Interview for Executiva: The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova profoundly impacted my career path

In a recent interview to Executiva magazine, Inês Cruz da Silva, Global Head of Consumer Insights for mobile products at Google, credits The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova for profoundly impacting her career path.
Inês Cruz da Silva studied Economics at Nova SBE and has 16 years of experience in defining business strategies focused on technology and telecommunications. Throughout her career, she has been in contact with different business areas, from finance to marketing and product sales. With a deep understanding of technology, its complexities and how companies must operate to succeed in today’s post-digital era, Inês Cruz da Silva has led global projects from product concept and market entry strategy to vision setting and merging customer insights with internal business goals, boasting a good track record of commercial success and team leadership.
Inês Cruz da Silva’s career began at Vodafone, where she worked for five years. She did The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova in 2010 and soon after joined Google, where she has held several positions and worked with multiple markets. Since last year, Inês Cruz da Silva has held the Global Head of Consumer Insights (Mobility Products) position.
Your path has been made in technology and with a very diversified experience. What has been the main thread of your career?
Despite having a diversified experience in several areas – I started in finance, then marketing, sales, and now strategy and product development – the main thread has been a natural approach to the Telecom and Tech industry, also evolving into adjacent business areas where my previous experience brings an added value. These skills, either individually or jointly, have been levers during my career. For example, when I moved from Vodafone to Google, my knowledge of Telecom allowed me to position Google’s value offering for this segment. At the same time, my marketing background made me a better consultant in developing relationships with the marketers I worked with and developed partnerships with for Google’s digital marketing solutions. Later on, given Telecom’s affinity with Consumer Electronics, my responsibilities started to cover this industry as well. Today, I am in a completely different functional area than where I started at Google.
I work in strategy and product development for Google’s mobile devices, but I continue my journey in consumer electronics. I see my career with a network of connections: industry or skills, and in this way I have experienced and been exposed to different opportunities. What are the main changes that you highlight in this area since you started working and today? The technological field has been constantly evolving since the 1970s, but the pace of innovation has undoubtedly increased dramatically in the last 15 years and, in my opinion, with two major transformative milestones that have ramifications on many levels. The first was the mobile revolution. Clearly a spin-off from the launch of the iPhone 3 in 2008, the mobile explosion – the smartphone as the digital hub for the consumer – gained a lot of traction from 2010 onwards and all consumer-facing businesses had to adapt. The impact of this technological development meant the proliferation of an app-economy that impacted the adoption of social networks but also of real-time apps like Uber or Lift. This type of platform contributed to the development of the “gig economy” which is characterized by the development of an unconventional, short-term freelance labor market, powered by the use of digital platforms and with much impact on several economies during the pandemic. The other major area of emphasis is undoubtedly the area of artificial intelligence (AI) that affects several business areas and will leave no industry immune. Despite the media hype AI is getting now, the technology has been in development for years – Google announced it would be AI-first in 2016 – and many of us have already experienced it in many applications, although we may not be aware of it. If used responsibly, this development will enable impressive increases in creativity and productivity in businesses and in societies. This will have a massive impact on organizations that should start thinking today in which areas they can apply these developments to their business in the future. If I hadn’t taken The Lisbon MBA my entry into Google wouldn’t have happened What made you switch from Vodafone to Google? Did the MBA influence this change? Without any doubt The Lisbon MBA had a profound impact on my career development and on my move to Google. I decided to take the MBA with the desire to expand not only my knowledge and perspective on other industries, but also to grow my network. It was during the MBA that I began to better understand the dynamics of Google as a company.
I work in strategy and product development for Google’s mobile devices, but I continue my journey in consumer electronics. I see my career with a network of connections: industry or skills, and in this way, I have experienced and been exposed to different opportunities.
What are the main changes that you have highlighted in this area since you started working until today?
The technology field has been constantly evolving since the 1970s. Still, the pace of innovation has undoubtedly increased dramatically in the last 15 years, and, in my opinion, there have been two major transformational milestones that have ramifications at various levels. The first was the mobile revolution. A spin-off from the launch of the iPhone 3 in 2008, the mobile explosion – the smartphone as the digital hub for the consumer – gained a lot of traction from 2010 onwards, and all consumer-facing businesses had to adapt. The impact of this technological development meant the proliferation of an app economy that impacted the adoption of social networks but also of real-time apps like Uber or Lift. This type of platform contributed to the development of the “gig economy,” which is characterized by the development of an unconventional, short-term freelance labor market powered by digital platforms and with much impact on several economies during the pandemic. The other major area of emphasis is undoubtedly the area of artificial intelligence (AI) which affects several business areas and will leave no industry immune. Despite the media hype AI is having now, the technology has been in development for years – Google announced it would be AI-first in 2016 – and many of us have already experienced it in many applications. However, we may not be aware of it. If used responsibly, this development will enable impressive increases in creativity and productivity in businesses and in societies. This will have a massive impact on organizations that should start thinking today about which areas they can apply these developments to their business in the future.
What made you switch from Vodafone to Google? Did the MBA influence this change?
Without any doubt, The Lisbon MBA had a profound impact on my career development and my move to Google. I decided to take the MBA with the desire to expand not only my knowledge and perspective on other industries but also to grow my network. During the MBA, I began to better understand the dynamics of Google as a company.
I remember we worked on a case study about Google’s acquisition of the Android operating system, which aroused my interest and I started to “investigate”. It was also through the MBA, in a networking session, that I met part of the Google Portugal team at the time and started to establish relationships that proved to be fruitful. I can confidently say that if I hadn’t done The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova my career and my entry into Google wouldn’t have happened. The idea of Google in comparison to Vodafone presented itself as an opportunity to get to know a completely different industry with exceptional growth and disruption.
What were the main differences you felt between the two companies?
The two companies were more similar at the time than you might imagine. In both, I found an extremely dynamic environment with an extraordinary focus on making an impact on the consumer. The main differences I found were in the disruptive innovation that Google solutions brought to the digital marketing market, which required me to keep up with the latest innovations, and also in the greater integration that exists on a global product level compared to a Telecom company that operates and competes only on a national level.
What does your current role at Google consist of, and what do you most enjoy about it?
My most recent project is Head of Global Insights for the Pixel Phone, Buds Watch, and Tablet, and my team is responsible for bridging the gap with the product development teams (what are consumers looking for in the phone of the future and what do we have to develop) and Marketing (how should we position ourselves so that the message conveys what consumers are looking for). What I like most about this role is understanding how consumer needs evolve and thinking strategically about how we can respond by designing a plan to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. I decided to take the MBA because I wanted to become a better manager.
Why did you decide to take the MBA, and why did you choose The Lisbon MBA?
I decided to do an MBA because I wanted to study again and have a challenging experience that would show me other realities and give me the tools and frameworks to become a better manager. The Lisbon MBA allowed me to acquire exactly what I was looking for and proved to be highly innovative, being a partnership of two top schools in Portugal, CATÓLICA-LISBON and Nova SBE, while adding a third one (MIT Sloan) that I always wanted to experience as a student. At the same time, the curriculum promoted leadership development with a hands-on approach. Also, the international faculty made The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova the natural choice for me.
How did you live the experience of learning by doing, so integral to The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova?
With some intensity, and perhaps nervousness at first, but as the relationships that our working groups formed developed, it became fun and challenging.
During my MBA journey, I had to work with multidisciplinary teams, given the volume of work and the diversity of knowledge. The most interesting thing was to see what each of us, given our individual experiences, brought to the final result. Today, with some distance, I see that The Lisbon MBA has made me more apt for challenges that I might not have had the basis to face, but today I have the right tools, which is the most important skill I have developed.
For many women, lack of time is the biggest obstacle to taking an MBA. How did you overcome this challenge?
Doing an MBA is a commitment of time, focus, and effort that, to be worth it, forces you to commit 100%. The decision to do an MBA impacts those closest to you, so it is necessary for everyone involved in your life to realize that impact. However, an MBA doesn’t take forever, it has a beginning and an end and a fantastic result, and it was with that perspective that I managed my personal life during the year I dedicated to the MBA. Although I didn’t have children at the time, I had several colleagues who were already parents, and the key thing for them was full family alignment with periods of time (that were shorter than usual) that were 100% dedicated to the family. It is a great example that it is possible to have a career in technology without having a background in that field.
What would you say to women about a career in technology?
I would tell them that more and more companies realize that having a diverse workforce in all areas gives them a competitive advantage because the outcome is actually better. Diversity promotes different perspectives and, as such better input and, consequently, output. At the same time, it is good to reinforce that we all have a space and that jobs do not have a gender. If the goal is to work in a technology company, without, like me, having a background in engineering, don’t be inhibited because all companies have several functional areas where non-technical skills are necessary for success. Having an attitude of curiosity is the most important thing. A piece of advice that is also very useful is to create networking relationships with professionals in areas diametrically opposite to our own. A contact in a technical area gives me a different perspective on a certain objective, and this combination of “knowledge” is unique in the search for a better result and in the opening of new job opportunities.
What do you like to do in your free time and how do you try to keep your balance?
To keep my balance, I rely on Yoga. Regular practice helps me stay focused and feel like I’m preparing my body for long days of meetings and sitting at a desk. I also really enjoy listening to podcasts. While listening to them, I can be doing other activities and at the same time catching up on new trends, new products, and also for personal development. My favorites are “Pivot,” “Tech News Briefing (WSJ),” and “Dear Headspace.” In my spare time, I like to spend time with my kids and husband, travel, go for walks and watch a good series on TV.
Read the full article (original) in Portuguese here.
Source: Executiva Magazine