[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_137":-5,"_138":-5,"_139":140,"_141":142,"_143":144},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/2066/granular-objectives-create-clarity","id",2066,"title","Granular objectives create clarity","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.450\nAnd so what we did from a management style is, and it's opposite of Wall Street\n\n2\n00:00:05.450 --> 00:00:05.800\n, we take\n\n3\n00:00:05.800 --> 00:00:09.800\nthe first month, month and a half of the year and list everybody's objectives\n\n4\n00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:10.760\nfor the year\n\n5\n00:00:10.760 --> 00:00:16.560\ndown to the most minute detail for every single person in the employee base.\n\n6\n00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:18.600\nAll right, so this took a lot of time.\n\n7\n00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:22.490\nWe really had to know exactly what we were trying to do for the next 10 and a\n\n8\n00:00:22.490 --> 00:00:23.320\nhalf months,\n\n9\n00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:24.480\nthe way it worked in a year.\n\n10\n00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:29.460\nAt the end of the year, if you do those things, you didn't have to be nice to\n\n11\n00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:30.400\nme, you had\n\n12\n00:00:30.400 --> 00:00:32.160\nto smile at me, you would get paid.\n\n13\n00:00:32.160 --> 00:00:33.160\nIt was a function, right?\n\n14\n00:00:33.160 --> 00:00:34.360\nThese are pure objectives.\n\n15\n00:00:34.360 --> 00:00:37.640\nSo Wall Street typically, they have a hunk of money at the end of the year.\n\n16\n00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:39.200\nThey say, okay, who's this?\n\n17\n00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:40.360\nAnd they kind of chop it up.\n\n18\n00:00:40.360 --> 00:00:41.360\nWe were the opposite.\n\n19\n00:00:41.360 --> 00:00:44.240\nWe put down thousands and thousands of objectives.\n\n20\n00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:47.360\nAnd then you see who actually performs with those objectives.\n\n21\n00:00:47.360 --> 00:00:51.850\nAnd what's great about that beyond the comp plan, it forces you to know what\n\n22\n00:00:51.850 --> 00:00:52.760\nyou're trying\n\n23\n00:00:52.760 --> 00:00:53.760\nto do.\n\n24\n00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:55.200\nWhat you're trying to accomplish.\n\n25\n00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:57.320\nAnd that sounds silly, right?\n\n26\n00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:01.680\nBut many companies or most companies, they go into the year having a broad\n\n27\n00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:02.840\nsense, right?\n\n28\n00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:05.040\nBut not at the really detailed level.\n\n29\n00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:08.600\nSo we, you know, it would be agonizing to go through, okay.\n\n30\n00:01:08.600 --> 00:01:12.120\nAnd you know, at the single contributor level, what they have to contribute and\n\n31\n00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:12.920\nit all rolls\n\n32\n00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:14.120\nup and that kind of thing.\n\n33\n00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:16.200\nAnd they just made it for a functioning machine.\n\n34\n00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:17.960\nYou know, I understand that you.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",1259919,"end_time",1335849,"keywords","strategy, vision, details, machine","slug","granular-objectives-create-clarity","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","gxwEKFfYhvLYR3MwOXxgPDGmb1VCcfJjK7RDt6gkg4c","mux_asset_id","JHD7HWFJJjpUVAYCfbOF9aJNLIrqZybBYOGQpyYw7vA","leader_id",95,"episode_id",243,"updated_at","2025-02-26T19:48:57.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/2066/granular-objectives-create-clarity","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_101":102,"_103":104,"_105":106,"_25":107,"_108":109,"_62":110,"_59":110,"_111":112,"_69":113,"_39":114,"_115":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_116":117,"_89":118,"_44":119,"_120":121,"_122":123,"_46":-5,"_124":125,"_126":127,"_93":128,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":58,"_59":60,"_61":-5,"_62":60,"_63":-5,"_64":65,"_66":67,"_68":-5,"_69":-5,"_70":71,"_72":73,"_74":-5,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_76":77,"_78":79,"_80":81,"_82":83,"_84":-5,"_85":-5,"_86":87,"_88":-5,"_89":-5,"_46":-5,"_90":91,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Focus Relentlessly on High Leverage Tasks","focus-relentlessly-on-high-leverage-tasks","Learn why focusing on the right tasks separates the great leaders from the good ones. Make better decisions by understanding what really goes into that “gut feeling” you get. Plus, why you may want to rethink that outside hire and promote from within instead.","summary","

Today’s guest is Bob Greifeld, the former CEO of NASDAQ. These days, the NASDAQ is a powerhouse market. But that was not the case when Bob took over. It was small and struggling. During his time in charge, he grew the market by a whopping 2000%, attracting companies like Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon.

In this conversation, we go behind the scenes of that amazing turnaround. You can see for yourself how Bob’s relentless focus and drive helped make it happen.

If you’ve ever looked at a big project or even just your day’s to-do list and felt overwhelmed, this conversation is going to help you tap into that power of focus, too.

You’ll also learn:

What you absolutely have to do in your first 100 days in a new job
A specific formula to balance promoting from within versus hiring from outside
How to sift through your to-do list to determine what you should actually work on
What you’re really trusting when you go with your gut

Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources:

The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go

Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day

Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.230\nWelcome to Howl Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I\n\n2\n00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:07.960\ninterview some\n\n3\n00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:09.720\nof the very best leaders in the world.\n\n4\n00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:13.030\nI break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have\n\n5\n00:00:13.030 --> 00:00:13.620\nsomething\n\n6\n00:00:13.620 --> 00:00:17.680\nsimple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader.\n\n7\n00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:20.440\nThat's what this podcast is all about.\n\n8\n00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:25.120\nToday's guest is Bob Greefield, the former CEO of NASDAQ.\n\n9\n00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:28.920\nNow these days NASDAQ is a powerhouse stock exchange.\n\n10\n00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:32.080\nBut boy, that wasn't the case when Bob took over.\n\n11\n00:00:32.080 --> 00:00:34.200\nIt was small and struggling.\n\n12\n00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:37.020\nBut during his time in charge, he grew the business.\n\n13\n00:00:37.020 --> 00:00:42.440\nIf you can believe this number by 2,000 percent, attracting companies like\n\n14\n00:00:42.440 --> 00:00:43.840\nApple, Microsoft,\n\n15\n00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:48.080\nStarbucks, and Amazon to list on NASDAQ.\n\n16\n00:00:48.080 --> 00:00:52.950\nIn this conversation, we go behind the scenes of that amazing turnaround, and\n\n17\n00:00:52.950 --> 00:00:53.600\nyou can see\n\n18\n00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:58.880\nfor yourself how Bob's relentless focus and drive helped make it happen.\n\n19\n00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:02.950\nIf you've ever looked at a big project or even just your days to do list and\n\n20\n00:01:02.950 --> 00:01:03.240\nyou've\n\n21\n00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:09.030\nfelt overwhelmed, this conversation is going to help you tap into the power of\n\n22\n00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:09.880\nfocus.\n\n23\n00:01:09.880 --> 00:01:15.140\nSo here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Bob Greef\n\n24\n00:01:15.140 --> 00:01:15.880\nield.\n\n25\n00:01:15.880 --> 00:01:23.960\nBob, thanks so much for taking the time to be on the show.\n\n26\n00:01:23.960 --> 00:01:25.680\nMy pleasure to be here today, David.\n\n27\n00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:27.520\nYou know, well, how's your week going, Bob?\n\n28\n00:01:27.520 --> 00:01:28.520\nHow's the week going?\n\n29\n00:01:28.520 --> 00:01:32.640\nWell, it's just starting, but I think, well, I'm here with you.\n\n30\n00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:33.800\nNothing unique going on.\n\n31\n00:01:33.800 --> 00:01:35.880\nYou're working on in the world of financial services.\n\n32\n00:01:35.880 --> 00:01:38.760\nA couple of things, but I can't really say it right now.\n\n33\n00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:40.320\nA couple of company roles, you know.\n\n34\n00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:42.200\nI don't want to violate those.\n\n35\n00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:45.450\nYou know, when you think about what you're working on, what does have you the\n\n36\n00:01:45.450 --> 00:01:46.080\nmost excited\n\n37\n00:01:46.080 --> 00:01:48.520\nthese days without giving away a deal?\n\n38\n00:01:48.520 --> 00:01:52.140\nWell, you know, I've always been a person that gets excited about building\n\n39\n00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:52.720\nthings.\n\n40\n00:01:52.720 --> 00:01:54.880\nSo I believe in the process, right?\n\n41\n00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:59.960\nSo when I see teams coming together and identifying mission and focusing on\n\n42\n00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:01.320\nthat mission, I know\n\n43\n00:02:01.320 --> 00:02:03.120\ngood results will happen.\n\n44\n00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:06.960\nSo in all my business endeavors, I try not to pay attention to the here and now\n\n45\n00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:07.640\n, but what\n\n46\n00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:09.120\nis the trend line?\n\n47\n00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:10.520\nWhat are we doing right?\n\n48\n00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.920\nWhat is the process we're building is doing right and where are we going to go?\n\n49\n00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:15.920\nYeah, that's really obvious in your book.\n\n50\n00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:19.640\nYou know, this is all about your leadership story.\n\n51\n00:02:19.640 --> 00:02:21.000\nAnd I want to get to that.\n\n52\n00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.040\nAnd you know, I always like to start out at the beginning, Bob.\n\n53\n00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:25.720\nTell us about your upbringing.\n\n54\n00:02:25.720 --> 00:02:28.440\nSo I was raised with a family of five children.\n\n55\n00:02:28.440 --> 00:02:32.760\nMy dad worked for the post office and always had two and three jobs.\n\n56\n00:02:32.760 --> 00:02:37.420\nSo it was a humble upbringing, but certainly you learned the value of hard work\n\n57\n00:02:37.420 --> 00:02:37.960\nin that\n\n58\n00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:38.960\nenvironment.\n\n59\n00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:43.500\nYou learned the value of family when you have five children and we're all in it\n\n60\n00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:44.320\ntogether.\n\n61\n00:02:44.320 --> 00:02:45.600\nWhere were you in the order there?\n\n62\n00:02:45.600 --> 00:02:47.080\nI was number two.\n\n63\n00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:52.280\nI have an older sister and then two brothers, two other brothers and one of the\n\n64\n00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:53.040\nsister.\n\n65\n00:02:53.040 --> 00:02:57.370\nWell, tell us a story about your childhood days that might give us a real\n\n66\n00:02:57.370 --> 00:02:58.160\nindication\n\n67\n00:02:58.160 --> 00:02:59.680\nof what kind of person you've become.\n\n68\n00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:00.800\nWell, I would say this.\n\n69\n00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:04.720\nSo right now with my properties, I have somebody mow the lawn for me and I have\n\n70\n00:03:04.720 --> 00:03:05.840\nno guilt associated\n\n71\n00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:09.770\nwith it because one of the side jobs my father had was running a landscaping\n\n72\n00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:10.480\nbusiness.\n\n73\n00:03:10.480 --> 00:03:14.640\nSo I would mow when I was a kid, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 years old.\n\n74\n00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:18.360\nI was behind the mower every afternoon, every Saturday.\n\n75\n00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:24.220\nSo in my time, I mowed plenty of lawns, but that was a certain way to learn\n\n76\n00:03:24.220 --> 00:03:25.240\nhard work.\n\n77\n00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:28.190\nAnd I remember my father always saying to me, \"Son, you're not going to make it\n\n78\n00:03:28.190 --> 00:03:29.200\nby physical\n\n79\n00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:30.200\nlabor.\n\n80\n00:03:30.200 --> 00:03:32.080\nYou've got to find a way to use your head.\"\n\n81\n00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.860\nAnd those kind of simple thoughts when you get that as a kid stays with you and\n\n82\n00:03:35.860 --> 00:03:36.240\ndrives\n\n83\n00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:37.240\nyou going forward.\n\n84\n00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:41.640\nSo I was always looking for the smart or clever way in terms of how to proceed\n\n85\n00:03:41.640 --> 00:03:42.360\nwith work.\n\n86\n00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:45.360\nWell, how'd you find your way into the world of business?\n\n87\n00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:48.640\nWell, it was interesting, I was an English undergraduate major.\n\n88\n00:03:48.640 --> 00:03:49.640\nEnglish.\n\n89\n00:03:49.640 --> 00:03:51.720\nYes, English.\n\n90\n00:03:51.720 --> 00:03:57.490\nAnd one of the people I read when I was an English major was this poet from St.\n\n91\n00:03:57.490 --> 00:03:58.040\nLouis\n\n92\n00:03:58.040 --> 00:03:59.920\ncalled William Burrows.\n\n93\n00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:04.270\nAnd so I was looking for a job and I saw Burrows Corporation, which was early\n\n94\n00:04:04.270 --> 00:04:05.080\nin the computer\n\n95\n00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:06.080\ngame.\n\n96\n00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:11.140\nSo I approached them and kind of my sales ability started to reveal itself and\n\n97\n00:04:11.140 --> 00:04:11.600\nI kind\n\n98\n00:04:11.600 --> 00:04:14.080\nof somehow got a job there.\n\n99\n00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:18.450\nAnd the computer age in 1979, you didn't have that many people with computer\n\n100\n00:04:18.450 --> 00:04:19.520\nscience degrees.\n\n101\n00:04:19.520 --> 00:04:21.960\nSo we were looking for just kind of talented people.\n\n102\n00:04:21.960 --> 00:04:25.960\nSo then I got sucked into the computer world in 1979.\n\n103\n00:04:25.960 --> 00:04:29.000\nAnd I remember kind of falling in love with computers in high school.\n\n104\n00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:31.240\nSo it was just a marriage.\n\n105\n00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:35.140\nAnd it was not, you didn't have to be great and insightful to see the computers\n\n106\n00:04:35.140 --> 00:04:35.440\nwere\n\n107\n00:04:35.440 --> 00:04:39.480\ngoing to be more and more important in society, not less so.\n\n108\n00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:40.480\nSo it was a good train to get involved.\n\n109\n00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:43.780\nYou're kind of downplaying that because most people were very afraid of\n\n110\n00:04:43.780 --> 00:04:44.960\ncomputers back then.\n\n111\n00:04:44.960 --> 00:04:48.880\nSo you were really a trailblazer sort of a technology geek even in those days\n\n112\n00:04:48.880 --> 00:04:49.280\nmaybe\n\n113\n00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:50.280\na little bit.\n\n114\n00:04:50.280 --> 00:04:52.160\nIn those days, I always had great affinity for it.\n\n115\n00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:57.720\nI went to grad school at night at NYU and 95% of the class were finance majors.\n\n116\n00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:02.720\nAnd I was one of the few that were a computer science major for my MBA.\n\n117\n00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:04.400\nSo I just found it fascinating.\n\n118\n00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:09.600\nSo I was lucky to find my calling fairly early, always being around computers.\n\n119\n00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:14.810\nSo when people identify me as a Wall Street guys, not how I self-identify, I\n\n120\n00:05:14.810 --> 00:05:15.720\nself-identify\n\n121\n00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:18.440\nas somebody associated with technology business.\n\n122\n00:05:18.440 --> 00:05:22.920\nDid you have an aha moment that said, \"Hey, this is where I have to be?\"\n\n123\n00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:27.200\nI would say no, but probably over a six month period of time I realized it.\n\n124\n00:05:27.200 --> 00:05:32.250\nBut if anything, in high school we had, you can remember, we'd have to dial\n\n125\n00:05:32.250 --> 00:05:33.240\ninto the local\n\n126\n00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:37.760\nstate university to get access to the computer with the modem, with the noise,\n\n127\n00:05:37.760 --> 00:05:38.480\nyou put into\n\n128\n00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:40.760\nthat little, what was called an acoustic coupler.\n\n129\n00:05:40.760 --> 00:05:43.040\nSo that was junior year high school.\n\n130\n00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:46.720\nI was like one of the five kids or, you know, fooling around to computers.\n\n131\n00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:50.880\nSo I early on said, you know, I just had great affinity for it.\n\n132\n00:05:50.880 --> 00:05:53.160\nYou know, there's so much we can talk about in your career.\n\n133\n00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:55.200\nSo I had to kind of move it along here.\n\n134\n00:05:55.200 --> 00:05:58.720\nYou know, you were quite happy working at SunGuard data systems.\n\n135\n00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:02.880\nYou were an executive vice president there before you joined NASDAQ.\n\n136\n00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:08.320\nAnd prior to that, you'd been a software entrepreneur and a co-owner of ASC.\n\n137\n00:06:08.320 --> 00:06:12.480\nAs you were coming up and you were working your way up in companies like this,\n\n138\n00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:12.640\ndid you\n\n139\n00:06:12.640 --> 00:06:17.240\nhave a defining moment that sort of changed your career trajectory?\n\n140\n00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:22.690\nWell, I would say this, that the, I went to Burrows Corporation, was there for\n\n141\n00:06:22.690 --> 00:06:23.520\n10 years\n\n142\n00:06:23.520 --> 00:06:27.870\nor so, and basically got the promotions that were available where I got to be a\n\n143\n00:06:27.870 --> 00:06:28.520\ndistrict\n\n144\n00:06:28.520 --> 00:06:31.440\nmanager running the New York region.\n\n145\n00:06:31.440 --> 00:06:35.000\nBut we realized that computers at that time, the world was changing.\n\n146\n00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.840\nWe moved from mainframes to many's, micros are coming and Burrows, which was UN\n\n147\n00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:39.120\nICEIS,\n\n148\n00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:41.240\nwhich was really not on top of the game.\n\n149\n00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:46.340\nAnd a defining moment I said, what's remarkable about the software business is\n\n150\n00:06:46.340 --> 00:06:46.840\nthe marginal\n\n151\n00:06:46.840 --> 00:06:51.190\ncost back then was the cost of the tape, you know, to produce the, and now you\n\n152\n00:06:51.190 --> 00:06:51.720\njust can\n\n153\n00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:52.720\ndownload it.\n\n154\n00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:54.640\nAnd I said, I need to be in the software business.\n\n155\n00:06:54.640 --> 00:07:00.040\nThe hardware business was going to be commoditized, right, as compared to 1979.\n\n156\n00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:04.520\nSo I had a defining moment said software, where is where I want to go.\n\n157\n00:07:04.520 --> 00:07:08.580\nAnd then, you know, I was slotted in certain career path and that blows up when\n\n158\n00:07:08.580 --> 00:07:09.240\nyou become\n\n159\n00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:13.000\nan entrepreneur and become successful with that.\n\n160\n00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:17.680\nAnd so we sold our company to ConeGuard in 1999.\n\n161\n00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:20.830\nIt was probably a couple of years too early, but it's always be better to be a\n\n162\n00:07:20.830 --> 00:07:21.280\ncouple of\n\n163\n00:07:21.280 --> 00:07:26.200\nyears too early than selling it a couple of years too late, that kind of thing.\n\n164\n00:07:26.200 --> 00:07:31.700\nSo then you get the opportunity to go be CEO for the first time and be the CEO\n\n165\n00:07:31.700 --> 00:07:32.760\nof NASDAQ.\n\n166\n00:07:32.760 --> 00:07:38.280\nWhat was the business situation like when you went to NASDAQ?\n\n167\n00:07:38.280 --> 00:07:41.760\nBut when did you really realize when you were evaluating that you were the\n\n168\n00:07:41.760 --> 00:07:42.440\nright person\n\n169\n00:07:42.440 --> 00:07:43.440\nfor the job?\n\n170\n00:07:43.440 --> 00:07:44.440\nYeah.\n\n171\n00:07:44.440 --> 00:07:48.330\nSo when I was an entrepreneur, we built trading systems for NASDAQ market\n\n172\n00:07:48.330 --> 00:07:48.960\nmakers.\n\n173\n00:07:48.960 --> 00:07:50.440\nThat's a key part of the background.\n\n174\n00:07:50.440 --> 00:07:54.650\nSo I knew exactly how the NASDAQ market operated and believe it or not, and\n\n175\n00:07:54.650 --> 00:07:55.680\nthis seems made\n\n176\n00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:00.320\nup, but my master's thesis at NYU was on the NASDAQ stock market.\n\n177\n00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:01.320\nRight?\n\n178\n00:08:01.320 --> 00:08:02.320\nThis is too.\n\n179\n00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:03.320\nThis is destiny.\n\n180\n00:08:03.320 --> 00:08:04.800\nYeah, a little bit of a destiny there.\n\n181\n00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:09.480\nSo I had firm views on NASDAQ and the context when I came there is NASDAQ had\n\n182\n00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:10.160\nbeen part\n\n183\n00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:13.280\nof the NASDAQ, which was a regulator.\n\n184\n00:08:13.280 --> 00:08:17.840\nSo people working there had self-selected to work basically for regulatory kind\n\n185\n00:08:17.840 --> 00:08:19.000\nof culture.\n\n186\n00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:23.300\nThe NASDAQ was in the process of separating from the NASDAQ, wanted to go\n\n187\n00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:24.440\npublic and obviously\n\n188\n00:08:24.440 --> 00:08:26.280\nlist on their own market.\n\n189\n00:08:26.280 --> 00:08:32.240\nBut what happened was competition was forming and NASDAQ was in dire straits\n\n190\n00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:33.240\nand they had\n\n191\n00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:37.160\na venture capital firm called Helman and Freeman out of San Francisco had\n\n192\n00:08:37.160 --> 00:08:38.400\ninvested in NASDAQ\n\n193\n00:08:38.400 --> 00:08:42.320\nto help them along with the mission to go public.\n\n194\n00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:47.090\nAnd so Helman, Freeman and Warren, Helman in particular replaced the prior CEO\n\n195\n00:08:47.090 --> 00:08:47.520\nwhen they\n\n196\n00:08:47.520 --> 00:08:50.360\nwere really the driving force to hire me.\n\n197\n00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:55.000\nAnd I was an unusual hire because typically if you go to an exchange, it was a\n\n198\n00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:55.680\ncinecure\n\n199\n00:08:55.680 --> 00:08:56.680\na job.\n\n200\n00:08:56.680 --> 00:09:01.120\nIt was a person of gravitas who came from the long line of investment banking.\n\n201\n00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:02.760\nAnd I was none of that.\n\n202\n00:09:02.760 --> 00:09:06.620\nBut Warren out there in the valley recognized that NASDAQ when you peeled it\n\n203\n00:09:06.620 --> 00:09:08.280\naway, the imprimatur\n\n204\n00:09:08.280 --> 00:09:12.900\nof the exchange license was a technology processing business and saw that I had\n\n205\n00:09:12.900 --> 00:09:13.960\nbeen a successful\n\n206\n00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:18.760\nentrepreneur was able to then take that entrepreneurial spirit to NASDAQ as we\n\n207\n00:09:18.760 --> 00:09:20.440\ntried to go public.\n\n208\n00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:23.680\nAnd obviously you had domain expertise in terms of what the markets were about.\n\n209\n00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:26.880\nWell, you weren't a Wall Street guy.\n\n210\n00:09:26.880 --> 00:09:27.880\nNo.\n\n211\n00:09:27.880 --> 00:09:31.580\nYour technology guy coming in from the outside, not being a Wall Street or did\n\n212\n00:09:31.580 --> 00:09:32.840\nyou find any\n\n213\n00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:35.000\npushback on you coming into that job?\n\n214\n00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.400\nSo you're certainly the expert in leadership, but I would say this.\n\n215\n00:09:39.400 --> 00:09:45.760\nI took a leadership position which was short term but necessary.\n\n216\n00:09:45.760 --> 00:09:51.510\nSo we did not have time to get involved with a consensus driven approach, which\n\n217\n00:09:51.510 --> 00:09:52.480\nis my preferred\n\n218\n00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:54.480\nway to go.\n\n219\n00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:57.000\nOur market share was declining every day.\n\n220\n00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:00.960\nOur technology could not compete with what was known as ECNs.\n\n221\n00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:03.120\nAnd I had to shock the organization.\n\n222\n00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:04.800\nSo we ran a command and control.\n\n223\n00:10:04.800 --> 00:10:09.560\nI replaced two of the direct reports by eight o'clock of my first day.\n\n224\n00:10:09.560 --> 00:10:13.190\nAnd what that served the purpose of is that stopped all the internal\n\n225\n00:10:13.190 --> 00:10:14.400\ndiscussions people\n\n226\n00:10:14.400 --> 00:10:16.880\nwanted to have, where we have to go.\n\n227\n00:10:16.880 --> 00:10:19.120\nAnd I said, okay, this is where we're going.\n\n228\n00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:20.120\nRight?\n\n229\n00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:22.690\nWe're going to talk about the fact that people really discussion in those early\n\n230\n00:10:22.690 --> 00:10:22.840\ndays.\n\n231\n00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:26.220\nAnd in the book, I talk about the fact that the early days I always felt I got\n\n232\n00:10:26.220 --> 00:10:26.880\nthere six\n\n233\n00:10:26.880 --> 00:10:28.080\nmonths too late.\n\n234\n00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:30.800\nSo our survival was somewhat in doubt.\n\n235\n00:10:30.800 --> 00:10:32.880\nOur financial position was precarious.\n\n236\n00:10:32.880 --> 00:10:34.320\nAnd I just didn't have the time.\n\n237\n00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:38.250\nYou know, I read where you had this bold step in the interview process even\n\n238\n00:10:38.250 --> 00:10:39.120\nwhere you laid\n\n239\n00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:41.440\nout at the interview process.\n\n240\n00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:44.440\nThe five steps that you were going to take to turn this business around.\n\n241\n00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:48.540\nAnd I was thinking, how in the world can this guy possibly know what those five\n\n242\n00:10:48.540 --> 00:10:49.280\nthings are\n\n243\n00:10:49.280 --> 00:10:51.560\nwithout digging in a little bit deeper?\n\n244\n00:10:51.560 --> 00:10:55.340\nWhat gave you the courage to come out and say, this is what needs to be done\n\n245\n00:10:55.340 --> 00:10:55.840\nwithout\n\n246\n00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:57.480\nnecessarily having all the facts?\n\n247\n00:10:57.480 --> 00:10:59.200\nWell, here's some of the back story.\n\n248\n00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:03.520\nSo I came to know who the other candidate for the job was.\n\n249\n00:11:03.520 --> 00:11:07.030\nAnd I had actually interviewed that person when I was on the board of night\n\n250\n00:11:07.030 --> 00:11:07.880\nsecurities.\n\n251\n00:11:07.880 --> 00:11:10.760\nAnd I knew how articulate that person was.\n\n252\n00:11:10.760 --> 00:11:14.280\nSo if I thought it was a standard back and forth in the interview, I might not\n\n253\n00:11:14.280 --> 00:11:15.200\ncome out\n\n254\n00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:16.840\nahead.\n\n255\n00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:19.360\nAnd so I said, let me approach it a different way.\n\n256\n00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:21.200\nSo that was the genesis of the approach.\n\n257\n00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:26.160\nBut I did then know very clearly, I had very clear set what I wanted to do.\n\n258\n00:11:26.160 --> 00:11:30.550\nAnd so in that final interview, I spoke for 15 and 20 minutes about what these\n\n259\n00:11:30.550 --> 00:11:31.040\nfive steps\n\n260\n00:11:31.040 --> 00:11:32.040\nare.\n\n261\n00:11:32.040 --> 00:11:35.080\nAnd I think like four of the five of them were essentially right.\n\n262\n00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:36.800\nThey're not their brag.\n\n263\n00:11:36.800 --> 00:11:39.240\nBut you know, I had been involved with NASDAQ.\n\n264\n00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:43.640\nSo when I was an entrepreneur building trading system in the NASDAQ ecosystem,\n\n265\n00:11:43.640 --> 00:11:45.000\nyou saw exactly\n\n266\n00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.280\nhow that company operated.\n\n267\n00:11:47.280 --> 00:11:48.760\nIt's had a pretty good data on it.\n\n268\n00:11:48.760 --> 00:11:50.600\nWe'll get into some of those things that you did.\n\n269\n00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:54.280\nBut you know, it was striking to me that you had this 100 day plan.\n\n270\n00:11:54.280 --> 00:11:55.280\nRight.\n\n271\n00:11:55.280 --> 00:11:58.760\nYou know, when you talk to other leaders and they move into a new job, how\n\n272\n00:11:58.760 --> 00:11:59.280\nimportant do\n\n273\n00:11:59.280 --> 00:12:03.520\nyou think it is to make those first 90 to 100 days really count?\n\n274\n00:12:03.520 --> 00:12:04.520\nAbsolutely critical.\n\n275\n00:12:04.520 --> 00:12:08.990\nSo, you know, you have the listening tour approach to leadership when you first\n\n276\n00:12:08.990 --> 00:12:09.320\ncome\n\n277\n00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:10.320\nin.\n\n278\n00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:14.460\nYou know, I had the luxury of time that could be a better approach, but I had\n\n279\n00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:15.240\nno way shape\n\n280\n00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:17.360\nor form thought I had the luxury of time.\n\n281\n00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:21.090\nSo put it in perspective where the whole organization can kind of implode upon\n\n282\n00:12:21.090 --> 00:12:21.600\nitself.\n\n283\n00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:27.040\nSo our market share in stocks that listed on NASDAQ was down to like 16%.\n\n284\n00:12:27.040 --> 00:12:30.480\nAnd it wasn't too soon before at that time the New York Stock Exchange was led\n\n285\n00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:30.920\nby Dick\n\n286\n00:12:30.920 --> 00:12:31.920\nRoss.\n\n287\n00:12:31.920 --> 00:12:34.710\nIt was very capable competitor was going to say, why are you listening with\n\n288\n00:12:34.710 --> 00:12:35.440\nthis exchange?\n\n289\n00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:37.280\nThey're not even trading your stock.\n\n290\n00:12:37.280 --> 00:12:40.860\nSo we losing the transaction volume, the revenue associated with the possible\n\n291\n00:12:40.860 --> 00:12:42.160\nmarket data.\n\n292\n00:12:42.160 --> 00:12:45.410\nAnd then once you start losing the listing franchise, you know, you're it's\n\n293\n00:12:45.410 --> 00:12:46.160\nkind of game\n\n294\n00:12:46.160 --> 00:12:47.160\nover.\n\n295\n00:12:47.160 --> 00:12:49.760\nYou know, you're describing such a turnaround opportunity.\n\n296\n00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:51.160\nIs that what really challenged you?\n\n297\n00:12:51.160 --> 00:12:54.090\nWould you rather go in and turn around a business or run one that was already\n\n298\n00:12:54.090 --> 00:12:54.520\nticking?\n\n299\n00:12:54.520 --> 00:12:57.240\nI would always rather turn around a bad operation.\n\n300\n00:12:57.240 --> 00:12:58.240\nRight.\n\n301\n00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:02.680\nIt's always, you know, that certainly was my brain's wired.\n\n302\n00:13:02.680 --> 00:13:07.200\nAnd it's just a lot of fun to see what's possible and able to do it.\n\n303\n00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:11.040\nObviously, if you come into a smoothly running ship, there's always\n\n304\n00:13:11.040 --> 00:13:12.480\nopportunities to expand\n\n305\n00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:14.920\nand grow, but it's a lot more fun to be there.\n\n306\n00:13:14.920 --> 00:13:18.740\nAnd you know, one of the reasons I stepped down from NASDAQ is in the early\n\n307\n00:13:18.740 --> 00:13:19.560\ndays, I felt\n\n308\n00:13:19.560 --> 00:13:21.040\nlike it was jumping off of a cliff.\n\n309\n00:13:21.040 --> 00:13:23.680\nA lot of times you didn't know where you're going to land.\n\n310\n00:13:23.680 --> 00:13:28.750\nYou know, 14 years later, then you had, you know, you had a set way of doing\n\n311\n00:13:28.750 --> 00:13:29.560\nthings.\n\n312\n00:13:29.560 --> 00:13:31.960\nAnd I called it the grinding of the gears, right?\n\n313\n00:13:31.960 --> 00:13:33.280\nYou had to run the bureaucracy.\n\n314\n00:13:33.280 --> 00:13:34.280\nYou know it.\n\n315\n00:13:34.280 --> 00:13:37.720\nBut in anybody, it's an important necessity.\n\n316\n00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:41.990\nOnce you get a certain size, you have to have a certain formality to the\n\n317\n00:13:41.990 --> 00:13:43.160\norganization.\n\n318\n00:13:43.160 --> 00:13:49.250\nYou know, you had, it had to be really heady stuff, you know, coming in to, to\n\n319\n00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:49.960\nbe a CEO\n\n320\n00:13:49.960 --> 00:13:53.000\nof this, you know, venerable iconic institution.\n\n321\n00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:57.090\nYeah, the market share is 16%, but the whole world doesn't really know all that\n\n322\n00:13:57.090 --> 00:13:58.040\n, you know.\n\n323\n00:13:58.040 --> 00:14:01.980\nDid you ever feel with all this stuff that was going on and the challenges that\n\n324\n00:14:01.980 --> 00:14:02.560\nyou had\n\n325\n00:14:02.560 --> 00:14:05.560\nand being a CEO for the first time, did you ever feel like you were in over\n\n326\n00:14:05.560 --> 00:14:06.200\nyour head?\n\n327\n00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:09.450\nWell, I wouldn't say in over my head, but you know, the first six months I was\n\n328\n00:14:09.450 --> 00:14:09.880\nworried\n\n329\n00:14:09.880 --> 00:14:13.400\nabout are whether we're going to be successful or not.\n\n330\n00:14:13.400 --> 00:14:17.920\nSo it took probably two years before I knew that we were going to get there.\n\n331\n00:14:17.920 --> 00:14:21.520\nSo we did 47 acquisitions in my time.\n\n332\n00:14:21.520 --> 00:14:24.320\nThere was one that was fundamental to our success.\n\n333\n00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:29.080\nWhen I got there, we didn't have any technology in-house in the States.\n\n334\n00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:32.240\nWe had one piece of technology in Europe, which is unproven.\n\n335\n00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:36.080\nSo I was going to have to bet the whole market on this unproven technology was\n\n336\n00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:36.600\nbased on\n\n337\n00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:40.640\nWindows and Windows was itself unproven at that scale.\n\n338\n00:14:40.640 --> 00:14:44.790\nSo we were able to acquire INET and that gave us the core technology and also\n\n339\n00:14:44.790 --> 00:14:45.480\nincreased\n\n340\n00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:46.880\nour market share.\n\n341\n00:14:46.880 --> 00:14:50.000\nWe had to then integrate it all in, which is the own set of challenge.\n\n342\n00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:53.340\nBut once I saw that the integration we had completed the INET deal, the\n\n343\n00:14:53.340 --> 00:14:54.040\nintegration\n\n344\n00:14:54.040 --> 00:14:57.850\nis happening, I said, \"Now I can get into normal business mode and think, 'Okay\n\n345\n00:14:57.850 --> 00:14:58.000\n, what\n\n346\n00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:00.240\nare we going to be in three or five years?'\n\n347\n00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:03.680\nBut before that period of time, it just felt like survival.\n\n348\n00:15:03.680 --> 00:15:04.680\nYeah.\n\n349\n00:15:04.680 --> 00:15:08.360\nBut you had an intense belief in your ability.\n\n350\n00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:10.000\nIt's obvious.\n\n351\n00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.600\nDid that just come from the fact that you knew what had to be done?\n\n352\n00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:16.840\nWell, I think it happened from it comes also from fear of failure.\n\n353\n00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:21.430\nSo what I say is the difference between success and failure are two sides of a\n\n354\n00:15:21.430 --> 00:15:22.120\nvery thin\n\n355\n00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:27.120\ndime and you're not pre-ordained to succeed or pre-ordained to fail.\n\n356\n00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:30.940\nSo I would wake up every morning with confidence but knowing that nothing's\n\n357\n00:15:30.940 --> 00:15:31.800\nguaranteed.\n\n358\n00:15:31.800 --> 00:15:35.440\nYou can fail with this thing and that's a powerful motivator.\n\n359\n00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:38.640\nYou know, one of the five things that you laid out to the board that you wanted\n\n360\n00:15:38.640 --> 00:15:38.880\nto do\n\n361\n00:15:38.880 --> 00:15:43.720\nwas to make sure that the team stopped being satisfied with being number two to\n\n362\n00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:44.240\nthe New\n\n363\n00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:45.240\nYork Stock Exchange.\n\n364\n00:15:45.240 --> 00:15:50.200\nWhat was the biggest thing you did to define reality for your team?\n\n365\n00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:54.610\nAnd how did you really like the competitive fire where this became sort of like\n\n366\n00:15:54.610 --> 00:15:55.720\nan unacceptable\n\n367\n00:15:55.720 --> 00:15:56.960\nmindset?\n\n368\n00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:00.960\nWell, you really had to put a new team in.\n\n369\n00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:04.950\nSo in terms of the management team, the only person who came from old NASDAQ\n\n370\n00:16:04.950 --> 00:16:05.400\nwas a Dean\n\n371\n00:16:05.400 --> 00:16:10.920\nof Friedman who was my very capable successor there.\n\n372\n00:16:10.920 --> 00:16:15.140\nSo we hired a couple of people, we got a lot of people through acquisitions and\n\n373\n00:16:15.140 --> 00:16:15.600\nthen we\n\n374\n00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:20.120\ngrew people internally more and more over time there.\n\n375\n00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:23.570\nAnd you know, one of the first things I said is we followed the book Good to\n\n376\n00:16:23.570 --> 00:16:24.120\nGreat.\n\n377\n00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:27.760\nSo everybody read that and I said the most important thing is getting the right\n\n378\n00:16:27.760 --> 00:16:28.200\npeople\n\n379\n00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:29.360\non the bus.\n\n380\n00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:32.810\nAs much as you have to have a one, three and five year strategic plan, they're\n\n381\n00:16:32.810 --> 00:16:33.200\nalways\n\n382\n00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:34.200\ngoing to be wrong.\n\n383\n00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:35.200\nRight?\n\n384\n00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:38.580\nSo you have to have the athletes on the bus who will direct it as the world\n\n385\n00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:39.240\nchanges.\n\n386\n00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:43.760\nSo I was all about let's get the proper team in place, right?\n\n387\n00:16:43.760 --> 00:16:46.960\nThe right team and then we'll really decide where to go.\n\n388\n00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:51.740\nSo you used the book Good to Great as a shared experience to really take people\n\n389\n00:16:51.740 --> 00:16:52.480\nfrom me to\n\n390\n00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:54.800\nwe where you could all get on the same page.\n\n391\n00:16:54.800 --> 00:16:56.080\nYes, definitely.\n\n392\n00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:58.960\nAnd again, the culture when I first got there, nobody thought in those terms,\n\n393\n00:16:58.960 --> 00:16:59.400\nright?\n\n394\n00:16:59.400 --> 00:17:02.440\nNASDAQ had been a monopoly as part of the regulator.\n\n395\n00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:06.280\nSo, you know, we had a lot of people choose to leave because they wanted to be\n\n396\n00:17:06.280 --> 00:17:06.600\nin the\n\n397\n00:17:06.600 --> 00:17:07.600\nregulated environment.\n\n398\n00:17:07.600 --> 00:17:10.160\nI said, we're going to way measure and count everything.\n\n399\n00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:11.160\nIt's going to be meritocracy.\n\n400\n00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:14.410\nIt's going to be based on performance, you love incentives and not everybody\n\n401\n00:17:14.410 --> 00:17:15.320\nwants that.\n\n402\n00:17:15.320 --> 00:17:18.580\nSo they left there, but they had to get the message, okay, now we're going to\n\n403\n00:17:18.580 --> 00:17:18.920\ntry to\n\n404\n00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:21.480\nget best practices in terms of the culture.\n\n405\n00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:25.240\nNow we grow and that was a good way for me to communicate through.\n\n406\n00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:29.080\nYou say your motto is people first.\n\n407\n00:17:29.080 --> 00:17:34.600\nThat sounds like Pablam when a lot of CEOs say that.\n\n408\n00:17:34.600 --> 00:17:37.320\nWhy and how did you really make that real?\n\n409\n00:17:37.320 --> 00:17:39.760\nSo it just wasn't the typical BS that comes out.\n\n410\n00:17:39.760 --> 00:17:41.480\nWell, let me tell you why I think it's important.\n\n411\n00:17:41.480 --> 00:17:47.620\nSo I would say if you had a better widget than anybody else and nobody else\n\n412\n00:17:47.620 --> 00:17:48.800\ncould produce\n\n413\n00:17:48.800 --> 00:17:53.080\nthat widget, you can violate a lot of management principles, right?\n\n414\n00:17:53.080 --> 00:17:56.320\nBecause people come to that unique widget you have.\n\n415\n00:17:56.320 --> 00:18:00.450\nBut the fact is that the world we live in, even if you have a competitive\n\n416\n00:18:00.450 --> 00:18:01.240\nadvantage,\n\n417\n00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:03.600\nit's temporary and people catch up.\n\n418\n00:18:03.600 --> 00:18:07.180\nSo if you're in this similar widget business, then it's going to be about how\n\n419\n00:18:07.180 --> 00:18:07.840\nyou execute\n\n420\n00:18:07.840 --> 00:18:09.480\nyour plans, right?\n\n421\n00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:13.720\nAnd you're going to execute your plans by having engaged employees, right?\n\n422\n00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:14.720\nHard stop.\n\n423\n00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:19.440\nThere's a fundamental difference of coming to work to work nine to five with\n\n424\n00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:20.040\ncoming to\n\n425\n00:18:20.040 --> 00:18:21.400\nwork with passion, right?\n\n426\n00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:26.960\nSo we would take 10% of our incentive pay and base that upon how engaged the\n\n427\n00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:27.640\nsurveys\n\n428\n00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:30.600\nwe run, how engaged our employees were.\n\n429\n00:18:30.600 --> 00:18:34.510\nSo you really have an employee could be at a level one, but if he's engaged, he\n\n430\n00:18:34.510 --> 00:18:35.000\n's level\n\n431\n00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:41.400\n2.5, so the productivity yield of having engaged employees is massive, right?\n\n432\n00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:43.280\nPeople talk about engagement all the time now.\n\n433\n00:18:43.280 --> 00:18:44.280\nYou were really ahead of the time.\n\n434\n00:18:44.280 --> 00:18:45.280\nWe were.\n\n435\n00:18:45.280 --> 00:18:47.040\nWhat's the majoring in that and embolancing people?\n\n436\n00:18:47.040 --> 00:18:50.860\nYeah, you just walked the halls and you see people who are happy campers who\n\n437\n00:18:50.860 --> 00:18:51.640\ncome into\n\n438\n00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:52.640\nwork.\n\n439\n00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:56.040\nI think they're 10 times more productive than somebody just putting in their\n\n440\n00:18:56.040 --> 00:18:56.440\ntime.\n\n441\n00:18:56.440 --> 00:18:58.920\nAnd you know this, you know, obviously very well.\n\n442\n00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:04.130\nNow, like I said, if I had a better mouse trap than nobody else could replicate\n\n443\n00:19:04.130 --> 00:19:04.680\n, then\n\n444\n00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:05.680\nyou can do a lot.\n\n445\n00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:14.000\nYou know, you can do a lot of bad management thing.\n\n446\n00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:17.520\nYou also say promote before you recruit.\n\n447\n00:19:17.520 --> 00:19:21.300\nCan you tell us a story of how you sought out a high potential person, sort of\n\n448\n00:19:21.300 --> 00:19:21.800\na diamond\n\n449\n00:19:21.800 --> 00:19:23.640\nin the rough and you elevated them?\n\n450\n00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:27.080\nWell, a Dean of Friedman would be the one person, my successors.\n\n451\n00:19:27.080 --> 00:19:30.600\nI would say this in terms of why I say that, right?\n\n452\n00:19:30.600 --> 00:19:34.600\nWhen you interview somebody, it's an imperfect process, right?\n\n453\n00:19:34.600 --> 00:19:37.920\nWhen you try to get better at it and you do get better at it.\n\n454\n00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:41.430\nBut I look at somebody who's been in the shop, you've been interviewing that\n\n455\n00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:41.880\nperson\n\n456\n00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:43.680\nfor five years, right?\n\n457\n00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:48.480\nYour hit rate of putting that person in a new position is so much higher than\n\n458\n00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:49.200\njust taking\n\n459\n00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:50.680\nsomebody from outside.\n\n460\n00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:55.440\nSo we tried to promote 80% from within and we felt very good about that.\n\n461\n00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:58.560\nNow if you overdo it, you do 100%, then you get two insular.\n\n462\n00:19:58.560 --> 00:20:02.800\nSo you need to get that 20% fresh blood coming in, but our bias was always to\n\n463\n00:20:02.800 --> 00:20:04.400\ntry to hire\n\n464\n00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:09.910\npeople we knew, we knew the pluses, we knew their minuses, and we knew what we\n\n465\n00:20:09.910 --> 00:20:10.440\ncould do\n\n466\n00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:11.440\nthere.\n\n467\n00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:12.440\nSo that was successful.\n\n468\n00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:16.850\nSo, Adina being the lead example, but you look at the team that I left there, I\n\n469\n00:20:16.850 --> 00:20:17.320\nthink\n\n470\n00:20:17.320 --> 00:20:19.160\nat least 80% were homegrown.\n\n471\n00:20:19.160 --> 00:20:21.800\nWell, how did you identify Adina?\n\n472\n00:20:21.800 --> 00:20:24.200\nYou know, she's sort of a diamond in the rough, maybe.\n\n473\n00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:25.200\nWhat was it?\n\n474\n00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:26.480\nAnd then what did you do to elevator?\n\n475\n00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:28.280\nYeah, it's not that hard.\n\n476\n00:20:28.280 --> 00:20:29.280\nYeah.\n\n477\n00:20:29.280 --> 00:20:30.280\nI mean, you've been there.\n\n478\n00:20:30.280 --> 00:20:37.200\nWhen you see talented people who are engaged, they really do stand out.\n\n479\n00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:42.100\nBut what I say in the book, it's important to recognize that in a corporate\n\n480\n00:20:42.100 --> 00:20:42.600\nsetting,\n\n481\n00:20:42.600 --> 00:20:45.040\narticulation is over-rewarded.\n\n482\n00:20:45.040 --> 00:20:49.170\nSo you have to make sure these people who look and talk good are actually\n\n483\n00:20:49.170 --> 00:20:50.160\nproducing.\n\n484\n00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.820\nAnd when I recruited Adina back to Nasdaq from Carlisle, we said, \"Here's the\n\n485\n00:20:53.820 --> 00:20:54.160\ntwo-year\n\n486\n00:20:54.160 --> 00:20:55.160\nplan.\n\n487\n00:20:55.160 --> 00:20:57.160\nYou have to produce every step of the way.\n\n488\n00:20:57.160 --> 00:20:59.800\nThis is nothing is pre-ordained.\"\n\n489\n00:20:59.800 --> 00:21:05.010\nAnd so what we did from a management style is, and it's opposite of Wall Street\n\n490\n00:21:05.010 --> 00:21:05.640\n, we take\n\n491\n00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:09.640\nthe first month, month and a half of the year and list everybody's objectives\n\n492\n00:21:09.640 --> 00:21:10.040\nfor the\n\n493\n00:21:10.040 --> 00:21:15.190\nyear down to the most minute detail for every single person in the employee\n\n494\n00:21:15.190 --> 00:21:15.880\nbase.\n\n495\n00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:16.880\nAll right.\n\n496\n00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:18.440\nSo this took a lot of time.\n\n497\n00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:22.330\nWe really had to know exactly what we were trying to do for the next 10 and a\n\n498\n00:21:22.330 --> 00:21:23.160\nhalf months,\n\n499\n00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:24.320\nthe way it worked in a year.\n\n500\n00:21:24.320 --> 00:21:29.740\nAt the end of the year, if you do those things, you didn't have to be nice to\n\n501\n00:21:29.740 --> 00:21:30.120\nme.\n\n502\n00:21:30.120 --> 00:21:31.120\nYou had to smile at me.\n\n503\n00:21:31.120 --> 00:21:32.120\nYou would get paid.\n\n504\n00:21:32.120 --> 00:21:33.120\nIt was a function.\n\n505\n00:21:33.120 --> 00:21:34.120\nThese are pure objectives.\n\n506\n00:21:34.120 --> 00:21:36.720\nSo Wall Street typically, they have a hunk of money.\n\n507\n00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:39.040\nAt the end of the year, they say, \"Okay, who's this?\"\n\n508\n00:21:39.040 --> 00:21:40.200\nAnd they kind of chop it up.\n\n509\n00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:41.200\nWe were the opposite.\n\n510\n00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:44.080\nWe put down thousands and thousands of objectives.\n\n511\n00:21:44.080 --> 00:21:47.200\nAnd then you see who actually performs with those objectives.\n\n512\n00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:51.690\nAnd what's great about that beyond the comp plan, it forces you to know what\n\n513\n00:21:51.690 --> 00:21:52.120\nyou're\n\n514\n00:21:52.120 --> 00:21:53.600\ntrying to do.\n\n515\n00:21:53.600 --> 00:21:55.040\nWhat you're trying to accomplish.\n\n516\n00:21:55.040 --> 00:21:57.200\nAnd that sounds silly, right?\n\n517\n00:21:57.200 --> 00:22:01.560\nBut many companies or most companies, they go into the year having a broad\n\n518\n00:22:01.560 --> 00:22:02.720\nsense, right?\n\n519\n00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:04.880\nBut not at the really detailed level.\n\n520\n00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:08.440\nSo it would be agonizing to go through, \"Okay.\"\n\n521\n00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:12.080\nAnd at the single contributor level, what they have to contribute.\n\n522\n00:22:12.080 --> 00:22:13.960\nAnd it all rolls up and that kind of thing.\n\n523\n00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:16.040\nAnd it just made it for a functioning machine.\n\n524\n00:22:16.040 --> 00:22:21.530\nYou know, I understand that you really had a robust debate process for your\n\n525\n00:22:21.530 --> 00:22:22.360\nexecutive\n\n526\n00:22:22.360 --> 00:22:23.360\nteam.\n\n527\n00:22:23.360 --> 00:22:27.640\nYou know, explain a time where you went through that process and it really paid\n\n528\n00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:28.520\noff for you.\n\n529\n00:22:28.520 --> 00:22:30.520\nWhere you might have gone down a different path.\n\n530\n00:22:30.520 --> 00:22:35.120\nYeah, well, I'll give this one that everybody can relate to.\n\n531\n00:22:35.120 --> 00:22:39.040\nSo we have the market site is in Times Square, right?\n\n532\n00:22:39.040 --> 00:22:41.960\nAnd it's where we do our market opens and market closes.\n\n533\n00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:47.560\nWhen I got there, we're losing, you know, half a million dollars a day.\n\n534\n00:22:47.560 --> 00:22:48.760\nAnd so I'm trying to cut costs.\n\n535\n00:22:48.760 --> 00:22:52.210\nAnd this thing sticking out there like a sore thumb is costing us $25, $30\n\n536\n00:22:52.210 --> 00:22:53.560\nmillion a year.\n\n537\n00:22:53.560 --> 00:22:55.520\nNo visible return.\n\n538\n00:22:55.520 --> 00:22:59.720\nAnd so I was hell bent and let's get out of this lease.\n\n539\n00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:04.130\nAnd we had the debates on this and I came to realize that would have been a\n\n540\n00:23:04.130 --> 00:23:05.000\nmistake.\n\n541\n00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.340\nSo when I talked to listed companies, right, when they talk about coming to NAS\n\n542\n00:23:09.340 --> 00:23:10.200\nDAQ, they're\n\n543\n00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:14.690\ntalking about coming to that market site in Times Square, they bring their mom,\n\n544\n00:23:14.690 --> 00:23:14.800\ntheir\n\n545\n00:23:14.800 --> 00:23:17.520\ndad, their kids for the opening bell ceremony.\n\n546\n00:23:17.520 --> 00:23:20.360\nSo I'm there saying, okay, this is kind of silly.\n\n547\n00:23:20.360 --> 00:23:22.360\nIt's costing me so much money.\n\n548\n00:23:22.360 --> 00:23:23.800\nWhy do I need that?\n\n549\n00:23:23.800 --> 00:23:27.430\nAnd then everybody had been there at NASDAQ for a long time saying, no, Bob,\n\n550\n00:23:27.430 --> 00:23:27.840\nyou got to\n\n551\n00:23:27.840 --> 00:23:29.720\nreally pay attention.\n\n552\n00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:31.000\nAnd they were completely right.\n\n553\n00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:34.920\nNow we did run it more efficiently than they had been running it before.\n\n554\n00:23:34.920 --> 00:23:36.560\nAnd I think in certain ways better.\n\n555\n00:23:36.560 --> 00:23:40.460\nBut that's, you know, we think about NASDAQ, why it's a big public image and\n\n556\n00:23:40.460 --> 00:23:40.960\nhas a big\n\n557\n00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:43.760\nbrand is certainly that market open ceremony.\n\n558\n00:23:43.760 --> 00:23:46.960\nIt was the emotional connection people had with brands.\n\n559\n00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:49.160\nYou were kind of being unemotional looking at it.\n\n560\n00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:51.200\nAnd then you said, okay, these guys are right.\n\n561\n00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:52.760\nYou would have been wrong.\n\n562\n00:23:52.760 --> 00:23:54.880\nIt's great when people save you for yourself.\n\n563\n00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:56.840\nYou know, you seem to be an instinctual leader.\n\n564\n00:23:56.840 --> 00:23:59.200\nI mean, you look at things and you say, Hey, let's go do this.\n\n565\n00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:05.600\nYou know, this is an example of where the instinct wasn't necessarily correct.\n\n566\n00:24:05.600 --> 00:24:09.110\nBut can you give an example where you balance your instincts with data and you\n\n567\n00:24:09.110 --> 00:24:09.760\nreally get\n\n568\n00:24:09.760 --> 00:24:10.760\nto the right decision?\n\n569\n00:24:10.760 --> 00:24:11.560\nSo I would say this.\n\n570\n00:24:11.560 --> 00:24:15.640\nI would never make a decision in the given day.\n\n571\n00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:21.680\nI have a belief that sleeping on something allows the brain to sort through the\n\n572\n00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:22.600\ndifferent\n\n573\n00:24:22.600 --> 00:24:23.840\nfactors there.\n\n574\n00:24:23.840 --> 00:24:28.750\nBut when I made a decision, I always wanted to have the pros and the cons,\n\n575\n00:24:28.750 --> 00:24:29.520\nright?\n\n576\n00:24:29.520 --> 00:24:31.440\nWe had the secradic debate.\n\n577\n00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:35.750\nI wanted to say, okay, why is this not a good decision to have people argue it\n\n578\n00:24:35.750 --> 00:24:37.840\nquite passionately.\n\n579\n00:24:37.840 --> 00:24:41.090\nAnd I think at the end of the day, you have to be instinctual or you have to be\n\n580\n00:24:41.090 --> 00:24:41.440\nyour\n\n581\n00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:42.440\ngut.\n\n582\n00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:43.760\nBut where's the gut come from?\n\n583\n00:24:43.760 --> 00:24:47.400\nThe gut comes from the big data you build up in your head, right?\n\n584\n00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:51.070\nThrough the years of knowledge that you have, it's the facts you accumulate\n\n585\n00:24:51.070 --> 00:24:52.160\nwith this particular\n\n586\n00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:53.160\nthing.\n\n587\n00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:54.600\nAnd then it will come together.\n\n588\n00:24:54.600 --> 00:24:58.070\nAnd a lot of times it comes together after a good exercise session, a good\n\n589\n00:24:58.070 --> 00:24:59.000\nnight's sleeping.\n\n590\n00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:00.640\nSo okay, this is where we're going to go.\n\n591\n00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:03.720\nSo it feels like it's a gut instinct, but really isn't.\n\n592\n00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:06.680\nIt's still a lot of, a lot different driven by data.\n\n593\n00:25:06.680 --> 00:25:10.800\nYou know, you've, you've seen a lot of CEOs come and, come and go.\n\n594\n00:25:10.800 --> 00:25:15.820\nWhat would be the key factor in your mind that really helps a CEO thrive versus\n\n595\n00:25:15.820 --> 00:25:16.600\nstruggle?\n\n596\n00:25:16.600 --> 00:25:18.760\nYeah, I have very strong opinions than this.\n\n597\n00:25:18.760 --> 00:25:23.240\nI had the unique opportunity to meet probably more CEOs than anybody.\n\n598\n00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:27.400\nAnd I'd meet all these bright, engaging, hardworking folks.\n\n599\n00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:31.220\nAnd then three years later, you hear they're, you know, they're not in the job\n\n600\n00:25:31.220 --> 00:25:31.880\nanymore.\n\n601\n00:25:31.880 --> 00:25:36.290\nSo if you get to be a CEO, right, you get there because you are very bright and\n\n602\n00:25:36.290 --> 00:25:36.780\nyou're\n\n603\n00:25:36.780 --> 00:25:38.240\ndriven and you're hardworking.\n\n604\n00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:39.400\nSo why do you fail?\n\n605\n00:25:39.400 --> 00:25:45.520\nSo me, you fail because you don't do things that lever your time, right?\n\n606\n00:25:45.520 --> 00:25:50.210\nSo you always have to pick the items that have the biggest lever effect on the\n\n607\n00:25:50.210 --> 00:25:51.400\norganization.\n\n608\n00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:55.800\nCEOs have to be comfortable with not being great at everything.\n\n609\n00:25:55.800 --> 00:25:58.680\nYou have a hundred things to do on you to do less.\n\n610\n00:25:58.680 --> 00:26:02.220\nYou got to pick the 10 that matter and do them great and you can't get hung up\n\n611\n00:26:02.220 --> 00:26:02.640\non the\n\n612\n00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:05.920\nbottom 10 that you're not doing well, right?\n\n613\n00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:10.050\nAnd so I think a lot of CEOs don't have the ability to not try to excel at\n\n614\n00:26:10.050 --> 00:26:11.120\neverything.\n\n615\n00:26:11.120 --> 00:26:14.000\nSo I would always try to say myself, what do I have to excel at?\n\n616\n00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:15.000\nWhat do I have to do?\n\n617\n00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:17.520\nAnd what has the most profound impact on the organization?\n\n618\n00:26:17.520 --> 00:26:21.190\nDid you have a process or what would be a trick of a trade that you might have\n\n619\n00:26:21.190 --> 00:26:21.520\nused\n\n620\n00:26:21.520 --> 00:26:22.760\nto really get to that?\n\n621\n00:26:22.760 --> 00:26:24.480\nWhat was your process?\n\n622\n00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:25.480\nThat's a great question.\n\n623\n00:26:25.480 --> 00:26:27.000\nSo, you know, it depended.\n\n624\n00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:32.020\nBut obviously you can, when you talk about leverage, you can see what has the\n\n625\n00:26:32.020 --> 00:26:32.680\nbiggest\n\n626\n00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:34.840\nfinancial return over time, right?\n\n627\n00:26:34.840 --> 00:26:39.290\nIs this a really big decision that I have to be involved with uniquely, that\n\n628\n00:26:39.290 --> 00:26:39.720\nkind of\n\n629\n00:26:39.720 --> 00:26:40.720\nthing?\n\n630\n00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:44.510\nIs this going to make an extra half a million dollars worth of revenue or $500\n\n631\n00:26:44.510 --> 00:26:45.240\nmillion worth\n\n632\n00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:46.240\nof revenue?\n\n633\n00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:48.160\nSo you have that kind of guide.\n\n634\n00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:52.160\nAnd or is this something internally that's going to have a dramatic impact on\n\n635\n00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:52.640\nhow the\n\n636\n00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:53.640\ncompany operates?\n\n637\n00:26:53.640 --> 00:26:57.160\nIf it's just a detail, then, you know, somebody else should be handling it.\n\n638\n00:26:57.160 --> 00:27:00.560\nBut if it's going to affect the thousand employees and they might be less\n\n639\n00:27:00.560 --> 00:27:01.120\nengaged and\n\n640\n00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:04.510\nmore engaged based on that decision, then you know that's what you're going to\n\n641\n00:27:04.510 --> 00:27:04.560\ndo.\n\n642\n00:27:04.560 --> 00:27:07.100\nAnd you really thought about leverage in the truest sense of the word we\n\n643\n00:27:07.100 --> 00:27:07.880\nthought about\n\n644\n00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:08.880\nthat.\n\n645\n00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:13.920\nYou know, I also love it when you say that a leader has to face reality and use\n\n646\n00:27:13.920 --> 00:27:14.600\nthe word\n\n647\n00:27:14.600 --> 00:27:18.120\nrelentlessly, you know, why?\n\n648\n00:27:18.120 --> 00:27:23.940\nIt's just amazing the capability, capacity of you and brain to obscure what is\n\n649\n00:27:23.940 --> 00:27:25.080\nreality.\n\n650\n00:27:25.080 --> 00:27:28.240\nYou want to see and perceive the way you want to see.\n\n651\n00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:31.920\nWhat's an example of where, you know, maybe a NASDAQ where the car was getting\n\n652\n00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:32.320\ncovered\n\n653\n00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:35.400\nsomething with your golf game or something like that.\n\n654\n00:27:35.400 --> 00:27:36.920\nBut that's not very good.\n\n655\n00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:39.080\nNo, your game is very good there.\n\n656\n00:27:39.080 --> 00:27:45.120\nSo it would say, so like in the early days, we would say we want to attract\n\n657\n00:27:45.120 --> 00:27:46.560\nnoisy companies\n\n658\n00:27:46.560 --> 00:27:51.440\nto come list with NASDAQ and we have a better trading mechanism.\n\n659\n00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:53.080\nWe have a better product.\n\n660\n00:27:53.080 --> 00:27:57.550\nAnd I'm saying to our guys, well, we really don't in the eyes of the customer,\n\n661\n00:27:57.550 --> 00:27:58.080\nthey're\n\n662\n00:27:58.080 --> 00:28:00.080\ndefining the product this way.\n\n663\n00:28:00.080 --> 00:28:03.770\nBut we're defining it that way, you have that kind of mismatch associated with\n\n664\n00:28:03.770 --> 00:28:04.160\nit.\n\n665\n00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:08.360\nSo I always, you know, what is the customer really thinking about what we offer\n\n666\n00:28:08.360 --> 00:28:08.880\nversus\n\n667\n00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:12.700\nwhat we think we're being, you know, perceived by the customer is a constant\n\n668\n00:28:12.700 --> 00:28:13.440\nthing you can\n\n669\n00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:15.960\nalways find your mistaken on.\n\n670\n00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:20.380\nYeah, you know, NASDAQ was a leader in technology in its early days, but it\n\n671\n00:28:20.380 --> 00:28:21.640\nreally fell behind.\n\n672\n00:28:21.640 --> 00:28:25.580\nYou come in as a technology leader, you know, that's your, you're really your,\n\n673\n00:28:25.580 --> 00:28:26.160\nyour ace\n\n674\n00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:27.560\nand the cap there.\n\n675\n00:28:27.560 --> 00:28:31.280\nYou know, how did you bring technology back to the forefront?\n\n676\n00:28:31.280 --> 00:28:32.960\nBecause NASDAQ really lost its way.\n\n677\n00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:35.960\nWhat did you, how did you change the culture back to where it needed to be?\n\n678\n00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:36.960\nYeah.\n\n679\n00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:39.880\nSo what's interesting in the book, it, I kind of have to go full circle.\n\n680\n00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:43.040\nSo I got there, NASDAQ had strong technology.\n\n681\n00:28:43.040 --> 00:28:44.960\nThey make a one release every year.\n\n682\n00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:48.640\nI call it a battleship and it was like perfect technology.\n\n683\n00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:52.710\nIt would work, it would be fail safe, but we had competitors who were now\n\n684\n00:28:52.710 --> 00:28:53.160\nputting new\n\n685\n00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:57.370\nsoftware leases out every week, sometimes every day, and there was somewhat r\n\n686\n00:28:57.370 --> 00:28:58.160\nickety.\n\n687\n00:28:58.160 --> 00:28:59.760\nAnd the system failed.\n\n688\n00:28:59.760 --> 00:29:01.800\nThey would just restart it up, right?\n\n689\n00:29:01.800 --> 00:29:04.640\nIf NASDAQ failed, it would be in the Wall Street Journal there.\n\n690\n00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:09.080\nSo we had to take our battleship and make it more like a PT boat.\n\n691\n00:29:09.080 --> 00:29:13.240\nAnd you know, to defend the old NASDAQ folks, it's not black and white, right?\n\n692\n00:29:13.240 --> 00:29:16.940\nThey were engineering for a, a different market, but I got there in the time\n\n693\n00:29:16.940 --> 00:29:17.800\nwhere the market\n\n694\n00:29:17.800 --> 00:29:19.840\nwas going through rapid change.\n\n695\n00:29:19.840 --> 00:29:26.030\nSo one of my recurring themes is, you know, your approach to situations, your\n\n696\n00:29:26.030 --> 00:29:27.080\nmanagement\n\n697\n00:29:27.080 --> 00:29:30.000\nphilosophy kind of depends on where you are.\n\n698\n00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.960\nSo I had a situation where the market was dramatically changing.\n\n699\n00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:36.960\nThey didn't care about reliability as much as they did.\n\n700\n00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:39.480\nAnd you had to respond to that customer need.\n\n701\n00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:43.020\nThen customers changed in time and went more back the old ways where the market\n\n702\n00:29:43.020 --> 00:29:43.440\nwas more\n\n703\n00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:48.160\nstable and reliability became, you know, more paramount there.\n\n704\n00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:52.640\nSo you've got to, you know, always understand what the deck of cards you're\n\n705\n00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:53.400\nplaying are\n\n706\n00:29:53.400 --> 00:29:57.520\ntoday because they will be different in the same market tomorrow.\n\n707\n00:29:57.520 --> 00:30:01.240\nWell, you really built your capability on the technology front and back to\n\n708\n00:30:01.240 --> 00:30:02.240\nwhere it became\n\n709\n00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:03.800\nworld class.\n\n710\n00:30:03.800 --> 00:30:08.400\nHow important was the human element in really making NASDAQ go with your\n\n711\n00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:09.400\ncustomers?\n\n712\n00:30:09.400 --> 00:30:11.360\nI incredibly important.\n\n713\n00:30:11.360 --> 00:30:14.200\nYou know, I use the word I use as relentless.\n\n714\n00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:18.480\nSo we had to be relentlessly focused on the customers.\n\n715\n00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:22.610\nAnd we were fortunate in that we had a competitor go through a bit of turmoil\n\n716\n00:30:22.610 --> 00:30:23.240\nthere.\n\n717\n00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:27.410\nAnd anytime, you're nothing better than seeing your competitor somewhat implode\n\n718\n00:30:27.410 --> 00:30:27.840\nas you go\n\n719\n00:30:27.840 --> 00:30:31.240\nalong that makes life so much easier.\n\n720\n00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:32.600\nBut at the end of the day, it's people.\n\n721\n00:30:32.600 --> 00:30:36.790\nSo we had to make NASDAQ a place where the top technologist on the planet\n\n722\n00:30:36.790 --> 00:30:38.640\nwanted to work.\n\n723\n00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:42.840\nAnd that was made easier by the fact that we were at bleeding edge, right?\n\n724\n00:30:42.840 --> 00:30:44.720\nAnd we pushed ourselves to be bleeding edge.\n\n725\n00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:46.160\nSo I got there.\n\n726\n00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:50.160\nWe were trying to get down to the millisecond response time in our what's known\n\n727\n00:30:50.160 --> 00:30:50.560\nas the\n\n728\n00:30:50.560 --> 00:30:52.640\norder match, the fundamental exchange.\n\n729\n00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:55.440\nAnd now, you know, they're down, you know, towards nanoseconds.\n\n730\n00:30:55.440 --> 00:31:01.590\nSo you had the people could really engineer a system that outside of the DoD,\n\n731\n00:31:01.590 --> 00:31:02.520\nyou know,\n\n732\n00:31:02.520 --> 00:31:03.520\ndidn't exist.\n\n733\n00:31:03.520 --> 00:31:06.840\nSo that was, gave us the ability to attract great talent.\n\n734\n00:31:06.840 --> 00:31:08.560\nAnd we made it a fun place to work.\n\n735\n00:31:08.560 --> 00:31:09.880\nYou know, and old adage.\n\n736\n00:31:09.880 --> 00:31:13.400\nAnd you obviously believe in this is to listen and respond to the voice of the\n\n737\n00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:14.080\ncustomer.\n\n738\n00:31:14.080 --> 00:31:17.600\nCan you tell us a story where you really got a great idea from a customer just\n\n739\n00:31:17.600 --> 00:31:18.600\nby listening?\n\n740\n00:31:18.600 --> 00:31:21.850\nWell, I tell you a couple of thoughts that we got from customers, which are\n\n741\n00:31:21.850 --> 00:31:22.320\ngreat, but\n\n742\n00:31:22.320 --> 00:31:24.000\nthen didn't pan out as businesses.\n\n743\n00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:28.590\nSo, you know, when you think I always debate, you know, the Steve Jobs approach\n\n744\n00:31:28.590 --> 00:31:29.400\n, you know,\n\n745\n00:31:29.400 --> 00:31:32.280\nyou'll take the customers where they want to go.\n\n746\n00:31:32.280 --> 00:31:36.100\nBut one of the things, and this is the customers are telling us we need to get\n\n747\n00:31:36.100 --> 00:31:37.080\nbetter research\n\n748\n00:31:37.080 --> 00:31:39.560\ncoverage on the smaller companies.\n\n749\n00:31:39.560 --> 00:31:43.430\nSo because when you had research coverage, that would attract investors,\n\n750\n00:31:43.430 --> 00:31:44.400\nattract volume,\n\n751\n00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:46.080\nand hopefully help their stock price.\n\n752\n00:31:46.080 --> 00:31:51.710\nSo we spent a fair bit of money on building up a research network in port and\n\n753\n00:31:51.710 --> 00:31:52.840\nconjunction\n\n754\n00:31:52.840 --> 00:31:54.360\nwith Reuters.\n\n755\n00:31:54.360 --> 00:31:59.140\nAnd there's only one thing worse than having one customer is, and that's having\n\n756\n00:31:59.140 --> 00:31:59.680\none.\n\n757\n00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:03.040\nSo we have one, you've got to activate all the support networks and get that.\n\n758\n00:32:03.040 --> 00:32:07.000\nSo we like a half a dozen customers who are part of this research network.\n\n759\n00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:09.040\nAnd it's a problem the market still has today.\n\n760\n00:32:09.040 --> 00:32:10.040\nRight?\n\n761\n00:32:10.040 --> 00:32:14.220\nYoung brands, Apple doesn't have issues with research coverage, but you go down\n\n762\n00:32:14.220 --> 00:32:14.480\n, if you're\n\n763\n00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:21.440\na $500 million market cap company, a lower, then you have an issue with that.\n\n764\n00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:28.190\nSo, you know, I take customers as valuable for the small incremental stuffs you\n\n765\n00:32:28.190 --> 00:32:28.640\nwant\n\n766\n00:32:28.640 --> 00:32:30.200\nto do in your product.\n\n767\n00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:34.260\nBut my feeling is, again, for the bigger moves, you have to kind of come up\n\n768\n00:32:34.260 --> 00:32:35.800\nwith it yourself.\n\n769\n00:32:35.800 --> 00:32:39.860\nBut when you say come up with yourself, that's a misnomer in that it's still\n\n770\n00:32:39.860 --> 00:32:40.720\nsynthesizing\n\n771\n00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:45.110\neverything you know, all the customer feedback, feedback to you, and then\n\n772\n00:32:45.110 --> 00:32:46.520\nputting it together.\n\n773\n00:32:46.520 --> 00:32:47.800\nThis is what we need to do.\n\n774\n00:32:47.800 --> 00:32:51.540\nSo my general advice is small stuff from customers, bigger stuff, you got to\n\n775\n00:32:51.540 --> 00:32:52.520\nkind of take customer\n\n776\n00:32:52.520 --> 00:32:55.320\ninput is one of the inputs, but it's certainly not the only one.\n\n777\n00:32:55.320 --> 00:32:57.800\nHow big an idea was dual listing for you?\n\n778\n00:32:57.800 --> 00:32:58.960\nIt was big at the time.\n\n779\n00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:00.440\nIt was a lot of fun.\n\n780\n00:33:00.440 --> 00:33:06.350\nAnd that came, we went to see Charles Schwab, and he said, \"What about dual\n\n781\n00:33:06.350 --> 00:33:07.520\nlisting?\"\n\n782\n00:33:07.520 --> 00:33:11.050\nAnd I immediately rejected it thinking he was just trying to get the meeting\n\n783\n00:33:11.050 --> 00:33:11.680\nover and have\n\n784\n00:33:11.680 --> 00:33:14.400\na pleasant meeting because, you know, we weren't there.\n\n785\n00:33:14.400 --> 00:33:17.650\nBut then we got in the elevator afterwards with Bruce Osse who was running that\n\n786\n00:33:17.650 --> 00:33:17.920\npart\n\n787\n00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:22.000\nof the business and said, \"That has some merit because the economics of the\n\n788\n00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:23.480\nlisting business\n\n789\n00:33:23.480 --> 00:33:24.680\nweren't that important.\n\n790\n00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:26.040\nIt was the branding element.\n\n791\n00:33:26.040 --> 00:33:29.920\nSo do have companies say, \"Yes, I want to also list on NASDAQ.\"\n\n792\n00:33:29.920 --> 00:33:32.360\nWe got great brand awareness out of it.\n\n793\n00:33:32.360 --> 00:33:37.000\nAnd that helped us get on the march of having actual companies switch.\n\n794\n00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:40.990\nSo right now I think NASDAQ is up over a trillion dollars in market cap, which\n\n795\n00:33:40.990 --> 00:33:41.680\nis switched\n\n796\n00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:44.240\nfrom NISY to NASDAQ.\n\n797\n00:33:44.240 --> 00:33:46.680\nAnd it started with the dual listing as the first step.\n\n798\n00:33:46.680 --> 00:33:48.760\nI got to give Chuck Crottet for that.\n\n799\n00:33:48.760 --> 00:33:51.720\nYou've met so many great CEOs.\n\n800\n00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:54.360\nName the top three that impressed you the most.\n\n801\n00:33:54.360 --> 00:33:59.840\nWell, I think if you sit and listen to Bill Gates' talk on any topic, which we\n\n802\n00:33:59.840 --> 00:34:00.480\nused to\n\n803\n00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:05.880\nget at the MicroCO Summit, it's just amazing the man's breadth of knowledge.\n\n804\n00:34:05.880 --> 00:34:11.320\nAnd I happen to be watching a MIT podcast last night about battery technology.\n\n805\n00:34:11.320 --> 00:34:13.440\nThis is one of my passions.\n\n806\n00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:17.010\nAnd sure enough, Bill Gates was the funding source and Bill Gates approached\n\n807\n00:34:17.010 --> 00:34:17.520\nthis from\n\n808\n00:34:17.520 --> 00:34:19.280\nProfessor Early saying, \"I'm there.\"\n\n809\n00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:23.040\nSo you talk about anything good in the world that can happen.\n\n810\n00:34:23.040 --> 00:34:27.200\nI think you'd have to put Bill at the head of the list.\n\n811\n00:34:27.200 --> 00:34:29.960\nAnd I remember meeting Steve Jobs.\n\n812\n00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:34.600\nAnd we were both going to a session with Hank Paulson.\n\n813\n00:34:34.600 --> 00:34:37.680\nWe had sponsored it for some of the leading CEOs in the Valley.\n\n814\n00:34:37.680 --> 00:34:39.560\nI happened to get there early.\n\n815\n00:34:39.560 --> 00:34:40.560\nHe was there early.\n\n816\n00:34:40.560 --> 00:34:42.760\nAnd it was interesting.\n\n817\n00:34:42.760 --> 00:34:44.480\nHe had a different aura.\n\n818\n00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:47.980\nYou know, within 10 seconds, you knew you're in with a different type of human\n\n819\n00:34:47.980 --> 00:34:48.400\nbeing.\n\n820\n00:34:48.400 --> 00:34:52.840\nAnd that was something you'll just remember your whole life there.\n\n821\n00:34:52.840 --> 00:34:57.050\nAnd then the other one that was covered in the book is meeting Jeff Bezos for\n\n822\n00:34:57.050 --> 00:34:57.480\nthe first\n\n823\n00:34:57.480 --> 00:34:58.480\ntime.\n\n824\n00:34:58.480 --> 00:34:59.480\nI'll tell that story.\n\n825\n00:34:59.480 --> 00:35:00.480\nThat's a great one.\n\n826\n00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:03.320\nYeah, well, we were both just regular people.\n\n827\n00:35:03.320 --> 00:35:07.680\nSo I was a software entrepreneur and I was the ugliest demo doll on the planet.\n\n828\n00:35:07.680 --> 00:35:12.640\nBut I'd bring around this big 20-inch monitor, cathode ray tube, and set up in\n\n829\n00:35:12.640 --> 00:35:13.240\nthe office\n\n830\n00:35:13.240 --> 00:35:14.240\nand boot it up.\n\n831\n00:35:14.240 --> 00:35:16.930\nAnd hopefully the software would work and go through a demonstration, which is\n\n832\n00:35:16.930 --> 00:35:17.360\nprimarily\n\n833\n00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:19.120\nscreen and mouse based.\n\n834\n00:35:19.120 --> 00:35:22.960\nSo I go into this office, it's maybe 9x12, but not even.\n\n835\n00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:25.560\nAnd I said, I don't know where I'm going to fit this thing in.\n\n836\n00:35:25.560 --> 00:35:29.480\nSo the guy behind the desk says to me, you know, don't set it up.\n\n837\n00:35:29.480 --> 00:35:31.520\nJust tell me what it does.\n\n838\n00:35:31.520 --> 00:35:34.740\nAnd I said, well, it's kind of hard because this is not like a piece of mill\n\n839\n00:35:34.740 --> 00:35:35.240\nware.\n\n840\n00:35:35.240 --> 00:35:36.960\nIt's a screen based system.\n\n841\n00:35:36.960 --> 00:35:38.280\nHe said, no, no, you can just tell me.\n\n842\n00:35:38.280 --> 00:35:41.200\nSo I said, all right, I don't have to set the boxes up.\n\n843\n00:35:41.200 --> 00:35:43.640\nThe software's guaranteed to work if I'm just talking about it.\n\n844\n00:35:43.640 --> 00:35:44.960\nI'm not going to have any bugs.\n\n845\n00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:49.930\nAnd so I started talking and then I look up the gentleman's got his eyes closed\n\n846\n00:35:49.930 --> 00:35:50.240\n.\n\n847\n00:35:50.240 --> 00:35:53.790\nI said, OK, this is now getting very weird as far as demonstrations go because\n\n848\n00:35:53.790 --> 00:35:54.000\nI don't\n\n849\n00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:56.080\nhave a computer and the guys eyes aren't open.\n\n850\n00:35:56.080 --> 00:35:59.910\nAnd then like 15 seconds later, he asked a very intelligent question and puts\n\n851\n00:35:59.910 --> 00:36:00.600\nhis eyes,\n\n852\n00:36:00.600 --> 00:36:01.840\nyou know, shut his eyes again.\n\n853\n00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:03.440\nThis goes on for 45 minutes.\n\n854\n00:36:03.440 --> 00:36:05.400\nAnd then we finished the demo.\n\n855\n00:36:05.400 --> 00:36:10.380\nSo what I like to say, and that was Jeff when he was just an employee at DE\n\n856\n00:36:10.380 --> 00:36:10.960\nShaw.\n\n857\n00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:17.060\nAnd I like to say he was the pure epitome of a visionary who is visualizing the\n\n858\n00:36:17.060 --> 00:36:18.080\nsoftware,\n\n859\n00:36:18.080 --> 00:36:20.640\nyou know, back in the day.\n\n860\n00:36:20.640 --> 00:36:22.280\nAnd Mackenzie was in the next office.\n\n861\n00:36:22.280 --> 00:36:25.480\nSo you know, there before Jeff was Jeff.\n\n862\n00:36:25.480 --> 00:36:27.320\nAnd he got it.\n\n863\n00:36:27.320 --> 00:36:28.640\nYeah, he got it.\n\n864\n00:36:28.640 --> 00:36:30.280\nHe had just the word saying.\n\n865\n00:36:30.280 --> 00:36:34.230\nI want to ask you, you know, you'd ask so much success, obviously, you know,\n\n866\n00:36:34.230 --> 00:36:34.800\nbut everyone\n\n867\n00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:36.480\nhas an epic fail.\n\n868\n00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:39.600\nYou know, what would be yours and what did you learn from?\n\n869\n00:36:39.600 --> 00:36:41.800\nWell, it's very clearly Facebook.\n\n870\n00:36:41.800 --> 00:36:45.080\nSo we bungled the Facebook IPO, right?\n\n871\n00:36:45.080 --> 00:36:51.960\nAnd that was, you know, that was one of the few times where, you know, we're\n\n872\n00:36:51.960 --> 00:36:52.760\nknown in\n\n873\n00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:55.530\nthe business world where I became known in the general world, which I didn't\n\n874\n00:36:55.530 --> 00:36:56.160\nreally want\n\n875\n00:36:56.160 --> 00:36:58.080\nto be.\n\n876\n00:36:58.080 --> 00:37:01.560\nAnd what's interesting here, you know, the normal thing for a CEO to do when\n\n877\n00:37:01.560 --> 00:37:02.120\nsomething\n\n878\n00:37:02.120 --> 00:37:05.960\nlike that happens is you fire people, right?\n\n879\n00:37:05.960 --> 00:37:08.240\nAnd you feel good doing it.\n\n880\n00:37:08.240 --> 00:37:12.220\nBut what happened there in the ties back to what I was talking about before, I\n\n881\n00:37:12.220 --> 00:37:12.520\nhad to\n\n882\n00:37:12.520 --> 00:37:15.520\nexamine the root cause of what happened there.\n\n883\n00:37:15.520 --> 00:37:19.370\nAnd really what happened was tied back to the fact that I had let the\n\n884\n00:37:19.370 --> 00:37:20.600\ntechnology people,\n\n885\n00:37:20.600 --> 00:37:24.920\nwhich I always venerated, take complete control of the shop.\n\n886\n00:37:24.920 --> 00:37:29.680\nThey had engineered the software without the users, our business users wanting\n\n887\n00:37:29.680 --> 00:37:30.400\nit, right?\n\n888\n00:37:30.400 --> 00:37:32.720\nAnd they had the control to do that.\n\n889\n00:37:32.720 --> 00:37:36.800\nAnd we were still running NASDAQ like I had to run it in '03.\n\n890\n00:37:36.800 --> 00:37:43.080\nBut I had to change NASDAQ back to a more institutionalized culture.\n\n891\n00:37:43.080 --> 00:37:45.000\nSo again, it's situational.\n\n892\n00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:48.970\nIf I came in '03 and kept the institutionalized culture, we would have been out\n\n893\n00:37:48.970 --> 00:37:49.680\nof business,\n\n894\n00:37:49.680 --> 00:37:50.680\nright?\n\n895\n00:37:50.680 --> 00:37:54.820\nSo we put in really a startup culture, guys releasing software, technology guys\n\n896\n00:37:54.820 --> 00:37:55.640\n, I worshipped\n\n897\n00:37:55.640 --> 00:37:56.800\neverybody knew it, right?\n\n898\n00:37:56.800 --> 00:37:59.760\nI had my core team, they were in a circle.\n\n899\n00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:01.080\nBut the world had changed.\n\n900\n00:38:01.080 --> 00:38:03.320\nAnd now you're doing the Facebook IPO.\n\n901\n00:38:03.320 --> 00:38:07.920\nEverybody cares that you've got this innovative software thing that does things\n\n902\n00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:08.200\n.\n\n903\n00:38:08.200 --> 00:38:11.240\nThey just want the stupid thing to work.\n\n904\n00:38:11.240 --> 00:38:15.730\nSo I had to then move the culture back more to where it was where I got there,\n\n905\n00:38:15.730 --> 00:38:17.040\nmore intelligently\n\n906\n00:38:17.040 --> 00:38:18.480\nobviously.\n\n907\n00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:23.940\nAnd what's interesting is I didn't fire people, but everybody who was from that\n\n908\n00:38:23.940 --> 00:38:24.960\nolder culture,\n\n909\n00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:27.480\nthe innovative culture, they left, right?\n\n910\n00:38:27.480 --> 00:38:28.960\nThey didn't want to come.\n\n911\n00:38:28.960 --> 00:38:29.960\nAnd I knew they would, right?\n\n912\n00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:34.290\nSo you have these bright talented people that you'd want if you're starting up\n\n913\n00:38:34.290 --> 00:38:34.960\na business\n\n914\n00:38:34.960 --> 00:38:36.480\nseven days a week.\n\n915\n00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:41.080\nNow we're saying, okay, we're going to go with structured releases.\n\n916\n00:38:41.080 --> 00:38:43.640\nYou're not going to control when the product goes in the release.\n\n917\n00:38:43.640 --> 00:38:44.960\nIt's going to be the user.\n\n918\n00:38:44.960 --> 00:38:46.800\nThe user's going to give you the specs.\n\n919\n00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:50.440\nYou listen to the user specs and then you program to it.\n\n920\n00:38:50.440 --> 00:38:51.880\nAnd they don't want that.\n\n921\n00:38:51.880 --> 00:38:56.010\nSo I didn't have to fire people, but really, but within a year or two,\n\n922\n00:38:56.010 --> 00:38:57.360\neverybody associated\n\n923\n00:38:57.360 --> 00:39:00.530\nwith the culture had built an 03 from the core team said, you know, I'm going\n\n924\n00:39:00.530 --> 00:39:01.040\nto go find\n\n925\n00:39:01.040 --> 00:39:02.040\nsome money.\n\n926\n00:39:02.040 --> 00:39:03.040\nTo care itself, basically.\n\n927\n00:39:03.040 --> 00:39:05.480\nYeah, but that was a great learning experience.\n\n928\n00:39:05.480 --> 00:39:10.340\nAnd that's why I keep saying you got to understand that was right yesterday is\n\n929\n00:39:10.340 --> 00:39:11.480\nby definition,\n\n930\n00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:13.040\nnot right tomorrow, right?\n\n931\n00:39:13.040 --> 00:39:17.320\nSo I did the exactly the right thing in 03 we wouldn't have survived, but then\n\n932\n00:39:17.320 --> 00:39:18.000\nwe had\n\n933\n00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:23.480\nto evolve back to where we were as the business became more institutionalized.\n\n934\n00:39:23.480 --> 00:39:24.480\nSo that was a great learning experience.\n\n935\n00:39:24.480 --> 00:39:26.160\nNow I want to have a little fun with you.\n\n936\n00:39:26.160 --> 00:39:28.470\nAnd I haven't done, but we have a little more fun with you and ask you a\n\n937\n00:39:28.470 --> 00:39:29.280\nlightning round\n\n938\n00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:31.440\nof questions with the quick response.\n\n939\n00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:32.440\nOkay.\n\n940\n00:39:32.440 --> 00:39:37.120\nSo what would be the three words that best describe you?\n\n941\n00:39:37.120 --> 00:39:38.520\nIntense.\n\n942\n00:39:38.520 --> 00:39:46.760\nHopefully have things in context and a decent guy.\n\n943\n00:39:46.760 --> 00:39:49.640\nWhat's your biggest pet peeve of all?\n\n944\n00:39:49.640 --> 00:39:53.120\nI don't like I like things planned out, right?\n\n945\n00:39:53.120 --> 00:39:56.640\nI know the world will never be the way you want it to be.\n\n946\n00:39:56.640 --> 00:39:59.340\nLike I said, you have to have a one in three year five, five year plan, but it\n\n947\n00:39:59.340 --> 00:39:59.840\n'll never\n\n948\n00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:00.840\nwork out that way.\n\n949\n00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:02.440\nSo I don't expect that.\n\n950\n00:40:02.440 --> 00:40:06.520\nBut do people just to come and work kind of blindly with not knowing one the\n\n951\n00:40:06.520 --> 00:40:07.080\nmission\n\n952\n00:40:07.080 --> 00:40:10.730\nof where the direction is kind of drives me crazy because it's just you wasting\n\n953\n00:40:10.730 --> 00:40:12.400\ncycles?\n\n954\n00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:16.680\nIf you could trade places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?\n\n955\n00:40:16.680 --> 00:40:17.680\nBob Dylan.\n\n956\n00:40:17.680 --> 00:40:18.680\nWhy?\n\n957\n00:40:18.680 --> 00:40:20.080\nWell, I was an English major.\n\n958\n00:40:20.080 --> 00:40:22.440\nSo that's still part of my roots there.\n\n959\n00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:26.260\nSo I've met many presidents, but if I had to meet one person on the planet, I'd\n\n960\n00:40:26.260 --> 00:40:26.520\nwant\n\n961\n00:40:26.520 --> 00:40:27.840\nto meet Bob Dylan.\n\n962\n00:40:27.840 --> 00:40:30.200\nBut he was a shy, reclusive guy.\n\n963\n00:40:30.200 --> 00:40:32.360\nHe wouldn't actually say anything to me.\n\n964\n00:40:32.360 --> 00:40:34.000\nIt'd be a quiet lunch.\n\n965\n00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:36.080\nIt'd be a quiet lunch.\n\n966\n00:40:36.080 --> 00:40:40.550\nYou know, what would be a random fact that about yourself that few people would\n\n967\n00:40:40.550 --> 00:40:41.080\nknow?\n\n968\n00:40:41.080 --> 00:40:45.810\nWell, it's gotten some publicity, but I have turtles as pets, live turtles as\n\n969\n00:40:45.810 --> 00:40:47.680\npets there.\n\n970\n00:40:47.680 --> 00:40:49.280\nAnd they're down here in Florida.\n\n971\n00:40:49.280 --> 00:40:51.600\nThey're loving the weather, the tortoises.\n\n972\n00:40:51.600 --> 00:40:56.600\nSo, okay, and the last thing, how much can you bench press at your height?\n\n973\n00:40:56.600 --> 00:40:59.480\nAt my height, 300.\n\n974\n00:40:59.480 --> 00:41:01.600\nThis guy only weighs about 160 pounds.\n\n975\n00:41:01.600 --> 00:41:03.760\nSo that's pretty impressive.\n\n976\n00:41:03.760 --> 00:41:06.680\nSo the turtle, your favorite animal.\n\n977\n00:41:06.680 --> 00:41:07.680\nWhy?\n\n978\n00:41:07.680 --> 00:41:13.150\nWell, I think obviously I really relate to them in some way, but you know, it's\n\n979\n00:41:13.150 --> 00:41:13.920\na message,\n\n980\n00:41:13.920 --> 00:41:14.920\nright?\n\n981\n00:41:14.920 --> 00:41:16.560\nA turtle is persistent.\n\n982\n00:41:16.560 --> 00:41:18.920\nThey're living walking dinosaurs, right?\n\n983\n00:41:18.920 --> 00:41:20.760\nThey're dinosaurs on the earth.\n\n984\n00:41:20.760 --> 00:41:23.840\nThey're not like going for them, but they survive, right?\n\n985\n00:41:23.840 --> 00:41:25.280\nSo I see that.\n\n986\n00:41:25.280 --> 00:41:28.400\nAnd you know, in terms of business, which I read, I remember what is a young\n\n987\n00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:29.040\nman, I read\n\n988\n00:41:29.040 --> 00:41:30.800\na book on Bill Gates.\n\n989\n00:41:30.800 --> 00:41:34.520\nAnd he said he never succeeded at something the first time he tried.\n\n990\n00:41:34.520 --> 00:41:35.720\nAnd that just stuck with me.\n\n991\n00:41:35.720 --> 00:41:38.840\nSo I'm definitely a perseverance kind of fellow.\n\n992\n00:41:38.840 --> 00:41:40.200\nDon't expect it to be easy.\n\n993\n00:41:40.200 --> 00:41:43.340\nDon't expect to succeed the first time you keep at it and you get where you\n\n994\n00:41:43.340 --> 00:41:44.120\nneed to go.\n\n995\n00:41:44.120 --> 00:41:48.610\nYou know, you're also doing a lot of good in the world and you founded the USAT\n\n996\n00:41:48.610 --> 00:41:49.640\nF Foundation,\n\n997\n00:41:49.640 --> 00:41:54.840\nwhich supports athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds for the next generation\n\n998\n00:41:54.840 --> 00:41:55.800\nof Olympics.\n\n999\n00:41:55.800 --> 00:41:56.800\nHow did you get into that?\n\n1000\n00:41:56.800 --> 00:42:00.800\nWell, my daughter ran track and she was a sprinter.\n\n1001\n00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:02.560\nSo I, and a long jumper.\n\n1002\n00:42:02.560 --> 00:42:07.200\nSo we were primarily with the kids who came from the inner city, you know, not\n\n1003\n00:42:07.200 --> 00:42:07.960\nthe distance\n\n1004\n00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:08.960\nrunners.\n\n1005\n00:42:08.960 --> 00:42:11.800\nAnd you saw how hard they worked to be good.\n\n1006\n00:42:11.800 --> 00:42:15.440\nAnd some of the stereotype is a lot of natural ability, but it's natural\n\n1007\n00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:16.480\nability, levered\n\n1008\n00:42:16.480 --> 00:42:18.200\nby hard work.\n\n1009\n00:42:18.200 --> 00:42:23.230\nAnd the theory of the case was if you spend 10 years running track, you're\n\n1010\n00:42:23.230 --> 00:42:24.440\nlearning delayed\n\n1011\n00:42:24.440 --> 00:42:25.440\ngratification.\n\n1012\n00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:26.440\nRight?\n\n1013\n00:42:26.440 --> 00:42:28.280\nI would love playing pickup basketball.\n\n1014\n00:42:28.280 --> 00:42:30.240\nI played a lot of basketball in my day.\n\n1015\n00:42:30.240 --> 00:42:31.240\nRight?\n\n1016\n00:42:31.240 --> 00:42:32.240\nThat's fun in the moment.\n\n1017\n00:42:32.240 --> 00:42:35.400\nBut if you're running track, the coach says, okay, I want you to go out on this\n\n1018\n00:42:35.400 --> 00:42:35.600\ntrack,\n\n1019\n00:42:35.600 --> 00:42:38.120\nrun around the track as hard as you can.\n\n1020\n00:42:38.120 --> 00:42:39.640\nYou're going to get two minutes to the rest.\n\n1021\n00:42:39.640 --> 00:42:41.040\nThen you get to do it again.\n\n1022\n00:42:41.040 --> 00:42:42.040\nRight?\n\n1023\n00:42:42.040 --> 00:42:43.040\nYou get to do that 10 times.\n\n1024\n00:42:43.040 --> 00:42:44.640\nSo that's not the most fun.\n\n1025\n00:42:44.640 --> 00:42:48.670\nRight? And so you're learning you got to work hard today to be successful\n\n1026\n00:42:48.670 --> 00:42:49.360\ntomorrow.\n\n1027\n00:42:49.360 --> 00:42:52.000\nSo I think track and field has a good way of doing it.\n\n1028\n00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:57.440\nAnd it's an easy sport in the, you know, less advantaged areas because it doesn\n\n1029\n00:42:57.440 --> 00:42:57.880\n't take\n\n1030\n00:42:57.880 --> 00:43:01.360\na lot of equipment and, you know, people can run without a lot of training.\n\n1031\n00:43:01.360 --> 00:43:02.360\nThat's great.\n\n1032\n00:43:02.360 --> 00:43:03.360\nYeah.\n\n1033\n00:43:03.360 --> 00:43:05.600\nYou know, you're a hard worker, obviously.\n\n1034\n00:43:05.600 --> 00:43:09.320\nI mean, you're driven, you know, you know, you put in a lot of time.\n\n1035\n00:43:09.320 --> 00:43:13.080\nHow'd you learn how to manage your work-life balance or, or digit?\n\n1036\n00:43:13.080 --> 00:43:17.680\nAnd did that have any impact on your decision to retire?\n\n1037\n00:43:17.680 --> 00:43:18.680\nThat's a great question.\n\n1038\n00:43:18.680 --> 00:43:22.730\nSo I say, I said to people many times, if you're looking for balance, you're\n\n1039\n00:43:22.730 --> 00:43:23.200\ngoing to\n\n1040\n00:43:23.200 --> 00:43:24.400\nfail, right?\n\n1041\n00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:25.400\nIt will not exist.\n\n1042\n00:43:25.400 --> 00:43:29.720\nIf you want to be successful, there's a price you have to pay and involves a\n\n1043\n00:43:29.720 --> 00:43:30.040\nlot of\n\n1044\n00:43:30.040 --> 00:43:31.040\nhard work.\n\n1045\n00:43:31.040 --> 00:43:34.640\nI'd also say it's a marathon, not a sprint.\n\n1046\n00:43:34.640 --> 00:43:37.040\nAt times you have to sprint, right?\n\n1047\n00:43:37.040 --> 00:43:38.880\nBut you have to be able to pace yourself.\n\n1048\n00:43:38.880 --> 00:43:42.550\nI've lost more managers trying to sprint for too long a period of time by\n\n1049\n00:43:42.550 --> 00:43:42.840\ntrying to\n\n1050\n00:43:42.840 --> 00:43:44.120\nwork too hard.\n\n1051\n00:43:44.120 --> 00:43:46.640\nBut I think you can get an integrated life.\n\n1052\n00:43:46.640 --> 00:43:49.320\nYou need a good life partner with that, right?\n\n1053\n00:43:49.320 --> 00:43:53.300\nBut if you think there's balance, I think that's too high of a goal, but have a\n\n1054\n00:43:53.300 --> 00:43:53.720\ngreat\n\n1055\n00:43:53.720 --> 00:43:54.880\nintegrated life.\n\n1056\n00:43:54.880 --> 00:44:00.090\nI've been fortunate to be married for the same woman for, I think, 38 to 39\n\n1057\n00:44:00.090 --> 00:44:00.600\nyears,\n\n1058\n00:44:00.600 --> 00:44:01.600\nsomething like that.\n\n1059\n00:44:01.600 --> 00:44:03.760\nYou can't do it without the family support.\n\n1060\n00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:04.760\nIt's just impossible.\n\n1061\n00:44:04.760 --> 00:44:09.730\nDo you think you're going to come to work at 100% productivity if you have a\n\n1062\n00:44:09.730 --> 00:44:10.680\nlot of commotion\n\n1063\n00:44:10.680 --> 00:44:11.880\nin your private life?\n\n1064\n00:44:11.880 --> 00:44:14.880\nI don't see it happening that way.\n\n1065\n00:44:14.880 --> 00:44:18.440\nI think it's certainly a team effort on the personal side.\n\n1066\n00:44:18.440 --> 00:44:20.280\nYou can't do it.\n\n1067\n00:44:20.280 --> 00:44:24.970\nCertainly one of the reasons I mentioned in the book wanted to retire is, as\n\n1068\n00:44:24.970 --> 00:44:25.720\nyou know,\n\n1069\n00:44:25.720 --> 00:44:28.560\nwhen the kids are little, they're there.\n\n1070\n00:44:28.560 --> 00:44:32.520\nAs you get older, you have to meet their schedules.\n\n1071\n00:44:32.520 --> 00:44:36.280\nI wanted to be in a position to meet their schedules.\n\n1072\n00:44:36.280 --> 00:44:38.080\nJust evolving to the times again.\n\n1073\n00:44:38.080 --> 00:44:40.080\nIt's just great.\n\n1074\n00:44:40.080 --> 00:44:42.800\nLet me wrap this up with one last question here, Bob.\n\n1075\n00:44:42.800 --> 00:44:44.640\nWhat's your own finished business?\n\n1076\n00:44:44.640 --> 00:44:47.200\nHow are you going to focus the rest of your life?\n\n1077\n00:44:47.200 --> 00:44:48.640\nWell, that's a big question.\n\n1078\n00:44:48.640 --> 00:44:50.000\nThat's a big question.\n\n1079\n00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:51.800\nI would say this.\n\n1080\n00:44:51.800 --> 00:44:57.040\nOne is I'm working 30 to 40% of what I was doing before.\n\n1081\n00:44:57.040 --> 00:44:58.920\nI think that's a good number.\n\n1082\n00:44:58.920 --> 00:45:02.000\nYou should never go from 100 to 0.\n\n1083\n00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:07.500\nTwo is I'm obviously spending more time on my charitable activities, which is a\n\n1084\n00:45:07.500 --> 00:45:09.680\ngood thing.\n\n1085\n00:45:09.680 --> 00:45:13.600\nYou get a different kind of reward out of that.\n\n1086\n00:45:13.600 --> 00:45:15.000\nI'm waiting for Granchold.\n\n1087\n00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:17.640\nI have three kids and no Granchold yet.\n\n1088\n00:45:17.640 --> 00:45:22.640\nBut obviously I'm there for the family and the family being extended family.\n\n1089\n00:45:22.640 --> 00:45:26.600\nI'm fortunate to have my both parents alive, which is not going to laugh.\n\n1090\n00:45:26.600 --> 00:45:30.840\nYes, I wanted to be there for them as they get the last trips around the track.\n\n1091\n00:45:30.840 --> 00:45:31.840\nThat's great.\n\n1092\n00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:35.920\nBob, I want to thank you so much for being on this podcast.\n\n1093\n00:45:35.920 --> 00:45:38.960\nAgain, I recommend everybody to read MarketMover.\n\n1094\n00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:40.600\nIt's a fantastic book.\n\n1095\n00:45:40.600 --> 00:45:42.800\nI learned a lot from it.\n\n1096\n00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:43.800\nYou're a heck of a leader.\n\n1097\n00:45:43.800 --> 00:45:45.280\nI don't know a lot about your industry.\n\n1098\n00:45:45.280 --> 00:45:49.660\nI haven't really read some of this stuff twice, but it was really, really\n\n1099\n00:45:49.660 --> 00:45:50.440\ninsightful\n\n1100\n00:45:50.440 --> 00:45:51.880\nand anybody can learn from it.\n\n1101\n00:45:51.880 --> 00:45:54.580\nI think hopefully, well, I know people are going to learn from this podcast and\n\n1102\n00:45:54.580 --> 00:45:54.920\nthat's\n\n1103\n00:45:54.920 --> 00:45:55.920\nwhat it's all about.\n\n1104\n00:45:55.920 --> 00:45:56.920\nThank you for having me.\n\n1105\n00:45:56.920 --> 00:45:57.420\nMy pleasure.\n\n1106\n00:45:57.420 --> 00:46:01.420\nAll right.\n\n1107\n00:46:01.420 --> 00:46:09.890\nDon't you just love how Bob can just cut right to the heart of an issue with\n\n1108\n00:46:09.890 --> 00:46:11.060\nsuch clarity\n\n1109\n00:46:11.060 --> 00:46:12.300\nand focus?\n\n1110\n00:46:12.300 --> 00:46:16.180\nIt's pretty darn easy to see why he was able to come in and so quickly dissect\n\n1111\n00:46:16.180 --> 00:46:16.900\nthe issues\n\n1112\n00:46:16.900 --> 00:46:20.980\nNasdaq was facing and turn the whole thing around.\n\n1113\n00:46:20.980 --> 00:46:25.300\nThat ability to get laser focused on what matters is a key skill for any leader\n\n1114\n00:46:25.300 --> 00:46:25.620\n.\n\n1115\n00:46:25.620 --> 00:46:31.290\nIn fact, Bob says it's the one skill that can be the difference between a CEO\n\n1116\n00:46:31.290 --> 00:46:31.940\nsuccess\n\n1117\n00:46:31.940 --> 00:46:33.540\nor failure.\n\n1118\n00:46:33.540 --> 00:46:37.770\nIt's darn near impossible to succeed at the highest level if you don't know how\n\n1119\n00:46:37.770 --> 00:46:38.340\nto leverage\n\n1120\n00:46:38.340 --> 00:46:39.340\nyour time.\n\n1121\n00:46:39.340 --> 00:46:42.640\nAnd if it's that important, I think it's the perfect thing for you to work on\n\n1122\n00:46:42.640 --> 00:46:43.540\nthis week\n\n1123\n00:46:43.540 --> 00:46:45.940\nto up your leadership game.\n\n1124\n00:46:45.940 --> 00:46:49.700\nSo this week is part of your weekly personal development plan.\n\n1125\n00:46:49.700 --> 00:46:52.980\nTake a good hard look at your to-do list.\n\n1126\n00:46:52.980 --> 00:46:57.030\nFind at least three tasks to not do because they just aren't a high leverage\n\n1127\n00:46:57.030 --> 00:46:57.700\nuse of your\n\n1128\n00:46:57.700 --> 00:46:58.900\ntime.\n\n1129\n00:46:58.900 --> 00:47:03.880\nLike Bob said, you may have 100 tasks on there that feel super important, but\n\n1130\n00:47:03.880 --> 00:47:04.380\nyou've got\n\n1131\n00:47:04.380 --> 00:47:09.260\nto stay relentlessly focused on the ones that truly move the needle for your\n\n1132\n00:47:09.260 --> 00:47:10.500\norganization.\n\n1133\n00:47:10.500 --> 00:47:13.100\nBring that kind of focus to work every day.\n\n1134\n00:47:13.100 --> 00:47:16.180\nAnd I know it will be a game changer for you.\n\n1135\n00:47:16.180 --> 00:47:18.100\nSo do you want to know how leaders lead?\n\n1136\n00:47:18.100 --> 00:47:23.070\nWhat we learned today is the great leaders focus relentlessly on high leverage\n\n1137\n00:47:23.070 --> 00:47:23.500\ntasks.\n\n1138\n00:47:23.500 --> 00:47:27.620\nThanks again for tuning in to another episode of How Leaders Lead, where every\n\n1139\n00:47:27.620 --> 00:47:28.500\nThursday you\n\n1140\n00:47:28.500 --> 00:47:33.380\nget to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world.\n\n1141\n00:47:33.380 --> 00:47:37.420\nI make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can\n\n1142\n00:47:37.420 --> 00:47:38.300\napply to your\n\n1143\n00:47:38.300 --> 00:47:41.980\nbusiness so that you will become the best leader that you can be.\n\n1144\n00:47:41.980 --> 00:47:51.980\n[BLANK_AUDIO]\n\n1145\n00:47:51.980 --> 00:48:14.980\n[ Silence ]","

David Novak 0:04

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen. And while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you will have something simple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Today's guest is Bob Greenfield, the former CEO of NASDAQ. Now these days NASDAQ is a powerhouse Stock Exchange. But boy, that wasn't the case with Bob took over. It was small and struggling. But during his time in charge, he grew the business. If you can believe this number by 2,000%, attracting companies like Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon to list on NASDAQ. And this conversation, we go behind the scenes of that amazing turnaround. And you can see for yourself how Bob's relentless focus and drive help make it happen. If you've ever looked at a big project, or even just your day's to do list, and you've felt overwhelmed, this conversation is going to help you tap into the power of focus. So here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours, Bob Greenfield.

Bob, thanks so much for taking time to be on the show. My pleasure

Bob Greifeld 1:24

to be here today. David, you know,

David Novak 1:25

well, how's your week going? Bob?

Bob Greifeld 1:27

How's the week going? Yeah, well, just starting with I think, Well, I'm here with you. Nothing unique going on. And you're working on in the world of finance? A couple of things, but I can't really say it right now. Public Company rules. You know, I don't want to violate those.

David Novak 1:42

You know, when you think about what you're working on, what does have you the most excited these days without giving away a deal?

Bob Greifeld 1:48

Well, you know, I've always been a person who gets excited about building things. So I believe in in the process, right? So when I see teams coming together, and identifying mission and focusing on that mission, I know good results will happen. So in all my business endeavors, I try not to pay attention to the here and now. But what is the trend line? What are we doing? Right? What is the process? What we're building is doing right? And where we're gonna go? Yeah, that's

David Novak 2:14

really obvious in your book. And, you know, this is all about your your leadership story. And I want to get to that. And you know, I always like to start out at the beginning, Bob, tell, tell us about your upbringing.

Bob Greifeld 2:25

So I was raised with a family of five children, and my dad worked for the post office and always had two and three jobs. So it was a humble upbringing, but certainly you learn the value of hard work in that environment. He learned the value of family, when you have five children, and we're all in it together. Where

David Novak 2:44

were you in the order there,

Bob Greifeld 2:45

I was number two, I have an older sister and then two brothers, two other brothers and one of the sister will tell

David Novak 2:53

us a story about your your childhood days, that might give us a real indication of what kind of person you've become.

Bob Greifeld 2:59

Well, I would say this. So right now with my properties, I have somebody mow the lawn for me. And I have no guilt associated with it. Because one of the side jobs my father had was running a landscaping business. So I would mow when I was a kid, eight, 910 1112 years old, I was behind the mower every afternoon ever, every Saturday. So in my time, Mo had plenty of lawns. But you know, that was a certain way to learn hard work. And I remember my father always saying to me, son, you're not going to make it by physical labor. You know, you've got to find a way to use your head. And those kinds of simple thoughts. When you get that as a kid stays with you and drives you're going forward. So I was always looking for the smart or clever way. Right in terms of how to proceed with work. Well, how

David Novak 3:42

did you find your way into the world of business?

Bob Greifeld 3:45

So it was interesting. I was an English undergraduate major English, English, yes, English. And one of the people I read when I was an English major was this poet from St. Louis called William Burroughs. And so I was looking for a job. And I saw Brown was at Burroughs Corporation, which was early in the computer game. So I approached them and kind of my sales ability started to reveal itself and I, you know, kind of somehow got a job there and the computer age in 1979, you didn't have that many people computer science degrees. So we're looking for just kind of talented people. So then I got sucked into the computer world in 1979. And I remember kind of falling in love with computers in high school. So it was just a marriage. And it was not you didn't have to be great and insightful to see the computers were going to be more and more important in society, not less so so it was a good training. Yeah,

David Novak 4:40

kind of downplaying that because you know, most people were very afraid of computers back then. Yeah, so you were really a trailblazer, sort of a technology geek, even in those days, maybe a little

Bob Greifeld 4:49

nose days. I always a great affinity for it. And when I I went to grad school at night at NYU, and 95% of the class or finance majors and I was one of the few that were you know, computer a science major from my MBA. So I just found it fascinating. So I was lucky to find my calling, you know, fairly early, you know, always being around computers. So when people identify me as a Wall Street guys that how I self identify self identify, you know, as a somebody associated with technology business,

David Novak 5:18

did you have an aha moment that said, Hey, this is where I have to be.

Bob Greifeld 5:22

I would say no, but probably over a six month period of time, I realized that but if anything in high school we had, you can remember, we'd have to dial in to the local state university to get access to the computer with the modem with a noisy to put it in that little hole was called an acoustic coupler. So that was, you know, junior high school. I was like one of the five kids or, you know, fooling around to computers. So I early on said, you know, I just had great affinity for it. You know,

David Novak 5:51

there's so much we can talk about in your career. So I had to kind of move along, you're, you know, you were quite happy working at sunguard data systems. You were an executive vice president there before you joined NASDAQ. And prior to that, you'd been a software entrepreneur and a co owner of ASC. As you were coming up, and you were working your way up and companies like this, did you have a defining moment that sort of changed your career trajectory?

Bob Greifeld 6:17

Well, I would say this, that the I went to Burroughs Corporation was there for 10 years or so. And basically got the promotions that were available, where I got to be a district manager running the New York region. But we realized that computers at that time the world was changing, we moved from mainframes to minis micros were coming and Burroughs, which was Unisys was really not on top of the game. And a defining moment, I said, What's remarkable about the software business, is the marginal cost back then was the cost of the tape, you know, to produce the and now you just can download it. And as I need to be in the software business, the hardware business was going to be commoditized. Right as compared to 1979. So I had a defining moment said software Where's where I want to go? And then you know, I was slotted in certain career path. And that blows up when you, you know, become an entrepreneur and, you know, become successful with that. And so we sold our company, to Sony guard in 1999. It was probably a couple years too early, but it's always be better to be a couple years too early than selling in a couple years too late, that kind of thing.

David Novak 7:25

You know, so then you get the opportunity to go be CEO for the first time and be the CEO of NASDAQ. What was the business situation like when when you went to NASDAQ and and but when did you really realize when you were evaluating that you were the right person for the job? Yeah,

Bob Greifeld 7:43

so when I was an entrepreneur, we built trading systems for NASDAQ market makers. That's a key part of the background. So I knew exactly how the NASDAQ market operated. And believe it or not, and this seems made up but my master's thesis at NYU was on the NASDAQ stock market. So there was some business to Destiny, a little bit of a destiny there. So I had firm views on NASDAQ in the context when I came there is NASDAQ had been part of the NASD which was a regulator. So people working there had self selected to work basically for regulatory kind of culture. Then as that was in the process of separating from the NASD, wanted to go public and obviously listed on their own market. But what happened was competition was forming and NASDAQ was in dire straits. And they had a venture capital firm called Hellman and Friedman out of San Francisco had invested in NASDAQ to help them along with the mission to go public. And so Hellman, Freeman and Warren Hellman in particular, replace the prior CEO and they were really the driving force to hire me. And I was an unusual hire. Because typically, if you go to an exchange, it was a sinecure, a job, you know, it was a person of gravitas who came from a long line of investment banking, and I was none. None of that, but worn out there in the valley. Recognize that NASDAQ when you peel it away, the primary door of the exchange license was a technology processing business and saw that I had been a successful entrepreneur was able to then take that entrepreneurial spirit to NASDAQ as we tried to go public. And obviously you had domain expertise in terms of what the markets were about.

David Novak 9:23

Well, you were you know, you weren't a Wall Street guy. No, your technology guy right, coming in from the outside not being a Wall Street or did you find any pushback on you coming into that job? So

Bob Greifeld 9:34

you're certainly the expert in leadership, but I was, I took a leadership position which was short term but necessary. So we did not have time to get involved with a consensus driven approach, which is my preferred way to go on market share was declining every day. Our technology could not compete with what was known as East CNES and I had to shock the organization. So we ran a command and control or replace two of the direct reports by eight o'clock on my first day. And what that sort of the purpose of is that stopped all the internal discussions people wanted to have, where we have to go. And I said, Okay, this is where we're going. Right. And there was no really discussion in those early days. And in the book, I talked about the fact the early days, I always felt I got there six months, too late. So our survival was somewhat in doubt, our financial position was precarious, and I just didn't have the time.

David Novak 10:34

You know, I went red, where you had this bold step in the interview process, even were you laid out at the interview process, this five steps that you're going to take to turn this business around? And I was thinking, How in the world can this guy possibly, you know, know what those five things are without digging in a little bit deeper? What gave you the courage to come out and say, this is what needs to be done without necessarily having all the facts? Well, here,

Bob Greifeld 10:57

here's some of the backstory. So I came to know who the other candidate for the job was. And I had actually interviewed that person while I was on the board of a knight securities. And I knew how articulate that person was. So if I thought it was a standard back and forth to the interview, I might not come on come out ahead. And so I said, Let me approach it a different way. So that was the genesis of the approach. But I did then know very clearly, I had very clear set what I wanted to do. And so in that final interview, I spoke for 15 and 20 minutes about what these five steps are. And I think like four of the five of them were were essentially right, they're not to brag. But you know, I had been involved with NASDAQ. So when I was an entrepreneur building trading systems in the NASDAQ ecosystem, you saw exactly how that company operated set a pretty good handle on it,

David Novak 11:48

we'll get into some of those things that you did. But you know, it's it was striking to me that you had this 100 day plan, right? You know, when you when you talk to other leaders, they move into a new job, how important do you think it is to make those first 90 days, 100 days really count?

Bob Greifeld 12:03

Absolutely critical. So you know, you have the listening tour approach to leadership when you first come in, and if you have the luxury of time, that could be a better approach. But I in no way shape, or form, thought I had the luxury of time. So put it in perspective where the whole organization can kind of implode upon itself. So our market share in stocks it listed on NASDAQ was down to like 16%. And it wasn't too soon before. At that time, the New York Stock Exchange was led by Dick Ross, who was very capable competitor was gonna say, why are you listening with this exchange and not even trading your stock? So we losing the transaction volume, the revenue associated with the possible market data? And then once you start losing the listing franchise, you know, you're it's kind of game over?

David Novak 12:46

You know, you're describing such a turnaround opportunity? Is that what really challenged you would you rather go in and turn around the business or run one that was already ticking, it

Bob Greifeld 12:54

was always rather turn around about operation, right. It's always you know, that's certainly the ways my brains wired. And it's just a lot of fun, to see what's possible and able to do it. Obviously, if you come into a smoothly running ship, there's always opportunities to expand and grow, but it's a lot more fun to be there. And, you know, one of the reasons I stepped down from NASDAQ is in the early days, I felt like it was jumping off of a cliff in a lot of times you didn't know where you're gonna land, you know, 14 years later than you had, you know, you had a set way of doing things. And I called it the grinding of the gears, right? You had to run the bureaucracy, you know it better than anybody, it's an important necessity, once you get a certain size, you have to have have certain formality to the organization.

David Novak 13:42

You know, you had, it had to be really heavy stuff, you know, coming in to to be a CEO of this venerable, iconic institution. Yeah, the market share is 16%. But the whole world doesn't really know. All right, you know, did you ever feel with all the stuff that was going on and the challenges that you had and being a CEO for the first time did you ever feel like you're in over your head?

Bob Greifeld 14:06

Well, I wouldn't say in over my head. But you know, the first six months, I was worried about our whether we're going to be successful or not. So it took probably two years before I knew that we were going to get there. So we did 47 acquisitions in my time. There was one that was fundamental to our success. When I got there. We didn't have any technology in house in the States. We had one piece of technology in Europe, which is unproven, so he's gonna have to bet the whole market on this unproven technology was based on Windows and Windows was itself unproven at that scale. So we're able to acquire inet and that gave us the core technology and also increased our market share, we had to then integrate it all in which his own set of challenges but once I saw that the integration we had completed the net deal, the integration was happening. I said, now I can get into normal business mode and think okay, what are we going to be in three or five years? But before that period of time, it just felt like survival.

David Novak 15:03

Yeah, you know, but you had an intense belief and your ability, it's obvious, you know, did that just come from the fact that you knew what had to be done? Well, I

Bob Greifeld 15:13

think that happened from it comes also from fear of failure. So when I say is the difference between success and failure are two sides of a very thin dime, and you're not preordained to succeed are predestined to fail. So I would wake up every morning with confidence, but knowing that nothing's guaranteed, you can fail with this thing. And that, you know, that's a powerful motivator.

David Novak 15:35

You know, one of the five things that you laid out to the board that you wanted to do was to make sure that the team stopped being satisfied with being number two to the New York Stock Exchange, what was the biggest thing you did that to define reality for your team? And, you know, how did you really like the competitive fire where this became sort of like an unacceptable mindset?

Bob Greifeld 15:56

Well, you know, you've really had to put a new team in, right. So in terms of the management team, the only person who came from old desert was Adina Friedman, who is my very capable successor there, or so we hired a couple people got a lot of people through acquisitions, and then we grew people internally, more and more over time there. And you know, one of the first things I said is we followed the book Good to Great, so and everybody read that, and it's the most important thing is getting the right people on the bus. As much as you have to have a one three and five year strategic plan, they're always going to be wrong, right? So you have to have the athletes on the bus who will direct it as this the world changes. So I was all about let's get the proper team in place, right, the right team, and then we'll really decide where to go. So you use

David Novak 16:47

the book good dude, great as a shared experience to really take people from me to a way where you can all get on the same page.

Bob Greifeld 16:54

Yes, definitely. And again, the culture when I first got there, nobody thought in those terms, right. NASDAQ had been a monopoly as part of the regulator. So, you know, we had a lot of people choose to leave because they wanted to be in a regulated environment. I said, we're going to weigh, measure and count everything. It's going to be meritocracy. It's going to be based on performance, you'll have incentives, and not everybody wants that, so that they left there, but then you had to get the message. Okay, now we're going to try to get best practices in terms of the culture. Now we grow. And that was, you know, a good way for me to communicate through,

David Novak 17:24

you know, you say your motto is people first, right? That sounds like pablum, when a lot of CEOs say that, you know, why? And how did you really make that real? So we'll just wasn't the typical BS?

Bob Greifeld 17:39

Well, let me tell you why I think is important. So I would say if you had a better widget than anybody else, and nobody else could produce that widget, you can violate a lot of management principles, right? Because people will come to that unique widget you have. But the fact is, that the world we live in, even if you have a competitive advantage, it's temporary, and people catch up. So if you're in the similar widget business, that is going to be about how you execute your plans, right? And you're going to execute your plans by having engaged employees, right hard stop, there's a fundamental difference of coming to work to work nine to five, with coming to work with passion, right? So we would take 10% of our incentive play, pay, and based upon how engaged the surveys we run, how engaged our employees were. So you really have an employee can be at a level one. But if he's engaged, he's level 2.5. So the productivity yield of having engaged employees is massive, right?

David Novak 18:41

People talk about engagement all the time. Now, you were really ahead of the time we were majoring that and bonusing people, yeah,

Bob Greifeld 18:46

you just walk the halls and you see people who are happy campers are coming to work there. I think they're 10 times more productive, then somebody just putting in their time. And you know, this, you know, obviously, very well. Now, like I said, if I had a better mousetrap that nobody else can replicate, then you can do a lot, you know, you can do a lot of bad management thing.

David Novak 19:13

You also say, promote before you recruit, yeah. Can you tell us a story of how you sought out a high potential person sort of a diamond in the rough and you elevated?

Bob Greifeld 19:23

Well, Adina Friedman would be the one person my successors, I would say this in terms of why I say that, right? When you interview somebody, it's an imperfect process, right? And you try to get better at it, and you do get better at it. But I look at somebody who's been in the shop, you've been interviewing that person for five years, right? Your hit rate of putting that person in new position is so much higher than just taking somebody from outside. So we tried to promote 80% from within, and we felt very good about that. Now, if you overdo it, you do 100% Then you get too insular. So you need to get that 20% Fresh blood coming in. But our bias was always to try to hire people we knew we knew the pluses, we knew their minuses, and we knew, you know, what we can do there. So that that was successful. So Edina being the lead example, but you look at the team that I left there, you know, I think at least 80% were homegrown. Well, how

David Novak 20:19

did you identify Edina? You know, she's sort of a diamond in the rough, maybe, you know, what was it? And then what do you do to elevator?

Bob Greifeld 20:26

Yeah, it's not that hard. Yeah. I mean, you've been there. So I mean, when you see talented people, right, who are engaged, they really do stand out. But when I say in the book, it's important to recognize that in a corporate setting, you know, articulation is over rewarded. So you have to make sure these people who look and talk good are actually producing. And when I recruited Edina, back to NASDAQ from Carla, we said, here's the two year plan, you have to produce every step of the way, right? This is nothing is preordained. And so we did from a management style is and it's opposite of Wall Street, we take the first month, month and a half of the year and list everybody's objectives for the year, down to the most minut detail for every single person in the employee in the employee base. So this took a lot of time, we're really had to know exactly what we were trying to do for the next 10 and a half months, the way it worked in a year, at the end of the year, if you did those, those those things, you didn't have to be nice to me, right? You had to smile at me, you would get paid. It was a function, right? These are pure objectives, a Wall Street, typically, they have a hunk of money at the end of the year, they say, Okay, who is this and they kind of chop it up, we were the opposite. We put down 1000s and 1000s of objectives. And then you see who actually performs with those objectives. And what's great about that, beyond the Complan, it forces you to know what you're trying to do what you're trying to accomplish. And that sounds silly, right. But many companies or most companies, they go into the year having a broad sense, right, but not at the really detailed level. So we you know, it would be agonizing to go through, okay, and you know, at the single contributor level, what they have to contribute, and it all rolls up and that kind of thing, and it just made it for a functioning machine.

David Novak 22:15

You know, I understand that you you really had a robust debate process for your executive team, you know, explain a time where you went through that process, and it really paid off for you where you might have gone down a different path. Yeah, well,

Bob Greifeld 22:31

I'll give this one that everybody can relate to. So we have the market site is in Times Square, right? And it's where we do our market opens and market closes. When I got there, we're losing, you know, half a million dollars a day. And so I'm trying to cut costs and this thing sticking out there like a sore thumb. It's costing us 25 $30 million a year, no visible return. And so I was hell bent. And let's get out of this lease. And we had the debates on this. And I came to realize that would have been a mistake. So when I talk to listed companies, right, when they talk about coming to NASDAQ, they're talking about coming to that market site in Times Square. They bring their mom, their dad, their kids for the opening bell ceremony, some they're seeing okay, this is kind of silly. It's costing me so much money. Why do I need that? Right? And then everybody had been there at NASDAQ for a long time saying no, Bob, you got to really pay attention. And they were completely right. Now we did run it more efficiently than they had been running it before. And I think in certain ways better. But that's, you know, we think about NASDAQ why it's a big public image. And as a big brand is certainly that market open ceremony.

David Novak 23:43

It was the emotional connection people Brandley you were kind of be an unemotional looking at, then you said, oh, yeah, I was guys would have been wrong. It's great. When people save yourself, you know, you seem to be an instinctual leader. I mean, you look at things and you say, Hey, let's go do this. You know, this is an example of where the instinct wasn't necessarily correct. But can you give an example where you balance your instincts with data, and you really get to the right decision?

Bob Greifeld 24:10

So I would say this, I would never make a decision. In a given day, I have a belief that sleeping on something allows the brain to sort through the different factors there. But I when I made a decision, I always wanted to have the pros and the cons, right. So we had the Socratic Socratic debate I want it's okay, why is this not a good decision to have people arguing quite passionately. And I think at the end of the day, you have to be instinctual or you have to be your gut. But where's the gut come from? The gut comes from the big data you build up in your head, right through the years of knowledge that you have. It's the facts you accumulate with this particular thing. And then it will come together and a lot of times it comes together after a good exercise session, a good night's sleeping okay, this is where We're gonna go. So it's feels like it's a gut instinct, but really isn't, it's still a lot, a lot different driven by data. You know, you've,

David Novak 25:07

you've seen a lot of CEOs come and come and go, What would be the key factor in your mind that it really helps a CEO Thrive versus struggle?

Bob Greifeld 25:16

Yeah, I have very strong opinions on this, I had the unique opportunity to meet probably more CEOs than anybody, and I meet all these bright, engaging, hardworking, folks. And then three years later, you hear they're not in the job anymore. So if you get to be a CEO, right, you get there, because you're very bright and you're driven. You're hardworking. So why do you fail? So me, you fail, because you don't do things that lever your time, right? So you always have to pick the items and have the biggest lever effect on the organization. CEOs have to be comfortable with not being great at everything? Do you have 100 things to do on your To Do lists, you got to pick the 10 that matter? And do them great, and you can't get hung up on the bottom 10 That you're not doing? Well. Right. And so I think a lot of CEOs don't have the ability to not try to excel at everything. So I would always try to say myself, what do I have to excel at what I have to do? And what has the most profound impact on the organization?

David Novak 26:17

What did you have a process? Or what would be a trick of the trade that you might have used to really get to that? What was your process?

Bob Greifeld 26:23

That's a great question. So you know, it depended. But obviously, you can, when you join leverage, you can see what has the biggest financial return over time, right? Is this a really big decision that I have to be involved with uniquely, that kind of thing? Is this going to make a an extra half a million dollars worth of revenue of $500 million worth of revenue? So you have that kind of guy? And or is this something internally is going to have a dramatic impact in how the company operates? If it's just a detail, then you know, somebody else should be handling it. But if it's going to affect the 1000 employees, and they might be less engaged and more engaged based on that decision, then you know, that's what

David Novak 27:04

you really thought about leverage in the truest sense out about that, you know, I also love it when you say that leaders has to face reality and use the word relentlessly. You know, why?

Bob Greifeld 27:17

It's just amazing the capability capacity of the human brain to obscure what is reality, you want to see and perceive the way you want. This

David Novak 27:27

is an example of where, you know, maybe at NASDAQ where I was

Bob Greifeld 27:31

going to come up with something it was your golf game or something like that. Well, that's not very good. Now your game is very good there. So we'd say so like, in the early days, we would say we want to attract noisy companies to come list with NASDAQ, and we have a better trading mechanism, we have a better product. And I'm saying to our guys, well, we really don't in the eyes of the customer. They have they're defining the product this way, we're defining it that way. You have that kind of mismatch associated with it. So I always, you know, what is the customer really thinking about what we offer versus what we think we're being, you know, perceived by the customer as a constant thing you can always find you're mistaken on? Yeah.

David Novak 28:16

You know, NASDAQ was a leader in technology, and it's early days, but it really fell behind you come in as a technology leader, you know, you're that's you're really you're acing the cap there. You know, how did you bring technology back to the forefront because NASDAQ really lost its way? What do you How did you change the culture back to where it needed to

Bob Greifeld 28:35

be? Yeah, so what's interesting in the book is I kind of have to go full circle. So when I got there, NASDAQ had strong technology, they make a rule one release every year, I call it a battleship. And it was like perfect technology, it would work could be failsafe, but we had competitors who are now putting new software releases out every week, sometimes every day, and there was so much rickety and the system failed, they would just restarted up right. If NASDAQ failed, it would be in the Wall Street Journal there. So we had to take our battleship and make it more like a PT boat. And you know, to defend the old NASDAQ folks, it's not black and white right there. We're engineering for a a different market, but I got there in a time where the market was going through rapid change. So one of my recurring themes is, you know, your approach to situations your management philosophy kind of depends on where you are. So I had a situation where the market was dramatically changing. They didn't care about reliability as much as they did and you had to respond to that customer need then customers change in time and more back the old ways where the market was more stable and reliability became you know, more paramount Paramount there. So you've got to, you know, always understand what the deck of cards you're playing are today, because they will be different in the same market tomorrow.

David Novak 29:57

Well, you really build your capability on the techniques As the front and back to where it became world class, how important was the human element and really making NASDAQ go with your customers.

Bob Greifeld 30:09

I incredibly important, you know, I use the word I used as relentless. So we had to be relentlessly focused on on on the customers. And we were fortunate in that year, we had a competitor go through a bit of turmoil there. And anytime, you nothing better than seeing your competitors somewhat implode, as you go along, that makes life so much easier. But at the end of the day, it's people. So we had to make NASDAQ, a place where the top technologists on the planet wanted to work. And that was made easier by the fact that we were a bleeding edge, right, and we push ourselves to be bleeding edge. So I got there, we were trying to get down to the millisecond response time in our what's known as the Automatch, the fundamental exchange, and now you know, they're down, you know, towards nanoseconds. So you had, the people could really engineer a system that outside of the DoD didn't exist. So that was, gave us the ability to attract great talent, and we made it a fun place to work.

David Novak 31:08

You know, an old adage, new obviously believe in this is to listen and respond to the voice of the customer. Can you tell us a story where you really got a great idea from a customer just by listening?

Bob Greifeld 31:18

Well, I'll tell you a couple of thoughts that we got from customers, which are great, but that didn't pan out as businesses. So you know, when you think I always debate, you know, the Steve Jobs approach, you know, you'll take the customers where they want to go. But one of the things and this is the customers are telling us, we need to get better research coverage on the smaller companies. So because when you had research coverage that would attract investors attract volume, and hopefully help their stock price. So we spent a fair bit of money on building up a research network important and conjunction with Reuters. And there's only one thing worse than having one cut, no customers, and that's having one. So we have one, you got to activate all the support networks and get that so we like a half a dozen customers are part of this research network. As a problem the market still has today. Right? Yum, brands, Apple doesn't have a issues with research coverage, but you go down, if you're a $500 million market cap company a lower than you, you have an issue with that. So you know, I take customers is valuable for the small incremental stuffs you want to do in your product. But my feeling is again, for the bigger moves, you have to kind of come up with it yourself. But when you say come up with yourself, that's a misnomer in that it's still you synthesizing everything, you know, all the customer impact, customer feedback impact to you. And then putting it together this what we need to do. So my general advice is small stuff from customers. Biggest stuff you got to kind of take customer input is one of the inputs, most certainly not the only one, how big idea was dual listing for you. It was big at the time, it was a lot of fun. And that came we were went to see Charles Schwab. And he said, What about dual listing? And I immediately rejected it thinking he was just trying to get the meeting over and have a pleasant meeting because you know, we weren't there. But then we got in the elevator afterwards with Bruce office who's running that part of the business. So so that has some merit, because the economics of the listing business weren't that important. It was the branding element. So do have companies say yes, I want to also list on NASDAQ, we got great brand awareness out of it. And that helped us get on the march of having actual company switch. So right now, I think NASDAQ is up over a trillion dollars in market cap has switched from lazy to NASDAQ. And it started with the dual listing as the first step I gotta give, you know, Chuck credit for that

David Novak 33:48

you've met so many great CEOs, you name the top three that impressed you the most?

Bob Greifeld 33:54

Well, I think if you sit and listen to Bill Gates's talk on any topic, which we used to get at the micro CEO Summit, it's just amazing the man's breadth of knowledge. And I happen to be watching a MIT podcast last night about battery technologies is one of my passions. And sure enough, Bill Gates was the funding source. And Bill Gates approached this professor early saying I'm there. So you talk about anything good in the world that can happen? You know, I think you'd have to put bill at the head of the list. And I remember meeting Steve Jobs. And we were both going to a session with Hank Paulson. We'd sponsor it for some of the leading CEOs in the valley. I happen to get there early. He was there early. And it was interesting. He had a different aura. You know, within 10 seconds, you knew you're in with a different type of human being and that was, you know, something you'll just remember your whole life there. And then the other one it was covered in the book is me meeting Jeff Bezos for the first time so I'm telling that story. That's a great you Yeah, well, we were both, you know, just regular people. So I was a software entrepreneur and I was the ugliest demo doll on the planet. But I'd bring around this big 20 inch monitor cathode ray tube, and set up in the office and booted up. And hopefully the software would work and go through a demonstration, which is primarily screen and mouse based. So go into this office is maybe nine by 12, but 911. And I said, I don't know where I'm gonna fit this thing in. So the guy behind the desk says to me, you know, don't set up just tell me what it does. And I said, Well, it's kind of hard, because this is not like a piece of middleware. It's a screen based system. He said, No, no, you can just tell me so All right, I said, I don't have to set the boxes up. The software's guaranteed to work if I'm just talking about it, if I can have any bugs in this, I started talking. And then I look up, the gentleman's got his eyes closed. So okay, this is now getting very weird as far as demonstrations go, because I don't have a computer and the guy's eyes aren't open, then like 15 seconds later, he asked a very intelligent question and puts his eyes, you know, shuts his eyes. Again, this goes on for 45 minutes, and then we finished the demo. So I like to say, and that was Jeff when he was just an employee at De Shaw. And I like to say he was the pure epitome of a visionary who is visualizing the software, you know, back back, back in the day and the McKenzie was in the next office. So, you know, they're, you know, they're before Jeff was Jeff. And he got it. Yeah, he got

David Novak 36:29

over saying, I want to ask you, you know, you have so much success, obviously, you know, when everyone has an epic fail, you know, what would be yours? And what did you learn from it? Well,

Bob Greifeld 36:39

it is very clearly Facebook. So we bungled the Facebook IPO. And that was, you know, that was the one of the few times where, you know, we're known in the business world where I became known in the general world, which I didn't really want to be. And what's interesting here, you know, the normal thing for SEO to do when something like that happens is you fire people, right? And you feel good doing it. But what happened there, it ties back to I was talking about before, I had to examine the root cause of what happened there. And really what happened was tied back to the fact that I had led to technology people, which I always venerated, taken plea control the shop, they had engineered the software without the users, our business users wanting it right. And they had the control to do that. And we were still running NASDAQ, like I had to run it in Oh, three, but I had to change NASDAQ back to a more institutionalized culture. And so again, it's situational. If I came in Oh, three, and kept the institutionalized culture, we would have been out of business, right? So we put in really a startup culture, guys releasing software, technology, guys, I worshipped. Everybody knew it, right. I had my core team, they were the inner circle, but the world had changed. And now you're doing the Facebook IPO. Nobody cares, that you've got this innovative software thing that does things, they just want the stupid thing to work. So I had to then move the culture back more to where it was where I got there, you know, more intelligently, obviously, it was interesting is I didn't fire people. But everybody who B was from that older culture, they in innovative culture, they left, right, they didn't want to come. And I knew they would, right. So you have these bright, talented people that you'd want if you starting up a business, you know, seven days a week. But now we're saying, Okay, we're going to go with structured releases, you're not going to control when the product goes into release, it's going to be the user. The user is going to give you the specs, you listen to the user specs and then you program to it. And then they don't want that. So I didn't have to fire up people but in really but within a year or two everybody associated with the culture had built in oh three for the core team said, you know, I'm gonna go find some take care of itself. Yeah. Yeah, but that was a great learning experience. And that's why I keep saying you got to understand that was right. Yesterday, is by definition not right tomorrow, right? So I did exactly the right thing. And oh, three, we wouldn't have survived. But then we had to evolve back more to where we weren't as the business became more institutionalized. So that was a great learning experience. Now I want to

David Novak 39:25

have a little fun with it man haven't done but we have a little more fun with you and ask you a lightning round of questions with quick response. Okay, so what would be the three words that best describe you

Bob Greifeld 39:36

intends hopefully have things in context and a decent guy.

David Novak 39:46

What's your biggest pet peeve of all?

Bob Greifeld 39:49

Why I don't like it. I like things planned out. Right. I know the world will never be the way you want it to be. Like I said, you have to have a one and three year five five year plan, but it'll never work. worked out that way. So I don't expect that, but to people just to come and work kind of blindly with not knowing when the mission or where the direction is kind of drives me crazy because it's just you're wasting cycles. If you could

David Novak 40:12

trade places with one person for a day, who would it be? And why?

Bob Greifeld 40:16

Bob Dylan? Why? Well, I was an English major. So that's still part of my roots. There. So you haven't met many presidents. But if I had to meet one person on the planet, I'd want to meet Bob Dylan. But you know, he was a shy reclusive guy he wouldn't actually say anything to me. Client lunch, it'd be a quiet

David Novak 40:35

you know, what would be a random fact that about yourself that few people would know?

Bob Greifeld 40:41

Well as gotten some publicity by have turtles as pets, live turtles as pets. there and they're down here in Florida. They're loving the weather the tortoises.

David Novak 40:52

Okay, and lastly, how much can you benchpress it's your it's your height,

Bob Greifeld 40:56

my height? 380.

David Novak 40:59

This guy only weighs about 160 pounds. That's pretty impressive. You know? So the turtle your favorite animal? Why?

Bob Greifeld 41:07

Well, I think obviously, I really relate to them in some way. But you know, it's a message, right? A turtle is persistent. They're living Walking Dinosaurs, right? They're dinosaurs on the earth. They're not like going for them. But they survive. Right? So I see that. And you know, in terms of business books I read, I remember what as a young man, I read a book on Bill Gates. And he said he never succeeded at something the first time he tried. And that just stuck with me. So I'm definitely a perseverance kind of fellow. Don't expect it to be easy. Don't expect to succeed. The first time you keep at it, you get where you need to go,

David Novak 41:43

you know, you're also doing a lot of good in the world. And you founded the USA TF Foundation, which supports athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds for the next generation of Olympics. How did you get into that?

Bob Greifeld 41:56

Well, my daughter ran track. And she was a sprinter. So and a long jumper. And so we were primarily with the kids who came from the inner city, you know, not the distance runners. And you saw how hard they work to be good. And some of the stereotype is a lot of natural ability, but its natural ability levered by hard work. And the theory of the case was, if you spend 10 years, right, running track, right, you're learning delayed gratification, right? I would love playing pickup basketball, I played a lot of basketball my day, right? That's fun in the moment. But if you're any track, the coach says, Okay, I want you to go out on this track, run around the track as hard as you can, you're gonna get two minutes the rest, then you get to do it again. Right, it gets to do that 10 times. So that's not the most fun, right? So you're learning you got to work hard today to be successful tomorrow. So I think track and field has a good way of doing it. And it's an easy sport in the, you know, less advantaged areas, because it doesn't take a lot of equipment, and you know, people can run without a lot of training. That's great. Yeah,

David Novak 43:01

you know, you're a hard worker, obviously, I mean, you're driven, you know, you you put in a lot of time, How'd you learn how to manage your your work life balance, or digital? And did that have any impact on on your decision to retire?

Bob Greifeld 43:17

That's a great question. So I say, I said to people, many times, if you're looking for balance, you're going to fail, right? It will not exist. If you want to be successful, there's a price you have to pay, and involves a lot of hard work. I'd also say it's a marathon, not a sprint, at times you have to sprint, right. But you have to be able to pace yourself. I've lost more managers trying to sprint for too long a period of time by trying to work too hard. But I think you can get an integrated life, you need a good life partner with that, right. But if you think there's balance, I think that's too high of a goal, but have a great integrated life. I've been fortunate, fortunate to be married for the same woman for I think, 38 to 39 years, something like that. You can't do it without the family support. It's just impossible. Do you think you're going to come to work at 100%? Productivity? If you have a lot of commotion in your private life? I don't see it happening that way. So I think it's certainly a team effort on the personal side. You can't do it. And certainly one of the reasons I and I mentioned in the book wanted to retire is when as you know, when the kids are little, they're there. Right? As they get older, you have to meet their schedules. Right. And so I wanted to be in a position to meet their schedules. This

David Novak 44:36

evolving to the times again, yeah, this is great. You know, so let me wrap this up with one last question here. Bob, what what what's your unfinished business? What's what how are you going to focus the rest of your life?

Bob Greifeld 44:47

Well, that's a big question. That's a big question. So I would say this, you know, one is I'm working 30 to 40% of what I was doing before, and I think that's a good number, right? You should never go from 100 to 02 is obviously spending more time on my charitable activities, which is a good thing. And you get a different kind of reward out of that. I'm waiting for grandchildren. I have three kids and no grandchildren yet. But obviously I'm there, you know, for the family and the family being extended family. I'm fortunate to have my both parents alive, which not gonna let, yes, I wanted to be there for them as they get, you know, the last trips around the track.

David Novak 45:30

That's great, you know? Well, Bob, I want to thank you so much for being on this podcast. And again, I recommend to everybody to read market mover. I mean, it's a fantastic book, I learned a lot from it. And you're a heck of a leader. I don't know a lot about your industry. I was I haven't really read some of the stuff twice. But it was really, really insightful, and anybody can learn from it. And I think hopefully, I will, I know people are gonna learn from this podcast. And that's what it's all about.

Bob Greifeld 45:55

Thank you for having me, thank you.

David Novak 46:06

Don't you just love how Bob can just cut right to the heart of an issue with such clarity and focus, it's pretty darn easy to see why he was able to come in and so quickly dissect the issues NASDAQ was facing and turn the whole thing around. That ability to get laser focused on what matters is a key skill for any leader. In fact, Bob says it's the one skill that can be the difference between a SEO success or failure. It's darn near impossible to succeed at the highest level if you don't know how to leverage your time. And if it's that important, I think it's the perfect thing for you to work on this week to up your leadership game. So this week is part of your weekly personal development plan. take a good hard look at your to do list. Find at least three tasks to not do because they just aren't a high leverage use of your time. Like Bob said, you may have 100 task on there that feels super important. But you've got to stay relentlessly focused on the ones that truly move the needle for your organization. Bring that kind of focus to work every day. And I know it will be a game changer for you. So do you want to know our leaders lead? What we learned today is that great leaders focus relentlessly on high leverage tasks. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader that you can be

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