Aneel Bhusri, MBA '93 and Dave Duffield, Workday: 41st Entrepreneurial Company of the Year
So. Welcome to the annual. Stanford. GSB encore. Award. I and, I. It's. A great it's always a great event every year when. I start, with a couple of thanks in particular, to the Encore Award selection, committee for their great. Choice and also for their work in putting together today, tonight's event and thank, you to all the sponsors of this, event and thank. You to all of our alumni and distinguished. Guests, thanks, for all of your support of the GSB including, coming tonight so the, Encore award we have this is a award, that has been given out since 1977. We've recognized, 40, companies. Over that time it's given each, year to, the entrepreneurial. Company, of the year that demonstrates. The spirit. And innovation. And culture of Silicon. Valley companies. And this. Year work day is a fabulous. Selection, and we have the two co-founders, of, work day here with us tonight and. Yobu Suri and Dave, Duffield and I'll bring them out in a few minutes and just to. Say a few words to of, introduction. This, is a particularly, fitting. Award, for Stanford, to. Recognize, an entrepreneurial, company because, it is so entrepreneurship. And innovation, are so central. To the to the University and to the business school, these. Days every. Single one of the MBA students, at the Stanford Business School has. Been taking, at least one entrepreneurship. Class and, in. The last few years about, 15, or 20 percent of our students, in fact go, on immediately, after graduation, and start a company, that's. The. Next, Business, School has about 7%. And everyone else is at about three so that is really a distinctive. Feature of, Stanford. And of, course all of the students become so much more innovative, and able to assess. Risk and opportunity and, be more capable leaders by being exposed to. Entrepreneurship, and absorbing, the the, culture here. At Stanford, and it's a way that we connect with the rest of the university with, engineering. And medicine and education earth, sciences, that. You, know integration. With the other schools the real home mark of what we what we do and. In. A if. You look at what's happened in our entrepreneurship, or in the last few years one of the big things that we've seen is, a enormous. Increase, in students, interested in social, entrepreneurship, that is using the skills of entrepreneurship, and innovation in. Areas, like health and education, and sustainability as. A, way to think. About using, innovation. To address fundamental societal. Challenges. Last year we we actually had a hundred and forty, students. Who participated, in a social entrepreneurship, or. Social entrepreneurship, program and. When I think about you know looking forward, one. Thing I think you're going to hear about tonight is that, many. Of us anticipate. That there's gonna be profound. Changes, in business and in society as a result of advances, in technology. And in particular, automation. Data science, social intelligence and. That. Is I believe, that is likely to be one of the areas where our entrepreneurship. Program goes over the next several. Years both in terms of thinking about what the opportunities, are and also, the potential. Risks and consequences. And. I think I think you'll hear so that's not because the two people who are the, leaders and founders of workday are famous, for being one step ahead, of technology, and seeing what are the opportunities that, are enabled. By a, you. Know an in, their case new communication. The. Internet and new to communication, technology and then of course masterful, execution, which they have actually, done.
Exceptionally. Exceptionally well. Okay. So now I want. To introduce that I want to bring out our panelists, tonight. And. I'm. Gonna let see if they just, you want to brew see if they can if they're here we'll bring them bring them out Jeff. Come on out, okay. So so. We've got between four of them we have two panelists, and we have two moderators, we're gonna double-team the panelists from either end here and. The. We. Have a yang on each end. And. They're. Gonna have some jokes about that I think I, so. First on, the far end we have Jeff yang he's a MBA, graduate, of class of 85 he. Is the founding partner of redpoint. Ventures he. Has invested in in, many technology. Companies through through, redpoint he did not invest in work day and so maybe they'll they'll discuss why that I mean what, happened there but I'm I. It's. Not on their list jeff. Has also just been an incredible. Volunteer. And alumni supporter of the Business School since he graduate, has been on our Advisory Council, he's a been, a longtime chair of the I Corps selection committee and he's involved across, the university, in many many ways. Here. Next to me is Jerry Yang Jerry's, a Stanford. Graduate. He got. Both bachelor's, and a master's degree over, in the engineering school graduate, in 1990, and, somehow, never made his way over to the business school but that's, okay. He. Left. Stanford to found, Yahoo that was you, know back, in the early days of the internet and, and, of course was was involved there until. 20 until 2012, and Jerry, not, only was he a the. Internet pioneer he. Probably. Made one of the all-time great investments, by buying, 40%, of Alibaba, in 2007. So he's distinctive. As a founder, and also as an entrepreneurial, investor, and he also, has, been incredibly, involved with Stanford he's on our board of trustees he's. Been on the advisory boards, of the knight Hennessy Scholars the Cantor Art Center and he's currently, involved, in our new human centered artificial, intelligence, initiative. So, Jeff and Jerry thank you so much for your leadership, and support here, at Stanford and out. Of the community. Okay. Now into, panelists and Yoko Sri and Dave Duffield Anil is a GSB, alum from the MBA class of 1993, he. Left he went to work for David PeopleSoft. He eventually became, vice, chairman, there and they, started, work, day together in 2005. After the, acquisition. Of PeopleSoft by Oracle and. It's. Been, a home run basically. From day one, under, Neil's leadership, as CEO, and you're gonna hear all about it, and Neal's also on the board of directors of Intel, and I want to welcome the other directors, of Intel who decided. To spend their board dinner here listening, to a meal so thank you all so directors, of himself. And. Then. Dave Duffield in the in the middle here has, been a just, a legendary. Technology. Founder and leader for many years he co-founded. Workday, he's the chairman of the board and before that he founded co-founded, PeopleSoft, he, was the CEO of that company and, before that he was the CEO of integral systems he founded information, associates there's. Not, very many people in. The world with his record. Of, entrepreneurial. Complement so it's really really a privilege to have Dave, make the trip to be here tonight so thank you all and looking really part of the panel. Thank. You John. Before. We get started I. Just want to thank Jerry Yang for joining us and you. Know we make many. Yang sandwiches, but this is by far the most distinguished, yang sandwich, that we don't have. Before. We get started can I just say that one, of them is good Yang and one of them's bad yang, and.
You Guys will have to figure out who is who we're. A little bit like matter and antimatter we can't occupy the same space. In. Any event I just wanted to talk for a minute about the. The Encore, selection, committee why we selected work day as our as. The winner of the Stanford entrepreneurial. Company the Year award you, know part. Of the story goes to you know we look for very. Classical. Stories of entrepreneurship, and any work days a company, that was founded by two previously, successful, entrepreneurs. Who work together were friends, and started a company, over, breakfast, in February 2005. With. A piece of paper the. Second is that we look for founders. Who are still involved with the company and and there's still the, CEO. And the chairman respectively, and and obviously, very actively, involved and today. Workday is the leading provider of enterprise, cloud. Apps for finance and HR with, over, 2,400. Customers, and 10,000, employees worldwide and, over 35% of the Fortune 100, run. Workday, and that number grows every day thanks to their efforts the. Company went public in, October, of 2012. At $28. And it, closed today it almost six times that price, over. A hundred and sixty four dollars, with. A market cap of 36 billion dollars, since. Its IPO subscription. Revenues, have grown from approximately 130. Million dollars in the year that, you went public to, an estimated 2.3, billion, in the current fiscal year representing. An. Annual, growth year over year 30 percent which is kind, of astonishing. Finally. Anil. Is a, very loyal Stanford, GSB grad. And as you can tell one of the most beloved members of our community, yeah and if you're not sure just look around there we've. Had more, table. Sales from sponsors and Friends than any. Other, Award. Winner and in recent memory so. Why do we select workday, well that's why and so thank you and. Welcome. To nailing day. So. We thought we would just kind of talk, through a few issues and then we'll open it up for questions, at the end but maybe we can start with Anil, with the founding, of workday, and you worked you, both work together PeopleSoft. And your, friends, but talk a little bit more about kind of how you met and how your friendship developed, and then talk about how PeopleSoft. And. What was happening PeopleSoft led to the founding of workday sure so uh one. Little thing I, forgot. To mention, we were fashioned. Trendsetters. I'm. Wearing. The tied a, nail bought the management, team for. Our IPO. Really, you've got actually was Lindsay who's on the flag, we, got matching watches, matching, watches, they go, very. Very nice matching, watches, and, Anil, got me that, several. Months ago and I've got, something for you. I'll. Open it later yeah. It's. Relevant. And. You I. Peoplesoft. Watch desert. Collector. Items. So. I first. Met Dave in 1992. I was working for George still, over. There who I, owe.
A Lot to George George. Picked my name out of a resume book when I was at Stanford, Business School I was gonna go work at Microsoft for the summer I said, went to work for George because we had one. Hour breakfast, that turned into three hours George, was the only investor in PeopleSoft, I went to PeopleSoft board meeting a year. Later when. I was graduating, from the GSB I was. About to go into venture capital I thought I wanted to work for a company and. So Dave said George, said go see Dave you know go see Dave and he'll. Figure out a job for you and. So. I went to go see Dave and. At. This point PeopleSoft, was already a successful, public company not the huge, company that it ended up being and Dave. Took me out for a beer it's got the seafood I remember that vividly and. Here's. This famous entrepreneur taking, a MBA. Out for a drink we had a glass of chardonnay which we now have a lot of those together and. Said. Yeah come work for me I don't, know I'm gonna do with you yet why don't you take three or four months off and travel and I'll figure it out by the time you get back. That's. What he said and, I thought wow. This famous CEO, and entrepreneur, when. Took me out for a beer I really. Know I'm not really that excited about HR software but. Try. For a couple years and, you know 26, year later I'm. An HR software so. That's. That's that's how we met and we've been best friends since yeah but we well. He, was 20-something so what, was your first impression and, how how, did that don't, be so skeptical Jerry you know. We. We, were linked, many, many years ago we were both, double e's. Yeah. We. I. I went, to high school in Ridgewood New Jersey and, Neil was born in Ridgewood New Jersey. Wonderful. Mom sitting out in front here, our. Dads both worked, for Bell Labs. And. We. My, first job was in Rochester New York and he'll and his family, spent several, years there so we were, connected. Well before you, and I met on, that eventful day, but. I saw, in this, young man a just, in energy an intelligence, of a desire to to. Learn to listen I. Wanted. To do something. Obviously. He had great your attentions. We. Are a fast-growing company, at that time and, plenty. Of things to do and, we. Connected. Personally, and, it's. Truly been a love. Affair you know for 26, years now okay. So now you're you're you're in PeopleSoft, you're working together tell. Us about what happened that, that, drew. You away from PeopleSoft, to start workday. Well. So it was 1999, and. I. Think. You decided that it was it was time for you to take a step back the, board decided that I wasn't ready to be the next CEO which, I totally agree with I wasn't someone. Argue I'm still not ready, and. We went, out inside and found an outside CEO, to run PeopleSoft, but both Dave and I stayed on the board. Fast, forward to 2003. And, Oracle. Launched a hostile takeover on, work, on PeopleSoft. Halfway. Through that hostile takeover, the board fired that CEO and brought, Dave and I back, to. Try to save, the company from from, Oracle we. Obviously didn't prevail but we had so much fun working together in the middle of a hostile takeover and, along that way we, did actually we had so much it, we, had a glorious. Time and, I remember. Requiring, the. Company acquired JD, Edwards remember that in. June I think it was 2003. And. That. Launched, the. Hospital takeover, by Oracle, I have. A fun story let. Me finish that welcome, back that. Along. The way we we came to conclusion that what PeopleSoft, was doing had had hit a wall and there was a better way and. You. Know I I was friends with Marc Benioff at the time and thought we. Both thought someone's. Gonna do what Salesforce, is doing for sales and marketing for HR and Finance miles will be PeopleSoft. Of. Course then it didn't end up being PeopleSoft, and. They. Took over they, took over PeopleSoft, they didn't want me and Dave those.
You Know since we can fought it didn't, even have shocking, but they didn't ask him they didn't ask for non-competes, and so it was a bad decision. So. Three, months later I, just. Start working on that on that idea but, really, now now finish the part but. We. Both went back. With. For, no pay if you remember that and, $1. Actually I didn't. Get the dog I got the dollar. But. You, just put yourself in our place where, the. Board and public company just fired the CEO and they're, in the middle of this hospital, a truly hostile, takeover, and we. Have a wonderful. Group. Of venture capital, people here who in, their right mind would, go back to work as the. CEO or. Partner. The CEO. With. Without a guarantee of millions. And millions of dollars we. Didn't get paid and it, was a really. A. Just. A partnership that wanted, to do the right thing for the customers, the employees, and I. This story I have. Anil. Went back and created, this product vision we. Went out on the road to talk, to the analysts, the, shareholders. He personally. Moved. The stock from 17, dollars a share to 25, I, mean, personally. The. Value. Of the company went up 50% in my job was sort of go around to talk to people one, of my visits was to Denver, to. JD Edwards where we just, acquired 5,000. Employees and, had. The occasion, to go and speak to the whole company, so. All this CEO I'd McVeigh knees do you remember him. In. The elevator and he said Dave. This. Is sort of funny. Dave. We. Decided. As a company we needed, to explore our options and, the, options one, of the options was get acquired and so. I and. McVeigh knee to talk to all, our employees in, Denver a couple, of thousand, of them he, said team. We. Have to explore this option, how. Would you guys feel about. Being acquired by s. AP. Yes. Terrible. Worst. Decision, you could make ad terrible. Okay. Well then hop, out if we got acquired by Oracle. Even. Worse. Hysterics. People leaving the room they. Couldn't, believe that then, he says what. About being. Acquired by PeopleSoft. Just. Like the room here. Maybe. That's an option you, know Dave you know what, we. Chose people Clough because. You, guys. Aren't. A, bunch of assholes. Is, it obviously, a true, story so. You. Guys are two the nicest people and and I I wonder, do. You guys ever argue, I mean tell us about these Chardonnay, dinners we've, we've, at the end or what, happens in these in 26, years we've never had an argument or a fight never so. Once a month during, the. Founding a workday we'd go out to dinner at, amber, this. Hole-in-the-wall. And, in. Danville. We learned the meaning of Cougar juice at one of those dinners, my. Story. And. We get a bottle of wine and we talk through all the issues in the company and we'd always. Solve. Everything and if we didn't we'd get a second bottle of wine. But. Never, never. And I think part of it is our. Relationship. With each other is more important than any one decision and also I think we see the world generally the same although I'd say most. People think of me as an optimist, and I see the world is half-full, Dave. Sees a a half-full, glass is completely, full. That's. True and I think that's the that's the beauty of workday you know we we, took on sa P and Oracle and, there. Were Press reports written when we started the company like who are these guys, this.
Is The dumbest idea no one's going to take on sa P and Oracle and when they're gonna get killed you know. You need optimism. We. Had. A perfect, relationship with. One minor little thing after. The we. Thought, hustle, takeover succeeded, and we. Were in an airport somewhere and I was following a deal and. He. Was pissy. If you. You. Know what's the matter he, said well you wrote the memo to the company, you spelled, Greylock with an A. So. That was our only little, to only little tip. Well. There's, a great lot of people here they'd appreciate that so. You've. Been doing this for 14, years right what keeps you going what what keeps what's what's the drive that keeps you guys. Still involved, and working as hard as you do. Well. I would, say for me that. Day. Dave was the pioneer, of a. New new, way of doing business in Silicon Valley Dave was the first nice guy to be really successful back, and, then in the 90s that was not the model. So. PeopleSoft. Was all about taking, care of employees taking care of customers having, fun along the way and. Workday. Is as. I think taking it to a new level and what what we're both proud of is we were number seven on great place to work recently, but we're a great place to work for Millennials which is frankly. A really hard group. There's. We got some of millennial employees in the audience women. LGBT. Key, diversity. Everything, we are we just embrace, we. Embrace everyone and we've created this great place to work and I think it's a fall, through from, from. PeopleSoft, and, it's. Exciting to have a place that is. You. Know that's positive, that takes care of its customers, that takes care of its employees and we're, winning and. I think that makes it fun every day right I mean people are happy, at work day, we're. You, know great place to work we're also at 98 percent customer satisfaction it, kind of fuels each other we got the, people the work day management team here and they're an amazing team making. It all happen and it's just it's just fun to go to work and I'll. Say it's it's. It's. I feel like my job is to be the steward of what they've started I. Tell. You this. Guy continues. To be innovative, I think, we got the, customer, satisfaction, going first the employees, we're also in. The country for working parents that's. Pretty cool. But. We. Have all that going for us and yet Anil devotes his energy. To making, sure we're taking advantage of the new technology, the. New trends. He's. Got. Some. Of the smartest people at work day working on new. Stuff so. We can keep our lead and in. Our, technology business, I mean, everything, is going super well and. To. See this guy in front of Cramer in front. Of the. User. Conference, sales, people it's, this. Recent. Company meeting, fabulous. Job in terms of motivation, sense of humor, commitment. To you, know furthering. The customers, furthering, the employees, to. It's a great. Spot to be I'm super. Proud of him. I've. Been lucky, enough to be, close. To work day for many years and I know when. You have your user conference, arising every year when, Dave Duffield gets up on stage just like a cult everybody goes crazy and, so you've. Always been they've sort of the at. Least for me the symbol for, being. That, customer advocate, for a work day and. And. As customers, have continued. To change and the. Two of you seem to be, able to see around corners very, intuitively. And. Whether. It's product directions whether it's the proper paranoia whether it's confidence, how. Do you guys is this just natural and you guys kind. Of just feel it and it happens or is this something that, you. Guys talk about how does the process of. Doing. All those things about building a great product engaging, customers, have great, employees and have a great culture is, this something that just kind of comes along naturally, or is this something that you really work hard at. Well. The culture has to be in. The heart of the founders, and that. That's what, we stand for, the. Corners I see around I always, ask anneal what's around the corner, that's, the way I figure, it out. But. No he's. He's. The, visionary petros. Another. Luminary. At work days in the second row here just. Fabulous. Visionary. - what. I learned, from Dave in the very early days at PeopleSoft, was to. Be a good listener and I.
Learned It the hard way we went to dinner and Dave. Wasn't saying anything and I'm like well I'm with Dave I'm not gonna say anything we had this like awkward, silence for, a period of time and and. I said well Dave you hadn't say anything it's like well I'm waiting for you to say something smart and. And. He, gave him this lesson which I take. To heart not always perfect at it but no, one learned anything while they were talking, so. You listen to the customers he listened to your engineers, she listened to what's. Happening in the marketplace and then you try to synthesize the information to, what's happening but it's out there you just you just have to listen and that's I learned that from Dave Dave's one of the best listening when. Used to run the PeopleSoft management, meetings he'd. Be pretty quiet most of the meeting and then he summarized at the end what we were gonna do actually. Works pretty well. So. So talk. About you. Know your I've, heard George still also mentioned you know really good at look around corner so so look around the corner and tell us what what. Is your vision of what the industry looks like ten years now and what is workday, what's, work days next challenge. That's. That's a great question ten. Years is hard okay. The. Next five years. There's. Nothing slowing down the cloud and I think that's a foregone conclusion when, we started the company there. Were there were all the naysayers but that's a foregone conclusion I know everybody, is talking about, machine. Learning and AI. But it is real. It's. Not the, bogeyman. That people make, it out to be. There's. A great book called prediction. Machines that, was. Written by three professors, in in. At. The University of Toronto that. Talked about the economics, of machine learning and I think it actually debunks. A lot of the fears basically. Tells you that machine learning is great at predictions. Humans, are not weighted predictions like we're terrible at predicting the weather once. We know the weather is bad we make good judgment as to what to do get an umbrella wear a raincoat. And. Over time these. Machines are going to make better and better predictions, and then humans. Apply judgment, and that leads to better outcomes and, I actually think that it's it's actually going to be much more positive than what people are describing. Our. Applications. In five, years will basically, predict, what's going to happen on the business side and whether, it's an HR or finance whatever, applications, we're building and then. The. The. Business folks will have to take advantage of that prediction and make a decision on what they're going to do with that prediction and, hopefully it leads to better business outcomes so it'll go from automating, processes to. Predicting. Outcomes and actually, if. You if you talk to our customers they're looking for better business, decisions and better outcomes not just automated, business processes, so. Petros. Has been a big driver of the. Investment, in itself it's all about the data but I think that is big part of it and, you. Know the the. Important. Part for me is that we. Don't get up ended by a, new. A new player I don't worry about sa P and Oracle I like to say they're dinosaurs they're. Actually proving it out you know one of the executives, that Oracle said you. Know, we're. A dinosaur, but we can fly and I'm like well, those died too you know. Just. Saying. It's. Gonna be somebody that starts with a clean sheet of paper that, looks.
At, Workday. As as. A legacy, provider, we're now 14 years old and says this is the way I would do it if I start with the clean sheet of paper today and that's. Why every few years Petros, and I take our key engineers, off site we say what would you do today what would you what, would you do today to. To. Start workday knowing. The technologies are available today versus 14 years ago and then we try to reinvent ourselves and I think that's what will be. What. I do know that in five, years or 10 years. That. The the culture that Dave. Built at PeopleSoft, that we built together a workday I hate. To use this word but will trump strategy, right I don't like to use that word but it will that, will matter more than. Anything. We do if we have the right culture will be innovative. Will have happy employees and, happy customers and the rest will take care of itself. We. Have a couple of really cool board members yeah ya know we, got George we got Jerry Jerry. Someone who actually sees around corners he told us with what to do with the board meeting right. But. Enough about me. I. You. Know I knew you you were an investor for. Time in made. Some incredible investments. You're an incredible operator. Are. Those things different, how, different are they and how do you. How. Do you differ device. You give people who are you, know investment, community I you know me and Jeff or. People. Operating how how. Javi maneuvered, sort of those different kinds so it's seemingly very different, I've. Always felt more comfortable being in a company, when. I was investor, I love. New technology and, that applies to both venture, and just like you love new technology I loved I love the new technology, and venture and I loved the, new technology, that we built work day around, that's. Where the similarities, probably, end as a, venture, capitalist, you need to be a skeptic, to. Be the the guardrails. On a company to make sure that the entrepreneurs, who are so optimistic that, they have some guardrails, to. Keep them to keep them on the right Road as entrepreneurs, you want to be optimistic and count. On your board to be the guardrails and I, feel I'm, better as the optimist, than the, guardrails, but. I do think it's a mindset where. The. Best the best investor, I've ever ever worked is in the audience, Dave. Z I'm more famous at Greylock for hiring Dave Z than anything I did investing, it's, true he invested in Facebook. And LinkedIn when. Neither really look like a short, thing right I mean Dave David's amazing, David. Just can analyze anything, in detail and, you, know I think it's it's it's sort of a different mindset most of my success as an investor, was. Being part of almost being part of the founding team mm-hmm, so. I do, you think it's it's different yeah. So. Everybody kind of talks. About successes. Right, but. Some of the best lessons that you, you. Learn, are from failures can. You do you mind talking about some of your failures and what you've learned you, learned about them learned, from them, one. Failure for me was picking the wrong successor, PeopleSoft. At. The time, turned. Out to be brilliant. Because. In. Illinois we've got to go back to work and. Become. Further bonded, and perform. Work David but that was a failure of. All. The business. Books you, know Jim Collins argues. For promoting. From within and. I chose to go to the outside. And. It didn't work out. In. Retrospect. It did but it was, a failure at the time and now we're now we're now grateful, Larry Ellison for taking over PeopleSoft, because work days done a lot better than PeopleSoft would have done so who's, our friend right, not really but you know we say that's. What, lesson would you derive from that, would. You learn from that I, don't, know you could get over it. Move. On. Well. But as, many things. You guys have kept the same from PeopleSoft the workday you guys did, make sure in work days. The. Stock structure that that nobody, was gonna do that to you guys again yeah, that's my my, official title here at workday I'm. The, hostile. Takeover preventer. Yes. I'd. Say you. Know. When. Their stories. Are written about startups, it's always about how they start from scratch and went straight to the right and did did great things and I remember going on Cramer and. He said you guys are an overnight success like we've been at it for eight years, and.
The First two years we couldn't find a single customer to take workday we. Were we were working on it and and finally we want, we were ready to launch the company and we. Had a near miss with a, big, fortune 500 manufacturer. We had a near-miss with Google. With. Google was. Now a customer yeah. So. Then we started calling. Up all of our friends and, so the first ten customers were basically. Friends of David and Neal who would just try the software, at almost no cost. Just. So we get at the experience, but it took it took two years to get our first customer, and everybody thinks you know there must've been easy but people, weren't looking for a new HR, or, finance system. At the time so when did you know that you, were onto something I mean so so you go two years and you can't get anybody to to, take the software and, and now you're kind of you got some people on that when did you know that this. Is gonna this is gonna work well our first customer was a small, software company down, in this area, there's. In, very. First customer the CEO, of that company. Was. Khanna software. Used. To be the president of Oracle, North America, so, we, knew, we're onto something there, we're, our first customer was a former. Competitor, I, think, I think the. Company. That the, event that put us in. Probably. On the map is flex Tron. They. Believed in us you, know the did Co CIO, at the time they've slowly. Made. The cover of CIO. Magazine, and. So he, was prominent, workday was prominent, be because. Of selling, to him turned. Out to be a huge. Success, came. In under budget under. The budgeted. Time. The. Whole company was both. Flextronics, and, and work they celebrated. And. Absolutely. Victory. For us not, just the cell sales. Process, but, the customer, going, live in two. Hundred thousand, employees around, the world so. There's a big big success and a, lot of good things happened after that yeah and that's see the CEO of Flextronics, ended up joining our board afterwards, and I remember vividly when. We, were at the kickoff meeting he, told this whole team we're. Burning the boats like. Cortes there was no plan B so you got to make this work and everybody. Went quiet in the room including me and Dave said oh and at this point we could prove, the system could scale to five thousand employees and they had two hundred thousand. So. Over. The next couple years Petro some team and the engineers. Made. It happen but at, that point we realized they didn't have a plan B so we need, to make this make. This work and it's been this, great partnership, the. CIO went off to be the CIO at AstraZeneca he became a customer again you. Know you take care of your customers CIOs, move around we've had repeat customers, so. Many times the other one I would say was Chiquita yep. Ng, yeah. So. I, you. Know and you, know. Last. Year is is a. Big. Year of change for you and and one, of the things I admire about you as a friend is your cert. Ability to work life balance. You. Welcomed, a new member to your family I know Allison's here and your mom's here I know you had a loss. I mean what when, you step back in the beginning of 2019, today. What. It last year being to you, but. What, does that mean going forward well, you. Know for those that don't know my. Mom is in the audience. I lost. My dad a few months ago and you know he was my hero. He. Was a great dad my, role model you, know my to role models have been my dad and and this guy here I've. Always said as my second dad and. That. Sort of overwhelms, everything else it was a great year for workday but I miss him a lot and, you. Know I think, he'd be really proud, of. What, Dave, and I have done together Dave Dave David met him and then we got a new kid who. Started, off, with. A little, tough start she came a little early but now she's doing great so you, know that just it just puts everything into perspective, I always. Does. And. I've got an amazing wife Allison. Who's in the audience who's been, through all that with me and who. Is a very, active and successful angel, investor so, you know you should compare notes on deals Jerry will, talk later. Maybe, maybe. Have a few minutes just for some questions, from the audience and, so if they're if there's anything.
That. You want to ask please do so and and otherwise. Well we'll, keep going any, any, questions, that. I. Got, one so a. Lot. Of people warm so he has bet just everybody knows he is bad yang and he's good yang so, so, now I'm worried that you have an extra one yeah, actually. A funny yang with Robert says I'm fun yeah yeah. I, mean, I'm, sure you get asked this a lot but but you know if you had a one. Or two piece of advice for a new, entrepreneur you've. Gone through it a few times and what would it be. I'd, say. Number. One it's way more way, more fun doing. It with a friend I think, the story of workday is a story, of friendship I don't, think it exists without the, friendship that Dave and I've had for, 26. Years 26, years and we've been working together for 26. Years and. The, second piece is solve a problem that matters, you. Know what we set out to do a workday a lot. Of people said that's too hard no one's going to take on sa P and Oracle so. When we were successful we didn't actually, a whole bunch of other startup competitors because it was it was hard and, anytime, people talk about wanting to compete with work. Day and knowing HR, and payroll regulations. In 180, countries and, the, accounting, rules, across. The globe you say you know welcome to the swamp this is really hard stuff and. All. The companies, that I was fortunate. Enough to invest in I saw. A. Few. Of our entrepreneurs in the audience or you know what I see it at Intel. If. It's not hard it's frankly not worth doing mm-hmm, and you'll have a lot of competition, and if it's hard and you're solving a problem that matters. You'll. Find a way to be successful but and. When. I come back to any. Work day is a story of a, friendship, that you know turn into a great, company I. Totally. Agree I would. Do suggest. That, the. Entrepreneur. Immediately. Defined. The vision for the company and, I. Failed. To do that for my first 25, years in business and finally. At PeopleSoft. As. George knows, and Anil knows we. Do, find our value, system, our. Purpose. In life I mean, your core values are most most, important, you. Know to get that right in the beginning, it's. The. Methodology. For hiring the top people in the company you want everybody to be able to work together and, I, think Anil, and I did, it beautifully, at work day we, established. Our vision. We. Hired the right people. Petros, Jim Pezzini, dan sweet a whole. Bunch of dynamite. People, and. We. Were in harmony we just worked, well together we, solve, problems, together we, took on challenges. We. Were we were good friends. So. I think that's number one, and. It's, just, phenomenal. To be able to work with your best friend I. Still. Remember the days then, it worked. We, had cubicles, together we, lean over, and Niels was cluttered, with all this electronics. Has. The latest of anything, always. Fiddling, with it and.
It's. His. Genius. Mind at work but, it's fun just to collaborate. Everybody. Needs somebody to talk to you. You can't make, decisions without. You. Know thinking through the, you. Know the different, obstacles, you, have in front of you there's, always, personnel. Challenges, you'll have it your company and to, have your. Your best friend next door to. Talk about things you could never talk with anybody else without including, your board. It's. It's, dynamite. And. We. Interviewed the first 500 people together. Only. Four only for a cultural fit we, assumed the team would have gotten it right on the skill set but Dave and I interviewed for a cultural fit that would be another piece to you. Know we set the value system, upfront we spend a lot, of the first, breakfast. At rec Edina are talking about the values and then made. Sure that when we hired that first five hundred and many of them ourself to company now they're the culture carriers to make sure that we continue down, that path, I think, founders, sometimes. Punt on hiring. It's. Easier to let their managers, hire but we were involved with every every. Hiring, decision for the first 500, that's. Amazing well, listen thank you very much I've, been to a lot of these. And a lot of encore, Awards but this is probably the most human. Presentation. I've ever I can ever recall so thank you and it's nice it's nice to see the nice guys can finish first so thank, you very much and congratulations. Jerry. Various, brief. Thank. You all thank Jeff and Jerry thank you so much for moderating and, David, and Neil that was just, seeing the partnership, you have was, worth. The every, minute if that was wonderful, just beautiful so we now have your your award so here. It is.
2019-01-20 17:42
