Steve Jobs once said “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” This is the driving force for Kim Gibbons, Chief Marketing Officer, NetNumber. In three years, Kim has made NetNumber a multi-award winning company. Thinking herself fortunate enough to have a career that she loves and the opportunity to work with people she likes and with technology that impacts all of us, Kim finds the opportunity to work with NetNumber pretty cool. For her, working at NetNumber seems a lot less like work as her days are filled with a great deal of variety and interesting problems to solve.
Sharing her initial experience with the company, Kim says, “I joined NetNumber in November 2013 for three reasons — the opportunity to work for someone I respect (our President and CEO Brad Boston), the opportunity to achieve a career goal (being named the company’s first Chief Marketing Officer), and the opportunity to reposition a company and a technology. NetNumber had been known as an ENUM provider since its founding in 1999. Over the past three years, I’ve worked with the leadership team to reposition the company as an innovator and leader in centralized signaling and routing control. This repositioning has led to industry recognition as a Gartner Cool Vendor and a finalist for many awards. And the terminology we defined for the market is now showing up in industry analyst reports, telecom operator RFPs, and competitors’ marketing materials.”
‘Having that Perfect Balance’
When asked, how Kim keeps the balance between her personal and professional life, she replied, “Work-life balance is a fine aspiration, but I don’t believe it is realistic. So many of us work in roles with teams spread across the globe and use technology that ensures we are always available. Focusing so much on “balance” creates unnecessary pressures and a negative mindset – if I don’t have balance, I’ve failed! And I think you can miss out on opportunities to say yes to things that may create some chaos in your life but can be wonderfully enriching.”
Instead of juggling, Kim prefers actively managing her personal and professional priorities. It is in the last week of every month Kim sets her goals for the next month. “What do I want to achieve as well as what do I need to achieve? Each Sunday evening in preparation for the week ahead, I review those priorities and adjust as needed,” adds Kim.
She further adds, “In terms of setting priorities, it is important to understand how your work supports the goals of the organization. If you are not helping to achieve those goals, then those activities likely shouldn’t be a priority. And same with your personal life. Focus on those things that support your values, and it makes saying yes or no to requests for your time so much easier.”
NetNumber, Delivering Innovative Signaling Control Solutions
NetNumber brings 16 years of experience delivering innovative signaling control solutions that enable carriers to accelerate implementation of new services across multiple generations of networks, while dramatically simplifying the core network and reducing operating costs. They have been virtualizing network functions long before NFV became the buzzword. NetNumber is changing the way carriers architect, acquire, deploy and manage their core networks with the TITAN platform.
NetNumber TITAN is the only centralized signaling and routing control (CSRC) platform to deliver SS7/C7, SIGTRAN, ENUM, DNS, SIP, RADIUS and DIAMETER services on the same signaling control infrastructure. Carriers deploy this single, common platform and add virtualized network functions as needed. Centralized provisioning and management have been combined in the TITAN platform, and a powerful distributed, in-memory database enables all signaling processing to happen at the optimal location in the network. NetNumber TITAN plays a unique role in simplifying the core of the network and reducing the negative impact of signaling traffic.
While explaining the challenges faced by the company, Kim says, “Like other companies, we have finite resources to invest in marketing so determining how to best leverage those resources to support our business goals is a key focus. Our priorities are increasing our brand presence across multiple channels and enabling our sales organization and partner community.”
‘Life on a Different Track’
When we pose a question before Kim about what if she is given a chance to start her career over again, what would be her choice, she reflected, “I have had some amazing opportunities during my career. I’ve traveled the globe, attended special events, and met some of the most fascinating people. However, sometimes I wish I had embraced other passions, taken more risks, and moved on from some roles sooner. As I think about advice I would give my daughter, I would tell her to not be passive and wait for opportunities to be presented, but rather identify or even create your own opportunities to advance your career.”
‘Women in Business’, Kim’s Point of View
NetNumber believes strongly in the value of a diverse workforce, and we have women playing key roles throughout the organization. Earlier this year, we joined Light Reading’s Women in Communications (WiC) initiative. Through WiC, we are working with other companies in the telecom industry to increase opportunities for women.
