Inspired Execution: How Leaders Spark and Sustain Change

That’s a wrap! Season 2 of Inspired Execution is officially in the books. 

This second season saw host Chet Kapoor, Chairman and CEO of DataStax, interview technology leaders from a number of impressive global enterprises — including Cisco, Goldman Sachs, and PayPal — discussing everything from overcoming challenges during the pandemic, advice they’d give to younger versions of themselves, and tips for delivering transformative customer experiences to people around the world.

Today is the final episode of the second season, where Chet provides a recap on the 11 conversations he had with his guests. In case you haven’t had a chance to listen to the last two episodes yet, here’s a brief recap of what you’ve missed. 

Don’t Just Be Better, Be Memorable: Building a Multi-Product Platform with Cisco’s SVP & GM of Security & Collaboration, Jeetu Patel

“Keep your products insanely simple and make sure that you're solving the most important problems. Memorability trumps comprehensiveness every single day of the week and twice on Sunday.” — Jeetu Patel

Jeetu Patel started his career in the opposite order of most. He ran his own startup for 17 years before eventually leaving to join a large enterprise. In this episode, Jeetu talks about leaving Box to lead Cisco’s security and collaboration unit during the pandemic, why he prefers working for large organizations instead of running his own startup, why you should pick the people you want to work with instead of the brand, what it was like to work at Box while it shifted toward a platform strategy while quadrupling its revenue, why Jeetu believes you have to be 10x better than your competitors if you want to convince customers to switch, and more.

 

Thriving Communities: How Diversity, Inclusion, and Resilience Drive Significant Impact with Microsoft’s COO of Cloud & AI, Charlotte Yarkoni

“It's a global company with a global workforce and a global set of customers and partners. So you're not thinking about the world in one particular region. You're thinking about what serves all. And that's very reflective of how we all do business today.” — Charlotte Yarkoni

Charlotte Yarkoni’s current role focuses on answering three questions: 1) How do customers discover us? 2) How do customers best engage with us? and 3) How does Microsoft become even easier to do business with? In this episode, Charlotte touches upon how Microsoft thinks about a global set of customers and its software solutions, the role diversity and inclusion play in creating thriving communities and meaningful projects, lessons Charlotte’s learned about micromanagement, how horseback riding has impacted her approach to leadership, and more.

Catch the Season 2 Recap episode!

Chet’s recap episode drops today. Tune in to learn more about how some of today’s most impactful leaders inspire their teams to reach their full potential. 

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We’ll see you in Season 3!