Sin-Yaw @ Juniper

People asked why do I come to Juniper. “Because the way I watch TV now.”

Just a few months ago, I routinely fired up BitTorrent at night to download episodes of my favorite programs (House, Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy). I had no choice. Those programs are not aired in China. When I moved back to the US, I don’t wait anymore. I watch those programs from the official web sites: fox.com, nbc.com, etc. I will hook up my laptop to the new 52″ 1080p HDTV. Many programs play in full-screen mode (Fox is better) and I will soon forget that’s not live TV. I laughed so hard on Tina Fey’s SNL performance on my laptop, displayed on my TV set, Sunday afternoon — no need to stay up Saturday night.

Internet never busted. Many Internet companies went under, but the net kept on growing. Billions of people around the world are waiting to get online. Internet these days are several times larger than the bubble days and sees no sign of slowing down.

And which companies are to ride the wave? The one that produce the biggest, meanest, and fastest routers for the mass. There are other players, but Juniper is at the center of this stage.

Juniper is large enough to make a difference and small enough to experience explosive growth. Juniper’s executives are all on-board for this vision. Everyone focuses on the customers, the market, the revenue, the products: not on internal politics.

When I watched SNL, I noticed the page said more than a million viewings and counting. This is main-street behavior now. It takes lots of networking to deliver millions of viewings.

Can’t think of another company that is readier.

I have lived and worked in silicon valley for decades. Except for a few train rides to Palo Alto, I have never taken public transportation to work. Unlike Tokyo, New York, or even Beijing, there is no good network of mass transporation here. There has never options other than driving. Then I started working for Juniper Networks.

My work location is right next to a bus hub. Route 26! Isn’t that the one that run through the street 10 minutes from home?

A simple Google later, I am ready. On a nice day, I left the house with my computer backpack and walked toward the bus stop. Walk! 10 minutes later, I stood waiting at the bus stop with exact change in my pocket. I felt nervous: would the bus show up, have I missed it already, what kind of people would I found onboard, could I deal with the bus?

I went onboard, paid the fare, and faced a sparsely occupied bus. I sat down at the back corner and surveyed. My fellow passengers are all minding their own business, catching Zs, absorbed into the MP3 player, or busy studying the air. They are all clean commuters. Just like myself.

Juniper is the last stop. So I leisurely disembark. For the journey, it covered about 10 miles, costed $1.75, I left home at 7:45, arrived the stop at 7:55, the bus came at 8:05, I walked into the office at 8:50. I enjoyed Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section all the way. iPod is a wonderful thing.

Later, I found the company will give out EcoPass: a sticker for free VTA buses and light-rail. Sweet.

Inspired by Mike Bushong, who authored JUNOS for Dummies and also provided excellent sources for plagiarization.

How do you compete with Cisco? Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel are not doing so well. HuaWei chose to be the low-price leader: a strategy based on its inherent strength. Juniper Networks wins with its JUNOS operating systems.

Since almost all Juniper’s gears are based on the same architecture and work the same way, Juniper lowers the costs for customers. They would enjoy “train once, apply many times” efficiency. For Juniper’s internal operations, a single effort benefits all products. This gives Juniper a time-to-market edge: new product group focuses only on the differentiators and leverage from the same core functionalities.

It is easy to copy Cisco’s formula: create autonomous business units, give them free rein on hardware, software, marketing, and business infra-structure, hold the exec accountable, and sit back to enjoy the success. But this approach tries to beat Cisco in the game defined by Cisco. History shows this path littered with corpses of companies who tried. Juniper defined a different game: JUNOS vs. IOS. It does not try to fight against Cisco’s product portfolio, marketing army, R&D dollars, or acquisition spigot. It chose to fight on Cisco’s soft spot: software. In a battle against a giant, compete where size matter less seems like the right idea.

In this game, it is JUNOS against many smaller Ciscoes, each having an OS and a smaller OS development team. This is quite Sun-Tze: divide the larger enemy into smaller sub-units and attack with all strengths focused at a laser-sharp point. There will be no enemy too big and no battle not winnable.

As long as Juniper stays with this strategy.

“Oberoi hotel walls separated the city into two worlds: meticulous on one side and a bit ruinous outside. Bangalore has many walled islands of niceties. The trick is to hop from one to the other without stopping.”

Read more…

When I was mid-air between Bangalore and San Francisco, the mover called. “Your household passed the US custom. When do you wish to take delivery?” What!? I tried to remember what’s in the container and begged for the weekend to clear out the space. Monday, September 15th, a big truck pulled into our drive way and started the last part of my relocation.

Last I saw these boxes was July 11th in Beijing.

Start unpacking.

Juniper has this interesting Dewey system to address a location. My office is, for example, 2.2.062. Everyone in the Sunnyvale campus knows to find building 2, 2nd floor, and room 062. When I arrived at the Bangalore site, I was confident to locate 4.0.2.8, where I am temporary assigned. Start with building 4? No-o-o-o-o. Bangalore site has a different Dewey system. It is the floor #4, zone 0, and “cabin” 2.8. By the way, the floor that you can walk into from the street is called, not ground, not one, but floor #0. Pretty cool for an old C programmer.

I found two rooms with interesting labels.

They are rooms with 2 bunk beds and several sofas. I turned on the light and woke up a guy (it was around noon time). How delightful! If an engineer has been braving the project over-night, this room gives him/her a chance to recharge. So many times I wish to take a quick nap before driving home. The fight against fatigue behind wheel is so scary. I applaud the courage of the local management to have made these rooms.

I made acquaintances to many, but not all, leaders at Bangalore site. Three years of being the remote guy came flashing back when I chat with them. I found them nodding (as acknowledgement) when I described the experience from China. I told my boss (who now lives in Bangalore) that how much I appreciate that he understands. I guess he also appreciates a staff the same.

The world will be better if we all understand better. Right?

Cross posted.

Leaving a place is a process of being stripped. Piece by piece, something that used to attached to you was forcibly removed. I experienced this process for the past several months. This trip, I can feel it, removed the last part. Beijing is no longer my home.

What are the names of those emotions when you come back home? Six weeks separated me from Beijing, now I am visiting, instead of returning, according to China custom. The taxi did not stop at my apartment and took me to the hotel instead. Felt so weird.

People asked me to compare and contrast. My readily made answer is, “Beijing is stressful socially and easy at work. The US is the other way around.” Much of what one need to accomplish requires extensive personal network, so called GuangXi, or special assesses to information not widely available. Living in Beijing is hardwork, at least for those who want to make things happen. Work, on the other hand, is relatively straight-forward. I was blessed with staff and employees that are diligent, detail-attentive, smart, and motivated. They usually carry out my decisions smoothly without much over-sight. They exchanged my trust with effectiveness and efficiency.

In the US, or silicon valley, work decisions and their implementations are more complicated. The data collection and interpretation take longer time. The conclusions are usually not obvious and decisions, therefore, harder to make. This translates to longer planning cycle and working hours. Socially activities, though, are simple. Crack open several cold beers, fire up the BBQ, turn on the TV, bring out the food. Everyone just have a good time.

Beijing’s bright blue sky shocked me. I don’t remember seeing white clouds in the entire 3 years. The traffic is eerily light. The always brisk hotel lobby is quiet and subdued. What did they do to Beijing? Oh yes, Olympics.

Many told me stories: she got married, so did she. She is pregnant and he divorced (and married again). He left the company and he got a new boss. And, the usual, so-and-so bumped into so-and-so while interviewing at that company. It feels like watching your family through a one-way mirror. I care so much yet can do so little.

Maybe it is enough that I listened. I hope.

Few years ago, I read this book by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Like most management books, they distilled common senses into operational principles and thought guidelines. This book has profound influence on my managerial style and even career choices. It is one of the books I kept on my shelf. (My standard practice is to donate them to friends or library.)

Over the years, I gradually developed my own execution skills, much of them based on Larry Bossidy’s book. I wrote two blog entries on this topic: Management 101 and Management 102.

Most worthy changes involve many people. As a general rule, people do not want to change themselves, they just want others to change. Almost all people will flatly deny their resistance to change, yet their behaviors betray them. The best, and sometime the only, way to change people is to convince them to change by themselves. Once people understand the needs and benefits, and they have accepted the stress, they change willingly.

The tricks are simple: after designing the change, allocate sufficient time to socialize and communicate. When doing so, put yourself in their positions. Focus on explanation. If things make sense, people embrace the change. Otherwise, they stonewall.

Socialization and communication is more effectively done in person. There are many modern ways of communication. Almost all of them remove personal contacts to certain degree. Supplement your socialization and communication with those tools. Avoid using them as primary channels.

What if you are in a hurry and there are too many people to visit? You will be surprised how much difference a voicemail would make. Rehearse and practice your voicemail. Keep it short, keep it personal, stay on point.

Give people time to internalize and express their thoughts. There are two benefits: being heard speeds up the acceptance, you may also learn something valuable.

Next topic? Managing time. (Not time management)

Last year, I reminisced on a summer BBQ, an impossibility in a highrise Beijing apartment. After moving back, among the first things we went shopping for is a grill. What we ended up is a free one donated by a close friend. Their Weber Round Grill is pristinely unused — cheap price for an invitation to the World-famous Wang family BBQ Ribs.

The secret ingredient, like many good things in life, is preparation and patience. It begins with a bag of Swift ribs from Costco. Rinse them clean, pat them dry, salt and pepper, soy-sauce lightly, and refrigerate over-night. Sides usually include a seafood item (Salmon for this weekend), sweet corns, yams, and some veggie. Soak a big handful of wood chips overnight.

The secret to good BBQ, like many good things in life, is preparation and meticulous process. BBQ refers to cooking meats slowly with indirect heat and the lid closed. The smoke is a critical part to the flavor. Smoke comes from heated moisture. The simplest source of smoke is the meat itself. The 2nd one is what people add to the heat, soaked wood chips are the cheapest and easiest way. The charcoals themselves provide mostly just heat.

The whole process takes about 90 minutes. Apply the sauce, if any, about 10 minutes before done. Splatter them on nice and thick, also quickly. Close the lid for about 10 minutes. Remove ribs into a serving pan. Cover with Aluminum sheet for about 10 minutes. Now devour. It is not cool to use utensil to eat ribs.

The smoky aroma rushes into your nostrils. The meat falls off the bones. Fingers are tasty. Cold beer goes down so cool. Everyone is in good mood.

Man! I am glad to be back.

BY BRIAN WOMACK, INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY, 8/27/2008