DEI@Cadence: Celebrating AAPI Heritage and Inclusion Through ERGs

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are not just words but values that are exemplified through our culture at Cadence. In the DEI@Cadence blog series, you’ll find a community where employees share their perspectives and experiences. By providing a glimpse of their personal stories, we celebrate our One Cadence—One Team culture and the importance of sustaining it as we learn from diverse perspectives.

This May, we are celebrating AAPI Heritage Month. It's my second year leading Cadence’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Inclusion Group. I witnessed the rapid growth of Cadence's AAPI group, which has gained significant momentum. Our group provides a safe community for connection and serves as a platform for promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), resulting in positive impacts at Cadence. We continue supporting each member in three dimensions—community, culture, and career—through recruitment, events, and professional development opportunities.

Great Place to Work For All Summit 2024

To recognize May Heritage Month, I would like to start by sharing an amazing experience at the Great Place To Work For All Summit in New Orleans on May 7-9. Great Place To Work conducted a comprehensive study on Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). I had the privilege of meeting with inclusion group leaders from UKG, Hilton, Cisco, Synchrony, DOW, and other great workplaces to exchange best practices and brainstorm for the future.

ERGs, also known as inclusion groups, resource networks, or business resource groups, have become a fundamental part of corporate culture. In the best companies, ERGs play a crucial role in enhancing productivity, performance, innovation, agility, and the fair integration of AI. They offer safe spaces for employees to connect across the organization, creating opportunities to have their complex and diverse identities acknowledged and embraced. ERGs foster talent development and safeguard against market volatility.

The discussions delved deeply into transformation, emphasizing the importance of ERGs in sustaining momentum and resilience for DEIB. For ERGs to reach their full potential, they need to undergo evolution. Suggestions from Great Place to Work for this evolution include: (1) Providing proper support to ERG leaders, (2) Bridging silos and vulnerable connections, and (3) Utilizing complex and nuanced identities. In the future, ERGs will be integral to company culture, offering safe spaces for employees and serving as talent centers, catalysts for innovation and revenue growth, and leaders on environmental, social, and governance issues.

ERGs are filled with some of the organizations’ most committed yet undervalued employees who still want to help the organization. Purpose-driven people who think very differently are essential to achieve what has not been achieved before. They will be the new fuel to increase productivity, performance, and innovation and integrate AI into every business.
- Michael C. Bush, CEO, Great Place To Work

AAPI Heritage Month Featuring Author Kyla Zhao

It was our great honor to invite the best-selling author Kyla Zhao to be our main speaker and book signing for Cadence's AAPI Heritage Month celebration. Kyla writes novels featuring women of color in the workplace. Kyla and her books have been featured by various media outlets. Forbes also selected her for its 30 Under 30 list and by Tatler as a Leader of Tomorrow. In addition, the California State Assembly awarded her a Certificate of Recognition for her contributions to Asian media representation.

Kyla delivered an inspiring dialogue and shared her journey of starting writing during the pandemic and rising anti-Asian racism around 2020. She discussed discovering the writing potential and writing process. Kyla also talked about her experiences transitioning from "high fashion" to "high tech" and working at a tech company in Silicon Valley as a native Singaporean. She addressed the struggles faced by people identifying as AAPI, such as the bamboo ceiling. Kyla's talk was insightful, and I believe all of us can find some great tips on supporting and empowering each other positively.

Kyla openly shared her profound insights relevant to writing and career transitions. First, she encouraged individuals to ponder, "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" She inspired people to step out of their comfort zones and pursue their dreams. Second, she emphasized the importance of taking ownership and dedicating oneself to one's endeavors. Lastly, she highlighted the detrimental nature of comparison, advising individuals to focus on comparing themselves with their past selves rather than with others.

Fireside Chat with NetApp CEO George Kurian on Advancing with Opportunity Through Innovation

We were thrilled to host a special event for Cadence employees featuring George Kurian, CEO of NetApp. George discussed his transformational growth and leadership journey, his outlook on storage and cloud computing trends, challenges, and opportunities, and his advice for the AAPI community in today’s dynamic business landscape. His comments about having a growth mindset and fostering innovation resonated with me the most.

George shared that embracing a growth mindset is the core value of NetApp. Through constant learning, one can develop and become the best version of oneself. Having a growth mindset and a forward-thinking approach is crucial. What's even more important is the ability to acknowledge mistakes, accept them, and correct them. This helps to foster trust and collaboration within the team and allows us to learn from our failures and grow.

George shared how a tech company can push data, storage, AI, and cloud innovation. First, bringing customer feedback in various ways and cultivating empathy with their perspectives is vital. Second, understand your strengths and weaknesses, strike a balance between humility and confidence, and achieve great things by partnering with others. Third, to enable individuals to collaborate on projects with trust, innovation typically originates from those close to technology or customers, allowing chaos to continue for a while before creating structure.

When providing advice to the AAPI community to thrive in today's dynamic business landscape, George feels blessed that people from all parts of the world can work together here. He also mentioned that Asian people are often seen as technically skilled but may not be considered for leadership roles. He encourages us:

Be true, and understand what you really want to do. Don’t let someone else define what you can do. If you’d like to do, go and get it! That a kid from Kerala, India, who had never seen a computer till he was 19 years old, now is the head of a computer system company, which means that everybody in the world has an opportunity to do the same and more, there is nothing unique and special.
-George Kurian, CEO, NetApp

More Celebrations

In May, our AAPI Inclusion Group partnered with the Cadence Giving Foundation to organize a backpack drive volunteering activity for Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI). We are supplying backpacks and school supplies for AACI's youth clients in critical need, including foster and refugee youth and youth in AACI's shelter for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking.

In May, our AAPI Inclusion Group partnered with the Cadence AHgorithms Toastmasters Club to host a Toastmasters Open House. Attendees had the opportunity to learn and connect for the development of communication and leadership skills, and to become better public speakers through Toastmasters. We have also arranged exciting chef demos to showcase AAPI cuisine. 

Don't miss our employee spotlight on the outstanding achievements of some of our AAPI Inclusion Group members.