How does a leader evolve the business and their role for future time horizons?
How does a leader evolve the business and their role for future time horizons? In this episode, Rich sits down with Assaf Resnick, CEO of BigPanda. Assaf’s journey is anything but conventional—transitioning from venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital to founding a successful software company. He shares invaluable insights on fostering a first-team culture, maintaining differentiation in a competitive market, and mastering strategy iteration for long-term success.
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“I've got a framework for my job description around people, strategy, execution, and cash which are four big buckets that you need to all be in good shape in order to succeed.”
“Every six months or so, I sit down and I re-architect my CEO job description.I sit down and I start with a blank sheet of paper and I ask myself, Alright, what kind of CEO does this company need me to be right now? What was I doing that I don't need to be doing anymore? What do I need to start doing? And what does that mean for me in terms of, are there any skill gaps that I need to bridge? Are there any behavior gaps that I need to bridge? Are there any knowledge gaps that I need to bridge?”
“When you get to a certain scale, you've really got to start thinking in 3 year horizons. When you start getting near $100 million business and above, that ship moves a little slower. And so you've really got to start layering on 3 year visions of where's the market going, how am I capitalized, what are the big bets I'm making. And then you have to think about how do you operationalize that strategy? How do you make sure that everyone in your company is really, really clear about where we're headed as a company and what does that mean for my team and for me personally. That's a lot of work.”
“I want to make sure that it's really, really thoughtful and it's been prepared with all the stakeholders in mind. I do prefer that strategy is done in iteration. That's very important for me. So don't go into your cave and come back in two months and present to me and the executive staff. Here is my vision from Mount Olympus, because it could be all wrong. I'd rather someone come and create and make it an iterative process with myself and the stakeholders involved.”
“You need to be really, really clear about your foundational differentiators. You need to be really, really clear about what is it that I'm doing that is fundamentally different from anything anyone else can get in the market. And that could be in your technology, that could be in your services. That could be in your go to market and you have to be really, really honest with yourself. Do I have meaningful differentiation and is that leading to really good outcomes? And if you don't, you have to go on a spiritual journey to figure out what is my vision to produce that significant differentiation?”
Practice Makes Profit: Why differentiation is crucial to beat your competition and how to confirm your core of differentiation using the Differentiation Detector tool.
League of Strategic Minds [listener question] What does it mean to be strategic, and how can I tell if a person really is strategic?
Winsights: Ideas for Advantage
Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM said, “The holy grail of strategic thinking is how do you come up with a business model that differentiates you, creates value for your customers, and puts you in a unique position in your industry?”
When was the last time you and your team discussed how to best evolve your business model for the future?
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(01:04) Deep Dive Interview with Assaf Resnick
(47:33) Practice Makes Profit
(49:18) League of Strategic Minds
(50:54) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage
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Links:
Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds
Assaf Resnick on LinkedIn
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Strategic Thinking Institute Website
Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book
New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
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Rich: [00:00:00] Are you strategic? The answer is the difference between failure and a Kevlar competitive advantage. Welcome to Strategic Minds, the podcast that explores how elite achievers use a strategic approach to excel in their fields. I'm your host, Rich Horwath, author of Strategic, and my vision is to teach the world to be strategic, working as a strategy facilitator, advisor, and coach to executive teams.
I'll be your guide as we do a deep dive into conversations with extraordinary leaders to learn new ways to think, plan, and act strategically. You'll discover game changing insights to turbocharge your performance and become a true difference maker. Now let's explore strategic minds.
Mash up: We're stuck. What do we do?
You need a strategy.
We need a more dynamic strategy.
The strategy?
You have to [00:01:00] strategize.
But you won't strategize! Let's talk a little strategy.
Rich: Today on the show, I'm excited to speak with Assaf Resnick, the co founder and CEO of Big Panda, a software company that keeps businesses running, helping them prevent IT outages, improve incident management, and serve their customers.
Prior to his time at Big Panda, Assaf was an investor with Sequoia Capital, where he partnered with world class entrepreneurs to build category leading companies. Assaf, thanks so much for being on the show today. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. If we could, I'd love to begin with your origin story.
Behind every great hero, there's an origin story. So, if you wouldn't mind, please share with us a little bit about where you grew up and how that environment and the people there shaped who you are today.
Assaf: Sure. You know, my origin story, I think, might be a little bit different. A lot of CEOs came from You know, somewhere that gave them a chip on their shoulder and something that they had to prove to themselves, to their, you know, [00:02:00] elementary school bullies, to their parents, and so on and so forth.
I was a little bit different, I'd say. You know, my kind of origin story came in my 30s. You know, I grew up, had a very nice childhood. I was always the smart kid in school. But never really the driven kid in school. I always kind of coasted. And that continued into college, that continued into my 20s, where I was more interested in kind of just living life and having a good time.
And then, then I got a job in venture capital. I got a job at Sequoia Capital when I was 29. And I'd say that was the real turning point for me in my career. You know, I had the fortune at Sequoia to work alongside some incredible entrepreneurs, you know, folks that were, you know, turning [00:03:00] ideas into realities.
And I was just so impressed by their conviction, their enthusiasm, their hunger. And you know, I worked there for five years and at a certain point I said to myself, these entrepreneurs, I don't think they're any particularly smarter or more insightful than I am. They're just a hell of a lot hungrier.
They're a hell of a lot more courageous. and more driven than I am. And that's what really woke up the hunger and the drive in me, you know, to really want to do something to stop coasting and do something to really, you know, challenge myself and make a mark.
Rich: Excellent.
Assaf: That was my origin is working alongside some world class entrepreneurs and kind of getting that bug, getting that hunger.
Rich: And once you got that hunger, can you describe to us maybe a time where you said, [00:04:00] this is the moment where I do want to make a mark. This is the moment where I do think I'm ready to go from the investing side to the leading side. Were there a few formative moments or experiences where that inflection point really came to fruition for you?
Assaf: You know, like a lot of things in life, it kind of builds up slowly and then happens all at once.
Rich: Yeah.
Assaf: So for me, you know, going into kind of year five, I kind of in the new year resolution I made for myself coming into that fifth year was by the end of this year, I want to start something on my own. And it was very scary, to be honest.
You know, I had been Unemployed my whole life, always done very well in my career, I'd never managed anyone in my career, and suddenly I've got this idea that I'm going to go be, you know, a CEO. [00:05:00] And so that, you know, I was ruminating, found a co founder. Working nights and weekends, you know, and it's all very theoretical.
You have no skin in the game. And, and then, you know, you're standing over the cliff looking down in the water, right? And you're thinking, okay, do, do I jump in? What happens if it doesn't go well? What's it going to mean for my career? What's plan B? And, you know, and you can let that kind of ruminate and ruminate.
And then. When you finally jump in the water, that's the all at once, because you just don't have any time anymore for doubts and plan Bs. You are 100 percent committed, you have to swim with everything you've got, and you've got to get the team that you've recruited behind you to come swimming along too.
And so, you know, once you dive in the water, it's just, it's all encompassing. And you're giving it 110%, and [00:06:00] it's thrilling and terrifying at the same time, but you're in it.
Rich: Right. Well, I, and so I'd love to talk more about your time as CEO of Big Panda. Obviously to have a career where you've been CEO for more than 10 years these days is remarkable.
So I want to talk more about that. I'd love to dive though first into what a day Typical day looks like for you. Obviously, you've got a lot of responsibilities. You've got a lot of people wanting your time. Do you have any things that you do to start the day or finish the day that are rituals for you or habits for you to get you started in the right way or finish in the right way?
Assaf: I do, and they're very different. So, you know, when I start my day, you know, I typically wake up, depends if I'm going running or not, I'll wake up at 6 or 7 in the morning, and the first thing I try to do before I get up, before I make my coffee, is kind of spend five minutes, you know, still in bed, breathing really slowly, [00:07:00] and taking stock of things that I'm thankful for.
In my personal life, because, you know, your job can be overwhelming and it's encompassing and it's not a 9 to 5 medieval in your home, you leave it, you know, when you leave home, when you leave work and you go home, you leave it at work, you never leave it at work, and so for me, part of my challenge is kind of centering myself and taking stock of the things I'm grateful for with my family and my personal life.
And then I'm off to the races, and then at night, my kids are still young, so I try to spend at least two or three hours every night, you know, reading to my children, putting them to bed, spending time with my wife, you know, it's easier said than done because, you know, work takes time. There's a never ending amount of things to do, but I always try to start my day grounded in thankfulness, which I feel like gives me the right mental [00:08:00] attitude to go through the day and then end it grounded with my family.
Rich: Excellent. Great. A great bookends for the day. And you mentioned, obviously, a lot of things during the day. How do you tend to manage your time and your energy that so that you can be effective, you know, throughout the day versus, you know, having that occasional burnout?
Assaf: Yeah, well, time and energy is kind of two different things.
So time management and energy management, two critical skills that you just won't make it through the marathon if you can't get both of those. So, you know, time management, I think is the easier one. And so for me, it starts with, I curate a list of things I need to do. And I kind of curate them on things that need attention today.
Things that need attention this week, and things that need attention in the future. And I try to spend [00:09:00] every day, start my day with 30 minutes of just super tactical work. So it's going over this list and being clear to myself, what do I need to accomplish this week? What do I need to accomplish today?
And then try to get to inbox zero, which is answer all of my emails. These days that also includes Slack. So try to get 30 minutes of just super tactical work out the door, and then try to schedule at least an hour a day for what I call deep work. So not interruption driven, not just meeting with my executives, but be clear with myself, you know, what is my top deliverable or two?
You know, right now, at this very moment, and make sure I'm spending at least 60 minutes a day moving that ball down the field. Because you don't want a situation where a week's gone by, a month has gone by, and it's all been very reactive, and you haven't worked on the [00:10:00] strategic things that you are uniquely So that's time management.
And it helps to write things down, it helps to have a system, because if it's all in your head, it's just going to get lost. At least for me. I'm not that smart. Energy management throughout the day, that's a harder one. You know, you need to, it's like a marathon. If you run too fast, you're going to burn out.
You got to be able to pace yourself. And there's no magic formula. So, you know, for me, it's try to find. You know, 15 minutes during the day to kind of take a walk. My office is right next to a park. Go take a walk, breathe, you know, focus on slowing down your heart rate, focus on slowing down your breathing, and make sure you're coming to every meeting kind of as refreshed and fluid as you can.
Rich: Excellent. And you talked a little bit about the deep work. I'd like to delve into that just a little bit. When you do the deep work, [00:11:00] do you tend to primarily think? Do you write things down? Do you draw? Do you sketch? Do you write narrative? Do you like to put bullet points down? Do you like to draw visual graphs and models?
What does your deep work look like?
Assaf: Typically, my deep work will be some, I'm more of a visual person. So I will either whiteboard with myself or I'll bring a sparring partner. So today, later on today, I'm meeting with my chief product officer about kind of Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 product strategy. And, you know, I love having a sparring partner.
It brings out the best in me. And other times, it's just locking yourself in a room, putting on your earphones, and either writing or, you know, visualizing on PowerPoint. Those are the two ways that I find really You know, get the [00:12:00] most out of me. You know, for me, I really have to try to block interruptions.
If I'm in a space where I'm in the office and people can come in during that hour, or I'm at home and my kids or my dogs, you know, come in, it's hard to get that deep work going. So you really got to try to, for me, try to find, it's less around the form factor of is it visual or written. It's much more of.
Uninterrupted, quiet, to really go deep.
Rich: And the sparring partner is an intriguing concept I have not heard a lot about. What role does the sparring partner play? Obviously, we know the sparring from boxing, but how do you like to see that interaction? Could you describe that dynamic for us a little bit?
Assaf: So it's usually being clear on, okay, what are we trying to achieve?
in this meeting, and then just start brainstorming. So I'll come up and, you know, I'll architect my thoughts, and, you know, he or she [00:13:00] will come up and, you know, argue with me, telling what I'm wrong, or build on top of that, and it's really a free flow brainstorm together around a very specific topic. And usually what comes out of that is some really good ideas, some questions that we need to answer, In order to proceed, some action items, but I do find that deep work is good when you're by yourself.
If you have all your kind of head full of ideas and you just got to get it down on paper. And on the other hand, if this is more of a brainstorm, having a one or two sparring partners where you know there's good chemistry there and you're making time to do that can be really productive.
Rich: Okay. Excellent.
And obviously you've been a CEO here for over 10 years. So it takes different, I would imagine, it takes different characteristics or different approaches in the different stages of the company. But maybe that's not the case. I'd be interested from your perspective, what has leadership evolution looked [00:14:00] like for you as you've grown the company?
Have you had to morph into, uh, different types of leaders, different, uh, traits or characteristics over the years? What does that evolution from a leadership standpoint look like for you?
Assaf: It's been a huge evolution, a huge evolution for me. I mean, you think about it, when I first started Big Panda, I'd never managed a single person in my life.
So I had no idea what leadership was. And, you know, my first iteration of leadership was basically just, Get stuff done, right? You, there's a checklist of things, you know, you're starting a company and you have to raise funds and you have to get to some level of a milestone that's really meaningful. You have to recruit top talent and then you have to, you know, try to get product market fit.
That's the first two years. And so for me, that was really an exercise in checklists, you know, the [00:15:00] checklist manifesto, if you will. I got a bunch of stuff I need to do, and I need to really carefully organize that. And that really only gets you so far. Uh, that's a very limited and unscalable approach. And it, you know, it took me a while to realize that.
Because at a certain point, it's like, you know, you're not managing a checklist, you're managing a team of humans. And it's your job not to get them to check the boxes, but it's your job to align with them on what is our vision, what are we trying to do, how do we align ourselves about who's doing what in that vision, and then making sure everyone is clear about that strategy, and then your job is to create a culture where that can thrive, you.
Make sure you have the right people in the boat, and make sure there's the right execution framework to go do that. And even within that framework around people and strategy and [00:16:00] execution, that job description of a CEO needs to evolve. So what I do is, I've kind of got a framework for my job description around people, strategy, execution, and cash.
And every CEO, which are four big buckets, That you need to all be in good shape in order to succeed. Every six months or so, I sit down and I kind of re architect my CEO job description. So every around six months, I sit down and I start with a blank sheet of paper and I ask myself, Alright, what kind of CEO?
Does this company need me to be right now? What was I doing that I don't need to be doing anymore? What do I need to start doing? And what does that mean for me in terms of, are there any skill gaps [00:17:00] that I need to bridge? Are there any behavior gaps that I need to bridge? Are there any knowledge gaps that I need to bridge?
As part of that, you know, it really helps to get feedback from your peers. So, you know, try to do a very open and bi directional 360 with my executives. Where it's not me talking at them about what they need to do differently, but it's both of us exchanging, you know, what do I as a CEO need to be different?
I want them to hear from me. I start with vulnerability. And then I want to hear from them. What do you think I should be doing differently to suit the changing needs of the company? And then we turn that around. And we try to make that You know, every half a year I try to do that with everyone with my directs, usually for half a day.
We'll go on a walk, we'll go have lunch, we'll do something in a setting that's a little bit different to try to get really an open and honest exchange. And the whole point of that [00:18:00] is self reflection and figuring out, as you said, what do I need to do differently to suit the changing needs of the company?
And if you do that religiously every six months, You usually get pretty good triangulation.
Rich: You just laid out a beautiful blueprint, I think, for a lot of leaders out there to look at their role and continue to evolve it, so really appreciate the practical advice there. One of the things you just said I'd be interested to get a little bit more detail on is, you talked about As you evolve as a CEO is learning what you don't need to do anymore.
And I think as I've done strategic coaching and facilitation with leaders, that seems to be the one area where it's easy for a leader to go back and not lead at their level, but dip down and do things that they, their people should be doing, but either they like to do it or they want to do it, or they figure I'm just going to lend a helping hand.
How do you filter those things out that you shouldn't be doing [00:19:00] anymore? And is there a special discipline that comes into place that you've developed so that you're not dipping into those activities, but really focusing on the new evolution activities?
Assaf: Look, that's a really hard one. That's a really hard one.
And probably every CEO and every manager struggles with that. You know, when you're a young CEO and your company is scaling, you have to start delegating. And so the easier forms of delegation is delegate the tasks that you're not really good at, or you're not the best person in the room, and so you can find someone who's better at you at Finance or engineering or whatever the case may be.
And then you get to the really hard part, which is delegating things that you are really good at. Or delegating things that you really enjoy or that give you a lot of energy or that you're just really particular about. You know, God knows I have those things too and I probably drive people [00:20:00] in those subject matters bonkers because I want to, you know, double click and triple click.
You got to be mindful. So, you know. You know, the moral hazard there is two parts. One, you are, uh, clipping other people's wings. You know, people want to be the masters of their own domain. They don't want the CEO coming in and say, okay, no, let me put, let me get hands on keyboard and do it for you. You're not going to get the best outcome and you're probably going to demotivate people.
And so you have to be really clear about, am I doing this because I. I'm in a hurry, or I just want it done my way, or should I be doing this in a way that doesn't, you know, give a person a fish, but teaches them to fish and is building muscles that, that will, will last for a long time. The other part is, again, it goes back to time management.
What are the critical [00:21:00] strategic initiatives that I am uniquely suited for that are on my plate? And Do I really have time to be micromanaging this other thing that I'm expecting someone else to do? And what is the cost of that? When I should be doing something much more strategic with a bigger multiplier effect over here.
So if you're clear about that time management, That usually helps you figure out what are the things that are high leverage and what are the things that are low leverage and probably micromanaging at the same time.
Rich: Excellent, excellent. Great advice there. And, and I wanted to dive into that a little bit deeper.
I mean, you've got a fascinating background in that you went from being an investor with Sequoia Capital in the VC world to, to now running a company. And oftentimes we see leaders doing the reverse of that. So you really can see strategy from two lenses. I'd be interested, you know, what did you learn about strategy in the VC world that really helped you excel at Big [00:22:00] Panda today?
Assaf: You know, it's different kinds of strategy. You know, when you're a VC, very much. About identifying opportunities, about identifying great teams, about identifying great markets. It's really about making sure you're, you know, you're finding, you're, you're really falling in love with a pain. Versus falling in love with a solution or a technology.
You know, the wrong way to invest is, here's a great technology. What can I use it for? Much better way to invest is, where are there pockets of, you know, really meaningful pay that customers are suffering from, and they're willing to part with a lot of money to whoever can solve that pain for me. And then, Do I have an incredible team of, you know, very energetic and visionary founders that are working on some foundational technologies?
And by the way, if I solve [00:23:00] that pain, does it tap into a really large market? And so that, that is, you know, a very different set of strategic considerations versus running a company, which is much more around, how do I operationalize? You know, one specific company, how do I make really good decisions, time bounding them, you know, when you're a CEO of a company, you've got to think in multiple time perspectives, so, you know, one perspective is, what do I need to do over the next six months?
The next one is, what do I need to do over the next 18 months? And then finally, what do I need to do over the next three years? So, you know, what do I need to do over the next six months? Things like OKRs and things that, you know, I need to do in the products or the marketing team or the finance team.
Things around 18 months is really things around building teams. Hey, I want to hit this [00:24:00] sales number in two years. What kind of sales team do I need to build? What kind of engineering team do I need to build to be able to hit this product roadmap? And so on and so forth. And you really want your executives thinking of that kind of 18 month horizon, acting on a six month horizon, but thinking on an 18 month horizon.
And when you get to a certain scale, you really got to start thinking in three year horizons. When you start getting into, you know, near 100 million business and above, that ship. Moves a little slower. And so you've really got to start layering on three, your visions of where's the market going? How am I capitalized?
What are the big bets I'm making? Uh, there. And then you have to think about how do you operationalize that strategy? How do you make sure that everyone in your company is really clear about where are we headed as a company? And what does that mean for my team and for me personally? That's a lot of work.
Rich: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And to that last point, [00:25:00] have you found any ways that you've seen be especially effective from a communication of the strategy perspective throughout the organization? Because we, there's obviously lots of examples where companies have failed, even though the CEO had a great strategy, they had a strong vision.
but it didn't resonate or it wasn't really executed in a way that was beneficial for the long term. Have you found anything that any principles or anything that you use to make sure that strategy really is communicated so that people get how it's affecting what they're doing day in and day out?
Assaf: I do.
I have a framework that's very useful for me that kind of has different layers of strategy that you want to make sure that everyone in your company is aligned to. So think of a pyramid where the bottom layers of that pyramid have questions that are kind of for the long run, for the next five or ten years.
You want to make sure everyone's clear on the answers. So what is our mission? Why are we here? You know, that [00:26:00] shouldn't change every year. That should maybe evolve every five to ten years. You want to make sure everyone's clear about that. Layer above that, how do we behave? What are our values? What are our principles?
That should also be pretty enduring. And you want to make sure that everyone in your company is really crystal clear. Why are we here? What is our mission? And how do we behave? Then you kind of want everyone to understand this three year horizon. Where are we going? Where do we want to be in three years from now in terms of product, market share, geography, and a number of other parameters?
And what needs to be true in the next three years for us to get there. And then, you know, the final layer is what's most important right now. That could be this quarter, or that could be this year. That's where you really start getting to the granularity of OKRs. You know, what's the most important company OKRs?
How does that trickle down into [00:27:00] my group and to me personally? And so that's kind of the trickle down where you start with, you know, The five year vision, why are we here, how do we behave, what's most important for us from a number of different business parameters, and then how does that translate into what's most important right now, what are the metrics we're using to measure what's most important right now.
That's a pretty simple visual construct, and if you can make sure Everyone in your company can answer those questions means you're aligned, and that goes a long way towards success.
Rich: Yeah, absolutely. I'd be interested too, if we talk about strategy from your perspective, CEO, when you look at the people that report to you, whether it's from a product perspective, perspective, marketing perspective, sales perspective, what do you look for in the strategy that they're sharing with you?
Are there any key criteria that you say, yes, this looks like it's going to be a good strategy? Because obviously strategy is [00:28:00] never guaranteed to be successful. But are there things that you're looking for when folks are presenting their product strategies to you?
Assaf: I don't think that there's one size fits all.
What people are presenting to me, you know, I definitely want, it's not that I have a framework that I say, hey, go fill this out and it should answer these specific questions. It's more that, you know, I want it to be thoughtful, so I do appreciate both the mix of take time to actually write words on paper.
And it can be a two pager or it can be a seven pager. And then, you know, don't just give me a PowerPoint with a bunch of squares on it. You know, take down, take time to really write it down. Take time to make sure that it's highly aligned with the other teams that are stakeholders. So I don't want Product coming and giving a strategy if it's completely created in the laboratory, [00:29:00] outside of product marketing, outside of engineering, outside of sales, I want to make sure that it's really thoughtful and it's been prepared with, you know, all the stakeholders in mind.
I do prefer that strategy is done in iteration. That's very important for me, so don't go into your cave and come back in two months and present to me and the executive staff, here is my vision from, you know, Mount Olympus. Because it could be all wrong. I'd rather someone come and create and make an iterative process with myself and the stakeholders involved.
Rich: Yep, excellent. But
Assaf: I don't think, I don't think there is a one size fits all approach to executive strategy. Uh, because the way someone in R& D may do it versus the way someone in marketing or finance may do it is very different. I've tried to create templates in the past that say, just go fill this out.
[00:30:00] And, you know, that's do it or wrong. I shouldn't be the one asking the questions and having them answering it. They should be the one asking the questions as well. They're the domain experts.
Rich: Okay, excellent. And then one other aspect around competition. You know, we see companies that have been in industries for a long time.
After a while, the strategies that they have seem to converge with one another so that the company's offerings start to look and feel very much the same. Um, How have you and your group avoided that competitive convergence where, you know, after being around for more than 10 years now, you know, it doesn't, you don't look and feel exactly like the competition because that is common in most industries.
How have you managed to keep that level of differentiation and uniqueness alive in what you all offer?
Assaf: Yeah, that's a great question. You need to be really clear about your foundational differentiators. You know, you need to be really clear about [00:31:00] what is it that I am doing that is, you know, fundamentally different from anything anyone else can get in the market.
And that could be in your technology, that could be in your services. That could be in your go to market. And you have to be really honest with yourself. Do I have meaningful differentiation and is that leading to really good outcomes? And if you don't, you kind of got to go on a spirit journey to figure out, you know, what is my vision to produce that significant differentiation?
And, you know, hopefully that's really tied to unmet needs in the market. Hopefully your customers You know, if you're spending a lot of time with your customers, they're telling you, hey, you and, you know, competitor number one, two, three, you're all doing this. What I really want is this. Right. And you get enough feedback and you start pattern matching.
And then, you know, usually it helps to go, you know, take three or four days off, [00:32:00] go on an off site, look at yourself in the mirror and be really honest with yourself. One of the things that I have that are kind of table stakes and, and me too. And what are the things that I have or need to develop that are the meaningful differentiators?
And you got to be really clear about them.
Rich: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you've written before and I've, I've read that, that, you know, your company uses AI and machine learning to take a tsunami of data and turn it into actionable insights and automation. And, and those insights, when we think about insight, I define it as a learning that leads to new value.
And that really is at the core of the ability to think. Think strategically, you know, as you look at insights that create that differentiation or that are at the foundation of differentiation, how do you all track insights? How do you generate insights on a regular basis so that what you're producing doesn't become obsolete in the eyes of the customer as you just talked about?
Assaf: Well, I mean, it's a great question. And funny enough, we [00:33:00] actually base our pricing model on insights that are actionable. So if you think of what we do, we use AI. So we're in the business of automating IT operations. We'll come to very large enterprises that have, you know, mission critical digital services.
So think of large banks, large airlines, large stock exchanges, software. is running all of those business. And when that software breaks, you know, they have armies of engineers who have to make sure that all of the applications and servers and networks and storage and clouds are running like they should.
It's a lot of data that they have to consume, a lot of machine data. So our job is to suck in all that data and use AI to produce actionable insights. And so our business model is such that If we produce insights that you're not taking an action on, that's, you're not paying anything [00:34:00] for that. But if we produce insights that a human being is actually taking action on, or is actually driving some kind of machine generated automation, that is what we call an actionable incident, that will charge down a credit.
And then you pay for that. So the way we make sure we're delivering insights is by actually saying, only when you take action on our insights, do we get money in return. And so that keeps us pretty focused on developing, on delivering insights.
Rich: Excellent. Excellent. I love that approach. Um, one of the things that happens sometimes is we see that fine balance.
You talked just a few minutes ago about, you know, hearing the customer and what they're looking for. And you talked about the actionable insights. And then sometimes there's the approach where, look, you need to show the customers what's possible. You need to give them, you know, options that maybe they haven't even thought about before.
And I was fascinated earlier, you talked about, you know, being [00:35:00] disciplined to think about horizon two and horizon three and, and. And a lot of leaders struggle with that. They're just in the day to day. So I'd be interested then when you think about longer term strategy, what does that look like from a working perspective with you and your team?
Do you formulate that two or three year vision first? Or do you really do that with your team? Is that something that is inspired together? Or is that something that you as a CEO say, Hey, this is what I need to do based on what I'm seeing across the different businesses?
Assaf: Look, there's no one way to do it.
It's more of a matter of style. My style tends to be more collaborative. So I may go on, you know, take a few hours to myself, go on a hike, or go on a jog, or go smoke a cigar. And kind of ideate with myself around Horizon 2, Horizon 3, and whether that is product [00:36:00] or, you know, company direction or whatever the case may be.
But before I go too far and turn that into a PhD, I want to sing. with my team on that and say, Hey, what do you think? Sometimes they'll say, this is really interesting. Sometimes they'll say, Hey, this is all wrong. You're thinking about it wrong. Let's go in this direction. I'd say 90 percent of the heavy lifting is done collaboratively.
I find that we try to do executive staff offsites. Every quarter. So every quarter we'll try to take three days, fly everyone in, and it'll either be at our office here in the Bay Area or it'll be in some location that's kind of a change of scenery. And there, there's really two things happening. One is Really focusing on time to develop a first team culture to make sure there's trust and communication between all the executives.
And two is to think through strategic [00:37:00] topics, usually horizon two, horizon three, you know, get people out of the day to the day and we got to hit our number and, you know, deliver these. product capabilities and step back and think, okay, where are we going?
Rich: Excellent. And you talked about the collaboration piece when it comes to strategy development.
And then typically when we set the strategy, we start to execute it. We're allocating resources, we're making decisions. What's your approach? What's your team's approach to decision making? Because I've worked with some organizations where decision rights, even at the highest levels are not really crystal clear for folks.
And then you start to lose decision velocity and then that it starts to, to really affect the execution. So I'd be interested in this stuff. What's your approach to decision making and how have you, any principles that you and your team use to be effective decision makers? That's a great question.
Assaf: I'll talk about that at two elevations.
One is when you are creating or [00:38:00] evolving a strategy, and one is when you're making iterative decisions. So, you know, when you're creating a strategy, Hey, we're going to go into Europe, or hey, we're going to discontinue this product line and really invest in this product line. Usually those are decisions that are weeks or months in the making, and you really want to make sure that You're investing a lot of time into how you communicate that.
And, you know, how you communicated it, not just, you know, how do you get that decision with your executives, how you communicate that to your senior leaders first, and then how do you turn that into messaging for your employees and your partner community and the market. And you want to make sure that you're really Uh, investing in, you know, all sorts of ways to communicate that with a lot of clarity, whether that be PowerPoint, or all hands, or Q& As, and [00:39:00] make sure that there's FAQs, so all the leaders in your company are really armed.
with all of the tools they need to facilitate that kind of communication. And then there is decisions you're making on a weekly basis. You're in a meeting, you've made decisions, right? It's really important to take the last five minutes of a meeting, And kind of stop all the discussion and say, okay, wait, in the last five minutes, what decisions have we made?
And how are we going to communicate those decisions? And the answer may be, we're going to communicate this decision in an email tomorrow. The answer may be, we're not going to communicate this. We're going to wait another week or two because we need to flesh out a few things. But, you know, write down what you've.
Decided to make sure that there's no game of broken telephone, which is a very human thing, and then be clear [00:40:00] about the communication strategy. Those two, you know, very small acts of discipline can help avoid a lot of short circuits down the road.
Rich: Yeah, absolutely. And I love those two questions. I think those are so useful.
What decisions have you made and how are we going to communicate those? And to your point, taking that last five minutes, really a great discipline. I'd be interested as you work with your executive team to build their decision making capability. There's the idea of trade offs and oftentimes at the, let's say, the VP, senior VP level, um, Sometimes the last step of evolution for people in that spot is to have an enterprise wide view of the business, not just your, your, your domain, but, but especially when it comes to resource allocation, being willing to give up some of your resources, people, budget to other areas of the business.
That seems to be one of the last hurdles to really have that enterprise wide view. Has there been anything that you've shared [00:41:00] with your team to get them to think more enterprise wide versus just their responsibilities?
Assaf: Yeah, absolutely. I think it really boils down to the culture of your executive team.
We try, we really try to exercise what we call a first team culture, which means, you know, your loyalty, Your first loyalty is to the group of executives that you're running the company with. So a chief revenue officer, they have their, you know, horizontal team with people in sales and engineering.
Executive has, you know, his or her horizontal, vertical team. We want to make sure people know that's not your first team. Your first team is the set of executives around the table. And then, you know, what are those first team principles?
Rich: Yes.
Assaf: Right. So one of those first theme principles is [00:42:00] collective responsibility, which means there was only one score.
You know, if you in engineering are kicking butt, but sales is not kicking butt or customer success is not kicking butt, you are losing. Right. And the other way around. And so we either win together or we lose together. And so that has a, if you really truly imbue that. perspective, it makes it a heck of a lot easier when it's time to figure out, you know, resource allocation and budgeting.
Well, you know, if there's a bigger need for a budget over here, because I'm doing okay and they're struggling, that's the right thing for the business. And so if people really have that first team mentality and they have a, you know, really imbued the sense of collective responsibility, that makes those kinds of friction points, you know, much better, because They're thinking to themselves, what's right for the company, not what's right for my [00:43:00] career or what's right for this department, my department.
Rich: Yep, absolutely. You've done a really nice job sharing with us today how the business has grown and evolved and what you've done as a leader to grow and evolve. You know, I sometimes think of organizations as vehicles for creating and delivering value. I'd be interested, you know, in your time with Big Panda, if you could maybe share with us a time or a moment.
Where you really feel that your team, the organization, created extraordinary value. I mean, obviously, you create value every day, but has there been any moments, even if it wasn't product based, where you said, you know, that really was extraordinary value that we were able to create and deliver for the folks that we serve?
Assaf: You know, one moment that, Really sticks out is when COVID 19 really hit the world, you know, a lot of our customers were really impacted. So, you know, we have customers that are airlines, we [00:44:00] have customers that are hospitality companies, we have customers that are physical retailers, and they were hit very hard.
And all our customers had to go from, hey, the people who keep my business running are all in, you know, a big room with hundreds of people in the room looking at a bunch of screens, and now everyone's at home. And so business continuity became very hard. And there was no rule books. And so that was a moment where, you know, I told my people, hey, you know, team, the way we show up for our customers, This is going to leave a lasting impression for a very long time.
We are not just selling them software. We are investing in their success, investing in relationships with them as human beings. And so, you know, what we do, we have to very quickly pivot to, okay, we have to help these people work from home. We have to help these people work with half of the [00:45:00] people that they used to because people were furloughed.
So we really had to go above and beyond to make sure that, you know, especially our customers that didn't know if they were going to continue to exist, you know, retailers, airlines, hospitality, those were some of their darkest days. You know, we have customers that have been around for 100 years. This was one of their darkest chapters, and we really helped them come through.
Rich: Excellent. Excellent. Thank you. And I'd be grateful if we could close our conversation with a brief response, maybe to six questions, we call the strategic six, just to help our listeners get to know you a little bit as we finish up, if that works for you. Great. So, your first job was
Assaf: Selling donuts at the, at the local donut shop, the donut wheel.
Rich: All right, excellent. Your favorite vacation spot? Costa Rica. Mm, okay. One word that best describes you? Optimistic. A book [00:46:00] that's had significant impact on your development?
Assaf: The Collected Speeches of Winston Churchill. You really understand what leadership in wartime, means when you, when you, when you listen to someone like Winston Churchill.
Rich: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. And how about one piece of advice that would fit on a bumper sticker that you think would be important to share with other people? Make time to, to, to take
Assaf: joy out of life. That's
Rich: a
Assaf: little long. But some version of, got to enjoy the time on this earth.
Rich: Yes. Excellent.
Yeah. And you mentioned that earlier with the waking up and talking about the gratitude. And I think that's a great piece of tip for a lot of folks out there is to start with some gratitude. Good way to do that. And then our last one, the most exhilarating moment you've experienced in your professional life.
Assaf: I don't know if there's one, but getting in front of customers. Getting in front of customers and really understanding the help. And the [00:47:00] value that we're bringing them, how we're making their life easier, how we're making them succeed in their careers. That's what really gives me energy.
Rich: Well, Saf, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today.
I think we took away a lot of great practical tools, techniques, very specific principles. And I think, you know, your willingness to share what you've done, how you evolved as a leader, how you look at strategy is going to be something that a lot of folks out there will benefit from. So thank you very much for being on the show today.
Assaf: All right. Thank you. Great time with you. Keep being really rich.
Rich: Thanks. Thanks very much. And now we'll move into our next segment, Practice Makes Profit.
Mash up: What are we talking about? Practice? Practice makes perfect. Practice makes profit.
Rich: Are your product and service offerings better or different than the competition? A study of 25, 000 companies during the past 40 years found that the companies that focused on differentiation were in the top 10 percent in [00:48:00] return on assets. Observe the companies that are struggling today, and it's a good bet one of the reasons is their failure to differentiate their offerings.
They're stuck doing the same things in the same ways as their competition. Think of prominent companies that went into bankruptcy and their close competitors, Circuit City and Best Buy, uh, Borders and Barnes Noble, uh, Sports Authority and Dick's Sporting Goods. When a company continually fails to differentiate their offerings from competitors, sooner or later, Somebody's going to be lunch.
Here are five questions from the differentiation detector you can practice with to confirm your core of differentiation. Number one, what are the truly different activities we perform than the competition? Number two, what are the similar activities we perform in different ways than the competition?
Number three, how is our business model different from the competition. Number four, what resources do we have that are different than the competition? And five, [00:49:00] what's the primary differentiated value our offerings provide to customers? As Peter Thiel, co founder of PayPal, wrote, all happy companies are different.
All failed companies are the same. If you want to create and capture lasting value, don't build an undifferentiated business. In this segment, The League of Strategic Minds, I answer questions submitted by our listeners.
Mash up: I appreciate your strategic mind. Must have a strategic brain. Great strategic minds of tomorrow, right here.
Rich: Today's question, what does it mean to be strategic and how can I tell if a person really is strategic? So, I define strategic as possessing insight that leads to advantage. And one of the ways that you can determine if somebody really is strategic or not is you could take the SQ or strategic quotient assessment.
The SQ is really designed to monitor and [00:50:00] measure your mindset and behaviors in how you think, plan, and act strategically. So, We can certainly look at the strategic quotient or SQ as a way to validate how strategic someone is. It's a scale of one to a hundred. And so just because somebody has a high title doesn't necessarily always equate with them being highly strategic.
We've had about 3000 people take the SQ so far, and the average score is around 70 out of a hundred. So, again, there's always opportunities to hone or to sharpen our strategic skills, and the SQ, or the Strategic Quotient Assessment, is a good way to do that. If you have a question you'd like to submit in the future, visit the Strategic Minds podcast page, and we'll put the link in our show notes, and you could submit a question there.
And if the question is read on the podcast, you'll receive some Strategic Minds swag for your contribution. Our Winsight, or Idea for Advantage, today comes from Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM. [00:51:00]
Assaf: Any insights? You play to win the game. Any further insights? You
Mash up: don't play to just play it. Insightful. I want winners.
I played the game to win. I want people that want to win. It's very insightful.
Rich: He said, the holy grail of strategic thinking is how do you come up with a business model that differentiates you, creates value for your customers, and puts you in a unique position in your industry? When is the last time you and your team discussed how to best evolve your business model for the future?
To explore engaging with me to facilitate your strategy workshop, serve as a coach for your executive team, or speak at your conference, visit strategyskills. com, where you can view today's show notes, sign up for the free Strategic Thinker newsletter, and access hundreds of other resources, including the Strategic Quotient, or SQ, assessment.
Pick up a copy of my newly released book, Strategic, and [00:52:00] take your leadership development to the next level by subscribing to the Strategic Fitness System, an innovative, state of the art, executive development platform. Remember, in today's competitive world, it's be strategic or be gone.