Tonya J. Long: 0:00

Welcome friends. I'm Tonya Long and this is Reset. Each week, we share conversations with thought leaders, innovators and the dreamers and doers who are reshaping the future of work, technology, longevity and purpose. So settle in and let's explore what happens when purpose meets possibility. Hello everyone, and welcome to Reset with Tonya here from the KPCR 92.9 studios in gorgeous, sunny, beautiful Los Gatos. It's so wonderful to be with you today. It's a blue sky, beautiful day, and I have wonderful and beautiful but not blue Harbir Bhatia. Harbir is a friend of mine for about the last year. We met on a panel for Data for Social Good at Santa Clara University and then have been bumping into each other intentionally, I would say, since last summer when we served on that panel. Harbir is yeah, I need to think about this. She's one of the most impressive people I know. I call her fierce when I introduce her to other people, and fierce to me is a huge compliment thank you yeah, Harbir has been getting it done.

Tonya J. Long: 1:14

She started out on that corporate journey and we'll talk about that, but from there has really I think at a younger age than most moved, moved into her passion. She does humanitarian aid effort for Ukraine and she is the CEO of the Central Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and they are doing some exciting work. Entrepreneurship Harbir and I talk fairly often lately about entrepreneurship becoming much more widely recognized in our communities and much more heavily utilized as a model for getting the things done that you want to, and the chamber's work is very much focused on enabling those businesses absolutely, and which keeps harvey very busy. So I'm really grateful to have gotten her time this on this beautiful day. Harvey, you're welcome thank you.

Harbir Bhatia: 2:01

I'm actually so excited here. I'm really more excited just to have a talk with you, because I think whenever you and I talk, we just have such amazing conversations.

Tonya J. Long: 2:09

We're going to have to be calm Our beer and I ideate we think it's a very collaborative like what do we do to solve these big problems? Yes, save the world together To save the world together, and we've come up with some interesting ideas that are not yet patented, so we'll be holding back on those today. What are you working on right now, either, with both your humanitarian aid work and the chamber that that you'd like to share? What are your current priorities?

Harbir Bhatia: 2:37

That's a great question. We are at that time of the year, right now, where we are reprioritizing or planning for the next time, yeah so our fiscal year starts in July, but I will tell you that, just as you said, we love to ideate.

Harbir Bhatia: 2:55

I think of my legacy, and that I come from a chamber who has done so much for our region and for the city of Santa Clara, but also for the whole region. I am reminded how important it is that I'm fearless and think big, and that is what we are thinking about now. We're in a very interesting time, as you've been really sharing your treasures with all of us and these important elements for us to consider that the future ahead is no longer the same, and so, with that in mind, what does that mean for small businesses?

Harbir Bhatia: 3:20

So, that's the kind of stuff I'm thinking about. What does AI mean for them? What does the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup mean for them? What does the future of work look like for them? What is their role now that the enterprises are king and no longer small business is the king? So these are the kind of things I'm thinking about to really ensure that I respect the legacy I come from and ensure that the work we do really continues to be as magnificent.

Tonya J. Long: 3:48

I love it, although I will say you said it as if the focus is all on corporate and enterprise, and I think there has been that flow of traffic, if you will for talent for the last 20 some odd years, but.

Tonya J. Long: 4:02

I think the flow is about to move in the other direction. I think companies are going to be much smaller. I think that entrepreneurs are going to build billion-dollar businesses that have less than 100 employees. I think the big companies like if you think about the FAANG companies here in our tech-focused zone those FAANG companies will still exist, but I think they will turn down significantly Google will never be 100 people.

Tonya J. Long: 4:29

That's not possible. But I think the focus is about to shift back to smaller businesses, simply by definition, because smaller businesses are going to be able to accomplish so much more with the technology that's available.

Harbir Bhatia: 4:43

So much more power in their hands. But I think that's also my job as a person who comes from technology and maybe more than that, even is innovation mindset is how do I empower and enable our small businesses to have that same benefit because they're already in that small entrepreneurial space versus the big corporations that were entrepreneurs once upon a time? Yes, but we need to put that power in their hands, because they are actually the heart of any community I have some prior leadership training.

Tonya J. Long: 5:17

That uses the word enroll and I think we're going to need to enroll people in different ways of thinking. Your local florist might have been happy servicing a very small area and two or three types of client needs, but with the things that are going to be at that florist's fingertips now, their ability to scale much bigger and for their distribution models to change. So I used an example of a florist. When I'm on stage I talk about even a bakery needs AI and they do and they can use it to. It's one thing.

Tonya J. Long: 5:52

Some people who aren't ready, maybe, for those kinds of growth say I don't need to be big or I don't need to be a billion-dollar company. But what about, on the other side, how it frees up your people and you to spend more time doing the things that you have. Purpose around that you can get the work done, the repeatable, less appealing tasks done better, faster, and then you turn that time back over to your population to. Maybe you're not going to be a florist that serves a two state area, but your people can work on more meaningful things.

Harbir Bhatia: 6:26

Absolutely, and I think it is a mindset shift but, also, I think that mindset isn't for the sake of hey, just think differently. It's because there's real, tangible outcomes. People are going to be able to do more yes, right, and that is powerful. That might mean that they have opportunities to come up with additional product ideas that they couldn't put their mind into. Maybe they'll have opportunity to spend more time working on innovation and ideation versus back office operations. Right, I gotta tell you I hate that stuff.

Tonya J. Long: 7:01

Okay, I can appreciate that, I mean.

Harbir Bhatia: 7:03

I enjoy the stuff. Okay, I can appreciate that. I mean, I enjoy the. I enjoy looking at numbers and telling what and seeing what they tell me, but really I don't want to do that as a I have to. It should be because I want to, right, and I think we're entering into this time, now that we just you and our conversations is becoming clearer and clearer to me, there's going to be so much more power in our hands. It's just a question do we choose to use it and do we know? That do?

Tonya J. Long: 7:26

we have the skill set to use it and I think that there's a value for everyone, but not everyone has shares the same value for it and it's fine if you want to stay smaller, but free up that time for your people to do more interesting things. If you may not want to be a two-state florist, or however you'd look at scaling a florist, but the but take away those mundane tasks that people don't have to do and I guess also the thing is that, look, we also have to understand the realities.

Harbir Bhatia: 7:51

If everything was in a vacuum, then some of us would say I don't want to have to worry about staff or I don't want to worry, everything would become imaginary. But that's not how real business works. You have to deal with the realities today. Reality realities today are that there are more job openings for the service industry than there are actual employees resources available. We had a. The statistic from our chamber of commerce last year was that there are 1.7 jobs for every one person oh wow, I'm not tech.

Tonya J. Long: 8:19

Yeah, the other industries I understand now there.

Harbir Bhatia: 8:22

This is why I'd love to say this, because I'm such a star trekky or NASA person, or whatever. Is that Houston? We have a problem. We've got this huge, empty, empty space void of jobs, job openings who need to be filled, that need to be filled, and then you've got people who need to fill jobs. So where is the problem? Well, one is that they don't know how to get to you. It's too costly to live here. You can't get here because you have no pathways. So what do I do? This is the powers that I'm seeing unfold as we are having those ai conversations, and I think it's going to be a game changer for small business and I'll use this as an example.

Tonya J. Long: 9:00

A friend of mine opened a restaurant. She was in a one of the very largest tech companies on the peninsula for 20 years, exited and wound up opening up a beautiful, fine dining restaurant. Her husband had a restaurant before. She tried and tried not to be in the family business, but she had a design, if you will, for how she wanted to build something exquisite and beautiful and she has in Belmont. It's beautiful.

Tonya J. Long: 9:25

The industry forecasters are telling them that in five to seven years people aren't going to go sit down at Chipotle for dinner. They're not even going to go to the locally owned Mexican restaurant for food. Dining will be either fine dining in really lovely, curated environments or it will be home delivery, because people are going back to family. You want family together. People want to spend their time wisely, so they'll have someone else cook for them and deliver it to them at home. But who wants to sit at a table that? You know that a bunch of you and I don't have children, so that a bunch of kids left all their crunched up goldfish underneath the table. So don't go home if it's frictionless for you to order the meal, whether it's Chipotle or Mexican, from the Mexican restaurant down the street. If you can get it to your home, you will. You won't bother going into a facility and the facilities will be better for not having to manage the requirements of a facility.

Harbir Bhatia: 10:24

I think I'll let me. I actually agree with the frame, as you, the way you placed it. I think it's going to be as much about experience.

Tonya J. Long: 10:32

Yes, like you said, you know that I want to sit in my backyard, that I worked all weekend on those flowers or whatever it could be that you want to go out and that's why you're going out.

Harbir Bhatia: 10:42

Not because you need to be fed. Yes, it's because you choose to have that experience.

Harbir Bhatia: 10:51

And I think I remember NPR had this show about maybe five, seven years ago. It was about the future. Economy is no longer product driven or service driven. It's experience driven. And I keep hearing all these different things and I synthesize this in my head and I have these ideas of the future. But we are in a very interesting time Now.

Harbir Bhatia: 11:04

We have gone through COVID. We now know that what is possible. We don't have to believe in traditional models as we thought we did, yes. Second, we know we have the power of AI. Third, people are influenced by a lot more globalization in their service Ubers, the DoorDash.

Harbir Bhatia: 11:24

That's not an American concept. It's been pretty much all over Asia and even parts of Europe since eons. It's just that, as an American culture, we think it's ours, but it really hasn't been the case. That has not been the case, and so we're adopting these new concepts that are allowing us to re-evaluate what it means to be in a particular social framework or life's framework, and realizing we're becoming borderless in terms of our experiences right, we don't have to go from A to B to achieve something. And realizing we're becoming borderless in terms of our experiences right, we don't have to go from A to B to achieve something. We can be where we are, as you said, in our backyard, but still have that enriching experience.

Harbir Bhatia: 11:57

I may go to the restaurant because I want that experience. I may go to a cafe because I want to be out, but I'm not necessarily going to have to go only because of the food. I absolutely agree with you and that's why I think it's such an amazing time where large corporations are becoming smaller, as you pointed out and have taught us. Number two our small businesses want to continue to have power and control over their small spaces and their their destinies. They don't, like you said, they don't all necessarily want to be the future nvds. They love that intimacy, intimacy, absolutely. And then you have all these new ways of working, eating, sleeping, living and playing that we've never had before.

Tonya J. Long: 12:33

It's a new world, my friend who opened tomorrow the restaurant in Belmont. They're looking at major ways of personalization. Oh, I think she said 90 of their bookings are reservations made ahead of time, which means they're in a crm. Hello for all of us tech people out there and they can and they know what you ordered. Now we we've always had this data, we've just not really done things with it. So when you walk in they can say, oh, miss Harbeer, welcome back. We have your table that you prefer, and then your server is the person who always takes care of you. And then your server has taken a peek at you before he comes out to say would you like your gin and tonic? Oh wow, totally feeling of personalization, so that people want to have these experiences.

Harbir Bhatia: 13:15

And just imagine if we work backwards from that. Yes, what that means for the just the produce industry, the supply chain, we we can so backtrack from that absolutely so much better planning, right and hopefully less wastage, is that right? Yeah, less wastage just so much I love data that's what I first saw you, oh, you remember the?

Tonya J. Long: 13:36

panel and all you did was spit out numbers I'm so sorry, you and p use. I was like I was in between you and p use, malik, and I was like I'm, I am intentionally not going to use a single number tonight because, because they've got so many and I'm going to be different that way, I'm going to talk a single number tonight because they've got so many and I'm going to be different that way, I'm going to talk about all the social impacts.

Harbir Bhatia: 13:54

No, but I think that the point is that, whether it's me using numbers or not, but I think you and I both love that the value that data brings to the table, which is it's in different cultures they call it like I can read your forecast and all that. No, truly, it's people that love numbers and crunching them. Okay, and the secrets that you get. It's called data insights for a reason.

Tonya J. Long: 14:20

And yes, and those insights you and I both know, because we've dealt with numbers for so much of our adult lives, that numbers can be manipulated, not just falsified. But the story that you tell with numbers is really important and I think we're democratizing it, where it's not just the one spreadsheet jockey in the corner that's telling all the stories, that we all have access to see what the stories are going to be.

Harbir Bhatia: 14:41

That is also a very good point, that accessibility is also changing and now we have access to the same stuff that everybody else does.

Tonya J. Long: 14:47

And it will funnel our entrepreneurship. That goes back into the smaller businesses that are going to be active with chambers because they're going to need community, yeah, and businesses that are coming off the ground. I know from when I made my entrepreneurial pivot, I just missed going into a room full of people to get validation of the direction I was going in. That's true. It's not like the childlike approval, it's more the I need a sanity check on this. Is this going the right way? And you walk into a room and people do their edits as people do, and then you're like okay, I have the confidence to press forward with this because a few people that I respect have looked at it, had their way in and now I can go and execute you just gave me another gold nugget.

Harbir Bhatia: 15:36

I have been trying to figure out what am I missing? Because I come from corporate and a startup mindset Very two opposites, yes, but in this case, as small businesses, you don't have the teams to do that and I just think a weight was lifted off my heart or chest or whatever. Now I understand what it is, that thing that I don't have in my role, because I always had it before.

Tonya J. Long: 16:01

Collaboration validation and you don't need somebody to do it for you, but we all need check-in points, right?

Harbir Bhatia: 16:09

Yeah, man, you got so many nuggets for me.

Tonya J. Long: 16:11

I swear to god no, we just have a good time now, 10 minutes ago. But before we do I need to do a quick station id. Sure, we are at kpcr lpf 92.9 fm in las gatos and sister station kmrt lp 101.9 out of santa cruz, and I bet they are having a gorgeous day at Santa Cruz, although I did see some coastal flood warning warnings come through today, so I don't know if we're going to get some tide, king tides or what on the beach.

Harbir Bhatia: 16:40

But it looks like it's going to be a rough day, which is why we can always go there.

Tonya J. Long: 16:43

And drive back inland to our safe little mid-peninsula abode. So fun stuff, so good. So welcome to KPCR LP 92.9. Ten minutes ago you used the word legacy and I really want to honor your legacy being here, because you have such rich heritage, going all the way back to how you were raised and who.

Tonya J. Long: 17:07

You were raised by your daddy and I don't have my daddy anymore not on on this plane, but so when you talk about your daddy I just light up and and you light up too, because when you declared to me that you're, that's not the right words, but when you shared with me that your daddy is a feminist, I was just just like, wow, yeah, and and clearly not surprised big community activist. So you were raised from a wee little thing to stand in your power and to do it on behalf of others.

Tonya J. Long: 17:43

Yeah, that was part, that's part of your legacy of DNA that a man, a daddy, with that focus has driven into you. So how? Yeah, except that I can. For you who can't see Harbir, she's really letting that sink in, and she's I'm processing she closed her eyes.

Tonya J. Long: 18:01

She's letting it in. So tell me, having that kind of grounding as a child and expectations for what you would do for the world compounding as a child and expectations for what you would do for the world how does that affect how you run the business of you? You do several things. You're CEO of the chamber, of the central chamber, you do a lot of humanitarian aid but in general, how does that background from a family perspective drive what?

Harbir Bhatia: 18:27

you do. I would say that until you said that I don't think I put two and two together. But yes, I'm getting you a calculator. Yeah, it should have gone floor before, but it feels like it equals so much.

Harbir Bhatia: 18:39

More Is that Papa always says that he's the biggest feminist because he takes such pride. His sister was in those days. I mean, he's obviously a boomer and he comes from a family which also had extremely modest beginnings. But one thing that he said that he felt, even as a child, towards his sister was that she was very talented, very capable, and I think that stems from his mother. His mother was the one that would kick your stuff if you get stuff done. And because his mother was the one that would kick your stuff if you get stuff done, and and because his mother was that person that allowed him to, or he saw her as a strong person, I think that naturally gave him this, this world view that this is how it should be, and I owe a lot to my parents. My mom and dad both have extremely different strengths, but one thing that they have in common is this element that you brought up of the service service aspect and I remember my first.

Harbir Bhatia: 19:38

I was five years old when the first time I went to serve or make food my grandma, my dad's mother, who was like this powerful woman you, you do not mess with her, okay she took me to the our community kitchen at our, in our Sikh tradition, we have a community kitchen that everybody gets to come and eat for free. I remember making rotis with her. Rotis is like a flatbread and that is my first memory of participating in a communal thing.

Harbir Bhatia: 20:07

And then I remember others for others, and but that was also the things that he saw. So was it by design, who knows? But I think, as you said, it was in my DNA. It has been there from the beginning and that is the common thread in everything I do, that I am not a passive person. My job is to be actively engaged, sometimes maybe more than others, but the tradition of Sikh tradition also is that you are to or any individual, whatever tradition, you should practice that. This is a basic principle, that you're an active participant, not a passive participant.

Harbir Bhatia: 20:43

Okay, and so what happens is that, when you've been, that's been bred into your head since the beginning, and, having been a minority, those are the kind of few things we held on to because we didn't fit anywhere else we were. When you've been, that's been bred into your head since the beginning, and, having been a minority, those are the kind of few things we held on to because we didn't fit anywhere else. We were the oddballs. We were brown. My brother's hair was to the feet his feet but his face was white, his face was light and he had blue eyes. So people were like what are you? What guys? What are you guys?

Harbir Bhatia: 21:05

So he got us into volunteerism. So every weekend we volunteered as we thought that's what normal people do, until I went to college to have a rude awakening that people don't do this, it's just our family. So, whether it was by purposefulness or the natural outcome, it became a part of who we are. So you cannot just sit by the sidelines when something is not working well. You cannot sit by the sidelines when somebody's be treating unfairly. You cannot sit by the sidelines when something is not working well. You cannot sit by the sidelines when somebody's be treating unfairly. You cannot sit by the sidelines when there's a problem to be solved and there's no one to solve it.

Harbir Bhatia: 21:37

So, that just becomes who you are and you put that in every realm that you're in. So there's something that you had written. I was trying to get to it because I tell this to a lot of women If you ask a woman to do anything, she will always deliver. That goes in many ways. Whether it's a child, whether it's a project, whether it's getting whatever she's owing you to to you, a woman will always deliver. Now that is a I'm saying one that's actively involved. They will never let you down. That's just not in their nature. And I think when we let women be truly themselves, without all these peripheral packagings and expectations, man, they are a powerhouse. And now I know why people are afraid of us. You give us anything, we'll get it done.

Tonya J. Long: 22:30

You give us anything, we'll get it done, and the word agency is what I'm thinking about. It's women and men but people who have agency. You were raised from a young age with an expectation, and empowerment has to come with an expectation to let you make decisions, to let you and encourage you to own and lead things. It might be what are we planning to do on vacation when we go to two hours away on a little camp trip?

Harbir Bhatia: 23:06

but you were empowered, you were given agency from an early age and you learned that was who you were I wish papa was listening to this he can papa, I just want to let you know you're going to be listening to this a couple times a day, you're right he did it right yeah, you're right so I'll jump into my.

Tonya J. Long: 23:26

It's not politics but my opinions that aren't necessarily popular, but parenting these days is really tough it's really I acknowledge that, but when I see people like rush to do things for their children. My mom and daddy did not come to freshman year college and get me registered into my first set of classes, and now if you don't go and help your child register, it's looked at as like you're abandoning them. These transitions are where people learn their strengths.

Tonya J. Long: 23:57

It starts when they're really tiny. You've got to let them break a few glasses that were too big for them to hold. For them to learn what weight of glass they can hold, they have to climb a tree and skin their knee. What weight of glass they can hold, they have to climb a tree and skin their knee. And parents today so often have had this conversation with friends who are just almost in tears. I don't want them to be hurt. I don't want them to struggle like I did is the sometimes said thing, and I'm like but the struggle is where the growth happens. Yeah.

Harbir Bhatia: 24:28

And I will say that I don't think that they did it with this kind of planning. I think it was. They had this belief system and then they had the sikh tradition. That kind of encourages it yeah but at the same time, because we were in a foreign country, I wasn't born here, so I can't be president. Sorry you all, I can't be president but where were you? Born india and where in india, north india, it's called Haridwar. It's the holy city for the people that practice Hinduism.

Tonya J. Long: 24:57

And how close is it? Is it near Gurgaon Delhi? Yeah?

Harbir Bhatia: 25:00

it's about maybe five hours.

Tonya J. Long: 25:02

Okay, that's close in India terms, maybe five, six hours.

Harbir Bhatia: 25:04

Yeah, and that is also, by the way, a very interesting space, because people go there for blessings all the time. Okay, so you have that as a background. My name means the almighty God. Wow, that just leaves you up with so many responsibilities.

Tonya J. Long: 25:19

And then you have a father that teaches you Live into that, yeah.

Harbir Bhatia: 25:21

But I think, coming back to that point, is that I think they were very afraid. They, on one hand, encouraged us by putting us out there. They had social anxiety and sometimes I'll fall back into that trap, but they pushed and pushed us. But those are the skills that are lifelong skills, that are missing today. You cannot do that anymore Because we were put into difficult situations At the same time. They gave us empowerment. On the other hand, they were afraid because we're a new country. So it's really contrasting. But I think back to what you said what is making us be successful today? I think you're right. This was rooted in the past.

Tonya J. Long: 26:02

Yes.

Harbir Bhatia: 26:02

And it's not very available right now for our future workforce.

Tonya J. Long: 26:05

Actually no, the current workforce age at the youngest levels coming into the workforce very smart and very natural with technology, because they've been since they were young. They've had an ipad in their hands, but the resilience yeah for making mistakes is low.

Tonya J. Long: 26:23

I was asked when I was in my early 30s to go lead india was one of my territories and I was like wow, I didn't say where's my instruction manual and I'd never been to India. And I think today there's a lot more reluctance to do things if you don't know exactly how it's going to work.

Harbir Bhatia: 26:43

And the benefit is it's a double-edged sword. On one hand we're so blessed as the next generation to have had that foundation to allow them not to have to worry and have those experiences, but then unfortunately they're also not prepared. But that just means their parents have done such a great job to create this strong foundation that they're able to then excel and think about more aspirational thoughts. But unfortunately they've been away from the basics far too long. Yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 27:10

I agree yeah.

Harbir Bhatia: 27:11

And that's what we're seeing in the small business industry right now. They cannot keep workers, they keep quitting. They just don't have the resiliency.

Tonya J. Long: 27:17

There's a lot of movement and with the movement that is happening so fast and it's such short periods of time on each job, they're not like really deeply learning some of the skills that are not just tech skills, some of the skills like collaboration, arbitrating ideas that are dissimilar, those kinds of social skills that you don't learn in college and you don't learn playing little league. You learn those. That's part of the adult. Skinning your knee is to go in and be involved. That's why I tell a lot of entrepreneurs young entrepreneurs, I'm like get experience in a company, because you are going to learn so much, some of it what you don't want, and that is learning as well. But you've got to build some of those tolerances for working with others in order to launch your own company.

Tonya J. Long: 28:06

Absolutely so there you go. Yeah, it is time for another quick station break. I'm going to talk about being in Los Gatos at KPCRLP 92.9 and sister station KMRT 101.9 LP. Kmrt LP 101.9 out of Santa Cruz. We're doing something pretty cool this summer. It is looking like summer, it's finally going to hit 80 here in the Bay Area and we are doing a summer camp for radio broadcasting. Oh Cool, huh. Oh yeah, youth I was coming up with the word youth, because they're not kids at age 13 to 17 is our target.

Tonya J. Long: 28:43

It starts next week, june 9th. Is that next week or is that the following week? It starts June 9thth and you can find out more on kpcrorg online. But I think it's a wonderful way for kids to learn speaking skills and maybe they're not thinking about being a radio station personality in life, but most kids want a podcast, yes. So it's very transferable skills and what they will learn in terms of everything from mic placement to creating a run of show are all things that I think are really useful for industrious 13 to 17 year olds in the Bay Area, and it will be held here at the studio. They'll get to produce a show, which is fun, pretty cool. I don't have time to be part of it, but I wish I did, because I think it'll be very interesting what they're doing.

Tonya J. Long: 29:29

Yeah, I think all kids like that concept nowadays yeah, yeah, everybody wants to be a podcast yes, because it's cool you got to start and summertime yeah, they're all looking and let's find something constructive that will really enable some skills turn on some interests. So we've gone from being a youtuber to a podcaster. That's the thing. Oh, being a youtuber is still a thing. Yes, it's still very much a thing. What's the guy's name? Oh, I've forgotten. He has 80 billion views and he does these crazy outlandish things. We don't need to talk about him, but it is amazing what all happens on youtube. How old were you when you moved from india to here?

Harbir Bhatia: 30:05

I was just. I think I just turned seven, or was about to turn seven, yeah, so so you probably remember being in India Very much.

Tonya J. Long: 30:13

Yeah, yeah, definitely shaped a lot of my personality, but the bulk of your life has been in the US Electrical engineering. Is that what you studied in college? Worked at Lockheed Martin. I've got some friends that are listening who went through the Lockheed Martin tour of duty.

Harbir Bhatia: 30:28

Yes, yes, who went?

Tonya J. Long: 30:29

through the Lockheed Martin tour of duty. Yes, yes, big, amazingly brilliant company. We are safe, like we are, because of what they do. But you were at Lockheed Martin and that's also a stuffy job because they are big, right, they are so big and process is so necessary. What took you from electrical engineering Lockheed Martin those are all in the same bucket right to humanitarian aid.

Harbir Bhatia: 30:50

Where did that come from? So again, that's where I come back to it, that it was always being a community person. It was just something you did. I think if I was to write my resume about my community volunteering experiences, it'd be at least 45 years long. That's how much work I've done. I have more volunteer experience and skills developed through that experience marketing, problem solving, you name it. I've. I think I've done it okay, and and so the the thread, though, is that I didn't know what to do when I was growing up. Again, my immigrant experience has definitely had a lot to do with my choices, yeah, and then, of course, being Sikh have actually shaped a lot of my choices now, but we you may have heard this, and maybe Piyush may say the same thing to you that when you come to the United States in those years it was 60s and 70s most migrants came to the eastern part of the country, okay, central, which is Midwest, but not Plains.

Tonya J. Long: 31:50

Mostly to the east.

Harbir Bhatia: 31:51

Okay, I didn't know this yeah, because 1960s and 70s there was a huge campaign to bring in knowledgeable workers from other parts of the world. Okay, either to get educated here to do their masters, or to become an engineer, doctor, a scientist, or maybe in, if you had a business, and entrepreneurship. All of them, most of them, 75% of them, settled between Midwest to the East Coast and so, being a product of those times, we got off the airport, they stamped your green card and here you go. Now you're an American green card holder. Go.

Tonya J. Long: 32:25

Okay, was that easy back then.

Harbir Bhatia: 32:26

Yeah, there was no concept of H1.

Tonya J. Long: 32:28

That's a more. That's a 1990s thing.

Harbir Bhatia: 32:31

And we were all about just fitting into America. Yes, but we don't know what to do, because people have all types of jobs here. But for us there was three options A doctor, an engineer, a scientist and maybe an accountant slash lawyer, that's it. So I didn't know what to do and I was like Papa's an engineer and he's my role model. So I'm an engineer. And. But he made it very clear to my brother and sister and I do whatever you want, if you're gonna be a garbage man, you better be a dang good garbage man. I said, okay, so we took our life that way. But I will be very frank, that journey you really need to be in good schools. I have to say that I did not have as good of teachers, maybe that I could have had to be a better engineer, but at least I remember a few equations Voltage equals current times resistance I deserve an A plus for that and E equals MC squared. That's about it. And then I couldn't find a job in the midwest. I had options for tires, that's it.

Tonya J. Long: 33:26

Okay, I was like I'm not working on tires because it's a more manufacturing centric that's it the demand but then all these things were my jobs, not my life.

Harbir Bhatia: 33:38

Ah, okay, so those are all that's what I'm saying to you. It's all piecemeal, because that wasn't my purpose. My purpose was oh, I need to have a job because that's what you do, but my love was I love community, so that's just paying me, so I can do what I love. I see, I see, and that's where Lockheed Martin happened. But I got to tell you, lockheed Martin was so cool, but there was more information outside Lockheed Martin than there was inside Lockheed Martin, and then software just became an easier option, and so that's how I got out and in the future?

Tonya J. Long: 34:10

I think you got out at exactly the right time for you. That's actually the answer. But interesting you did. You got out at exactly the right time for you. But we're going to need fewer engineers in the future, because I have friends who are executive coaches and have been executive coaches all their lives. Yes, I'm talking to you, pam, and they're unlovable creating products and almost having like home competitions with their college-age children to like vibe code things, even though they have zero technical background. Okay, it's well known in our in the bubble that we live in of silicon valley, that technology is simplifying across the board for everybody. It'll be ideas that will generate. Engineering won't be like as special as it has been, because everybody will be able to be an engineer if they can articulate their thoughts into tools that do the background work for them.

Harbir Bhatia: 35:04

Interesting Right? Yeah, yeah. So you're going back to making a lot more product managers.

Tonya J. Long: 35:11

Actually, yes, yes, a lot more people who can communicate cross-functionally and have technical aptitude and communication skills. That's where I think we will be headed, and lots more into entrepreneurship. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

Harbir Bhatia: 35:23

And I guess that's a skill think we will be headed and lots more into entrepreneurship. Yeah, yeah, you're right, and I guess that's a skill set that we're trying to hone in on you went from electrical engineering to humanitarian work.

Tonya J. Long: 35:32

Now you're leading the chamber. I can't help but think there were things that you learned in your corporate roles that you have found invaluable and rare in the work that you do now you are so right. So what are some of those things that, as you made your resets? There were things you learned early In your corporate boring, stuffy jobs that still today are valuable because they help you make things happen.

Harbir Bhatia: 36:03

You're so right on that I'm a fan of my corporate life I, and I will say I try to tell a lot of people the same thing that these are not two separate worlds it's all.

Tonya J. Long: 36:14

It's a continuum, it's a continue, absolutely.

Harbir Bhatia: 36:16

You're so good at this stuff, I tell you um look the thing is that at the end of the, at the end of the day, we are all, or who we are, because of experiences we have. We don't block our brain off into saying, excuse me, that's a part of the brain that only uses this set of skills because I'm volunteering and not being paid for it. That has nothing to do with it. My brain is my brain. I use what I've learned, I move it along. I'll give you an example. I negotiated a deal with a big Negotiation Exactly, negoti, negotiated a big deal with a generator company and I said here's what you need, what you can do with what you have, and here's the impact it will create. We sent over thousands of generators to Ukraine. Yeah, and that was a time of dire need. I love it. But that skill set of knowing how to talk to them, how to present to them the need, how to find a business case, that was a win-win.

Harbir Bhatia: 37:02

Absolutely, and there's not. That is really missing today. Actually, we need to do much more of that. We need to apply those professional skills into the social world, because at any end of a given day, we're still living in a society which is not segmented by this part of the day, is controlled by these features of AI and this part of my day I'm living in a hole. No, you are the same person throughout the day. You're bringing whole self forward, and my whole self forward has learned so much with working in a corporation or it is a corporation like Lockheed Martin, where I learned deep analytical skills because that's my brain. I'm an analytical person, but then I also moved into software and, empowered by a woman who worked in NASA, had her fifth child at Aspect Communications, gloria Davis but I worked at Aspect Communications.

Harbir Bhatia: 37:53

I couldn't believe it. I'm like I knew there was a deeper connection first tech job that's such a deeper connection.

Tonya J. Long: 38:00

I didn't know Gloria personally, like closely, because I was in Tennessee at the time, but I did some work that touched Gloria's teams.

Harbir Bhatia: 38:08

And that and that is the kind of things you talk about is what she brought to our table and was very rare in those days. Yeah, and I believe that platform gave me the mindset to be able to think big, think out of the box and realize my solutions don't always have to be what's expected. But more recently, while talking to you, I've discovered that my talents were these unique nuggets versus going against the grain. Yeah, and I don't think I was in the ecosystem that recognized those talents.

Tonya J. Long: 38:42

They're enablers for what you're able to help organizations do.

Harbir Bhatia: 38:47

And I want more women to know this stuff, yes, that we don't get to be in those environments, that we have these nuggets that are able to stand out and be told or identified as hey, this thing is what's helping you do X Y Z. Because, in the most of the time, thing is what's helping you do xyz. Because in the most of the time my world being in technology, there were very few women, so I never knew what was that. What I was doing was wrong or right, or because I'm a woman or because I just don't get it. We just got things done. We just got things done. Yeah, and I am like the ultimate problem solver.

Tonya J. Long: 39:18

Yeah, but those talents problem solving is a skill as well absolutely because it's a mindset. The other thing I think about is crisis resolution. No matter what part of the business you were in in Lockheed Martin, you were probably always managing some form of escalation, whether it was a low-level escalation or all the way up to the CEO, managing crisis. Crisis is kind of an inflammatory word, true, but managing crisis, knowing how to handle escalations, is a skill.

Harbir Bhatia: 39:53

And I guess I didn't know that at the time, I thought it was. Here's another problem I have to solve and I do also believe that is a skill set that I've also learned and refined as I've gone is that I mobilize people very quickly. Yes, I get them behind a common cause. Yes, and I will do the research, which again comes from my background, and put together the procedures and systems needed to solve the problem. Yes, and that's my thread. You're smiling, like as in. I told you so I love that you're right but you learned it.

Tonya J. Long: 40:33

You, whether willingly or not, you went into the corporate beginnings and learned these practices that became who you are as a working adult. But they spread farther than just your work. It's the work of you being a fully functioning adult, the humanitarian aid pieces that you know that it's hard, these people that want to separate work and home. It's so hard to separate for maybe just for us, but to separate passion, passion from what you do and it can be aid, it can be working at the humane society, it can be running your kids little league schedules, absolutely.

Harbir Bhatia: 41:12

But when you have passion behind it and you want to find better ways of serving the audience, that depends on you yes, everything in its way, it's a project, and whether it's raising children, whether it's working in the community garden, everything takes that intention and passion from you. It's true, you can apply it to anything you want, and that's when I read your notes I was trying to figure out when you were saying that I did these resets, and I realized my function.

Tonya J. Long: 41:42

They were functionally resets, but the underlying thread that ties the whole story together is about wanting to create value yes, and that started at home for you at a very young age with your Sikh traditions and your father's mindset and your mom's about service to the community. Right Totally, I love it.

Harbir Bhatia: 42:09

I feel like you've got me figured out. This is a little scary.

Tonya J. Long: 42:11

I don't have you figured out. It's a little bit creepy, though, I know.

Harbir Bhatia: 42:13

I feel like somebody's in my brain that seems to understand me better than I do at this moment. Oh, I love it, I love it.

Tonya J. Long: 42:19

We're going to do a quick third station ID. These things come up too quick, they really do. But we are at pirate cat radio kpcr 92.9 fm, out of los gatos, with sister station kmrt lp fm 101.9, in sunny wave cresting santa cruz. I'm remembering when I said that when remember when the waves took out the big pier, yes, it was like a house floating at the beach. It was yeah. Yeah, we're not expecting that was. It was yeah, yeah, we're not expecting. That was about a year ago. We're not expecting that in the next few days. I also want to say I have a minute. I was doing the station id.

Tonya J. Long: 42:54

We have something interesting happening here at the station called the signal society.

Tonya J. Long: 42:59

We are a community funded radio station. We do what we do because we love it, but we also there there is a keeping the lights on element of being a community funded radio station. You very much understand that with the chamber, but we've created the signal society with membership tiers for as little as five dollars a month, like one of the things that you can get that is pretty cool is a little card with discounts buy a dozen donuts, get a free coffee, kind of thing. So there's several local businesses not just in los gatos, around the bay area that are have contributed because they want you to come into their businesses as well. So that's a membership card with the Signal Society. There's also a cool thing you can have your own radio show for an hour. You can partner with one of us and then we will work with you to create your own radio show during the year. And of course there's a studio tour and then we're putting together events like like bands, and our signal society will get first dibs on those performances.

Tonya J. Long: 43:53

So invite me to those I love live bands oh, then you would love our station director, you would? I've got to get, I've got to get you to him. So if he's out there listening, yes, I'm getting her to you but I like this idea of the station.

Harbir Bhatia: 44:05

It's community, the Signal Society. Yeah, we were discussing this right that we have gone through these moments in our communities of swings. We've gone from being small business centric to enterprise centric and now starting to come back.

Tonya J. Long: 44:19

And coming back, and you know what I think that's all about Impact. Yeah, it's about impact. Impact, yeah, it's about impact. There was a time and a season for us to make impact at a very broad global level with the products we put into place. You were at salesforce also big company, big company. So we did things that touched the world, and now we're touching the world differently by using those skills to enable small businesses, because we're not just opening up that proverbial florist or bakery. We're still leaders. That's naturally who we are, and I think there's some real opportunity in the future to help ease that path for entrepreneurs.

Harbir Bhatia: 44:59

And I'd like to also say this to all my corporate brothers, sisters people is that you cannot exist if the small businesses do not exist. Yeah, people is that you cannot exist if the small businesses do not exist. I believe we've gotten into these edges of the spectrum where we think that I'm a small business owner is not relevant to me, but I want to tell you that our corporations cannot exist if they do not have services for their people I'm gonna make the point of the Of the data centers I was going to say, except for data centers.

Harbir Bhatia: 45:29

Except for data centers, except for data centers, but except for data centers. You need a place for your community and the people that you employ to be able to create a life, and that is why small businesses will always be the heart of any community, whether they are in the Las Gadas, santa Clara, cupertino, san Jose, wherever they are To exist, you must have a thriving small business community, otherwise you're going to have to create one.

Tonya J. Long: 45:58

And who do you think their customers are? Their enterprise customers are often small businesses. When they were trying to I won't say this well because I don't have time to build the story but when they were really trying to separate Google's lines of business YouTube versus Search being separate businesses with the Department of Justice four or five years ago I was fiercely against that, not to protect Google, but because that would have been a terrible negative impact on small businesses. Small businesses count on places like Google for their advertising, for their SEO, to run their website. There are. It's reciprocal in terms of the need small businesses have for enterprises and then how enterprises that's their client base right.

Tonya J. Long: 46:45

Yeah, absolutely, and we need everybody operating at peak passion and efficiency. But enterprises, you and I, sometimes, because of where we've been, we think about the big multi-million dollar deals.

Harbir Bhatia: 46:56

Yeah, correct, correct.

Tonya J. Long: 46:56

But a lot of these businesses are based on serving Sort of small businesses.

Harbir Bhatia: 47:00

They're your customers.

Tonya J. Long: 47:00

A couple of thousand dollar deals Just imagine if there wasn't a POI system, point of sale system, no transactions done system, point of sale system, no transactions done, and those have to run across networks, and so we could go deep here technically and we won't. But yeah, yeah. So I wanted to do something fun with you, wanted to do a little lightning round and, given the time we're gonna, we're gonna leave half our questions for another day. But I think lightning rounds are fun because one of the things that I want to happen with this show is for communities to know you better. Okay, because there's a lot to know.

Tonya J. Long: 47:31

I have such high quality people that come and sit in this chair and it's an honor and a privilege. But I think people want to be seen and known as people, not just as their title and what that perception becomes. So the lightning round has been a fun way. I I did it last week with a vc that's one of the top vc firms here in the valley, so now I'm doing it with one of the top pro business supporters in the valley. So are you a morning person or a night owl night? Ah, you're a night owl, okay, how does that enable your global communications and coordination work that?

Harbir Bhatia: 48:06

you do easy everybody's awake. Everybody's awake by that time. So, from UK onwards, everybody's awake. But I also tell you my creative. I'm most creative at that hour.

Tonya J. Long: 48:14

Love it, love it. How late is late for you?

Harbir Bhatia: 48:17

Two oh three.

Tonya J. Long: 48:18

Three, I'm a one girl, but yeah, we're still past yeah. Okay, yeah, all right. Next Finish this sentence. The biggest myth about being a single powerful woman is Crap.

Harbir Bhatia: 48:34

Freedom.

Tonya J. Long: 48:38

It's a myth. Freedom is a myth. Yeah, say more.

Harbir Bhatia: 48:41

Look, you choose where you spend your time.

Tonya J. Long: 48:43

Yes.

Harbir Bhatia: 48:45

Everything in our life is our choice. You are just putting that time and commitment towards something else. It does not mean that you don't have that. You don't have commitments and obligations. It's just that there aren't different things. I write that. I say that in a way that it is not to say that you don't get freedom. It's just freedom from different things. But at the same time, freedom being single doesn't mean it's always a party. That's probably the other myth, I was going to say it's not a 24-hour party. No, we work like workhorses.

Tonya J. Long: 49:12

Yes, yes, because our work is our family and our children and our all the things we wrap our passion around yep, my passion is my work. Yes, yeah, agreed, agreed. What is the most Silicon Valley solution that you've applied to a humanitarian problem?

Harbir Bhatia: 49:30

Oh boy, silicon Valley solution, yeah Huh, interesting. I think of constantly innovating to provide solutions. So I think that example I gave you about one example, was the generators.

Tonya J. Long: 49:46

Yeah, it's a great one.

Tonya J. Long: 49:47

Because that is the Silicon Valley way we find collaborations, we figure out how to create the win-win, the business solution and they're in our neighborhoods and I think people may roll their eyes that are my Tennessee family people that are listening, but I think there's a Silicon Valley mindset that's such a privilege for us to have worked in and understand you and I think much more broadly. Yes, but the way we learn to think about the customer, about globalization, about process, is good. I will go to my grave saying process enables us to scale, whatever that means for you.

Harbir Bhatia: 50:23

But we also are the people that always think about getting the job done.

Tonya J. Long: 50:26

Yes.

Harbir Bhatia: 50:27

We're always about delivering results. Yeah, I want to tell you something.

Tonya J. Long: 50:29

We were when we were little girls too, when we were helping put dinner on the table, Don't you know? Yeah, that's who we are. What were you going to say?

Harbir Bhatia: 50:39

The president of Senegal came to visit us and I was like you want to meet with me, Wow. I said I want to teach how to be Silicon Valley. We want to do what's happening here. I said you know what Silicon Valley isn't just a place, it's a mindset. It truly is a mindset, yes, and I wish we could share it with the world. We're trying.

Tonya J. Long: 50:56

And it's a community. It's a community, it's a mindset, it's all that. This is home now. It really is an amazing to be here. So same here. We both are transplants. We both are transplants and anyway, I'm not gonna next. This is easy, it's an because it's only a single answer. If you had to choose, would you rather save one startup or deliver a thousand laptops to the ukraine? A thousand laptops to ukraine yeah, that's something you're working on right now. I saw that you posted about that a few days ago, yeah, so.

Harbir Bhatia: 51:29

They can't go back, the Eastern Bloc can't go to school because they keep being bombed and Keeve is being bombed again and again, and so, unfortunately, we don't want to stop their education, because that means they're not going to be productive people as they grow. So that to me, is more powerful, because maybe I'll create a thousand more startups.

Tonya J. Long: 51:42

I love A thousand laptops is the future of a thousand startups. Oh, I'm loving it. I'm loving that messaging. So do you read or do you do podcasts? What's your preference?

Harbir Bhatia: 51:55

I like to hear, I like data, I like facts. So I've started listening to Blink and Audible.

Tonya J. Long: 52:06

I've been a Blink account holder for a long time. For those out there who don't know, blink summarizes books and into 15 minute sound bites, chapter by chapter. Yeah, when I first started I haven't looked lately it was built out of Germany. Yeah, it's so amazing. A lot of the context was it was funny to read in the beginning because they had a lot of German students doing the translations and it's not just a translation of the book.

Harbir Bhatia: 52:29

It's a 15 minute.

Tonya J. Long: 52:30

It's more than a translation read or it's a interpretation of the book in summary form.

Harbir Bhatia: 52:33

But Blink is amazing but when you ask you have a podcast and reading, I'll tell you the difference for me or the similarity for me. Yeah, they're both people telling me stuff that I can hear when I'm walking around and getting things done okay, so I, because the question was going to be based on your answer.

Tonya J. Long: 52:48

Then what is the book laying on your nightstand? Oh, right now or what is the podcast that played on the way here? Oh gosh, that's two things, so you do both.

Harbir Bhatia: 52:57

I'm going back to read Good to Great. Yeah, good to Great. I read that years ago. I'm just reading that again.

Tonya J. Long: 53:03

It's a classic.

Harbir Bhatia: 53:09

And the other one is how to Free.

Tonya J. Long: 53:10

Up your time and the podcast was yours, of course. Nice, yeah, how could I not? I was like I need you prepared for this.

Harbir Bhatia: 53:15

I have no clue going in what I'm supposed to be doing.

Tonya J. Long: 53:17

These are the easiest conversations because they they just try to tap people's hearts. Yeah, for what they want to talk about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love this good.

Harbir Bhatia: 53:25

You're so good you can thank you you it's nobody paid me to say this for the second, for the record, it's a For what they want to talk about.

Tonya J. Long: 53:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love this Good. You're so good. You can Thank you.

Harbir Bhatia: 53:30

You. It's a privilege. Nobody paid me to say this for the second, for the record.

Tonya J. Long: 53:32

It's a privilege To be able to give Such amazing people A space for them to talk. Keisha is a friend of mine. That was the VC that was here last week. The first time I've sat with you that it hasn't been us being on a panel with an audience of industry people and we get to have the conversation we want. Now, the way we all, the way we work, is work, is always going to come into every conversation.

Tonya J. Long: 53:55

it's a big part of who we are absolutely but being able to not be performing for an audience that needs certain educational value out of what we say, I think is a really important space to give to you guys. So, anyway, what's the next industry? Last question what's the next industry that desperately needs more single, powerful, fierce women?

Harbir Bhatia: 54:19

come on, I don't believe in that. Being one industry, choosing is hard, it's very hard. Leadership, civic, leadership, civic leadership.

Tonya J. Long: 54:28

Okay, I will let you.

Harbir Bhatia: 54:29

Yeah, civic leadership, I can agree with that I think we're not dissing men here, because obviously we cannot exist without them, and nor can they exist without us and we would. It wouldn't be any fun. No, it wouldn't be fun. But civic leadership is a space in which, by nature, by dna, whatever you want to call it is something that we will always have the first nature, or first I use the word nature again.

Tonya J. Long: 54:56

It'd be a first natural instinct, because it is about caring for more than yourself yes, I love it, and we've had some remarkable women lead countries in the last decade, except ours, but that's okay in time in time like I said, I can't be president, but I can be governor.

Harbir Bhatia: 55:12

I'm joking guys. Okay, I'm joking. I love scary people just started.

Tonya J. Long: 55:16

You just started the rumors. Fantastic this, really. It has been fun. The time went way too quickly. We can bring you back anytime you want, because I've got a whole list of questions in here that I wanted to talk about. So, anytime you want, the script is already ready. In the meantime, how would you like people to get in touch with you If they want to watch what you're doing, if they want to participate in your support of Ukraine? How would people find out what you're up to?

Harbir Bhatia: 55:43

Go to my LinkedIn page or my Facebook page.

Tonya J. Long: 55:45

I'm very easily accessible.

Harbir Bhatia: 55:46

It's Harbir Bhatia with a middle initial K, so Harbir K Bhatia. Or you can just reach out to any of my staff at the chamber. They're all being pulled into all my crazy humanitarian projects, but it makes life worth it. So I would ask you to please support your local chamber. Because of them, you have the businesses that can thrive and your community can thrive. So join the support the chamber and choose a cause any cause but when you get involved, things will always be better. Thank you for listening and I'm here to take your money if you want to support ukraine fantastic, all right, really, I just I'm repeating myself.

Tonya J. Long: 56:24

It's been a complete joy, so thank you, harbir, everyone. This has been Harbir K Bhatia. We'll put that in the show notes for people. Thank you. This has been Harbir K Bhatia with Tonya Long on Reset with Tonya Sending all the good vibes we can find out into the world. Have a wonderful day. We will see you next Thursday at 11 am. Ciao.