is a serial entrepreneur that has started 9 different companies, which are still owned and operated my siblings and extended family. The reality of life for me in this environment was full of opportunities and learnings. I had daily exposure to a fierce female leader, my Mother, who held me accountable to be my best every day, pushed me to always achieve more, and nurtured my development. I learned that it is out of commitment to success and compassion for your team members that a leader devotes time to feedback, coaching, and accountability.
I started my career as a software developer and I learned very quickly that building software that meets requirements written on a specification does not always equate to success because it does not always solve a business problem. I was very fortunate to spend the first decade of my career at Toyota Motor Sales where I was taught the lean thinking and continuous improvement, which are all founded in the Toyota Production System. It is this framework that taught me, we must always start with what problem we are trying to solve, leverage the plan-do-check-act approach, and apply continuous improvement that we will engineer meaningful solutions to business challenges and opportunities. I am a life time practitioner and student of this approach, which has allowed me to create a structured yet flexible operation.
Lastly, I believe that my focus on continuous improvement, curiosity, and hunger to learn is what has driven me from software engineer, to business/systems analysis, to project/program management, to leading product planning and development, to running support and services organizations, and operations. As one set of challenges were conquered, others were uncovered. When given the opportunity to solve new challenges, I dove in because it is only through trying can we succeed or fail, and only through failing do we truly learn and grow.
How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at Ultra?
I believe my preparation for my role at Ultra has been from grass roots. I have performed all the roles that are performed by my team today. I started as a software engineer during a time where requirements, design, build, quality control, and production support, which included customer support were performed by a single individual. Though I started my career in a Fortune 100 company, Toyota Motor Sales, I started in an innovation group responsible for starting up a side business that would supply Toyota’s North American productions with the parts necessary for manufacturing. Technology, process, accounting, contracts, support, sales, marketing, billing, vendor management, etc. were functions covered by myself and two other team members. Success in this initiative was based on how we could create solutions with limited resources in an established organization. This could only be accomplished through a structured but flexible approach. Every role after this was an opportunity to practice the same approach in different industries and different sized organizations.
What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Ultra?
I would say the greatest highlight has been the ability to affect change very quickly. Prior to joining Ultra I asked our President, Tyler Leshney, where are the three biggest opportunities in our organization. Tyler gave me the following three areas: 1) right sizing the Care organization, 2) increase engineering velocity, and 3) ensuring that the most important work was being performed by our teams. By the end of my first 6 months, our engineering velocity had more than doubled and we adopted continuous delivery on software features and functions, and we were running a portfolio of a dozen initiatives that were prioritized weekly by a Steering Committee. Less than 8 months into my tenure we deployed our own customer care center technology and operations reducing the cost of care by more than 40%. Great shifts and changes like these are empowering and give us, me, the belief that we can do anything we put our minds to accomplishing.
The greatest challenge I have faced at Ultra is convincing the organization that structure does not equate to bureaucracy. The first issue I needed to address with process was prioritization. By setting up a steering committee we created a discipline around evaluating ideas based on effort and reward, and to properly vet ideas before they move through the system. We’ve been able to increase our capacity and output as a result of this structure, this was tough to sell in, but the results have got everyone on board. On the flip side, I have seen a hesitation to innovate and a lack of appetite to test ideas out because the organization feels that any idea that does not fit into a positive ROI business case is not worth discussing. When we are innovating, we have more unknowns than knowns and so we cannot fit this into a business case and expect the effort to get the appropriate attention and priority. Innovation must be handled differently to allow for the testing and uncovering of unknowns. It is the complexity associated with applying the right approach for the right situation that we are still working through at Ultra.
What advice can you offer to women who want a career in your industry?
I had never worked in telecommunications when I joined Ultra. While there’s a role for industry subject matter experts in a company, transferable skills and experience transcends industries. Agile is growing in popularity, is around to stay, and for anyone wanting to work in technology and operations, I think understanding and gaining experience with Agile methodology will be really valuable. Second, be prepared to demonstrate your abilities to earn credibility. Once you’ve demonstrated your value, know that you have a market value, and understand what you bring to the table. Third, be honest with your fit. If others don’t agree or make you “whole”, know that this is not about you and that you need to determine whether you fit in the organization. An organization that will recognize and honor your value, is an organization that is a fit for you.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career to date?
Be present and truly listen above all else. This is something I have learned that applies to life and career. Being present is the greatest gift you can give yourself and others.
A very close second lesson I have learned is that there is no such thing as multi-tasking. We all like to convince ourselves that we can do many things at one time, and it just isn’t true. I hold myself accountable to three top things that I need to be focused on and I work on each of the three items one at a time. Nothing else makes my top three list until I have completed one of the items already on the list. Members of my team will have their own top 3, and I will participate and support them to achieve these. And there will always be additional things from the business that require an action or response from me. But I’ll focus my time and energy achieving my top three.
How do you maintain a work/life balance?
I don’t. My life and work are all intermingled. I grew up in my Mother’s business, amongst her teams. We ate together, we worked together, sometimes we lived together. Operations does not fit into a “normal” work day and my team and I find ourselves on video calls with one another at all hours of the night and day. I see my family, the team, and the families of the team as one. Yes, there are times when we must be more focused on our families’ needs and there are times when we must be more focused on our business needs. This is fluid and it is based on needs vs. some defined rules or boundaries. If I need to spend a night in the office with the team because we have a software release, a production issue, or we are launching a new care team AND I also need to do homework with my son, I will have my son join me in the office so that I do homework with him while being available for the team. It is not uncommon for the team and I to be on a conference call for major releases from our home, which allows us to be with our families for dinner, and available on the line to do our part when necessary. I like my kids to be exposed to business, I often talk to them about problems I am trying to solve. My 8-year son and my 18-year old daughter have picked up a lot of my jargon, and business concepts along the way, and constantly surprise me with impressive insights. I love when my daughter now comes back and tells me ideas about how to improve operations, or sales at her part-time job at a fitness studio. They know by name all the people I work with, and love when they get to meet them in person.
What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
This is a tough area, because there are so many exceptions to every rule, but I do think there are patterns that exist. As an example, I believe women value themselves based on what they have achieved and what they KNOW they can do (past/current), vs what they are capable of, and their potential (future). For that reason, I don’t think women are as good at putting their hands up to take on greater responsibility (or if they do, will do so without asking for additional pay/title – as they first want to prove they can do it before they take on the value for it). From a company perspective, if someone is happy with X, why offer them more? After all budgets are finite. This is fine initially, but as the woman proves herself, and takes on more responsibility, a discrepancy in the compensation they’ve negotiated and their worth forms and increases, leading to friction. As a counter to this, I always approach compensation based on “what would it cost me to hire this position, were this person to leave”. That way, I’m rewarding based on the value of the role, not the value that the person assigns themselves (as I think all people – particularly women – can get this wrong – especially when less experienced). I speak about this openly, and as I mentioned above, encourage people to know their “market value”.
I believe the biggest opportunity for women in the workplace and life in general is to build and reinforce women’s acceptance, confidence, and pride in who they are as individuals. The confidence in one self’s unique abilities and the courage to hold yourself and others accountable for leveraging those abilities is the greatest opportunity for women in the workplace and life.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
There’s a lot of dynamics at play in any business, and in any role. The particular situation and people make issues and challenges feel very unique. I believe the value of mentors is their “arm’s length” to the situation, that perspective combined with their own experiences, help them identify patterns that are not unique to you. That is empowering, and allows you to see the overarching dynamics at play that are just showcasing themselves through the day to day. I have had formal mentors, and many more informal mentors. I don’t think you need to label it or structure it to gain value from it, and in fact the informal mentors are where I’ve derived the most value. My mother was my first and greatest mentor. My husband is a close second (we met at Toyota, and he understands this world, and is able to be extremely pragmatic and supportive). My kids mentor me in their own way, teaching me humility and compassion. I also read books, Radical Candor by Kim Scott is a great example that I think any leader should read. It talks about the importance of honest feedback and the tough conversations.
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
I admire these women whose life work furthered our voice.
Susan B Anthony
Elizabeth Blackwell
Benazir Bhutto
Indira Gandhi
Angela Dorothea Merkel
I admire Mother Theresa and Princess Diana for their service to human kind.
I admire Michelle Obama for her grace and warmth.
I admire Hillary Clinton for her tenacity and resilience.
I admire my daughter, Madeleine MacLellan, for courage and discipline.
I admire my colleague, Sarah Neill, for her innovation, drive, and commitment.
What do you want Ultra to accomplish in the next year?
The market for traditional wireless service is saturated. There’s very little industry growth, so our growth comes from taking market share from our competitors. Our core competency is international calling, but with the increase of over-the-top applications like WhatsApp, voice is less important while data becomes key. This means our core competency is losing weight. It’s important for us to embrace these shifts and pivot our own offerings to serve the new needs of our customers. And while the market for mobile phones is saturated, the Internet of Things (IoT)is exploding at a rate of 20% YoY. Connected devices are entering homes, vehicles, wardrobes, hospitals, farmland (and the list goes on), and as a connectivity provider with a growing competency in software and solutions we’re at a really exciting position to be a part of it. I want Ultra to successfully pivot this year.