Showing leadership during times of uncertainty is an ongoing challenge for the Corporate Committee. Blake Irving, former CEO of Godaddy, who is currently on the board of directors of Autodesk, Docusign and Ziprecruiter, recently discussed the challenges the board is facing and what you can do to make the ILEADership Summit in Morgan Stanley, New York, at the Rouge Media Group 8th Annual Summit, held on September 10th at the 8th ILEADERSHIP Summit of Rouge Media Group.
Below is an edited excerpt from Irving's keynote speech at the summit.
“First, AI is planning to improve revenue for some companies. It puts stress and pressure on other companies that do not employ AI. Market analysts ask the board, “Why are you not doing the same thing? There are very few people among them.”
Secondly, I know the CEOs of companies who don't say what they're thinking because I'm afraid they'll be destroyed. These are big times. I'm the CEO of a large company who is nervous about doing the right thing. For example, if most of us took the “do it, do it” approach, we saw a document that we were taken away from all words and words. of the new law.
“It's very, very tricky. The CEO who runs their company, who is trying to do the right thing, says, “I don't want to be the tallest nails on board. [the tallest nail gets hammered first]so I try to surrender myself to the level of what everyone else is doing.
“And finally, all of these things, risk and uncertainty can be combined. There are some tariff opportunities, but most of them are very risky and unpredictable, so they drive business crazy. I don't know what the government said will be week. I have no solid ground and I have a hard time navigating and understanding it.
“I encourage the CEO and the board to focus on the customer. Keep your head low. It's not the tallest nails on the board. It's safe in numbers.
“Whether you're a small business, a large business, a minority business, or any kind of business, you'll find that your problem is common right now. What's going on now is that you need to pay attention to tariffs. You need to really understand your supply chain.
“The last thing I say is that your business model is really important in this environment. People are very comfortable with subscriptions. So if you're not in a subscription business, it's not a bad idea to think of how to turn your subscription business into a subscription business. A shattering of your financial performance.
