How Twitter's Jack Dorsey Went From Inventor to Leader

[Music] we're here with Jack Dorsey CEO of Twitter and square pleasure to have you here thanks for having me so this journey from being a coder to the head of two Uber successful companies multi-billion dollar companies trace the pathway from that to this so I grew up in St Louis Missouri and my parents always stuck by the city they always stayed in the city most of the city was moving out to the suburbs and St Louis has had some rough times and I really love that they stood by it the entire time and because of that I developed this fashion fascination with cities how they worked I loved Urban environments and downtowns and um it grew in this fascination with maps and I would just obsess over Maps I would hang them on my bedroom walls and uh and then my parents got a Macintosh in 1984 and a PC Junior in 1984. and I saw some graphics on it and I saw a map at one point on it and what what I loved about Maps is I would just wonder what was happening in this area or what was going on you know what what couldn't I see what was actually in that location and the computer was interesting because it allowed the maps to move so I just had to I had to be able to do that and I taught myself how to program so I could draw a map on the screen and I just learned the bare minimum that it took to do to draw the map and then the bare minimum that it took to move a DOT around and then the next thing and the next thing the next thing and before I knew it I was programming and I was uh I was drawing on a computer which I thought was just awesome my parents also had this um this police scanner and CB Radio and we would listen to ambulances and fire trucks and police cars and black cars and taxis and they're always reporting where they are and where they're going and uh you know what they're doing and I just thought that was fascinating but I took that those reports those updates and I actually programmed them into my map and I could actually watch a police car car go from one point to another point and I thought this was awesome because I could actually now see what was happening in the city I could see a city live and breathe and it was certainly by by function but what I learned over time when it was about 17 or 18 is there's a whole industry around this it's called dispatch and I once I realized that I found the biggest dispatch firm I could find in the world it happened to be in New York City which I always wanted to move to and um and I got a job there and uh and uh and then I was programming dispatch systems for the largest dispatch room in the world and I could see all of New York and I could see all these taxi cabs go to the met and I knew that the show was going on so little by little I was putting together pieces of the city and what people are doing in the city and then I kept working in that field for a while I moved out here in 99 and in about 2001 I realized I was missing one key element of the city was the people where the people I was only people that were driving trucks and fire trucks and police cars and whatnot where the people and uh and the simple idea is what if anyone could update where they are what they're doing what they're thinking um and I built a little prototype in 2001. the wrong time wrong technology 2006 SMS got really big in this country and brought the idea back up and that became Twitter so the very simple idea of what are you doing what's happening uh where are you going where are you and little by little as more and more people did it we could see the city but we could see the world and what people thought about the world and what people thought about a basketball game or a protest or any event that they were in or just what's happening today it's super Tuesday today and what they think about the candidates and the presidential run so um that's kind of how I got started it was more of an approach of I did whatever it took learned whatever I had to learn to build what I wanted to use and what I wanted to see so let me just ask a follow-up question before Peter comes in and that is today you lead before you did something quite technical how has that transitioned or do you still think of your role in a technical way I still I guess I still think of it as a technical as a in a technical way I you know my my parents were actually entrepreneurs my father started a pizza restaurant when he was 19. my mother owned a coffee store my father owned a medical device manufacturing company for a while still does actually but I never really wanted to be an entrepreneur I never wanted to build a company but at one point you realize well if I want to continue to work in this work that I want to see and I want to continue to build this idea the most efficient means of doing it is in this country a corporation a company and it wasn't just about what I could do is about what other people could do with me and and what I could do with them um and then there's another there's another learning which is well what does it take for me to build a team what do I have to learn to build a team and what I have to learn to build to encourage other people to do this work that I'm so passionate about are they passionate about it uh and then what does it mean to have a company what does it mean to be a CEO I learned all that more because it felt like the next step to building something bigger and bigger and bigger and having more more impact so that's that's been my Approach and my mindset is what's What's blocking me from The Next Step and um and that's what I love about the definition of an entrepreneur is you you um you take significant risk in order to see what you want to see in the world you do whatever it takes to see what you what you want to see in the world usually it's Financial Risk but it's also personal risk or reputational risk confident interest learning something new um and uh and we just constantly are learning about how to build and how to scale and it turns out that the best way to scale something broadly is not as an individual but with a team of people and uh and I think um the best way to lead a team of people is to is to show impact of what you're building and to show how it actually impacts someone you're serving and what they feel about it and we've seen this both with Twitter and square we don't really have to tell the story when people are using this to talk about what's happening in Iran right now or people are using it to actually start a business or grow their business it sells itself so what do they need next and what and and then we have to make decisions about what technologies are coming to bear and what's new what what's changed what are our competitors doing and how are we building something that uniquely serves our customers in a in a new way that they value and a fake evaluate we'll have jobs and if they don't then we'll have to go do something else entrepreneur and lead a corporate leader they seem there's a paradox they say that you move from one and gained influence and capability in the other um what is the hardest part in moving from the entrepreneur who themselves Fashions all the problem and the solutions and kind of engages the seminal elements and then suddenly has to lead a large group of people through other people not just through themselves what is the skill set that is you know different and not just the aptitude but the attitude that you have to have when you're leading a large organization I think the the attitude was the the hardest thing for me is it's more trust I think it's you know it's it's giving something up that you saw from the beginning and you built and you made all the decisions around so early on I wanted to be in every single decision and and then you realize I don't actually have the best information I'm actually not the expert in this particular field and why you know why did we hire this person to do that if I'm just going to help make the decision um so it's more taking on a mindset of it's not my job to make the decision it's my job to make sure the decisions are being made it's my job to make sure the decisions are being made with context of who we're serving and context of what the industry is doing and where the world is going and where we're going and our place in it and also that we're building a dynamic that decisions are made in a very rich way but also a way that is constantly raising the bar on itself because if we're we're just making the same decisions again and again and again we're not doing anything interesting and we'll we'll become irrelevant because the world will move on and make better decisions and and we want so I think the biggest shift in in mindset is really around giving up the decision-making ability and trusting that you'll you'll arrive at better outcomes because you did the conceit around the entrepreneur is they can't be risk-averse they have to they have to be willing to confront risk and and failure to some some extent and the executive has to manage against Fade to sort of so to speak how do you remain Nimble how does a company like Twitter remain Nimble and agile so many competitors other people trying to engage in the space how do you bring that Inception of remaining Nimble remaining you know challenge your own incumbency how do you bring that instant into a corporate institution I think that energy is always emergent in the company and I think the best way to do that is show it off pointed out celebrate it and then spread it to the rest of the company one of my favorite authors is a William Gibson and he has this amazing quote which is the future is already here it's just not evenly distributed and you comply that to companies too the future is already in the company it's just not evenly distributed to what is our job was our job as Leaders is to make sure that we distribute evenly the future and that we tested against our theories and we we built consensus around it I think there's a natural desire for agility and it's often blocked because either it's not listened to or it's not celebrated it's not shown off it's not spread around and I think it also goes in phases there will be some phases of a company or organization that just can't handle it in some phases where you can and it's okay and you shouldn't feel bad about it it's just a phase of the company but should always strive for I think looking inwardly and and also um uh looking for reconsiderations of ourselves I think the the quality I admire the most is curiosity just asking that question why a very simple question asked but really hard one to answer and the people who answer who are comfortable and confident enough in their in themselves to say I don't know because if they can get to an I don't know instead of pointing to an authority of wow this is what they said this is what the industry wants this is how they made it we can't go any further if they can get to an I don't know then there's at least the desire to do the work to figure out why they don't know and then everything just unfolds so asking that question why and having people who asked the question why all the time and are comfortable with I don't know that's who we invest in that those are the folks that really change the dynamic of the company and the organization and they're not that rare and and when when you point it out once everyone says Ah that's that's what I want to be that's okay I love it and I want to keep doing more and more of that stuff a lot about leadership is also radiating from the group you're working to distinct groups in the morning at Twitter in the afternoon at Square I think that's the schedule UK do you radiate differently in those two places do you lead differently I don't know if I lead differently I probably rate it differently because I think although that's really perception of the people that that perceive you and I think you know that beauty is in there the Boulder so however people interpret things they interpret it um I think both companies have a different purpose and they have consistent underlying values but they're differently interpreted and I only know one way to to be and one way to lead and that's that's what I am does it come out differently in this it probably does um I'm not sure how but it probably does um I I don't know I think it's also a phasal thing in the company and one company is seven years old another company is 10 about to be 10 years old so um they're both going through very very different challenges and very different times and uh and I imagine that that definitely comes out differently Global platforms like Twitter you know such reach and such touch and you're the leader of it do you feel that the institution and the platform has a responsibility that's that's beyond any one person using the system and how do you engineer that so that you're responsible yeah that's a great question I mean we twitters and and square there and any organization that that you know ultimately succeeds is bigger than any one person and I want to build something that is timeless I want to build something that lives generation after Generation generation certainly after after I pass away and I think that's first having the intention that you want to build that structure and then how do you build it into the DNA it's really empowering people around the organization to own the decisions and it's not just the people in the organization it's also people outside the organization so I think Twitter is really unique in the sense that a lot of a lot of the Innovation and the invention actually came from the people using the service so the at name the hashtag the retweet the Tweet storm all of these things were actually invented by people using the service not not inside the company and uh and I think you know the company has been really customer focused I think it's really seen a pattern it's seen what people want to do and it's understood and pushed itself to understand why it wants to do it and then we've made those behaviors easier and it just flourishes so um as long as we're really looking at what people want to do with the service and and what how they're being creative and how they're being inventive and we're meeting that and we're making it easier for them we're doing we're doing the right thing and uh I think Twitter is is um is interesting in that it is a tool for expression as well and it's really stood for freedom of expression one of the things I'm proudest of the company is just not the tool that we've built but also what we've um stood for um specifically from a policy and legal standpoint the the team has a has really stood for the voice of the people using it in every market and really fought hard to maintain freedom of expression freedom of Express speech across the platform I think it's you know always been known for freedom of expression for speaking truth to power and for empowering dialogue and and we really honor that and we have a very creative and aggressive legal and policy team that upholds those rights and isn't afraid uh to to do the right thing right thank you thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: UCLAAnderson

Views: 18,616

Keywords: business school, b school, anderson, ucla, twitter, jack dorsey, dean olian, technology, communication, leadership, leading, entrepreneurship, entrepremeur, free speech, judy olian, jack, dorsey, guber, olian, leaders, interview, twitter ceo, twitter founder, entrepreneur, social media, square, square founder, ucla anderson, ucla mba, leadership development, professional development, career development

Id: zHwdT803CT8

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 24 2017