Top 10 Business Podcasts of 2023: Part 1
From the wisdom of former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty to the visionary outlook of OpenAI's Sam Altman on the artificial intelligence, prepare to be inspired to excel in your professional journey.
Hello there,
Welcome to this edition of Igor’s Digest. This week I’m doing something different. This is part 1 of the two-part series on my favorite business podcast episodes from 2023.
I'm diving into the essence of leadership, the evolving landscape of work, and the groundbreaking technologies shaping our future.
From the wisdom of former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty to the visionary outlook of OpenAI's Sam Altman on the trajectory of artificial intelligence, each piece is a mosaic of insights designed to empower and enlighten.
You will have an opportunity to delve into the candid reflections of Shopify's Tobi Lütke on management and personal growth, and the foundational strategies that built Snowflake's sales organization with Chris Degnan.
Join me to uncover the secrets behind Stripe's culture of excellence with David Singleton, and learn from the pivotal experiences of Okta's Frederic Kerrest.
Prepare to be inspired, challenged, and equipped with the knowledge to excel in your professional journey. Let's embark on this adventure together.
1. Ginni Rometty: IBM CEO on Leadership, Power, and Adversity
Ginni Rometty is a former long-time CEO, president, and chairman of IBM.
Hiring (6 mins). Back in the day she used to hired experts, later in her career she started hiring for willingness to learn, which changed everything.
2. Sam Altman on Lex Fridman Podcast
Sam Altman: OpenAI CEO on GPT-4, ChatGPT, and the Future of AI on Lex Fridman.
3. The art and science of pricing | Madhavan Ramanujam on Lenny’s Podcast
Madhavan gives real-life examples of having conversations about “willingness to pay,” how segmentation should impact your pricing, and when to start thinking about pricing. He also shares tips on how behavioral pricing impacts your thinking, how to restructure your pricing during a downturn, and much more.
4. CRO Flexport, Will Urban: Streamlining Global Trade With Revolutionary Technology
In this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and Will talk about how Flexport is disrupting the freight forwarding industry, what the company’s go-to-market engine looks like, and why Will believes relationship building is important for salespeople.
Wealth isn't about wanting to get rich. It's about creating immense value and capturing a portion of it.
Adopt a sprint work rhythm. Work intensively for a few days, slow down, then sprint again. Rest and repeat.
Embrace vulnerability and seek mentorship.
5. Shopify Founder Tobi Lütke
In the 20VC podcast, Shopify founder Tobi Lütke dives deep on why micromanagement is good, why you will learn more from studying World of Warcraft guilds than you will companies, why happiness is BS; lessons on marriage, fatherhood & decision-making quality.
6. CRO Snowflake, Chris Degnan: Building Snowflake’s Successful Sales Organization from the Ground Up
In this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and Chris discuss what it was like to work at Snowflake in its early stages, how Chris built Snowflake’s sales organization from the ground up, and how the fear of failure can be an effective motivator.
Mike the founder wanted to build a flash database, talked to a hundred PhDs, found one who didn’t like the idea and had a way to improve on it, and hired him and his friend to lead Snowflake.
Your sales leaders should be great sales reps themselves at an early stage.
In the first year focus on ACV bookings.
Snowflake for a long time couldn’t close multi-year deals.
Snowflake only became valuable when Azure, AWS, and other cloud providers became valuable.
7. Building a culture of excellence | David Singleton (CTO of Stripe)
Building a culture of excellence with David Singleton (CTO of Stripe) on Lenny’s podcast (Apple, Spotify, Youtube). Since joining Stripe, David has helped grow the technology org across the U.S. and developed new engineering hubs in Singapore and Dublin as well as Stripe’s fifth hub, remote engineering, across the globe. Before Stripe, he spent 11 years at Google, where he was VP of Engineering, leading product development and coordinating more than 15 different hardware partnerships. In this episode, they cover:
Hiring secrets that set Stripe employees apart
How to build a product-minded engineering team
How to operationalize meticulousness
Strategies for maintaining developer productivity at scale
The process of “friction logging” used to make better products
How AI is changing the way engineers work
Insights for planning and prioritizing at scale
8. Co-Founder & COO Okta, Frederic Kerrest: Zero to IPO
In the early days of Okta, co-founder Frederic Kerrest was courting a 3,000-person company in Louisiana, which was considering Okta and one other vendor. When he learned who he was up against, he said, “We love competing with them ‘cause we beat them every time.” That arrogant boast lost him the deal, and taught him a humbling lesson: Your confidence is not superior to your customer’s needs.
Be adamant about your private time.
First take care of yourself, then of everyone else.
In the early stages, a founder should excel in sales, marketing, or product, rather than business operations.
9. President, Global Strategic Customers at Salesforce, Jim Steele: Measuring Your Facetime
Jim Steele, President of Global Strategic Customers at Salesforce, is the man, the myth, and the legend who helped increase Salesforce’s revenue from $22 million to over $5 billion.
Working since he was 10 years old to support his family, Jim’s drive and ambition are still just as strong today as he views new challenges and opportunities with a “beginner’s mindset.” As Jim puts it, his 43-year career in sales is a series of stories–in this episode, he reflects on poignant moments that helped shape who he is as a leader in the industry.
You are the CEO of your account. Never give your power away, when a customer says your pricing is too high say “Look I hear what you are asking for but honestly, it’s not a good deal for us, I can’t support it”.
10. CRO Zoom, Ryan Azus: It’s Not Zoom Fatigue, It’s Work Fatigue
In this episode, Ryan and Joubin talk about the silver lining of growing up with divorced parents; what Ryan learned from his epic first job as a book salesman; how he talked his way into a job at WebEx after being screened by HR; the big thing a lot of people on the outside get wrong about working at a successful fast-growing company; joining Zoom in August 2019, right before COVID changed everything; what it feels like when your job is to keep the world connected; and why success is not created in a “sunny meadow.”
At a young age go and do something hard.
Have more than one kid. It’ll be more fun for them.
Until we meet again next week Here's to a week filled with purpose and joy!
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Yours,
Igor