Winding Paths to Success

5Conviction

When we find ourselves a minority, we can choose one of two ways to cope: one is to assimilate; fake it ’til you make it and are accepted as part of the majority. The other is to turn your outsiderness into an advantage.

The latter was the intuitive choice of Miyuki Suzuki, the recently retired former president of Cisco Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China, currently sitting on the boards of multiple prominent multinational firms as a nonexecutive board member. Her minority status as a Japanese‐raised‐overseas grew even starker on landing in the working world of Japan in her 40s.

When Suzuki assumed the role of president at Cisco Japan, she was markedly different from her colleagues in the male‐dominated tech industry in two ways; not only was she a woman of senior rank but also she was Western‐educated with a history degree from the University of Oxford. Suzuki leveraged these attributes to transform Cisco Japan, instilling a Western management style of empowerment and personification of the power of diversity.

The results, not the optics of diversity, undergirded her leadership. Under Suzuki's reign, Cisco Japan achieved an unprecedented pace of growth, sustained by a virtuous cycle of local performance and increased global attention from Cisco headquarters.

Suzuki knows how to swim successfully in a man's world without losing grace. She has practical tips for women so they will be taken seriously—speaking firmly in a low voice, taking the front and center seat ...