Clara Shih

“I was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the United States with my family when I was 4. I spent most of my childhood in Chicago. My elementary school had no program in English as a second language, so I was placed in a class for students with speech impediments.”

“Social networks particularly will tend to converge and consolidate over time, especially because they're inherently governed by network effects. So the bigger ones will just get bigger, their value will multiply exponentially, and the smaller ones will become less and less relevant.”

“I wrote 'The Facebook Era' because I felt like it needed to be written, and I was one of the people who might be qualified to do so. Specifically, my background is that I developed the first business application on Facebook.”

“Social media isn't a one-way broadcast; it's a multiway opportunity for dialogue.”

“Social media teams can and do launch clever campaigns, but game-changing Social Business initiatives are typically driven by management teams.”

“The most important thing I've done at work has been to surround myself with amazing people who I trust and empower fully to do stuff better than I could.”

“With new technologies promising endless conveniences also comes new vulnerabilities in terms of privacy and security. And nobody is immune.”

“In addition to replacing many jobs, automation will also transform other jobs. Professions involving high touch, personal relationships - such as clergy, dentists, and financial advisors, for instance - face the least risk of automation but will nevertheless be profoundly transformed.”

“Great work, professional relationships, and learning experiences compound over time, much the way money does - investing $100 today creates much more value than investing $100 a decade from now.”

“There is, in fact, nothing easy about being an entrepreneur.”

“My entire life, I have viewed every problem as an opportunity - I've had no choice.”

“Data is valuable, so let's be mindful of how we're sharing it.”

“I don't watch TV or movies or play video games.”

“My father, a math professor in Hong Kong, worked as an electrical engineer here. My mother was an art teacher, but once we came to the United States, she went back to school and became certified as a special-education teacher.”

“Rather than wringing our hands about robots taking over the world, smart organizations will embrace strategic automation use cases. Strategic decisions will be based on how the technology will free up time to do the types of tasks that humans are uniquely positioned to perform.”

“Listen more than you talk.”

“The immigrant experience had a profound effect on me. It taught me the importance of hard work and the value of being entrepreneurial.”

“I believe that rather than it being a case of humans versus machines, the future of financial advice more likely lies somewhere in between, where human advisors leverage artificial intelligence and automation to become smarter and more efficient at doing their jobs.”

“Companies can't delegate social media to the new college grad and think they have it covered.”

“The whole point of social media is continuity and continual engagement.”