D&I is a marathon, not a sprint. We are in it for the long run.
When I first started in my career, I was a lot more forceful. I was the anomaly because I was always the young black female in a sea of white men, trying to get my point across. What I’ve learned over the years is that it’s not a sprint with D&I – it is absolutely a marathon. And, that marathon is far more than getting a certain percentage of underrepresented groups on your team. It’s about earning genuine buy-in from the top down, and broad-sweeping education to counter unconscious bias. This is how we bring about true D&I in the workplace.
While today we have more buy-in from leadership and acknowledgement of essential changes, we still have much work to do.
Our most valuable resource is people
Like most companies, it’s the talent that drives innovation and enables true creativity for EditShare. More and more we are seeing talent likely identify with multiple ethnicities or identify as gender fluid. As we move to a more diverse outlook on the world, the question of a lack of diverse talent in the workplace becomes more pertinent. So, when you extrapolate that notion amongst other diverse people, the question is: how much talent are you losing out on because you haven’t got a diverse workforce? A lack of diversity is destructive to your business.
EditShare journey – we are changing course
D&I is not an HR function. It needs to be embodied in the culture so that everyone is on the same journey. In the first few months since I have been at EditShare, we have rolled out a number of new D&I initiatives and brought forth flexible working policies.
Helping define and drive these initiatives and policies is EditShare’s new D&I working group, which is led by myself and the VP of Product, Sunil Mudholkar. It’s staffed by representatives from each major department to ensure that we have a good cross-section of individuals to brainstorm and soundboard ideas. Together we compile the facts, talk to our colleagues, define the goals and the important projects and partnerships that will help EditShare introduce and embrace authentic D&I initiatives. I am proud to say in the short time since I have been here, we are well on our way to:
- Diversifying the talent pool
- Shutting the door on the pay gap for every person
- Equal maternity and paternity leave for everyone
These programs are not elaborate. They are simple and measurable, and with every step forward, add immense value to our teams and deeper understanding of what it means to be included. It’s authentic, with ownership spread across the company.
Breaking old habits to make lasting change
While we have many exciting D&I projects in motion, there’s a long way to go. Today, 75% of EditShare employees are white males averaging 45 years of age. As an industry, unconscious bias plays can have a big impact on the diversity of your workforce. It’s fewer than six degrees of separation that ultimately can create a one-dimensional workforce; one that ultimately negatively impacts your employer branding to the incredible talent we want to attract.
These habits are hard to break. The first step is recognizing the pattern and stepping outside the comfort zone to mindfully build a diverse and inclusive workforce.
While we are at the beginning of this marathon, I am excited about the journey and about our future. We have amazing support from our CEO, Conrad Clemson, and the senior leadership team. We are small enough to make swift changes and implement policies that can be truly drafted and owned by the people who work here.
We are placing D&I at the core of our culture. It makes us stronger. We all feel it. The whole company is better because of it. I will be back to you in six months to report on the shifts and changes we made to move us forward to a brighter future.
About Jennifer Ashton
Jennifer helps shape the creative, diverse and inclusive culture that defines EditShare. Her talent development and people programs serve as the foundation for its global talent pool. Prior to joining EditShare in June 2020, Jennifer spearheaded D&I initiatives for Amazon, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and most recently the BBC where she was instrumental in supporting to reduce the gender pay gap.
We’ve been doing a lot of the talking during the past few webinars, and we’d like to hear from you! This informal Q&A session is for you to ask any questions you may have. Our CMO – Tracy Geist, Director of Workflow Design – Grant Carroll, and Pre-sales Engineer – Victor Mendonça are here to field your questions and join your conversation. Ask about our products and services, the media production market in general, your favorite TV show or the latest gotta-have lightsaber color. Join us for the fun!
For this webinar, we’d like to see ALL your faces! Video is highly encouraged, but not required. Please enable video when you join so we can share and ask questions in real time, virtual face-to-face. By default, everyone will be on mute. We will all have access to chat and you’ll be able to to raise your hand to be unmuted so you can ask questions. We’re really looking forward to seeing you!
Other Sessions
We’ve been doing a lot of the talking during the past few webinars, and we’d like to hear from you! This informal Q&A session is for you to ask any questions you may have. Our CMO – Tracy Geist, Regional Sales Manager – Paul Saint, and Technical Pre-sales Specialist – Iain Churchill-Coleman are here to field your questions and join your conversation. Ask about our products and services, the media production market in general, your favorite TV show or favorite classic car. Join us for the fun!
For this webinar, we’d like to see ALL your faces! Video is highly encouraged, but not required. Please enable video when you join so we can share and ask questions in real time, virtual face-to-face. By default, everyone will be on mute. We will all have access to chat and you’ll be able to to raise your hand to be unmuted so you can ask questions. We’re really looking forward to seeing you!
Other Sessions
As we near the end of the second quarter of 2020, I thought I would pause for a moment and share some thoughts from the past 12 months. May 20th marked my one-year anniversary at EditShare – what a journey it has been! Over the past year, we have strengthened our senior leadership team and our staff, grown the business at double digit rates, and worked to engage more efficiently with our customer and partners to explore not only their current challenges…but also their future challenges as well. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jason Dachman from SVG who captured some of the highlights from the past year and I’d like to share that interview with you here. I hope you enjoy the look back at the road we’ve traveled and hope you will continue to join us on our journey.
6/18/2020
Growth of content creation and consumption coupled with surge in remote production across all market sectors drives demand for EditShare’s world-class cloud-based solutions
Singapore – June 18, 2020 – EditShare®, a technology leader that specializes in collaboration, security, and intelligent storage solutions for media creation and management, has expanded its APAC operations to include a new office in Singapore, led by EditShare’s newly appointed Vice President of Sales for APAC, Alan Dishington. With strategic oversight of the region’s sales professionals, channel partners, and key accounts, Alan will steer EditShare’s business success with an emphasis on customer enablement and experience. Through his vast experience leading business development for Tivo, Accenture and Cisco across the region, Alan brings a deep understanding of the media industry and its trajectory towards cloud-based solutions to the EditShare APAC sales operation.
In addition to the appointment of Alan, EditShare is expanding its on-the-ground presence with the addition of Tze Ming Ng, in the role of regional sales manager, and William Tay, in the role of pre-sales engineer for APAC. These new roles will support EditShare’s growing customer base in the region, which includes media giant Tencent Video, the Beijing Film Academy, and NHK, as well as the region’s growing demand for remote production solutions.
“We compete on a global stage and want EditShare to be our customers’ first choice. That means building world-class, open software supported by well-prepared leaders who create a customer experience that is second to none,” states Rob Adams, vice president of worldwide sales, EditShare. “Alan, Tze Ming, and William bring a passion for excellence with a body of knowledge that puts our customers in the very best position when it comes to transforming and making the most of their media operations.”
Tze Ming brings to EditShare vast experience in business development with special focus on media and cloud solution sales, having led similar roles for companies including NTT, InfoFabric, Pebble Beach Systems and The Media Village. Also well versed in the media market, William comes to EditShare with experience in system integration, support and delivery as well as training, working for Mediagenix NG, Software Generation Limited, and Avid.
Establishing EditShare’s new Singapore office as a regional hub comes on the heels of its resource expansion into China with on the ground presence in Beijing and technology advancements deploying EditShare customer workflows to run in Tencent Cloud, one of Asia’s biggest cloud providers. Adams states, “Asia is a strategic market for EditShare. Having a knowledgeable team on the ground enables us to better serve our partners and customers business needs. EditShare will continue to invest in local resources across the region.”
The appointments of Alan Dishington, Tze Ming, and William Tay are effective immediately.
About EditShare
EditShare is a technology leader in networked shared storage and smart workflow solutions for the production, post-production, new media, sports, and education markets. Whether you need on-prem, cloud, or hybrid solutions, our products improve efficiency and workflow collaboration every step of the way. They include media optimized high-performance shared storage, archiving and backup software, a suite of media management tools and a robust set of open APIs that enable integration throughout the workflow. Customer and partner success are at the heart of EditShare’s core values ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none.
©2020 EditShare LLC. All rights reserved. EditShare® is a registered trademark of EditShare.
Press Contact
Cat Soroush
Zazil Media Group
(e) catherine@zazilmediagroup.com
(p) +1 (631) 880-9534
Spring has finally come to Beijing. I can’t tell you how much I looked forward to the feeling of warm sunlight on my face, the happy sound of children playing, and – at last – being able to live my life normally.
I love to go for a run outside. It’s a great start to the day. But for what seems like a long time now, these completely normal things have not been normal at all.
The Chinese Lunar New Year is a huge event, especially for families, who often travel thousands of miles to be with each other. It’s a country-wide celebration, and probably the biggest movement of the Chinese population each year. So a contagious outbreak like COVID-19 at this particular time, is the worst possible thing that could have happened.
Three days after the outbreak was identified, Wuhan was locked down. Wuhan is more than 1,000 KM from Beijing, but we felt the impact instantly. Within days we were advised not to go out and meet friends, family or colleagues.
That was January 26th.
Thanks to modern technology, I did not have to change too much to connect with my friends and family and work from my home. Life could continue by using the internet and the cloud.
I work for EditShare, a technology company in the Media and Entertainment business. EditShare is headquartered in the USA, with offices in the UK and all over the world including one in Beijing. So, we have a practice of staying close through video and audio conference calls as well as other forms of digital collaboration. Utilizing those tools also helps me be productive in China where our customers are spread over vast distances and we can’t always meet in person.
Over the last decade there’s been what can only be described as a revolution in production. It used to be that because of the huge files, the low bandwidth and the massive computing power needed, the only way to work was onsite at the production or broadcast facility.
But now, that’s changed completely. In fact, the whole production and post-production process – logging, editing, transcoding, delivering – is moving into the cloud, with total automation to simplify the workflow. The cloud isn’t “anywhere,” but at the same time it’s everywhere.
So working at home or remotely is as rich and creative an experience as being in a dedicated facility. And thankfully, my company has set up its own internal business processes to enable the same experiences.
During the shutdown, I was able to work closely with our local channel partner ThinkTone (XinTong) Technology on ways to stay connected to our customers and continue our business activities. We shared best practice information and offered online presentations on how to use the EditShare remote production technology. Our ability to continue collaborating helped our customers.
As an example, we successfully continued to work on a major customer project. The customer is a Chinese conglomerate and one of the world’s top five technology companies. It has multiple divisions with quite separate functions. The two divisions we worked with are – video and cloud.
The video division had a major new reality series planned for release in the first half of 2020. The team wanted to be able to distribute the video from the production to all of the many stakeholders for review – without having to be in the same room, building or even city. It was agreed that we would run EditShare software directly on cloud division infrastructure to accomplish this.
The team began the testing of EditShare Flow and EFS running on the cloud at the beginning of 2020 – while we were on lockdown. We held weekly meetings to update the information between each of the interested parties. At times these meetings had up to twenty people across three continents.
We were able to do this during the lockdown because everyone was able to work remotely – that’s the beauty of the cloud, and I guess it’s the way forward for all of us.
I was shut inside for nearly two months. I learned to adapt to the current situation, as my business like many others, must move forward during the crisis. And while there have been inconveniences, I am more efficient than ever and better prepared for the unexpected. And the next time a crisis happens, there will be no reason for everything to stop. Because of cloud technology, working at home is now just “working.”
In China, we have a saying that inspired us during this challenging time: “winter will be over and the spring will come.” Thank you for reading this. I wish everyone, wherever they are in the world, to stay safe, and I hope spring comes soon to you, too.
