EVA CHEN | The National Summit

EVA CHEN
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Trend Micro, Inc.

Eva Chen brings more than 20 years of technology industry experience to her role as Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Trend Micro. In this capacity, Ms. Chen is responsible for the overall management of Trend Micro’s product strategy and technology direction. Under Ms. Chen’s guidance, Trend Micro has moved into emerging markets, earning a reputation as one of the most innovative antivirus security companies in the world.

Prior to assuming her current role at Trend Micro, Ms. Chen served as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, where under her direction Trend Micro produced a chronology of industry firsts including centralized antivirus solutions for gateways, email systems, and file servers; and Trend Micro’s Enterprise Protection Strategy, a tactical approach for managing outbreaks across the network. Additionally, Ms. Chen conceptualized and delivered Network VirusWall, a first-of-its-kind outbreak prevention appliance that protects multiple network segments and servers.

Ms. Chen is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from Secure Computing, as well as YMCA’s Tribute to Women in the Industry (TWIN) Award. She has been acknowledged as one of the 50 most powerful people in networking by Network World, and also as one of the top five most influential “Women of Vision” by Information Security.

Eva Chen holds a master’s degree in business administration, as well as a master’s degree in information science from the University of Texas. She also holds a degree in philosophy from Chen Chi University in Taipei, Taiwan.

Previous speaking engagements include: Fortune Brainstorm Tech (2008); and Fortune iMeme (2007); Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference (July 2008).

Panelist Perspective

Q: How do you feel that technology innovation can best drive competitiveness and improve the human condition within the context of the global economy?

A: It is less about driving competitiveness and more about improving the human condition. Technology innovation around the area of cloud computing for example has the potential to impact the global economy in a big way. It can enable the sharing of knowledge and power globally –making it accessible for people around the world. It can put information affordably into the hands of those who previously would not have access. For example, cloud computing can enable a farmer in Malaysia to have access to knowledge about increasing crop yields which can lead him to being more successful, thereby allowing the farmer to more easily feed his family, grow the village economy and raise the standard of living thru global information sharing. Trend Micro’s own mission for example is not built around “competition” per se – our mission is to make the world safe for the exchange of digital information.

Q: What is the most important issue facing technology companies today in the area of entrepreneurialism and technology innovation?

A: It is a question of collaboration instead of just competition, a question of “customer” instead of competition. It’s about building upon other innovations, connecting the dots in a new way. Many believe that those companies quick to act will triumph while the slow and deliberate will lose the race. But this isn’t necessarily the case. Whether you’re first to market or not, this should be a calculated business decision. But I think the bigger issue is how we define innovation. Innovation is all about the customer, and it’s much bigger than just technology. It’s a process, a new way of doing something that adds value to customers. In order for us to remain competitive we can/should be thinking of ways to innovate across all aspects of the business: platform, solution, customer experience, marketing/branding, value capture, networking, & supply chain. A firm that encourages creativity and inventiveness throughout can create the ingredients of sustained innovation—across all areas of the business. I have to use examples from my experience, so we define our Trend Micro values as the 4C’s and T – creativity, communication, change, customer and trustworthy. There is no “C” for “competition.” We found that if we take care of the main things, competitiveness will follow.