• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

What's in a name?

Published: Sunday, 10 March 2013

From August 2009 to August 2011, I was the "Founder and Director of Robogals Global".  Before that, my title was "Founder", and we hadn't created "Robogals Global" yet, so I was just the "Founder of Robogals".

In September 2010, our first "Australia and New Zealand Director" of Robogals took her post and subsequently in February 2011, our first "United Kingdom and European Director" took her post.

The rest of my Global team had the title Secretary, or X Manager.  I didn't think too much about the titles.  As long as people were doing their roles, doing a good job and we were achieving results, then I was confident they were content with their roles.

My "Organisational Development Manager" managed the IT Manager, Science Challenge Manager, the Secretary, the SINE Event Managers (for Australia, UK and the USA), was in charge of documenting all our processes and did off jobs here and there to make sure the organisation ran smoothly.

Organisational Development Manager is a pretty cool title, because whenever I look at it, I think the person either (a) is a glorified sales manager, or (b) has a really awesome job because they get to assess the company and suggest improvements.

In August 2011, my organisational development manager approach me and said he wanted a different title to better reflect all the work he does, and so we came up with the title "Operations Director" for him, and "Executive Director" for me.

Since then, there has been an added level of ownership towards Robogals in his enthusiasm and commitment.

I think the lesson to learn from that is that the little things like someone's official title within an organisation matter and have more of an impact than you think.

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • How to choose your projects

    Ask yourself: 1.  What do I want to learn? 2. What do I already know? Then: 3.  Devise a project you’re interested in that involves others - Create a...

  • The way things go

    You set up a meeting time, ten people email back and say they’re keen, passionate and that they’ll be there.  One person shows up.   So what’s there to...

  • Jevaroo - 8DOF robot arm

    We’re building a new robot Jevaroo, an 8-degree-of-freedom robot arm on a moveable platform, that can lift 1.32kg at full extension.  I love this...

  • 200 Women

    I was invited to participate in a book, "200 Women: Who Will Change The Way You See The World" earlier this year.  The result is this beautiful...

  • Global Summit of Women in Tokyo

    I attended the Global Summit of Women in Tokyo, Japan 11-13 May and gave a presentation about aubot, then spoke on a panel.  It was live-translated...

  • Ogilvy

    A lot of successful entrepreneurs dropped out of school (Richard Branson) or university (Bill Gates).  But Ogilvy, who went on to become a famous ad...

  • Teleport V2 Suite Showcases

    In May, we showcased our version 2 Teleport head prototype at ICRA in Brisbane.   In June, we showcased our version 2 Teleport prototype at...

  • Lifetime goals

    Don't be scared of achieving your lifetime goals.  You can always make up new goals after you've achieved these.

  • Plane screens

    Walking down the aisle on an international flight, everyone is watching something different.  Whether it's the most popular television drama,...

  • Focus with a laser on the things that achieve the most results

    Am I working towards a larger life goal?  Am I learning anything?  Does this help keep a roof over my head? I focused on a number of activities while I...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top