IAM949- CEO Expands and Engages Company’s Stakeholders

Calista Redmond is the CEO of RISC-V International with a mission to expand and engage RISC-V stakeholders, compel industry adoption, and increase visibility and opportunity for RISC-V within and beyond RISC-V International. Prior to RISC-V International, Calista held a variety of roles at IBM, including Vice President of IBM Z Ecosystem where she led strategic relationships across software vendors, system integrators, business partners, developer communities, and broader engagement across the industry. Prior to IBM, she was an entrepreneur in four successful start-ups in the IT industry. Calista holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Northwestern University.

• CEO Hack: Principle of touching it once
• CEO Nugget: Consider all your stakeholders and community in everything you do
• CEO Defined: Disrupting the status quo

Website: https://riscv.org/

Full Interview:

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[00:00:16.30] – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

[00:00:43.29] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Calista Redmond of Risk Five. Calista, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:52.60] – Calista Redmond

Thanks for having me.

[00:00:54.10] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. Before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Calista so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Calista is the CEO of Risk Five International with a mission to expand and engage Risk Five stakeholders, compel industry adoption, and increase visibility and opportunities for Risk Five within and beyond Risk Five International.

Prior to Risk Five International, Calista held a variety of roles at IBM, including vice president of IBM z ecosystem where she led strategic relationships across software vendors, system integrators, business partners, developer communities, and broader engagement across the industry. Prior to IBM, she was an entrepreneur in four successful startups in the IT industry, and she holds a degree from the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. Calista, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:41.59] – Calista Redmond

Yeah.

[00:01:42.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about your background, and your CEO story. We'll let you get started with all the awesome work you're doing.

[00:01:50.79] – Calista Redmond

Thanks so much. So as you've gone over in my profile, I've been both an entrepreneur as well as an executive at a large multinational technology company. And so I've been around technology for quite a long time. And, you know, from that I've realized that technology is a game changer. It's been a game changer across our lives, both personally and professionally, and kind of taking the helm of various initiatives through that, I began to see the power of collaboration, gathering up to know constituents or stakeholders both inside and outside of your company.

[00:02:29.69] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense, and definitely, it has been a game-changer. I think we're experiencing some of that disruption and change right now, but it never fails. Like, I feel like, I've heard so many people say, not that I'm a business that does this. I'm a technology company that does whatever, is usually how people start to phrase it and you start to see how important and impactful a technology has been.

[00:02:50.59] – Calista Redmond

Absolutely. whether it's ride-sharing, house-sharing, or anything else that has been wildly disruptive. Some of that disruption is going on at even other corners of our world.

[00:03:04.59] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I think we're filling it in in some form or shape or fashion everywhere, that we look are the ways that we go. And so, I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper here on how you work with your clients and how you serve them. Could you take us through a little bit more about that so we can learn more about that in that process?

[00:03:19.50] – Calista Redmond

Sure. So the RISC Vibe International is the fastest growing open hardware movement that the world has ever seen. At its very base, it is an open collaboration model that focuses on the semiconductor space. Semiconductors, you know, we're all familiar with things that, happened from the eighties to today and are very used to household names, Intel or Arm or, the devices that they go into ranging from desktops to laptops, to iPads and phones and everything else.

You could find a processor now anywhere from your toothbrush to your headlights and everything in between. And so risk five is really kind of in the center of that when it comes to open source and open collaboration. And we are building, together as an open community, you know, extensions that go on to the base spaces or even multinationals that want to become even more competitive as, cloud service providers or or other facets of their business.

[00:04:32.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's huge. I mean, just what you've been able to build and grow. And I think as you start to see, I always say that sometimes, the computers or even as you said, the toothbrushes now would laugh and giggle at the computers we had, you know, years and years ago, and it's just because there's technology in every aspect that we're doing, and those microprocessors that you mentioned are so huge. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I guess, the companies that have, you know, have and leverage these, usually have some type of proprietary software, but what you've been able to do and build is open it up to more people to be able to use leverage and, I guess, innovate on top of.

[00:05:07.50] – Calista Redmond

Yeah. So the open software movement is decades old at this point starting with, Linux. , as part of my role, I'm also, one of the executives over at Linux Foundation, fully dedicated to Risk Five International. What we've found and what we've learned from open-source software is that open collaboration is the glue that inspires and grows companies around the world. And that's one of the things that makes us fundamentally unique. Open collaboration through open source, and open standards, levels the playing field. And in Risk Five, we're becoming a set of base building blocks. Companies and institutions can engage in open hardware, not just software, at the very small level of, semiconductors.

[00:05:55.19] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I feel like and I'm sure you definitely might see this same thing where you have that kind of, open technology, open source and technology in the software. It allows an incredible amount of innovation because it's not just I guess, you're working on the people that are on the team, but you're able to kinda lean on the expertise of all the people that can access and leverage it, which essentially is everyone.

[00:06:16.19] – Calista Redmond

Absolutely. I mean, when you think about the shared expertise and the shared value of thousands of developers and engineers who are collaborating on something, you get the best and the brightest. You get to work shoulder-to-shoulder with experts in their field. And that is a powerful network effect. That is an effect that helps you become stronger as an engineer. It helps accelerate the development timelines that your, products and services are riding on. The collective number of companies that invest in that, which is the largest technology investment in the world is in open source.

When you collectively invest in that, guess what? That reduces your risk in investing in a technology. Based on something that has already gained traction in open source. Not everything is successful in open source. There are thousands of projects thrown up on GitHub every day. But the the beauty of, foundations and communities that are structured, as mine is, is that you see that this is something solid to build your future on as a business.

[00:07:25.30] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And as we kinda said and you said or should say in the beginning about, like, how, I guess, ever-present these semiconductors are and how we use them on a regular everyday basis, and we may not even realize it. It allows you to I don't wanna know if I wanna say hit your wagon, but you made that investment in something that is, you know, in everything that we do. So it allows it to be even more innovative and maybe even more apparent in all the things that we have in our lives.

[00:07:49.30] – Calista Redmond

You know, think about the things that are in your life personally from your health tracking device on your wrist to, you know, probably a dozen processors in your phone. You know, fifteen, twenty years ago, we weren't carrying these things around with us, you know, and once you become disconnected from a wall or a constant source of, energy, like, you know, plugging in the wall, you need to have very nimble processors, and that's what Risk Five enables.

[00:08:16.89] – Gresham Harkless

I appreciate that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:08:28.39] – Calista Redmond

I try and follow the principle of touch at once. You know, whether it's the inbox in my email, which is flooded daily. I don't ask small questions. I don't give small responses. I want to be complete and move things forward. The worst, delays that we have are usually ourselves and the people we rely on. And if we all just touch it once, we can move things along so much faster. We can dive deeper, and try and help solve the issue rather than pass it forward.

[00:09:02.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And I think, a lot of times, I like that, touch it once principle. I consider it kinda like a hot potato where you don't let it touch you or stay onto it because I think you're right. We're often within our organizations. We or the people within us can sometimes be the bottlenecks in kind of restricting that innovation or restricting things from going forward. So when you have that principle, you adopt it and execute on that, then it starts to get things moving and you start to get the focus on the most important things.

[00:09:29.20] – Calista Redmond

I would say that that hot potato probably only gets hotter the more times it's passed around rather than salt. You know, I'm not in the potato business.

[00:09:37.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Me neither. So that's that's probably exactly what that is, but you're right. And so, I want to ask you now for what I call a sea nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client, or if you happen to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:09:52.39] – Calista Redmond

There are so many stakeholders in business from your employees to your board of directors or investors to your supply chain, to your customers. And sometimes it's easy to focus on just one or two of those stakeholders, but you've got to keep them all in mind. You know, at Risk Five, we're fundamentally changing how Silicon is designed and we have career engineers, we have brand new students, we have fourteen-year-olds in India that are designing risk courses. We have seasoned experts who are touring award winners still engaged with Risk Five.

Whether it's at an individual level or multinationals and startups and governments and academia, We have so many stakeholders that we need to engage and, gather their thought leadership across everything we do. So consider all of your stakeholders, consider all of your community in everything that you do. And that will not only make you more responsive to those needs, but it'll also make you, more aware of the challenges that lay down the road for you.

[00:10:59.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I appreciate that. We so often don't look holistically at the impact we have on the different, stakeholders as you said so well that it impacts. And I almost feel like and correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know if I wanna use the word complex, but the different modules that you mentioned before and what it is that other options might be, it seems like you've been able to incorporate that into what you built to make it simpler so that it can make a bigger and broader impact just as you said, you're kind of in the nugget.

[00:11:28.29] – Calista Redmond

Yeah. And not only at a technology level in the various, you know, pieces of that puzzle that we bring together, but we're also a global connector. Open source is not owned by any one company, entity, government, or anyone else. And therefore it transcends global boundaries. It transcends industry boundaries. It transcends all of that because it is free for anyone to innovate on and around. And so that makes it powerful. So look for ways to collaborate, collaborate with each of your stakeholders, and engage together with your customers on what you're designing next with your engineering team or your team or whoever is in your shop with you.

[00:12:13.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that, especially with this technology, it's been one of the the the beautiful things that have come out is the ability to collaborate, to co-create, and to see, you know, what the world, you know, can be and and and create that, in all of our actions. And so I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're opening up different, quote, unquote CEOs on the show. So, Calista, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:12:36.60] – Calista Redmond

Being a CEO of a global open collaboration organization is an absolute honor. My role is to steward not only the Risk Five community but also to usher in the future of computing. We are fundamentally changing and disrupting the status quo. The status quo being proprietary, being, you know, having boundaries on it or black boxes that you can't see inside, that you can't innovate on. And the future of computing is so exciting. So not only is it an honor, but it's also something I'm deeply passionate about.

[00:13:13.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. I think the quote is, be the change that you wish to see in the world. And I think getting that opportunity to create what I think seems to be a more and more open world as we see from a technological standpoint. But in so many other parts, we start to see that it's about collaboration. It's about being able to to peek behind the cubicle, so to speak, and see what somebody's doing and working on and and working together. But I think when you have those walls that are, kinda move removed and you have that opportunity to see, collaborate, and co-create, it creates a phenomenal future.

[00:13:47.79] – Calista Redmond

I agree. And that future is ours. Let's map that together.

[00:13:53.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. We have an opportunity to take it and create that world. So I appreciate you for creating that opportunity for that to happen even more. And, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do was just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

[00:14:12.29] – Calista Redmond

Absolutely. So first of all, thanks again for having me on. I want to leave you with a thought. You know, in times of uncertainty, of challenge, of pandemics, of economics, of other political strife, things that, you know, go south on us or go negative for the world. History has shown us time and again that coming together on a shared mission is the prevailing path forward. Whether we're all putting on masks or reaching across other boundaries, collaboration is where we start to see progress.

And we as a society, not as a nation, not as a company, not as a nonprofit, we as a society move forward through collaboration and it's the most powerful mover in human history. And so for that, I can be very proud to be part of an open collaboration organization. That's our mission. But regardless of your role, your company, or your organization, think about how you're able to push forward through collaboration. Oh, and how to get a hold of me? Well, I'm I'm on social media on LinkedIn. You can find me also on Twitter, Calista_Redmond. And I speak out often there. You can find more about, riskfive.org.

[00:15:37.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I truly appreciate that, Calista. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you. But I love and appreciate that reminder for, of course, you and your team being able to do it, but also reminding us of the different ways by which we can do that in our lives.

And I think in seeing that we're a lot more alike than different for one, but then also seeing the gifts that we have innately within ourselves and being able to kinda collaborate, co-create, and make that happen is one of the beauties of being and having, you know, the open source software and open source technology and so many different things and ways by which to collaborate. So I appreciate you for being the change you hope to see, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:15.20] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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