🏆 Meet August's Member of the Month: Denise Barfuss, Senior Manager, Vehicle Connected Services Operations, Nissan Americas

Can you tell us a little about you, your background and how you got started in the automotive industry? 
As an accidental automotive enthusiast, I have spent decades learning and loving this industry. I’m a native Californian who wanted to change the world through politics but learned that changing our mobility was a much faster tool for growth.

As a graduate of Brigham Young University, I one evening met a man and his wife at my roommate’s mother’s surprise 50^th birthday party over the bowl of potato chips. The surprise was that my friend’s mom had an acute attack of appendicitis and she and her family rushed to the hospital leaving me in charge of the “adult” birthday party. Before I even knew what networking was, or why as an unemployed college graduate I needed to do it, I was entertaining all of the party goers with my travails in job hunting and my life experiences. Over the course of the night, before good news was received from the hospital that our friend was going to be just fine, I must have made an impression on at least one man and his wife. The following Monday I had a message on my answering machine (I was at Kinko’s faxing my resume to another job posting) asking if I would come and interview with Nissan who was looking for smart, articulate, passionate people like me. It was the man from the chip bowl at the party.

What is your current role, and what are your primary responsibilities within your organization? 
I am the Senior Manager of Connected Car Services Operations for North America. In this role, I’m responsible for creating all integrations between our customers and our technology and ensuring accessibility for our consumers and performance excellence for our company. My team supports product development with the customer as the north star. We manage field and customer resources, performance data, and reporting and act as the technical translator between R&D and Sales & Marketing.

What obstacles have you faced in your career, and how did you overcome them? 
When I began in the automotive industry, I was the only woman and the youngest person at the table 95% of the time. The first business meeting I was invited to attend was at Hooters. I understand the challenges women face with open or unconscious bias in this industry, but I refuse to cry about it. We all have choice and we can choose a different industry, or a different organization that may do a better job being inclusive, but I recommend facing the fact, building relationships with leadership and trust with co-workers to help lift you up when challenges arise. I was a young women when I got my first field assignment and the wife of a co-worker tried to blame me for trying to seduce her husband during a business trip. She filed a complaint with my regional management; I was dumbstruck and had no idea what to do. My manager called me in to say that leadership knew the claim was baseless based upon my reputation at the company and had dismissed the false claim.

Let people see you, what you stand for, how you work and what is important to you, don’t try and make a stand against every injustice in the system, and you’ll be surprised how accepted you can feel.

What is the hardest truth young women entering this field need to hear?
I think it is that while you can “have it all,” likely will not be able to have it all at the same time. When it comes to choosing to start a family, there are more options than ever before to support a woman during this time in her career. However, if you expect to be able to be there to pick your child up from school when they’re sick, take them to all their appointments, make every parent/teacher meeting and every soccer game, you will not be able to provide the extra effort at work that will propel others faster through advancement. You may not be able to travel at the drop of a hate for that big last minute assignment. You will have to either outsource some parenting responsibilities, have a partner that is 100% child flexible or make compromising choices with some work opportunities. Make your plan, set your goals, understand your options and then be satisfied you’ve done all you can. Don’t beat yourself up or judge yourself against others who have different priorities.

What keeps you motivated and driven, even during challenging times?
Motivation is so critical! I learned long ago that my company values me as an asset, but it is not their job to keep me engaged at my job…it’s mine. I have the choice each day as to the type of work I will do and it is my own standard of excellence, my own self-imposed bar that I must meet. I do the very best I can, using my energy and drive to excel because success in this way is gratifying to me. I can see a car driving down the street and say…I made that! There is a lot I can see that lives on at Nissan that I know I built. This is a legacy for me and I’m the only one that has to see it; I can’t rely on others or outside affirmation.

Have you ever considered changing career path? What kept you in the automotive industry? 
Is there anything more exciting than something everyone uses, needs and has opinions about?

What innovative initiatives have you seen that are making strides towards gender equality in the automotive sector? 
Nissan prioritizes “Inclusive Conversations” where the focus is unapologetically open dialogue at the team level. These conversations build trust and break down barriers that can exist and prevent truly excellent work outcomes. If all feel that there is immunity from shame and blame to ask questions and share feelings, it is both liberating and exhilarating to experience together.

Can you share an example of how diversity has sparked creativity and innovation in your company? 
My team was responsible for developing the first telematics mobile app for the Nissan brand. As we launched that first basic app and began to iterate and optimize its UI/UX based on the data, I realized that I wasn’t the best resource to direct functionality and invited much younger team members to our design reviews. By reaching out to different ages and backgrounds, we created innovative ways to approach older technology that helped earn us JD Powers top score for Automotive App Design three years in a row.

How do you respond to those who say the automotive industry is still a "man's world"? 
Look around. The number of female leaders in the C-suites is not at parity, but it isn’t what it was 5-10 or 15 years ago. We are making a difference and it is seen.