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Bill McDermott · The David Rubenstein Show

0:03
Speaker 1: One of the most successful business executives in the world
0:05
Speaker 1: over the past ten years has been Bill McDermott. He
0:08
Speaker 1: took SAP to record heights and now is doing the
0:11
Speaker 1: same with Service. Now had a chance to sit down
0:13
Speaker 1: with Bill McDermott and his offices in New York and
0:16
Speaker 1: had him described to me how he came from very
0:18
Speaker 1: modest roots to the top of the corporate world, and
0:20
Speaker 1: how he inspires his troops, inspires his customers, and loves
0:24
Speaker 1: his job. So in October of twenty nineteen, you surprised
0:29
Speaker 1: the business world by stepping down as the CEO of SAP,
0:33
Speaker 1: a very very large company whose value had more than
0:36
Speaker 1: double during your co CEO position and CEO position, and
0:40
Speaker 1: you took a position with a much smaller or less
0:42
Speaker 1: known company Service Now. Usually people when they leave a job,
0:46
Speaker 1: they go to a bigger company. Why did you go
0:48
Speaker 1: to a smaller company?
0:49
Speaker 2: Well, I saw the future and where it was going.
0:52
Speaker 2: First of all, I want to say I had a
0:54
Speaker 2: great run at SAP, and it was a pleasure taking
0:57
Speaker 2: him from thirty nine billion to one hundred and sixty three,
1:00
Speaker 2: really inspiring lots of people in customers, and it was
1:02
Speaker 2: a wonderful experience. But after seventeen years nearly ten as CEO,
1:06
Speaker 2: I was already to do something different. And when I
1:08
Speaker 2: saw a service now in the marketplace, I knew what
1:12
Speaker 2: it was, and I knew what it could do, and
1:16
Speaker 2: I knew with my background, I was a pretty good
1:18
Speaker 2: cultural fit for what Service now needed to scale it.
1:22
Speaker 1: So let me ask you what does service now really do?
1:24
Speaker 1: Tell me, in simple English language, everybody can understand what
1:28
Speaker 1: do they actually do?
1:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very good question, David. It basically drives
1:35
Speaker 2: productivity in work. So think about tech today. Every CEO
1:42
Speaker 2: you talk to is going to tell you I have
1:44
Speaker 2: to digitize to survive. Forty percent of the CEOs say today,
1:49
Speaker 2: if I don't digitize my operations, my company will no
1:52
Speaker 2: longer be viable in less than a decade. So we
1:55
Speaker 2: were the it backbone for companies all over the world.
1:59
Speaker 2: How do they manage their assets, run their operations, secure
2:02
Speaker 2: their operations, all things digital having to do with it.
2:07
Speaker 2: That's what we started. But then, as you know, the
2:10
Speaker 2: employee experience, hybrid work, all of these concepts became so important.
2:15
Speaker 2: How do I hire people, how do I onboard them,
2:18
Speaker 2: train them, provide them all their services? On a mobile device.
2:21
Speaker 2: We do it.
2:22
Speaker 1: Now about two years and two and a half years
2:25
Speaker 1: ago when you took over your position now as the
2:27
Speaker 1: CEO and you're the CEO Chairman of Service Now. During
2:31
Speaker 1: that period of time, the technology world has had some
2:32
Speaker 1: challenges for sure, and there's been layoffs and other things,
2:36
Speaker 1: but you have more than doubled the value of service
2:39
Speaker 1: Now during this period of time, the revenues are more
2:42
Speaker 1: than doubled, operating earnings are up about eight times, and
2:46
Speaker 1: you've doubled the number of employee based So what was
2:49
Speaker 1: your secret sauce When everybody else was going this way,
2:51
Speaker 1: you were going this way.
2:52
Speaker 2: Well, I give all the credit to the original founder,
2:54
Speaker 2: Fred Luddy, because he had the idea and he built
2:57
Speaker 2: the platform, and lots of people came into the company
3:01
Speaker 2: and expanded on that platform. But the original idea was
3:05
Speaker 2: to give people technology that truly enabled them to do
3:09
Speaker 2: things they could never have done before. So it's really
3:12
Speaker 2: a product centric engineering company at its soul. What I
3:18
Speaker 2: tried to bring to the company is continue to expand that,
3:22
Speaker 2: continue to build innovation into that platform, but at the
3:25
Speaker 2: same time, build a truly global software market leader where
3:31
Speaker 2: everybody understood the brand, the hungry and humble nature of
3:36
Speaker 2: how we focus on the customer at customers everything here,
3:39
Speaker 2: and ultimately the value that we deliver.
3:42
Speaker 1: Somebody watching this should they say that should buy this
3:45
Speaker 1: guy's stock because he can do another next couple of
3:48
Speaker 1: years as well. Or is it you kind of plateaued,
3:50
Speaker 1: you can't keep going at the rate you've been going.
3:52
Speaker 2: I assume I think we're just getting warmed up. You know,
3:55
Speaker 2: it's really interesting. Very few software companies ever make it
3:59
Speaker 2: to billion, even less make it to five billion, even
4:03
Speaker 2: less than that make it to ten. Will be the
4:06
Speaker 2: fastest enterprise software company to have ever gotten to a
4:10
Speaker 2: billion five and ten organically. In fact, it's never been
4:14
Speaker 2: done before. The world we see is so bright because
4:19
Speaker 2: we're like five percent penetrated in the enterprises even that
4:24
Speaker 2: use our service now, so there's many that don't. And
4:28
Speaker 2: I believe like NET New Brands, NET New logos that
4:33
Speaker 2: are not doing business with us should see a show
4:35
Speaker 2: and say, I got to get in touch with that guy.
4:37
Speaker 2: And the ones that are already doing business with us
4:40
Speaker 2: need to say he's talking about a completely different approach
4:45
Speaker 2: to digitizing my company. Are we looking at them closely enough?
4:50
Speaker 2: If I've achieved that, then we'll go in places. Now.
4:52
Speaker 1: Sometimes people who run technology companies have a technology background.
4:57
Speaker 1: They're engineers. Yeah you have an MBA from Northway, but
5:00
Speaker 1: you're not an engineer. So does the technology jargon go
5:04
Speaker 1: past you? Or you can understand all what the engineers
5:06
Speaker 1: are saying when they come up with some new product.
5:08
Speaker 2: I've been around it for a while now, so while
5:11
Speaker 2: it's true that I'm not a coder, it's also true
5:15
Speaker 2: that I understand where the idea can fit into a
5:19
Speaker 2: customer's world. I'll give you an example with AI. The
5:24
Speaker 2: expectation of AI is going to be the iPhone moment.
5:28
Speaker 2: When the consumer begins using AI in the consumer world,
5:32
Speaker 2: they're going to expect that the business leaders to bring
5:35
Speaker 2: an AI in to make their world better in the
5:38
Speaker 2: office environment. That is why this is the iPhone moment
5:42
Speaker 2: for the enterprise. There's no doubt about that. So I
5:46
Speaker 2: know that we have to be the market leader in AI,
5:50
Speaker 2: which is why we started working on it. And the
5:52
Speaker 2: first acquisition I did was LMNAI, which was an AI
5:56
Speaker 2: company in Montreal, Canada, and we did that in two
5:59
Speaker 2: thousand and twenty. We're working on it all twenty nineteen
6:03
Speaker 2: as soon as I came in, But then twenty twenty
6:05
Speaker 2: we actually executed that. And the reason for that was
6:09
Speaker 2: they had a gigantic group of researchers, data scientists, and
6:14
Speaker 2: engineers exclusively working on next gen AAI in large language models.
6:20
Speaker 2: And that's how Calm we teamed up with Jensen and
6:22
Speaker 2: in Video and we started building them on the now
6:25
Speaker 2: platform and we saw what it could be. And now
6:28
Speaker 2: that it's in the platform, we see the commercial sensation
6:32
Speaker 2: it'll be for us, but more importantly, we see the
6:35
Speaker 2: productivity and the cost savings and revenue growth that our
6:40
Speaker 2: customers will get from it.
6:41
Speaker 1: Is AI going to reduce the amount of jobs that
6:44
Speaker 1: people have now?
6:45
Speaker 2: I don't believe so. I think if you look at
6:48
Speaker 2: the market today, we have a seventeen year situation where
6:53
Speaker 2: it was seventeen years ago when the job market was
6:56
Speaker 2: this type where the openings outpaced the opportunity for candidates
7:02
Speaker 2: to jump in those jobs. Because the candidates aren't there,
7:05
Speaker 2: so we rarely are capitalizing on technology to fill that void.
7:09
Speaker 2: For example, I talked to a CEO just yesterday of
7:12
Speaker 2: a major financial services company was interested in AI, but
7:16
Speaker 2: he said, I just can't get enough people to do
7:19
Speaker 2: what I need to have done. I said, well, how
7:21
Speaker 2: many engineers do you have? He said, I have seven thousand.
7:23
Speaker 2: What you need to do is AI enable them, because
7:27
Speaker 2: now you can text to code, text to workflow automation,
7:31
Speaker 2: or even text to new application development. So we can
7:34
Speaker 2: make your engineers fifty percent more productive than they are today.
7:38
Speaker 1: Look, you've done a great job, but why don't you
7:40
Speaker 1: do something more important like running a private equity firm
7:43
Speaker 1: in digital transformation? You could do very well financially. You
7:46
Speaker 1: ever thought about that? And if not think about it,
7:49
Speaker 1: I'm happy to figure out a way to get you
7:51
Speaker 1: in the private equity world to.
7:52
Speaker 2: Work with you. It'd truly be an honest So we
7:54
Speaker 2: must think about different ways that I can help you.
7:57
Speaker 1: So let's talk about your past. It wasn't preordained that
8:01
Speaker 1: you'd be the CEO of SAP or the CEO of
8:04
Speaker 1: Service now and at the top of the technology world.
8:08
Speaker 1: Where did you grow up?
8:09
Speaker 2: I grew up in a place called Amnyville, Long Island.
8:11
Speaker 2: I was born in Flushing, New York. Grew up in Amneyville,
8:14
Speaker 2: Long Island, and you know it's that long island grip.
8:18
Speaker 1: Now, when you were growing up. Were your parents' professional
8:20
Speaker 1: workers or were they blue collar workers?
8:22
Speaker 2: What did they do? I come from a working class family.
8:25
Speaker 2: My dad worked for con Edison. He was a troubleshooter
8:28
Speaker 2: for con Edison, meaning that you called him the Spider.
8:31
Speaker 2: He went into the manholes and basically worked on those
8:34
Speaker 2: high voltage lines to keep the electric on in New
8:37
Speaker 2: York City, and a very dangerous job, and he was
8:40
Speaker 2: great at it.
8:40
Speaker 1: Was that a safe job?
8:42
Speaker 2: No, it was not a safe job, very dangerous job.
8:44
Speaker 2: In fact, I always admired my father and the image
8:46
Speaker 2: that stayed in my mind. He worked the midnight shift
8:49
Speaker 2: most of the time, midnight to eight. I could just
8:53
Speaker 2: see him in the driveway chiseling the ice off of
8:56
Speaker 2: his windshield, knowing that he was going into New York
9:00
Speaker 2: to get into those manholes like the Spider and sod
9:04
Speaker 2: of those cables. And that was to put food on
9:07
Speaker 2: the table and give us a very nice life.
9:09
Speaker 1: And I had a great life. But you always did
9:11
Speaker 1: some working. From what time did you begin working for
9:14
Speaker 1: some money?
9:15
Speaker 2: I think the first time was around ten or eleven,
9:18
Speaker 2: when I was delivering papers door to door in Long Island.
9:22
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, I remember the paper was
9:25
Speaker 2: Long Island Press. I don't even think they're in business anymore.
9:28
Speaker 2: But my mom, you know, co signed for me because
9:31
Speaker 2: you had to buy the papers and you got the
9:33
Speaker 2: money back when you collected it. So she put up
9:36
Speaker 2: the money for me, got me started. And I'll never
9:39
Speaker 2: forget what it took to be successful as a paper boy.
9:44
Speaker 2: Are the same things it takes to be successful today.
9:47
Speaker 2: I had to know my customer. I had to know
9:50
Speaker 2: how you wanted it. Is it in your door? Do
9:52
Speaker 2: you want it wrapped in plastic? Do you get upset
9:55
Speaker 2: if I throw it? You know, they were all kinds
9:57
Speaker 2: of techniques. But why did I do it? Because I
9:59
Speaker 2: wanted them to be happy and I wanted them to
10:01
Speaker 2: give me a good tip.
10:02
Speaker 1: Well, you wrote a book about your life, and in
10:04
Speaker 1: the book you talk about the fact that sometimes people
10:06
Speaker 1: didn't pay you and you had to go and kind
10:08
Speaker 1: of ask them to pay for two or three weeks.
10:11
Speaker 1: Was that hard to do?
10:12
Speaker 2: It was because you know when I went there and
10:14
Speaker 2: I asked them for ten bucks, and you know that's
10:17
Speaker 2: a lot of money for paper. But I'm like, yeah,
10:19
Speaker 2: but you know you three weeks in the arrears and
10:22
Speaker 2: the technique there was not only to get to ten,
10:24
Speaker 2: but hopefully get twelve so I would get a nice
10:27
Speaker 2: tip as well. And you know, I kept very good records.
10:31
Speaker 2: Wasn't too automated. It was a little book with check marks,
10:34
Speaker 2: and I was just showing them the facts. And if
10:37
Speaker 2: I show them the facts, and you just you know,
10:39
Speaker 2: hard to heart with people theyn't respect you.
10:41
Speaker 1: Later, as a teenager, you bought a delicatessen. Yes, how
10:45
Speaker 1: old were you when you bought a delicatest?
10:47
Speaker 2: I think we're about sixteen and that sixteen turning seventeen
10:51
Speaker 2: something like that.
10:51
Speaker 1: Where did you get the money to buy a delicatessen?
10:53
Speaker 2: I didn't have any I was working three jobs. I
10:56
Speaker 2: was working at an Italian restaurant VIP type of ten
11:00
Speaker 2: iron restaurant, find a supermarket town of Amnueville. Always three jobs,
11:06
Speaker 2: whatever I could fit in, and it was kind of chaotic.
11:09
Speaker 2: And one day so I helped want It sign in
11:11
Speaker 2: this deli and I traded in all those hours to
11:15
Speaker 2: go to the Delhi because the owner said, I can
11:17
Speaker 2: give you all the hours you need. But I took
11:20
Speaker 2: my bow tie from the restaurant, my white shirt, my
11:24
Speaker 2: tuxedo pants and upgraded the delicatessen to how we would
11:29
Speaker 2: serve customers as a kid. Because I knew it worked
11:32
Speaker 2: at the restaurant. I'm like, well, I wouldn't no work here.
11:35
Speaker 2: And that led to very good relationship because when he
11:38
Speaker 2: wanted to sell, he couldn't have any buyers because nobody
11:42
Speaker 2: wanted to buy it because it was sun Mark Industries,
11:44
Speaker 2: the Sunoco gas station actually owned the land. They'd only
11:47
Speaker 2: give you a one year lease. He wanted twenty five thousand.
11:50
Speaker 2: Everyone was like, why would I give you twenty five thousand.
11:52
Speaker 2: They could take this lease away from me in an instant,
11:55
Speaker 2: I said, look, after no one else came to him,
11:58
Speaker 2: I'll give you five thousand. He said seven thousand with interest.
12:01
Speaker 2: You pay me back in a year. If you don't
12:03
Speaker 2: make your payment, I automatically repossessed a business. I said, great,
12:07
Speaker 2: so I still had the machine at that money. No,
12:10
Speaker 2: I didn't. It was a loan from him, only alone.
12:13
Speaker 2: It was only alone. It was only alone, and I
12:16
Speaker 2: if I didn't pay him, I wouldn't have had the business.
12:18
Speaker 2: But all of the people that brought the beer, bought
12:23
Speaker 2: the cigarettes, brought the potato chips. All the vendors basically said,
12:27
Speaker 2: we'll front you the first delivery on the arm, I said,
12:30
Speaker 2: I don't want anything for free. I'll always owe you
12:33
Speaker 2: that money. So the day I sell a clothes, you
12:35
Speaker 2: get your money back. Meanwhile, you know how I got
12:38
Speaker 2: done money back. That was early days of video games,
12:42
Speaker 2: and I put asteroids in pac Man and some dinosaur game.
12:46
Speaker 2: My brother built the wall and I learned this at
12:49
Speaker 2: the mall. I saw the kids plucking quarters Antiti's machines
12:52
Speaker 2: one after another. I said, Wow, I'll build a game
12:54
Speaker 2: room on the side of the store. We did that.
12:57
Speaker 2: I made more money split the quarters with the guy
13:01
Speaker 2: that actually owned the machines than I did slicing meat
13:05
Speaker 2: and making sandwiches.
13:06
Speaker 1: What did your parents say, you're supposed to be going
13:08
Speaker 1: to high school? Did they say, how about going to
13:09
Speaker 1: high school?
13:10
Speaker 2: I'm so blessed because my mom, who's the best, and
13:13
Speaker 2: people that I knew that were great friends of mine.
13:16
Speaker 2: They actually worked in this store when I was at school,
13:18
Speaker 2: holding the place up. And then when I came out
13:21
Speaker 2: of school, I got right behind that counter and worked
13:23
Speaker 2: till midnight.
13:24
Speaker 1: All right, So you graduated from high school and did
13:26
Speaker 1: you go to college?
13:27
Speaker 2: I did. I went to Dowling College. In Oakdale, Long Island,
13:31
Speaker 2: because I could do all my classes on Tuesday and
13:34
Speaker 2: Thursday and then be in the store all the other days.
13:37
Speaker 1: So when you graduate from college, were you're still owning
13:39
Speaker 1: the delicatessen.
13:40
Speaker 2: Yes, I was, and at that time I made a decision.
13:44
Speaker 2: I got a job at Xerox, which was a dream job,
13:48
Speaker 2: and at that time I sold it and then we
13:50
Speaker 2: invested that money in a great beach house with my
13:52
Speaker 2: parents down in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
13:54
Speaker 1: So your job at Xerox was to be a salesman. Yes,
13:57
Speaker 1: you're selling what was a complicated the time.
14:00
Speaker 2: But at that time it was copiers, and it was
14:03
Speaker 2: electronic typewriters and printers and fax machines and all that.
14:08
Speaker 1: So you did that for seventeen years.
14:10
Speaker 2: I was at Xerox for seventeen years. I sold door
14:13
Speaker 2: to door for a couple of years and then got
14:16
Speaker 2: promoted and ultimately became a division president and corporate officer
14:20
Speaker 2: like my mid thirties at Xerox.
14:22
Speaker 1: So one time you thought, maybe at the beginning, you
14:25
Speaker 1: could aspire to be the CEO of Xerox. But you
14:28
Speaker 1: had an offer to leave, and why did you take
14:30
Speaker 1: the offer?
14:30
Speaker 2: I did it because I stopped learning. You know, at
14:34
Speaker 2: that time, it was like, what else am I going
14:36
Speaker 2: to do? All I really want is the CEO job,
14:40
Speaker 2: and this steps left before I'll get it, and I
14:43
Speaker 2: started think that's not the right reason to stay. So
14:46
Speaker 2: Gardner Group offered me a job to be the president there.
14:50
Speaker 2: I was very excited about that, and I felt that
14:53
Speaker 2: it advice and really meeting all the technology leaders of
14:58
Speaker 2: the world and advising them would really get me sharpened
15:01
Speaker 2: up for anything.
15:02
Speaker 1: All Right, you took that job, but you didn't stay
15:04
Speaker 1: there that long, right.
15:05
Speaker 2: I didn't know I missed the big technology stage. That's
15:10
Speaker 2: kind of what I really wanted to do. So I
15:12
Speaker 2: went to CBL Systems to run worldwide sales and operations
15:15
Speaker 2: for SEBEL in California, and I learned the software industry
15:20
Speaker 2: at CEBYL.
15:21
Speaker 1: So after that, you then took a position as the
15:24
Speaker 1: head of SAP's America. Is correct now SAP was a
15:28
Speaker 1: software company. Well, what was its innovation that made SAP
15:31
Speaker 1: such a strong company even at the beginning?
15:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, they call it ERP. Just to break down ERP
15:38
Speaker 2: running financial systems for the biggest companies in the world.
15:42
Speaker 2: Connecting that based on the industry, to supply chains, managing
15:47
Speaker 2: human resources. Put that into one bucket. You call it ERP.
15:52
Speaker 2: And when I got hired by SAP, they were a
15:55
Speaker 2: very fine company. But in the Americas they had missed
15:59
Speaker 2: twenty four were out of twenty five quarters. So it
16:02
Speaker 2: was really the operation that was bringing down the whole company.
16:06
Speaker 2: So they had to fix that because they had five
16:08
Speaker 2: CEOs in six years of SAP America.
16:11
Speaker 1: You became the co CEO of the entire company at
16:14
Speaker 1: one point, and then after five years of that you
16:16
Speaker 1: became the sole CEO.
16:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I became the co CEO in twenty ten and
16:22
Speaker 2: the sole CEO in twenty fourteen. And what I can
16:25
Speaker 2: tell you is it's actually a very nice design. A
16:27
Speaker 2: lot of people knock the co CEO model, don't think
16:30
Speaker 2: it can ever work. But in our case, I had
16:32
Speaker 2: a great partner, Jim Hagemann Snaba, who's a great friend
16:35
Speaker 2: of mine still to this day, and we had a
16:37
Speaker 2: great orientation around our partnership. We talked every day. Jim
16:44
Speaker 2: was kind of like missed inside in terms of representing development,
16:47
Speaker 2: especially in Germany where we had very large engineering and
16:50
Speaker 2: I was the guy on the front lines. You know,
16:53
Speaker 2: moving the number and working with the worldwide operations.
16:57
Speaker 1: As you were working at SAP or the CEO. Things
17:01
Speaker 1: are going well, the company's in good shape. What motivated
17:04
Speaker 1: you really to do something else? I mean, most people
17:06
Speaker 1: at the top when things are going well, they kind
17:08
Speaker 1: of stay at the top.
17:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think I get like the seventeen
17:12
Speaker 2: year itch. You know, I love.
17:14
Speaker 1: Seventeen years at Zerox, seventeen years at the SUP right
17:17
Speaker 1: at exactly.
17:18
Speaker 2: I think after about seventeen years, you know, I kind
17:21
Speaker 2: of like feel like I need to do something else.
17:24
Speaker 2: So those were two of my greatest experiences, and I
17:28
Speaker 2: need to change, you know. And I really did want
17:31
Speaker 2: to take service now because I saw what it could be,
17:34
Speaker 2: and I really did want to make it the best.
17:37
Speaker 2: And I felt like my skill set and where they
17:41
Speaker 2: were and what they needed was a good match.
17:42
Speaker 1: So you'll be here until twenty thirty six. In other words, said,
17:45
Speaker 1: I don't know.
17:46
Speaker 2: About twenty thirty six, especially with you and private equity
17:49
Speaker 2: in my future.
17:51
Speaker 1: Why has technology been so big as a part of
17:53
Speaker 1: the US economy and the global economy. Is it low
17:56
Speaker 1: interest rates? Is that going to change? Or is it
17:58
Speaker 1: just that we're really good at inventing new kind of
18:00
Speaker 1: the technology.
18:01
Speaker 2: Well, low interest rates helped every industry flourish, and it
18:04
Speaker 2: definitely helped tech because our customers had more capital to
18:08
Speaker 2: invest in information technology, no doubt. But for our company
18:12
Speaker 2: and for technology companies, it's all about innovation and what
18:16
Speaker 2: we're bringing to the world is an end to end
18:18
Speaker 2: platform for digital transformation. If you look at the twentieth century,
18:23
Speaker 2: everything was top down, vertically integrated companies, where one function
18:28
Speaker 2: drove functional behavior. Now everything is cross functional. Companies were horizontal,
18:34
Speaker 2: and we brought a platform for end to end digital transformation,
18:38
Speaker 2: so companies can collaborate, work in teams and get stuff done.
18:42
Speaker 1: So for those who aren't experts in digital transformation, what
18:46
Speaker 1: actually is digital transformation?
18:47
Speaker 2: Think of it this way. For a half century, companies
18:51
Speaker 2: have been buying technology to digitize their businesses. But all
18:55
Speaker 2: these companies are locked down in silos now, so they
18:59
Speaker 2: optimize for functions, but they never understood that the world
19:03
Speaker 2: would go for complete teamwork, a team orientation. Everything has
19:08
Speaker 2: to come together in a horizontal stream of innovations.
19:12
Speaker 1: So you're obviously a very good salesman. What is the
19:15
Speaker 1: secret to be a good salesman?
19:17
Speaker 2: You can get anything in this life you want if
19:19
Speaker 2: you help enough other people get what they want. I
19:23
Speaker 2: care about what you want. I care about what you need,
19:27
Speaker 2: and when I understand that, I can compose solutions thanks
19:32
Speaker 2: to the great team that I'm fortunate to work with,
19:35
Speaker 2: that matter. And if I say something to you, if
19:38
Speaker 2: I make a promise to you, no matter what, you
19:41
Speaker 2: will get that promise kept. I'd never break my word.
19:45
Speaker 2: And I think that's what it's all about.
19:47
Speaker 1: So in your business career, what's been the best advice
19:50
Speaker 1: you've ever received.
19:51
Speaker 2: I think the best advice I've ever received is just
19:55
Speaker 2: in the long run, play the long game. You know,
20:00
Speaker 2: people grossly overestimate what they can do in the short
20:03
Speaker 2: run and grossly underestimate what they can do in the
20:07
Speaker 2: long run. So I've always tried to take a long
20:09
Speaker 2: view and not be so focused on just here and now.
20:14
Speaker 2: So today I'll have a very complete day in New
20:17
Speaker 2: York City. I'll meet some of the biggest CEO business
20:19
Speaker 2: cards in the world. But as I make those trips,
20:22
Speaker 2: I'm constantly thinking, what do we got to look like
20:26
Speaker 2: five years from now or maybe even ten years from
20:28
Speaker 2: now to keep up with having ideas that they don't
20:33
Speaker 2: even know they need to know about, but we need
20:38
Speaker 2: to know where we need to take them. We have
20:41
Speaker 2: to invent the future we want. We can't wait for
20:44
Speaker 2: somebody else to do it and try to copy them.
20:46
Speaker 2: It's already too late. So constantly trying to see around
20:49
Speaker 2: those corners.
20:50
Speaker 1: Long view, what's the worst business advice you ever got?
20:54
Speaker 2: Go for the money, don't go for the money. And
20:58
Speaker 2: I would just say, like any career choice you make,
21:01
Speaker 2: any deal that you do, it's not about the money.
21:05
Speaker 2: The money is nice to have, but it's much better
21:08
Speaker 2: to do things that are sustainable. So when you take
21:11
Speaker 2: a job, do it because you love and on that
21:15
Speaker 2: culture and you believe it's a match with your personal
21:18
Speaker 2: DNA and who you really are. When you're doing a
21:21
Speaker 2: commercial agreement, yeah, the transaction's nice and you want to
21:25
Speaker 2: win it and you want to accomplish things, but that
21:29
Speaker 2: relationship is so much more important because that is sustainable
21:34
Speaker 2: and it's long term.
21:35
Speaker 1: So your ambitions is to grow the company and maybe
21:39
Speaker 1: do something else later on after you're happy with what
21:41
Speaker 1: you've done here. Any aspiration to ever go in government
21:44
Speaker 1: or public service.
21:45
Speaker 2: You know, I would love to. I do think that
21:48
Speaker 2: there's a place to give back and to serve, And
21:52
Speaker 2: I think public service needs executives that have experience, especially
21:57
Speaker 2: global experience, where they've actually physic been to all these
22:01
Speaker 2: places around the world and have a sense of culture
22:04
Speaker 2: and the dynamism of humans no matter where they are located,
22:08
Speaker 2: and how to really do the right thing, not just
22:12
Speaker 2: the convenient thing. So it would be an honor to
22:14
Speaker 2: someday do that up the road. It's way up the road,
22:17
Speaker 2: but I wouldn't rule it out.
22:19
Speaker 1: Now. In twenty fifteen, you were walking down the steps
22:22
Speaker 1: of your brother's house and you fell down and glass
22:27
Speaker 1: fell into your eye or went into your eye. Yeah,
22:30
Speaker 1: can you ebscribe what happened and how you dealt with
22:32
Speaker 1: that pass.
22:34
Speaker 2: Of your eye. It was a rough night because I
22:36
Speaker 2: had a giant water glass, very thick, slipped on the
22:41
Speaker 2: stairs and met a concrete foundation and glass and my
22:48
Speaker 2: face and the glass actually went through my eye and
22:51
Speaker 2: cut it in half. And you know, dealing with that
22:55
Speaker 2: was a pretty traumatic experience, to say the least. But
22:59
Speaker 2: so blessed to be here, and I think I have
23:02
Speaker 2: a greater appreciation for everything. And I've also learned that
23:06
Speaker 2: vision is not just about what you see but it's
23:10
Speaker 2: how you make other people feel, and how you feel
23:13
Speaker 2: by making other people feel good.
23:15
Speaker 1: So you had us. I read about eleven surgeries to
23:17
Speaker 1: kind of save your eye or yeah, and ultimately they
23:20
Speaker 1: could not save your eye.
23:21
Speaker 2: That's correct. I lost that battle, but I think I
23:24
Speaker 2: want a bigger war.
23:26
Speaker 1: Looka, it's an incredible story, and congratulations. You started with
23:29
Speaker 1: virtuy nothing and built up a great reputation in so
23:33
Speaker 1: many different industries.
23:34
Speaker 2: So thank you.
23:35
Speaker 1: I wish I had bought your stock when you came here,
23:37
Speaker 1: but I can still buy the stock in the future.
23:39
Speaker 2: I guess right, not too late, David.
23:41
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
23:44
Speaker 1: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
23:48
Speaker 1: wherever you listen.