Day 3: Powerful messages, simply delivered
Company first
Both Melissa Taunton of NEA (a giant of the VC world with $20bn under management) and Barry Eggers (Lightspeed founding partner) independently used the phrase âcompany first,â addressing the emotional challenge faced by most founder CEOs considering if they continue to be the best person for the role. Likewise with colleagues, said Melissa and Barry, the needs of the company have to come before friendship loyalties. Always asking âwhatâs best for this companyâ can lead to difficult situations. But as John Hamm(Octopus venture partner) said, âdonât confuse difficult decisions with unpleasant decisions. The former are foggy; the latter are clear, but emotionally difficult to execute.â (See Day 2âs post for Johnâs famous banana quote.)
The secret of narratives
Steve Lucas of Marketo picked up on one of this summitâs underlying themes: communication. Itâs all about narrative, Steve said. The story youâre telling. Marketoâs is compelling, starting with the words, âI have a secret.â A secret which will have a profound impact on the cash collection and cash flow of Marketoâs potential customers. When presented like this, how can the customer resist engaging?
Right now Adobe is in the process of acquiring Marketo for around $5bn after just 23 months of Steveâs leadership, which suggests his philosophy of âcompelling narrativesâ is winning.
âYou read about it in the books. But it comes to life when you hear it from the people who did itâââand it worked.â
Noor ShakerâââGTN
Focus
A âfireside chatâ between Joanna Rees (West Ventures) and Lily Kanter (of Serena & Lily and Boon Supply) zoomed in on focus. Lily conceded that entrepreneurs often need help with focus, given their idea-generating natures. Vision, alignment and bold hiring are the powerfully corrective forces required.
Ending a rich and varied discussion, Joanna offered the thought that not one, but two âCEOâs are needed: the second being a Customer Experience Officer, who just looks at every interaction your customer has with your company.
Our Summit ended, but over the next few weeks weâll begin to mine the incredibly rich seams of wisdom laid down over the last 3 days in a series of regular themed posts.
Our enormous thanks to all guest speakersâââevery single one of whom turned up exactly on time!
âThese speakers, theyâre doing it because they want to help, they want to give back.â
Pete DaffernâââOctopus venture partner
What leadership questions would you want to hear about?