Mary Alice Colen

Vice President, SuccessFactors University

Born:
Newark, NJ (look before you laugh)

Prior Experience:
Salesforce.com - Sr. Director of Customer Education
Borland - Sr. Director of Worldwide Education
Oracle - Director, Customer Education Marketing

Education:
Franklin and Marshall College - BA, English and Drama

What I like to do outside of work:
I love to read so much that I also work in a local independent bookstore on weekends. So maybe that is just more work, but it doesn’t feel that way. Most of the rest of my non-working hours are spent watching my son play baseball. I have become an avid scorekeeper and enjoy teaching other people about the art and joy of keeping score. Hmmmm. Maybe that says more about me than I realize.

Q: Where in your background did you learn the most?
A: At Oracle I learned how fulfilling it is to create a great customer experience in the classroom by truly getting our students to understand how the software worked and, more importantly, could help them accomplish their goals. It occurs to me though, that I learned a lot from being a theater major. My concentration was directing. In directing, your job is to take diverse people with diverse talents and get them working together as a group to create a successful production. I try to bring the same thinking and strategies to the workplace every day. And, of course, anything I learned about being a good person comes from my parents.

Q: If you could meet one person in history, who would you meet and why?
A: Shakespeare. But I would want to study up first.

Q: What's been your biggest surprise during your time at SuccessFactors?
A: I knew the applications were good, because I had already used them as a customer. I have to say the biggest surprise is that the people here are as good, smart, kind, well-intentioned, creative and hard-working as they appeared to be when I was interviewing. I keep waiting to meet a jerk. Hasn’t happened. Not once.

Q: If you had 20 seconds to tell a new client about why they should use SuccessFactors, what would you say?
A: I would remind them that their people are the most important and, typically, the most overlooked asset they have. The SuccessForce suite of applications is the most rapid way to put processes in place to ensure that their entire talent pool is performing at the top of their game.

Q: Why are you proud to work at SuccessFactors?
A: It’s about the people, baby. The people I work with; the people I work for (our customers) and the people that work for them. I love those win/win/win situations.