In a fast-paced industry such as tech, it probably helps to have a dynamic go-getter at the front of your business.
Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Box CEO Aaron Levie. The minute he walked into the room, his energy was palpable. At the roundtable discussion he led the conversation at a fast pace and was keen to jump in and give his opinion at any point.
His enthusiasm was also clear when he took to the stage to speak later that same afternoon at the Business without Boundaries conference. He got the audience up and clapping to the Spice Girls’ song Wannabe as he came on stage and entertained with jokes as he explained the importance of cloud computing.
Most importantly, he got people excited about Box and cloud computing. While it is probably more the job of the CMO to spread the good word about a company’s product, with such a dynamic figure at the head of the company, it is hard not to get excited with him.
I began to consider other dynamic CEOs of tech companies. The guy that first comes to mind is Steve Ballmer, (soon to be) former CEO of Microsoft. If you type ‘Steve Ballmer’ into Google, the first suggested adjective is ‘Steve Bullmer crazy’, with videos on YouTube of him ‘losing it’ at a Microsoft developer conference. And of course, there is the infamous video of him profusely sweating on stage as he chants ‘developers, developers’ over and over again.
While over exuberant at times, you can’t deny that Bullmer’s energy helps to motivate employees and partners and has had a great impact on Microsoft since Bill Gates’ retirement. He led a migration from the company’s ‘PC-first heritage’ towards cloud computing and other digital strategies, which dramatically boosted the company’s revenue.
Larry Ellison is another eccentric CEO whose energy has been used to drive a company. The co-founder of Oracle is known for his brash approach to business, not to mention his quest for eternal youth. He even admits to his own eccentricities: ‘When you innovate, you’re got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.’
His passion for yachting has seen him pour money into the US team’s fleet of boats as the main benefactor of the America’s Cup sailing races. He even missed giving the keynote speech at this year’s Oracle OpenWorld event to go watch the America’s Cup Sailing that was also taking place in San Francisco at the same time. Poor show, Larry.
Even fellow tech CEO Aaron Levie tweeted: ‘Apparently it’s *not* a best practice to schedule your conference the same days as a boat race. If you’re going to be in the race.’
But it can’t be all bad. Oracle is still one of the most powerful tech giants out there, and Forbes names Ellison as the third richest man in America, so he must be doing something right.
Maybe Ellison is right: to be truly innovative, you have to be a little crazy…
