Entrepreneurs, who are your co-travelers in your professional journey? Don’t miss the opportunity to hear Jeff Hoffman at TiEcon 2023

Jeff Hoffman’s talks are filled with inspirational gems and many consider him an outstanding role model. Hoffman will be speaking at TiEcon 2023 (the largest #entrepreneurship conference) in May in Santa Clara, CA.

Among many achievements that Hoffman is known for include his role as founder and CEO in the Priceline.com family of companies, Chairman of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, and founding board member of the Unreasonable Group whose 289 portfolio companies have raised $6.6 billion in funding.  In 2010, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

His advice to entrepreneurs is simple. You don’t set out to become an entrepreneur. “You follow your passion and get obsessed with solving a problem and then everything else is detail”. He says, “don’t chase money, chase excellence”.

Hoffman’s advice for companies is equally fascinating. He believes that most scalable companies don’t push their products, they get pulled. At a time when companies often get obsessed with competition, Hoffman advises, while companies must track their competitors, they must respond to their customers. Hoffman preaches, “hire the best talent and do everything to retain them including picking up their laundry” and he practices exactly what he preaches.

While we engage in political debate on whether a company is a person or not, Hoffman advices leaders to think of the company as a person and give it a personality that should then guide all external communication. He says, companies must focus on something that powerfully distinguishes them, that customers are likely going to remember and then build a brand around that asset. Hoffman says, “sales are linear, marketing creates growth, but brand creates scale”.

Entrepreneurs, don’t miss the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals, connect with VCs, listen to inspirational speakers and rekindle your passion at TiEcon 2023. Tickets are available at www.tiecon.org . Jeff Hoffman once famously said, “Life is not about the journey or the destination. It’s about the people you are traveling with”. Who are your co-travelers in your professional journey? Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with your co-travelers who may make this a memorable journey.

Leadership lessons in 2023 #KevinMcCarthy saga

• Clarity among leaders is important: Had McCarthy been clear what he stood for, then no one would have imagined that he can be beaten into submission of their choosing. But what exactly does McCarthy stand for? Rigged elections? Election integrity? What he stands for has never been clear. McCarthy has no ideology – that is like a leader without a compass – who can coast along only for so long. Eventually a leader without a compass is going to sink.

• Leaders with compromised integrity will always be weak: This goes hand in hand with clarity. Had McCarthy not gone on bended knee to hail the chief liar, had be not given tacit support to lies and conspiracies of #electiondeniers from the start, then the rogue members of his party would not have imagined that he can be pushed into any corner of submission. Integrity simply means consistency. Leaders need to be consistent overtly in their actions and personally in their belief and values. Once a leader compromises integrity, they can be asked again and again to do so, weakening them in the process.

• Compromising to stay in power?: I am not sure what is the choice that McCarthy has right now. But it is unsightly to see McCarthy giving into demands of the rogue members who are holding him hostage. Even as McCarthy gives in to their many demands to shrink his way into power, he is disappearing and weakening in the process. 

• Your team, your party, your group can prop you up but also can bring you down: As a leader, how do you ensure their continued support? If you are the leader, you set the strategy. If you blow in any direction that the wind blows for personal survival then the team will also look for personal survival during crises and not of the company, group or team.
  
• Effective leaders are those who have worked their way up: Has McCarthy worked into different positions  before ascending like Pelosi to leadership position? They say, women must not sleep their way to power. Well then no one should also appease their way into power.

• Subscribing to double standards can be a dangerous path: This lesson is for GOP, not McCarthy himself and in future, can apply to both Dems and Reps and Dems should take note. On one hand, GOP is concerned about power being centralized in a #SpeakeroftheHouse but they want #POTUS to behave like an emperor and demand head on a pike of anyone who disagrees. Strong leaders set strategic direction independently of circumstances and then don’t waver when things don’t go their way. 

• Leaders should be clear, it’s not about a personal win but about getting the job done/ leaving a legacy: What kind of legacy McCarthy will be leaving after compromising his position, his integrity, his strategic direction, his goals and objectives to gain a leadership chair? Chaney and Kinzinger on the other hand, were clear about their values, their position, and did not let circumstances dictate them into submission. The legacy they have left will be etched forever in history and the service they provided to the country is so valuable that the country will forever be in their debt.

For the sake of the country and #democracy, I hope we have strong leaders who will emerge in both parties, for no democracy can be strong without at least two competing parties with strong democratic values, and independent media and judiciary.

Entrepreneurship was his passion, leadership, his expertise

Entrepreneurship was his passion, leadership, his expertise. Google was a young company when Nikesh Arora chose to join @Google over founding his own company. Under his skilled leadership, the company’s operations grew rapidly and in 2011, Arora became Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Google.  After working in Google for nearly a decade, Arora joined @SoftBank, a Japanese multinational company. Arora guided SoftBank investments in startups like Ola and Grofers and SoftBank grew rapidly. 

In 2018, Arora joined Palo Alto Networks and currently serves as the CEO and Chairman of this leading #cybersecurity and cloud computing company. Cyber security experts have to constantly figure out innovative ways to keep up with cyber hackers, who got even more active during Covid 19 pandemic. According to Dzone research, almost 53% of SMB’s suffered from a data breach during 2020.

After Arora joined Palo Alto Networks, under his leadership, the company made the biggest acquisitions in its history with the acquisition of Demisto for $560 million followed by Twislock for $410 M and recently @Aporeto for $150M.  Given the company’s scale compared to smaller competitors in the segmented cybersecurity market, its double digit growth remains solid. PAN leadership has maintained that PAN is still on track to grow revenue by 20% annually until 2022 and its operating free cash flow margins are expected to exceed 22% and 30% respectively. 
Inviting entrepreneurs to take the exciting opportunity to hear Nikesh Arora, CEO of PAN speak at @TiEcon 2021on May 7 at the link  https://www.tiecon.org/register?utm_source=Darshana_Nadkarni&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Volunteer_Contest . At TiEcon, there are exciting #entrepreneurship tracks and other tracks on #CloudComputing #Security #Healthcare and more.