Margaret Rice Jones is CEO of AIRCOM, an independent provider of network management tools and services, with over  850 employees, that offers advice, training and support to the world’s largest operators of IP and cellular networks.  Here, Margaret talks to The NextWomen about: her career in tech, the curious term ‘spectrum refarming’ and the value to a CEO of networking and peer-to-peer education.

Your bio says you graduated in engineering; what discipline did you study?

I studied a General Engineering degree at Durham University and specialised in electronics and communication.

How and why has your career path changed with time?

When I first left university I went to work for the electronics, defence and telecommunications company, Plessey, where I practised as a proper development engineer designing circuit boards, and building control systems for London Underground trains.  Amazingly some of my designs are still in use on the Circle and District and Central lines as they don’t change the trains terribly often.

Really I was very lucky in the first few years of my career to be involved in some cutting edge areas of design, and yet I found I wasn’t getting the satisfaction out of engineering that other people seemed to.  I had worked with some of the newest and best technology, and yet it just didn’t give me the buzz and satisfaction that the more die hard engineers seemed to get.

With time, I had begun to get involved in some of the more commercial aspects of our relationship with the customer, and had found that I very much enjoyed these areas.  Looking for a change in direction, I approached our commercial department at the time, and asked if they thought I could move into a more commercial role.  Whilst they agreed I would be good in such a position, they told me they wouldn’t have any vacancies for eighteen months.  At this point I decided I wasn’t going to wait around this long, and so started looking for another job which I eventually took with the Mars Electronics group.

It was at this point that I moved away from a pure technical R&D job, to something that was still technical in its background, but was part of the commercial world.

Have you always worked in the world of Tech?

All the companies I have worked for have been based in areas of technology, from control systems through to mobile phones and banking systems, but I have moved from R&D through to commercial and pre-sales roles, to project management and finally into general management.

AIRCOM provide network management tools and services – what exactly do these do?

We help mobile operators to plan, optimise and manage their networks.

When a customer is looking to roll out a new cellular network, the first stage is one of planning, when they define where to put their cellular sites, how many they want, and how much capacity they want to provide.  So for someone looking  to put up a new mobile broadband network we will ask: what broadband capacity they want to supply, to how many customers and in what geography.  From this we can then design a network for them.

The second stage is optimisation, and is really all about making sure our customers have the correct (physical) resources, and that the network is where the traffic is.  It is all about minimising capital expenditure and optimising operational expenditure.
We also provide the software and systems that drive all of this.  You will often see on television, maps with red and green flashing lights that show what is going on in the network.  It is the software that extracts this information from the network, on an almost real time basis, that we provide.

Forgive me for asking, but what is ‘spectrum refarming’?

That’s a great phrase isn’t it?  In the UK an example would be the digital switchover.  Radio spectrum is a finite commodity, and so the governments around the world have looked to make best use of it for all the competing services that want a piece of it.  With this movement from the analogue spectrum into digital transmission, they have been able to free up the analogue spectrum for other uses.

In spectrum refarming a government looks at how best to divide up this scarce commodity for the financial benefit of their country, whilst providing the best services to all of the people who live in the country.

What share of the global market does AIRCOM enjoy and how much involvement do you have in these areas?

We serve over half the world’s mobile operators in over 110 different countries, and are number one or two in all the segments within which we do business.

As the CEO of a company with over 850 people and over 300 customers, I am a key part of the relationship with our top 10 to 20 customers.  My job is to design the strategic direction of the business; understand the marketplace and the needs of these key customers, and then to run the business, looking after the people that run the development of it.  If these companies are halfway across the globe, then I am very much involved.

Networking is everywhere these days.  As a successful CEO, can you put a price on networking?

It is very hard to put a value or a number on networking, but I can tell you the key benefits.

For one, it broadens the set of ideas and brains from which you are drawing from.  The role of a CEO can often be a lonely one, in that you face a myriad of challenges that you are expected to have the answers to.  It is therefore hugely valuable in terms of providing new approaches and people to debate challenges with when coming up with the correct answers to the issues you meet on a daily basis.

It is interesting to look at people that are solving similar challenges in radically different ways and to see if it is beneficial for your business to implement some of these approaches.

Obviously contacts are another key benefit.  If you look at some of today’s networking sites like LinkedIn or the ELP (European Leadership Programme) programme that I am a part of, they help you to find ways to get to the people that you might want to get to, broadening your own contact base.

It is also good to be challenged in your view point, even if you do not recognise that you have a particular problem with something.  I always say the greatest problem is the one you don’t know you have, and by meeting other people that are looking at things or are passionate about things in their own way it can remind you to stand back and look at things from a different perspective.

Do you see any negatives to networking?

It takes time for one, and you sometimes meet people who are there to waste your time.  Networking has to be a two way process – a give and a get.  There seem to be too many people these days that are networking purely to get a job and do not see it as the two-way process that it should be.

You also need an environment in which some of these things can be held confidential.  If you are going to debate a challenge that you have within your business, you need to do that with people you are able to trust not to go and tell the whole world about it.

What is your view on the need for executive education and leadership training?

As I mentioned earlier, the role of a CEO can be quite a lonely one and there isn’t very much training out there that really helps to broaden you as an individual within that role.  If you belong to a corporate, there is a lot of structured leadership training that exists - courses that teach you specific things like the mechanics of marketing and advertising or strategic development, but there isn’t very much for ongoing developmental help for CEOs, which I think is a shame.

As a female entrepreneur, what value do you place on an appropriate support infrastructure and peer to peer advising?

It’s critical.  No, one, of us can find all of the answers all of the time.  It just doesn’t work like that.  Women as opposed to men often struggle with whether it is OK to not have a solution to a problem or not and who they can debate it with without being seen as “weak”.  I think this is a real struggle for all boards today.  When you are in the role of the CEO, boards expect you to have all of the answers, but too many times if a CEO goes to a board and says they have a problem they see themselves out of a job a few months down the line.

One of the greatest benefits of that support is therefore in helping to find an impartial answer, judging to what degree of openness you can discuss it within your company and establishing how it will be received.  Indeed people are very fast to say a woman without an answer is weak – so much more than for a man - which is why such support is so valuable.

What do you think the essential lessons are for a successful CEO?

The CEO’s job is one of understanding, vision and leadership.

The CEO must understand the marketplace they are serving, and I just don’t believe in CEOs who manage purely by numbers.  It is essential to success that you have a feel for what your customer’s want, the market they are operating in and where they are going.
This understanding must then be translated into a vision that can be communicated to all your staff, and you must be able to put in place a team around you that can help translate this vision into day to day tasks.

Where can you go for a safe environment to discuss issues you’re experiencing with your Board/investors or to just get some lateral thinking on a problem that’s vexing you?

There are really a couple of places that people go.  One is to friends, and people that they have known in the industry for a long time and that they trust, and another place that I go to is the ELP programme where I meet people who are in a similar position and where I can talk things through freely in confidence.

What one piece of advice would you give to a woman entering the world of Tech?

That’s a good question.

The key piece of advice that I would give to someone is to make sure that they find an environment that values them for who they are and what they are, and the way in which they will want to work. If they find themselves somewhere where the mix doesn’t work, then they should move rather than trying to conform to the dictate of that environment.  For example if you are a woman who wants to balance the demands of work and a home life, and you are working somewhere that demands you are in the office until 9pm, there are a lot of places where you can do a damn good job, go home at 6pm, put your kids to bed and then log back on to your emails at 9pm and still have some balance in your life.  There are plenty of places out there where this environment exists.

I would say: value and respect who you are and the benefits you can bring, and put yourself in an environment where you can flourish.  A plant that needs direct sunlight will die if you plant it in a North facing garden, and yet place the same plant where it is supposed to be and it will flourish.

Margaret Rice-Jones has been CEO of AIRCOM since September 2006, and has over 20 years experience in the telecommunication sector.  She previously worked for Motorola as its Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Motorola Networks’ Core Networks business, and prior to that turned around Motorola Networks’ business in EMEA as its Regional Manager, achieving significant sales growth for the business unit. Margaret Rice-Jones was recognised in 2000 by the GSM Association as one of the initial 100 members in honour of her long-term commitment to the GSM market. Before returning to Motorola, she was a Member of the Board of Psion PLC and Managing Director of Psion Computers Plc. Her career also includes senior positions within De La Rue’s Smartcard Business and Motorola’s Device Business.