1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

Finding the “One thing”. As a leader there’s always the one thing that I can do today that will leverage across the entire organization. Paring down the multitude of decisions to the 20% that account for 80% of progress is always both challenging and rewarding. It’s not doing more, but cutting away and being where it counts.


2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Mostly just being resourceful. Seeking to understand and simplify what’s difficult and being able to communicate it in such a way that the teams understand the goals clearly and succinctly was the skill that brought success to my doorstep.


3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I use the critical path method to look at which steps are absolutely necessary to reach the goals - be they personal, professional, corporate or otherwise. Then I look at which actions would get the most amount of team members to a higher functional position.


4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

To let go of perfection. Prior to leadership roles - I was the “exceptional doer” and took pride in my ability to accomplish tasks. Now I must step aside and inspire others to be the new exceptional doers, give them encouragement and praise and let others take the tasks and the credit. In doing so - a good leader can affect a wider reach and make multiple things happen simultaneously.


5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point had a major impact in my life. It’s the one that helped me to understand what it takes to reach success velocity and get better clarity on what it takes to make something “go viral”. This ability to cause a message to spread became a key component of my first big successes.


6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

Build systems and build up people. Allow your people to make mistakes and grow. It’s the only way they’ll get the chance to step into the leadership role over time. Be patient and enthusiastic. Lead by example.


7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

One taught to me by my mentor was how to hire. You look for people with will power over skill sets. Skill is easily taught. Will power and attitude are still “trainable” but take much more time and resources.

One of my current business partners has very humble beginnings and is now on the verge of working on larger deals than myself. I had the honour of training him from day 0 in the business world and now the student has capacity to out-do the teacher.

It’s my sincere wish for all of the people I lead to one day outperform me in one way or another. It’s in this vein that we, as a people, a company and a community can truly grow.