Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 90 - Andrea DiMella - Atlas Venture
Transcript
- 0:05This episode of the Bio Hub podcast, we're delighted to be
- 0:08joined by Andrea D'mella, who heads up the talent function
- 0:11Atlas venture. Andrea and the team are that's a
- 0:16building some of the most interesting bias companies out
- 0:19there. And yeah, she calls upon I think
- 0:2320 odd years at executive recruiting experience less than
- 0:26a. Capital number of years.
- 0:30Yeah. So, yeah, really looking forward
- 0:33to getting your insights, Andrew, on this on this call.
- 0:37And yeah, I'm sure they'll have some interesting take homes for
- 0:40the audience as well, so. Fantastic.
- 0:42Thanks for having. Me no awesome to get into it.
- 0:46I guess I'm going to rewind the clock.
- 0:48Sorry you started out actually on on the bench right.
- 0:53You started out in the head and then.
- 0:55Yes, I was as an undergrad, studied molecular biology and
- 1:01and had yet to figure out if I wanted to go the PhD or the MD
- 1:06track. And when I graduated I thought
- 1:11getting experience at the bench would help me answer those
- 1:13questions. I was particularly interested in
- 1:17research and moved up to San Francisco and, and got a
- 1:22position at UCSF, actually in Stan Prusner's lab.
- 1:27And this was prior to him winning the Nobel.
- 1:30And so, you know, I was doing the thing.
- 1:34I was studying disease and being around professors and doctors
- 1:40and postdocs and graduate students.
- 1:42And I'd like to say that it enhanced my interest in science,
- 1:50and I do think it did. But I also witnessed, you know,
- 1:53the competition in academia and, you know, the striving for
- 2:00funding. And there were a lot of kind of
- 2:04forces at play that ultimately led me to getting a bench job in
- 2:09industry. And I think that was 1 kind of
- 2:15inflection point where I enjoyed being around people other than
- 2:23different phenotypes than myself.
- 2:26And so obviously in industry you have an entire company of
- 2:30finance people, biology people, chemistry, marketing, regulatory
- 2:35and that diversity plus the pace of work at industry felt more my
- 2:42style. And so for a while that kind of
- 2:48kept my interest and I enjoyed doing the drug discovery
- 2:51projects and focusing on different indications and
- 2:53whatnot. And so a good seven years in of
- 2:58enjoying employment and having my nights free, I think I talked
- 3:03myself out of going back to school and at the same time
- 3:10talked myself into finding something that allowed me to
- 3:14leverage my scientific background but didn't have me
- 3:18spending the whole day alone in a lab.
- 3:21I was a pool only. I wanted that personal side of
- 3:27my personality to get some action.
- 3:30And so I talked to a recruiter about maybe moving into a
- 3:33regulatory or project management and the recruiter talked me into
- 3:38recruiting and I haven't looked back since.
- 3:42So I do think that time at the bench helped me understand the,
- 3:49you know, the the diversity of acumen that you need to have to
- 3:56push science forward, especially when thinking about impact to
- 3:59patients and recruiting is all about talking to people.
- 4:04So I really did do the full switch and put on that
- 4:09relationship hat and have stayed in the recruiting for biotech
- 4:14and pharma ever since. It's all about putting yourself
- 4:17in other people's shoes. Recruiting often, Absolutely.
- 4:23That all helped. I mean, not being in exactly the
- 4:25same shoes, but similar shoes to be able to put yourself in
- 4:29people sitting. Yeah.
- 4:30Yeah, I think, you know, having an ear for active listening and
- 4:38then seeing something in action and and having your own
- 4:42experience of it hopefully enhances your ability to
- 4:45understand and translate what you're hearing from folks. 100%
- 4:50for sure. So you moved agency side first?
- 4:54I did. I think that was the easiest way
- 4:58to get started as a recruiter with no recruiting experience.
- 5:03You know, that contingency agency model always be closing,
- 5:10you know, working on probably the more junior positions where
- 5:14you only get paid as a firm if you make a placement.
- 5:20And so focused heavily on the Bay Area, which I was living in
- 5:25at the time. And any company could have been
- 5:28a client, whether they had research associate scientists or
- 5:32even, you know, manager level positions, mostly in the
- 5:37research side from biology, PK, chemistry, you know, toxicology,
- 5:45pharmacology, the breadth there. I think you know, again, if kind
- 5:51of the the themes of my personality are always I like to
- 5:56be involved in as many diverse things as possible.
- 6:00I think the agency model, contingency model limited the
- 6:07kinds of positions that clients would call out to us.
- 6:11And so from there I ended up going to boutique search firms
- 6:16that really worked on more retaining as well as research
- 6:20and mapping work. And so that got me the chance to
- 6:24go director and above and to work with I would say larger
- 6:29pharma companies wanting a more hands on intensive support from
- 6:34anybody they, you know contracted with on search.
- 6:41And that was great. And I think I again, ultimately
- 6:45built out that relationship network and helped it grow into
- 6:50pharma beyond those small biotech companies that may have
- 6:54had one or two positions. And it was while doing that,
- 6:59that one of the clients of the boutique search firm that I was
- 7:02supporting asked me to come on site for one to two days a week
- 7:06and spend more time with their hiring managers as they were
- 7:10doing a a big build. And so I had a little bit of the
- 7:14best of both worlds, you know, doing search for any client
- 7:20that, you know, was interested in our model, but then going
- 7:23back and being inside a company and working directly with those
- 7:29firing managers and those leaders in those HR
- 7:31organizations. And it wasn't long before I
- 7:37remembered my love of being surrounded by more people that
- 7:41were different than me than being surrounded by just a bunch
- 7:44of people like me. And that's when I moved back
- 7:49into the operating side and focused on talent acquisition
- 7:53within biotechs. And I, you know, went through
- 7:58probably many years at a variety of biotech companies as a, you
- 8:05know, staffing consultant or TA leader and ultimately was really
- 8:12enjoying that degree of focus and impact in an organization's
- 8:21growth and. And that's how you came to Gene
- 8:26and Tech and then. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 8:29I mean in the, you know, Bay Area at that time, I started off
- 8:34with a few of the clients that had been of the boutique firm
- 8:40and then eventually got an offer to join Amgen and that was when
- 8:48Amgen had acquired to Lauric and it was building out its South
- 8:52San Francisco presence. That time in Amgen, I ended up
- 8:56supporting all four R&D sites for PKDM and regulatory as well
- 9:03as Amgen South San Francisco. And so I think that network
- 9:08visibility hopefully was a part of getting my name recognized as
- 9:16a credible recruiter of talent and impactful to the
- 9:19organization. And I subsequently got my name
- 9:25in for a role at Genentech. I think Genentech was,
- 9:30especially at that time, kind of the at the center of what we all
- 9:35equated as the best science and the best place to work.
- 9:38And so when I got an offer from Genentech, it was like I
- 9:43couldn't refuse. And so I joined there, too.
- 9:46Yep. Yeah.
- 9:47I mean, crazy time to join that business for absolutely.
- 9:51I mean, and it was, you know, those of us who worked at
- 9:55Genentech during those times are now all across the industry and
- 10:00we are all still such great friends.
- 10:02But you know, it was a time when Genentech really empowered its
- 10:10staffing organization. We had less than a 3% agency
- 10:14spend, so they really wanted the talent acquisition group to be
- 10:20the engine for identifying and securing and attracting talent.
- 10:25We had a sourcing group. We implemented a candidate
- 10:29relationship management system. That was the first time
- 10:32Salesforce went into a biotech company.
- 10:36We changed our applicant tracking system.
- 10:38We had these two systems talking to each other.
- 10:41So it was kind of a, and this was pre the Roche acquisition,
- 10:48it, it was really Genentech being at the forefront of
- 10:52innovative talent acquisition strategies.
- 10:56We work with the HR organizations and finance.
- 11:01And so again, it couldn't have asked for more, you know, more
- 11:08of an opportunity to show off what you're capable of.
- 11:13And I think back to my desire to be a part of something diverse.
- 11:19It really allowed me to integrate.
- 11:22Yeah, I mean groundbreaking science, but also groundbreaking
- 11:26in terms of back office. But it sounds a bit of yeah,
- 11:29sales force some. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 11:35I guess that that would have given you your first taste of
- 11:38like that, that talent pooling like you mentioned.
- 11:42But Biogen took that a little bit further, right?
- 11:46Because you were, yeah. I did when we, when I left
- 11:51Genentech, it was a hard decision to leave, but it was a
- 11:54year after the post the Roche acquisition.
- 11:58I, I left more for personal reasons to get back to the East
- 12:01Coast. Yeah.
- 12:04And so I still definitely wanted to be in organizations that were
- 12:10of the caliber that, you know, the Amgen's and Genentech's
- 12:14were. And for me, Biogen felt like a
- 12:17neuroversion of Genentech in a way.
- 12:22And when I joined, there was pretty soon after joining, there
- 12:27was a a change in the HR and TA leadership.
- 12:33And as a result the TA leader really wanted to revolutionize
- 12:41talent acquisition. So I was a part of a three or
- 12:45four person team to build a competitive talent landscape
- 12:50group, which wasn't necessarily held to any KTIS around how many
- 12:58recs at a time and you know, time to fill etcetera, but more
- 13:02around that proactive intelligence around talent.
- 13:07How do you think about your own internal design and the talent
- 13:12requirements of it? How do you determine what is
- 13:16best in class for your various phenotypes of leaders?
- 13:20What's your succession planning? What are other companies doing?
- 13:23And so the whole lens of intelligence and analysis around
- 13:28talent, we got that group started and supported after
- 13:37presenting to the HR leadership. And not surprisingly, that
- 13:44evolved to include an executive search, and so VP on up for
- 13:52Biogen was done through that CTL and executive search group.
- 13:58Yeah, I guess I can see what you talked about there, how that
- 14:03leads into your next roles at Third Rock and now.
- 14:06Yeah, yeah. I would love to say that that
- 14:12was purposeful and deliberate, but I would instead be more
- 14:18honest to say that after having these really pivotal experiences
- 14:23at Amgen, Genentech and Biogen, more started to feel familiar
- 14:28rather than different. And I didn't want to have my own
- 14:34Groundhog Day every day. And so I think my departure from
- 14:40operating was more around how do I do what I do in a way that
- 14:46still brings something new to the table.
- 14:49And so I wasn't sure what that looked like.
- 14:53And I, I started having conversations.
- 14:55I was having conversations with folks at the Broad.
- 14:58There were some Biogen people there.
- 15:00Samantha Singer was running the Broad.
- 15:02And then I also was connected with people at Third Rock in
- 15:06various ways. Many Genentech folks had made it
- 15:09into Third Rock companies. And you know, Third Rock at that
- 15:15time it was Fund 3 for Third Rock was super busy.
- 15:20And so I got to know the recruiters there, and they
- 15:24encouraged me to, you know, talk to the partners and meet people.
- 15:28And I will tell you the decision I made was based solely on, do I
- 15:35enjoy these conversations? And I think I've told many
- 15:40candidates this. I laughed in every interview.
- 15:45In my third Rock conversations, be it the recruiting director,
- 15:48be it an associate, A venture partner or even, you know,
- 15:52Marker Bob or Kevin Starr. At the time, I laughed.
- 15:56And that felt like a signal I needed to pay attention to.
- 16:00And so that was really the impetus around moving into
- 16:03Venture. And I'm happy to say it was the
- 16:07right intuition. I have thoroughly enjoyed what I
- 16:14could never have described as a transition, but it is something
- 16:20that continue to to allow me to focus on people and listening to
- 16:27what people are really describing for themselves and
- 16:32trying to extract that in ways that help make the right
- 16:36combinations of people when building young companies.
- 16:40I mean, it's hard every time. So that's what brought me to to
- 16:44venture. I mean, it sounds like it ticks
- 16:48a box of needing to be around a lot of different people all the
- 16:51time, right at what you do. Obviously the role at the moment
- 16:57for those who don't know, like what your responsibilities are
- 17:00like, can you walk us through what your group are responsible
- 17:04for? Obviously it's a lot on the New
- 17:06Coast side I imagine. And so I made the difficult
- 17:11decision to leave Third Rock to join Atlas as the head of
- 17:15talent. They had not had a permanent
- 17:18head of talent with the phenotype that I brought to the
- 17:22table. And so when I got here, it was
- 17:25really to create anything more than, you know, what had maybe
- 17:30been farmed out through a few different types of solutions in
- 17:34the past. So my first steps were creating
- 17:39order. You know, what is talent
- 17:41management, what is, you know, search?
- 17:44Is there an opportunity from the firm side to have an approach
- 17:51that's consistent? And I have to air quote around
- 17:56consistent because the model at Atlas was and is very different
- 18:01than the model at Third Rock as well as other venture models.
- 18:04And so learning what is right for Atlas, I had to deconstruct,
- 18:11you know, maybe some assumptions I had and instead watch and
- 18:17listen and pay attention to what mattered most beyond creating
- 18:25order. It was eventually ensuring that
- 18:29the relationship knowledge that Atlas has through the years of
- 18:36it being in business and the entire wealth of the portfolio
- 18:41builds that is done in the past is capitalized on and enhanced.
- 18:47And so that could mean supporting C-Suite searches.
- 18:53It could mean, you know, interacting with the boards.
- 18:56It's definitely being in front of the partners and the
- 19:00investment team as they're thinking of funding and creating
- 19:03something new and doing that talent brainstorming.
- 19:09But there's also a lot of, you know, foundational company
- 19:15building practices that these young companies need, which is a
- 19:20little different than the support you give to Atlas
- 19:23proper. And so I use both parts of my
- 19:28personality, the venture talent side, but also the operator
- 19:31side. When I'm in touch with these
- 19:33young companies as they're getting built, as they're
- 19:36thinking about their org design, as they're thinking about
- 19:39shaping roles and how to have, you know, title design within
- 19:46their organization. So it's turned into a lot of
- 19:49advisory work beyond simple execution.
- 19:53And I think that that's one of the most impactful things you
- 19:58can do historically is ensure that those in decision making
- 20:03positions have as much information they need,
- 20:06comprehensive historical and trend relevant information so
- 20:13that they can, you know, be confident about the decisions
- 20:17they need to make going forward. Yeah, sure.
- 20:20Interesting point that you mentioned there where how much
- 20:25is the talent conversation a thing when the guys are looking
- 20:30at investing in a yeah, a founder or a bit of technology?
- 20:33Like at what stage are you brought in?
- 20:36Is it super really doors I imagine to.
- 20:38I think it is a. It is always threaded into the
- 20:46disco. Now within the Atlas model, we
- 20:50can start something de Novo from an idea we have where there's no
- 20:54people involved from the beginning.
- 20:56And so then you're really seeking who are the right
- 20:59people. But we do evaluate opportunities
- 21:02from the outside and and deals that come to us from other, you
- 21:07know, VCs or executives that have gotten things started.
- 21:11And so there's one of the many things being diligenced is the
- 21:16people component. Is there confidence in those
- 21:19involved that they can accomplish what would be the
- 21:22goal of the potential company and and depending on the amount
- 21:31of funding, would Atlas be the lead or not?
- 21:34How much would we influence that people piece?
- 21:38Because I it, there's not a single place I haven't heard
- 21:43this, but you can have AB idea with an A-Team and you will
- 21:48accomplish a lot more than an A idea with AB team.
- 21:52And so I think we take that seriously.
- 21:57And while these aren't decisions I make because the investor or
- 22:04the CEO or wherever the talent discussion lies, what I try to
- 22:10do again is provide as much comprehensive information.
- 22:15And you know, sometimes a perspective that is more subtle
- 22:23than the pedigree or the acumen or the particular, you know,
- 22:28exit someone had recently. And so talking about the how
- 22:31they engage, the type of people, what they're looking for, the
- 22:36interactions that they should expect to have on the team and
- 22:40what that could mean around team dynamic, Sometimes we forget
- 22:44about the human side of it all. You know, people are
- 22:50complicated. So we have to figure out how we
- 22:53can help people be successful together.
- 22:56For sure. I think there's, I don't know,
- 23:00sometimes it feels like in the industry that you see a lot of
- 23:04teams just who seem to come as part of a package, right, and as
- 23:09a new venture and you can sort of predict who's going to join
- 23:12to build that up. But it's an in perspective that
- 23:15you bring because I guess you're not just looking for those plug
- 23:19and play options, but you're looking at actually what's
- 23:22what's best out there and what's not necessarily being the
- 23:26thought of straight away. So, yeah, interesting.
- 23:30I have a few things that I use regularly, but one is that it's
- 23:34hard every time. And so, you know, you can have
- 23:38teams that work together in the past, if they're doing something
- 23:41new, they haven't done what they're doing, it passed.
- 23:45And so, you know, there's no one way to predict outcome, but I
- 23:53think that in if you encourage people to be transparent about
- 24:04their personal and professional individual biases and affinities
- 24:11and styles, then we might have a better chance of navigating the
- 24:17challenges that always arise. They may not be the exact same,
- 24:21but challenges arise no matter what, and handling challenge is
- 24:26a skill. And so we need to keep looking
- 24:29at ways to support and enhance the skills of people who are
- 24:34highly accomplished already. But no matter what, what they
- 24:39are doing today is different than what they've done in the
- 24:42past. Yeah, for sure.
- 24:45Interesting. I guess another question I had,
- 24:47it was like, at what point are you guys sort of not letting
- 24:52them sail off into the sunset and fend for themselves?
- 24:55But like, you know, investors always say that they're here
- 24:58throughout the full course of the investment and whatnot, but
- 25:02you're obviously involved right at the start.
- 25:04How are you building in that sort of ability to take care of
- 25:07themselves as as well? Yeah.
- 25:10I mean, again, I see it from obviously the talent perspective
- 25:16Air, there is a natural evolution that companies go
- 25:22through from initial seed funding through the various
- 25:26raises of finances and then potentially going public.
- 25:30So there's different maturity that happens or a maturation.
- 25:34It is understandable that a public company that has matured
- 25:39to the stage of going public has an infrastructure that can, you
- 25:45know, accomplish more of what needs to be done on its own.
- 25:49And so while our public portfolio may not need to rely
- 25:54on us as much, we always make sure they're aware that if
- 25:59there's any time they want to connect and whatever way they
- 26:03might desire support to reach out.
- 26:08As example, I have it, not I, Atlas has a few public companies
- 26:12and there are times when either that CEO or those chief people
- 26:18officers do check in with me. There's going to be a board
- 26:22search, there's going to be a different C level search or
- 26:26they're talking to someone and they want to know any previous
- 26:29history. And so I can brainstorm with
- 26:31them. I can think through the various
- 26:34discussions that we've had throughout time or because I'm
- 26:38always opportunistically talking with people, I can, you know,
- 26:43also suggest a different connection based on a
- 26:47conversation I recently had. So I would say the public
- 26:51companies leverage us as much as is necessary for them and it's
- 26:59also style dependent. Not every CEO or chief people
- 27:03officer engages in the same way. The youngest companies may be
- 27:07the most dependent because they are underbuilt and they don't
- 27:10have everybody on board, especially an HR or talent
- 27:14person in the beginning. And usually those seeds or young
- 27:21companies try to extract as much as they can from their investor
- 27:26or the community around them. And so we, we definitely are
- 27:30more available. I, you know, hands on probably
- 27:36wouldn't be the descriptor I would use because I would say
- 27:40Atlas is more of a hands off. We'd like to have adults in the
- 27:45roles that are in the companies. But we do turn it into a turn to
- 27:51your neighbor and your neighbor in the Atlas world can be anyone
- 27:56within Atlas or in the portfolio.
- 27:58And we make that, you know, Rolodex available in whatever
- 28:02way those entrepreneurs may be interested in.
- 28:06So it, it, it does depend a lot on the stage of the company in
- 28:12terms of how long it's been underway, how mature those
- 28:15executives are in building. But then some folks really enjoy
- 28:21having that safe space just to think out loud with, and others,
- 28:24you know, good on them that they're off to the races and
- 28:28they will check in if and when they need to.
- 28:31Yeah. So it's not a case of the
- 28:33support fading. It's always there.
- 28:35It just changes, right? Yeah.
- 28:38Got you. OK.
- 28:39Yeah, often nice. Obviously talking about the
- 28:46latest stage public companies, you've obviously announced a new
- 28:50fund that last month or what are we Yeah, losing track of the
- 28:57year already, already it's October.
- 29:01What's the theme I guess for for the portfolio generally in terms
- 29:07of talent like on the market, it's been a tough year for the
- 29:11fuck, but you guys are problem I guess.
- 29:15The great thing is Atlas is well positioned to continue doing
- 29:20what it's doing. We had announced that new fund a
- 29:23couple months ago and that's our, as I call it, our
- 29:26reinvestment fund. We also had announced Fund 14
- 29:32late last year and that's our initiation fund.
- 29:35I think we're aware that many companies need more private
- 29:40dollars these days than when it was the heyday, and so we're
- 29:44happy to be able to make those decisions on our portfolio in
- 29:49case it takes a longer time to reach those inflection points.
- 29:54That said, Atlas still really believes in, I would say,
- 30:00capital efficiency and rigor around that, not just in how we
- 30:04raise our funds, but how we deploy it.
- 30:08I would say the external audience, talent audience is
- 30:15it's more of an employer's market right now than the
- 30:17employee market. There's more talent available
- 30:21and venture is being as rigorous as it needs to be in terms of
- 30:26what it funds. And so most companies I see are
- 30:30growing more slowly and trying to run as lean as they can,
- 30:35which is a fine edge between underbuilt.
- 30:41And so I try my best to keep external talent aware of our
- 30:49progressing portfolio knowing that it's still not going to be
- 30:54as active as it was in, you know, 2019, 20 and 21.
- 31:00Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that actually, because I was
- 31:02going to say you, you started in 2019 and then a couple of years
- 31:06after that were absolutely craziness in the market.
- 31:09I mean, these days it seems like the, I don't know, the the days
- 31:14of, you know, huge team builds are pretty much in the rear view
- 31:18mirror. Yeah, all picky.
- 31:23Yeah, for sure. I think you know, again, those
- 31:30that are building larger organizations typically have the
- 31:35pipeline and the stage of programs to support that as well
- 31:40as the capital. Now is that when they're still
- 31:43private or if only when they're public, it will all, it all
- 31:48needs to be supported by the amount of work the company's
- 31:53doing. And so I do think that there is
- 31:57pressure on these organizations to be very diligent on that
- 32:04resource planning and to try to do as much as they can with as
- 32:10few as they can. But growth is necessary, and
- 32:17there is a lot of data and information that helps them
- 32:20figure out what kind of growth they should propose as they move
- 32:27forward. In the beginning, you don't
- 32:32really have the need for a full C-Suite.
- 32:36You know more than three. It just depends on how quickly
- 32:41your science unfolds. And is your company a broad
- 32:45platform? Will there be multiple programs
- 32:48and an entire pipeline? You, you kind of look at what
- 32:52kind of company are you going to be and that might give you a
- 32:57little bit more insight into the amount of growth you should plan
- 33:02for. Yeah, for sure.
- 33:05I've been a question on that because I mean, we've built it
- 33:08fairly recently. That's that's where I came in of
- 33:10ethics to build on the fractional side.
- 33:12I think you mentioned there you don't need a full C-Suite
- 33:16straight away, but I don't know whether it's just heightened
- 33:19awareness from our perspective, but it the word fractional seems
- 33:22to be a lot more common than it was like 5-10 years ago even.
- 33:28Yep, I think on that. I love words and I think that
- 33:37they can sometimes Orient you as well as maybe confine you.
- 33:45There are many instances these days, and I agree, where
- 33:49companies recognize the need for an acumen, but yet not
- 33:54necessarily a full time need. And so how do they solve that?
- 33:58What format, consultant, advisor, what not fractional
- 34:03interim, You know, there are so many solutions and we can use
- 34:08different language to describe them.
- 34:11But I do believe companies are trying to be creative so that
- 34:16they can get the input that they need even if headcount is
- 34:22constrained. Luckily in the Atlas ecosystem,
- 34:27we have a large portfolio. We have entrepreneurs and
- 34:31residents and venture partners. And so sometimes it's pretty
- 34:35easy to find solutions that are bridges for these companies.
- 34:42But again, what's right for one company may not be right for the
- 34:45other. So I think each one is figuring
- 34:49out how to move forward. But I have seen an uptick on
- 34:54that interim or fractional support from a various, you
- 34:59know, be it finance, clinical, HR, etcetera.
- 35:04Yeah, it's an interesting point. Like when you decide to take
- 35:08those in house because like, we've seen with partners before,
- 35:14but yeah, they've hired fractional experts dotted around
- 35:18around the country, really. I mean, over here in Europe as
- 35:21well. And yeah, when they come to
- 35:24bring that in house, like they realized that culture building
- 35:28is a massive thing in biotech, right?
- 35:29But yeah, leadership dotted around the country who'd see
- 35:33each other maybe 3-4 times a year, pretty hard to build.
- 35:38So actually building it in early, it does have that benefit
- 35:42I guess. I do think there are.
- 35:45You're pointing out that a company's organizational design
- 35:51will have implications in how leaders need to comport business
- 36:00in order to ensure cohesiveness, integration, culture.
- 36:07Co localizing takes one of those variables of, you know,
- 36:13potential inconsistency off the table.
- 36:17But even Co localized companies still have to figure out how to
- 36:22create sustain culture. And I think you know, culture or
- 36:29identity or you know values. The North Stars aren't
- 36:35determined solely by location. They have to be lived in the
- 36:40day-to-day and threaded through your organization in ways that
- 36:44you know leaders top down show to their employees.
- 36:51Absolutely not for sure. I mean, I'm putting you on the
- 36:54spot here, Andrea a little bit as well.
- 36:56So, yeah, I was just going to ask because obviously like,
- 37:04yeah, you're in this day in day out, you're speaking to so many
- 37:08people like you're pretty up to date with what's going on in the
- 37:12market, right, and the current trends.
- 37:15But where do you see any big changes in how we do Tai guess
- 37:20in, in the next sort of five to 10 years out?
- 37:23How do you see this going? Well, I, you know, I love this
- 37:27question, but not because I love answering it.
- 37:32I, there's part of me that really believes, you know, TA is
- 37:36not rocket science. You know, relationships are
- 37:39relationships. And so you always need to put
- 37:44effort into the real interaction, the authentic
- 37:48connection with people. Now, are there tools, AI,
- 37:53machine learning, ChatGPT that can enhance the speed at which
- 37:59you have information and communication?
- 38:03Because there are only 24 hours in a day.
- 38:05And so that limits the amount that one can do.
- 38:09I do think that TA search is likely going to be technology
- 38:20enabled more and more and how that factors into, you know,
- 38:27narrowing in on acumen or accomplishments or particulars
- 38:32of skills that you're looking for when you're doing TA, it
- 38:36would definitely be helpful. But as much as that is the case,
- 38:42it's not the, you know, it's not the one dimension of your CD
- 38:47that ultimately determines whether or not you're successful
- 38:51in a in a position. So I do think that the human
- 38:55quality component can never be, you know, done solely by
- 39:02technology. And so I'm of two minds there,
- 39:07but. Yeah, for sure.
- 39:09I there's an, another part in some conversations I've heard
- 39:13recently from different talks even at our retreat from
- 39:18executives outside of the portfolio is that we are
- 39:23entering a, a time when innovation is happening faster
- 39:28and faster and and technology and is there to support and
- 39:33enhance and we have to do things differently to be more
- 39:40integrated. It takes all of us to succeed,
- 39:44and so finding a way from our, you know, insular ecosystems to
- 39:53actually collaborate and connect so that all parties succeed is
- 39:58something that I think talent will be a part of, but it's
- 40:02likely going to be driven by the needs of the business and the
- 40:06businesses as a global health. Awareness is is amplified.
- 40:13Yeah, not for sure. You guys are building some form
- 40:17of AI tools in I assume already as as most Yeah, I.
- 40:21Mean So within Atlas, I think everyone has been using AI and
- 40:27ChatGPT tools individually. Now I'm aware of some of our
- 40:33portfolio companies have enterprise solutions that are
- 40:36just tailored for them. I think Atlas is thinking about
- 40:39that as well for itself just so we can have a secure platform
- 40:44that is Atlas specific. My guess is the tools available
- 40:51are likely under leveraged at Atlas at this point.
- 40:56But we have different functions. What the investment team does is
- 41:00different than what I do is different than what finance does
- 41:03etcetera. So that's OK and hopefully will
- 41:06it is it? I think we're in a similar
- 41:10position, honestly speaking. I think similar to yourself
- 41:13would believe that, yeah, the human element of networking is
- 41:17what will keep us in business essentially.
- 41:21So maybe we've been slow on the uptake a little bit as well
- 41:25aside from new day-to-day productivity gains that you can
- 41:29make from it. But yeah, it's an interesting
- 41:31topic for sure. Cool, awesome, very good.
- 41:35Well, interesting note to end on for sure.
- 41:38I'm sure, and I'll be paying attention to the rest of your
- 41:42podcasts that talk about that and trying to extract all the
- 41:45little knowledge that I can so. Yeah.
- 41:49We've got some interesting guests coming on in relation to
- 41:51that actually. So if you post up those, but
- 41:55it's been a pleasure to have you on, really appreciate.
- 41:57It my pleasure too and again thank you for the invitation.
- 42:01I I have enjoyed the conversation.
- 42:03Hope it's interesting to folks who listen and more importantly,
- 42:09keep doing the good work. Yeah, awesome.
- 42:12Thank you very much, Andy. Appreciate it.
- 42:14Talk soon.