Just Who Is: Maddy Bandera of IBM

Maddy Bandera’s a Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt at IBM.

No…Her black belt isn’t about beating people up. Rather it marks her as practitioner of Lean Six Sigma – a way of improving business processes.

And that’s what she does for IBM.

As a Black belt, I work with internal clients within IBM to address problem areas in the business by applying process improvements using the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) approach. Process improvement and standardization is important to any organisation because it ensures that it is operating at an optimal level, costs are kept down and customer satisfaction is met or even exceeded.

Interestingly Maddy didn’t envision herself as an engineer.

That changed when she enrolled into an Industrial Engineering course. It gave her a mix of Business and Engineering that she could parlay into a successful career.

It also allowed her to indulge in her wanderlust as she travels quite a bit for work. However she “loses track of what time zone I’m in”, but that’s a problem that we’d love to have, yes?

What does engineering mean to you?

In a nutshell, it’s the science of making things work: how things or systems work together to achieve its intended purpose.

What’s the best part about your job?

The thing I like most about this job is that it gives me the opportunity to have global exposure. Being in a global project, I work a lot with colleagues from various parts of the world and learn a lot culturally. This helps to broaden my view about the world and also improves my understanding of different cultures and practices.

Quality Assurance folks aren’t usually quite welcome by the rank-and-file because it represents change How do you get over that hump?

In any situation, change is not easily accepted. I think one of the best approaches would be to listen and understand where the resistance is coming from and be open to suggestions.

Also, you have to be able to communicate well the intent of any changes that would be introduced and assure them that it is for their and the organization’s benefit.

What’s the one thing that you’ve learnt in all your travels?

A little technology goes a really long way, from boatmen in remote parts of the world having access to the internet or mobile phones to help promote and manage their business, allowing tourists to book easily, to paperless boarding passes which use barcodes stored as images in your cellphone to make flight check-ins a breeze. These inventions make our lives easier and give us more time to dream of the next big invention.

Your advice to folk who are still in school?

Dare to dream and when you do, dream big. Don’t be afraid to learn and explore, nor fail. Because being good at something is really a process and starts with you deciding what you want to do and pursuing it. If you stumble along the way, don’t hesitate to start all over and ask for help.

About Just Who Is series… Every month, we talk to a Creator of Tomorrow to find out what makes them tick and tock, why they became engineers, and how they got to where they are now.

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