Last week I attended a “fireside chat” in San Diego hosted by the San Diego Venture Group. Given the fact that it is summer in Southern California, I was thankful there was no actual fire. Fortunately however there was a chat, and the subject was so interesting that I wanted to share it with you.
The subject of the chat, and interviewee, was Fred Luddy, founder and Chief Product Officer of ServiceNow, an enterprise SaaS company focused on the IT space. If you’ve not heard of them, focus on this: their market cap is currently north of $12 Billion. That should give you a sense as to the size and scope of this juggernaut. An early investor and board member, Paul Barber from JMI Equity, was interviewing Fred. Their conversation was relevant for innovators today, and entertaining given Fred’s down-to-earth style and occasional self-deprecation. Here are some highlights:
- Fred was, by his own admission, an uninterested student, so while he still was in high school he “quit” and took a menial job in a small factory in New Castle, IN. It was there that he first stumbled upon a computer, which fired a life-long passion for programming. He said it was fifty years later when he was finally diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (which he credits for giving him the focus he needed to excel at programming). Observation by Fred: “Fifty years ago they didn’t have Asperger’s. They just had beatings”. (Challenge: As leaders, let’s remember that there are a wide range of learning and working styles, and consider how those can be leveraged for the benefit of the company and the employee. When it comes to diversity in thinking and work style, I suspect most leaders are more comfortable paying verbal homage to its importance rather than allowing for it in their organizations).
- I think it was Paul who said the following: “World class HR execs pay for themselves”. Here he was talking in the context of a rapidly expanding company, and was casting the HR need not in the traditional sense (although that was, no doubt, a need) but in the recruiting/growing sense. I recently read this book which made a strong impact on my thinking in this area. Whether you call it HR or something else, I’m increasingly convinced that recruitment often suffers from being in Covey’s Quadrant II (tasks that are important, but not urgent). If recruitment is attention-starved because it’s not “urgent” on a daily basis, what happens is that it suddenly becomes urgent and leads to quick (bad) hires. This is an important topic.
- Paul also pointed out that “it’s easy to get tied to your installed base”. This is a very real issue and underscores why innovation is tough inside healthy businesses. Clayton Christensen famously explored this in The Innovator’s Dilemma. Frankly, I find this to be one of those traps I seldom realize I’m in until after the fact. Returning to the important/urgent issue, the customers you have are the ones laying claim to your time and thinking, while the customers you don’t have (yet) never call to complain.
Questions for you to consider:
1. Can you think of one person in your organization who, because their personality type or work style is different, is performing below their capabilities? How could you re-orient that person’s job to unleash their effectiveness?
2. Do you treat recruiting the same way you treat sales (meaning, do you initiate recruitment, are you always prospecting, do you measure pipeline and performance)? Why or why not?
3. Set aside some time to think of, and write down, a couple ways that your installed base distracts you from becoming the company you want to be in three years. Ask a few colleagues to do the same and compare your answers.
Good luck!