Yue Zhuge
Co-Founder and CEO, Landscape Mobile
Headquarters: Beijing, China
Education: PhD, Stanford University; MS, Stony Brook University
First Job: Summer Internship at Intel
What I’m Reading: Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
Best Advice: It is okay to aim high, but it is also okay to take your own pace.
Producing the best results
I believe in diversity, not because I am a woman, not for the sake of diversity, not even because it is the right thing to do. I truly believe a diverse team is the best team, it produces the best results, and we have the best time together. Diversity is the basis for long-term success. My management experiences at Microsoft, Yahoo, and now at my own startup company, have proved it true repeatedly.
Diversity is not just about gender or color, but also about experiences, characters, personal demeanors, and more. I’ve had team members from different geo locations: Europe, South America, China, India, and the U.S., and people with multi-culture backgrounds. Spending many years leading product and design teams in the data and online advertising domain, I’ve worked with the smartest analytical minds in the world, as well as creative artists. I pay a lot of attention to diversity in all aspects of the above. What I found out was a pleasant fact: Once a leader is open-minded, has the “eye of wisdom” to identify different merits, and believes that differences make a stronger and more interesting team, the organization may naturally have a balanced mix, say in gender or backgrounds.
I have attended many events promoting and celebrating women in technology and demonstrating to young woman that they can truly excel in technical fields. According to a study from MIT, collective intelligence is at its best when there are more women in the group. Women are also the major forces behind consumer needs and spending. I think in addition to implementing different programs, company leaders must understand the benefits and appreciate the true value this workforce brings to the organization. Then they can model the same understanding and behavior to their team members.
Since last year, I have been working on a startup building a mobile product called Ivy Gallery, which uses technology to help consumers organize large numbers of images. Ivy is built from day one as a global product by a global team. As of today, Ivy has slightly more female users than male users, and a healthy balance of users from the U.S. and the rest of the world. How can we win this market, have deep insights into all these customers, and build the best product in this fast-paced world? We can only do so with an open-minded, diverse and inclusive team. I’m glad I have one.
