Employee Spotlight: Yumi Lugto - SYSCOM GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

FEATURED EMPLOYEE

The Key Difference Yumi Lugto Makes at SYSCOM: Relationships

Role:	Assistant Manager
Division:	Sales Operation
Location:	Silicon Valley Office
Expertise:	Negotiation, organizational skills, partner relationship
Experience:	7 years at SYSCOM
Hobbies:	Baking, Flower Arranging, Traveling

Role

Assistant Manager

Division:

Sales Operation

Location:

Silicon Valley Office

Expertise:

Negotiation, organizational skills, partner relationship

Experience:

7 years at SYSCOM

Hobbies:

Baking, Flower Arranging, Traveling

Yumi Lugto, Assistant Manager of Sales Operation in SYSCOM GLOBAL SOLUTIONS’ Silicon Valley office, doesn’t have much advice for interacting with customers. But she does have some great advice. “I don’t communicate directly with customers,” she says. “To me, my customers are my colleagues. If they’re satisfied, their customers are satisfied.”

Rather than interfacing with SYSCOM clients, Yumi provides back-end and project support to her sales team, a rotating cast of more than a dozen professionals. Her job is to make their jobs easier. It requires a different skill set than many of our other employees, but it’s led her to embrace a different approach to her work.

“I don’t just support, I also operate the sales team. Sometimes they give me a request, but I may know a better way to get them what they need. I show them another way to do it.” She anticipates her team’s needs and tries to stay ahead of them, even if they don’t realize themselves. It requires knowing her audience and following their own personality.

Key to that approach is something that’s at the heart of everything SYSCOM does: relationships. Her relationship with her team leads her to trust their ability to take her support and succeed, and her team trusts her recommendations. Strong relationships are crucial to her work, and getting to know as many people on her team helps her do that.

“I completely work remotely, so I don’t really have a chance to meet my colleagues in person,” she explains. “If I hesitate to contact a colleague I haven’t met yet, I’ll never get to know them. So I always reach out, introduce myself, and get to know them. Next time, I’ll be able to ask them right away.”

She’s found all levels of the company to be receptive to this approach, from her immediate contacts all the way up to the C-suite. “Our company has about 150 people, Not too small, but not too many, so it’s been very easy to get to know everyone,” she says. “It’s easy for me to reach out to the management team, because they’re very open to listening to my thoughts or any questions. They always make time for me.”

Yumi wasn’t always in the IT game, though. Right after college, she began working in the Japanese fashion industry, and soon after came to New York and landed what looked to be her dream job: a stylist at NY Fashion Week. She had been eyeing a life in the fashion industry for years, and she finally had her opportunity. But it turned out to be different than what she had expected—or what she wanted.

“I had dreamed about working for NYFW, but then reality was totally different. It was very hard to adjust. I like fashion, and it was a great experience for me.” But something was off. “I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I imagined.”

It isn’t just price—customers want to feel comfortable working with us. Building a relationship is most important.

Yumi Lugto

Assistant Manager, Sales Operation

Yumi knew what she wanted from her career—more time for her personal life—and decided to make a change. Her husband was working for an IT company at the time, which made her consider going that route. She got an interview with a Japanese company in New York, and eventually landed at SYSCOM.

“SYSCOM has been very supportive of my personal life,” she says. “After my husband got a new job in California, I asked for a transfer to the San Francisco office. I knew the director there from my time in the NY office, and he said yes right away.”

And then, after three years, she left SYSCOM.

“I completely quit SYSCOM in 2016. I wanted to take some time to raise my family until my children were in preschool.” For her, being able to commit to that fully was a priority. But eventually, she wanted to get back into the game.

“In 2019, my daughter had just turned 2 and was about to start preschool. I thought about going back to work.” Turns out, her relationship-based approach had really left a lasting impression—SYSCOM was thinking about bringing her back, too. “It was really good timing. My old Director contacted me on LinkedIn to see if I was interested in coming back to SYSCOM. I was going to look for a job anyway, so I said yes.”

Working somewhere that supports good talent and prioritizes trust has helped her be an example for her daughter. “I want to be a good role model for my daughter, so I’m trying to show her how to balance work and family life.” What does managing that balance mean to her? “Right now, I can show my daughter it’s about the quality of family time and how important my work is. She’s able to mirror it with our home life and her friends and school work, too.”

Her daughter lives in two worlds, so balance is crucial. “I’m Japanese, my husband is not. I want my daughter to be raised bilingual, both Japanese and English.” Juggling both takes time and intent, but it’s important. “Weekdays she goes to school in an English community, and on Saturday she goes to Japanese school. I don’t ever want her to think she has to drop Japanese school or English school. I want her to have both communities.”

Her company supports her goals for her personal life, she supports her daughter, and she wants her daughter to see how she balances it all. To make it all work, it all comes down to setting boundaries. “I set time limits. During this time, I prioritize work. After 5pm, my priority is my family. If I don’t set those limits, it keeps going and going.”

Thanks to the relationships she’s already built, SYSCOM trusts her to manage these boundaries herself. The benefit is undeniable, and it carries over into her work. When she does well, her colleagues do well, and SYSCOM gets more clients.

She says it best herself. “It isn’t just price—customers want to feel comfortable working with us. Building a relationship is most important.”

We couldn’t agree more.