Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Bloomberg Intelligence Analysis notes that
Speaker 1: the virus outbreak has aided demand for cloud collaboration software
Speaker 1: and that includes like that coming from Box. Let's get
Speaker 1: more on what they are seeing and how they are
Speaker 1: managing through the virus. Aaron Levy is chairman, CEO, and
Speaker 1: co founder at the Redwood City base Box, and we
Speaker 1: find him on the phone from that city on this Wednesday. Aaron,
Speaker 1: great to have you here on Bloomberg Radio. How are
Speaker 1: you doing. How is your team doing through the virus? Good? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me and UM and great to be here.
Speaker 1: Um uh. So we've you know, we've been very very
Speaker 1: focused as a company UM with our two thousand employees
Speaker 1: on obviously first the health and safety of all of
Speaker 1: our employees, but but but secondarily making sure that we
Speaker 1: really helped support our customers during this time. So our
Speaker 1: our platform is used by about a hundred thousand businesses globally,
Speaker 1: including the fourth I have hundred UM really to help
Speaker 1: them be able to securely access and share their data
Speaker 1: from anywhere, and so any company that is UM uh
Speaker 1: you know right now, and a work from home or
Speaker 1: remote work environment obviously needs secure access to their data
Speaker 1: and their information. Um, and our platform is is there
Speaker 1: to help them with that. So um, so we're right
Speaker 1: now we're just focused on our customers making sure that
Speaker 1: they can get the most out of our technology right
Speaker 1: now while they're in this new way of of working
Speaker 1: from a work from home environment. Right. And so Aaron,
Speaker 1: what are you learning? I mean with all those customers
Speaker 1: and all those different businesses, and there's been I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to say we certainly have experienced it first
Speaker 1: and second hand a lot of scrambling out there like
Speaker 1: what have you learned it? As you've talked to you know,
Speaker 1: sort of folks on on the front lines. Is that
Speaker 1: we're of trying to stand up their companies in a
Speaker 1: different way. Yeah, I mean this is this is certainly
Speaker 1: probably one of the most radical shifts in technology and
Speaker 1: business operations in history. Um. The you know, the first
Speaker 1: obviously the technology front, So being able to run your
Speaker 1: company almost completely in the cloud, where you have to
Speaker 1: have modern technologies, whether that Zoom or WebEx or Microsoft
Speaker 1: Teams or Slack from a video conferencing and a chat
Speaker 1: standpoint or being able to get access to your data
Speaker 1: from applications and platforms like Box. So some companies were
Speaker 1: already way ahead of the curve. They've been invested in
Speaker 1: these in these technologies for three or five or ten
Speaker 1: years UM, and other companies that I obviously had to
Speaker 1: scramble much more rapidly UM and in some cases in
Speaker 1: a much more disruptive way to be able to respond
Speaker 1: to this. So the first is the big technology transformation
Speaker 1: I think most companies are experiencing UM. And then as
Speaker 1: soon as companies started to settle into this remote work
Speaker 1: and work from home environment UM, really the next shift
Speaker 1: has been actually how we work and UM and this
Speaker 1: is probably gonna be the most profound part of the transformation,
Speaker 1: which is how we're collaborating, what hours we're doing work,
Speaker 1: how we moved our our our businesses and projects forward.
Speaker 1: So we are seeing some pretty significant changes in the
Speaker 1: underlying ways that people are working. So we're we're seeing
Speaker 1: that that the days are actually longer in terms of
Speaker 1: work is getting done more in off hours from our customers.
Speaker 1: We're seeing that people are using more technology to be
Speaker 1: able to do their jobs. So obviously we've shifted too
Speaker 1: you know, much more virtual ways of working. And we're
Speaker 1: seeing an increase in collaboration amongst industries, so um, in
Speaker 1: businesses like media or life sciences or healthcare or education,
Speaker 1: massive increases in the amount of collaboration and data sharing
Speaker 1: that's happening in those markets. So UM, So the you know,
Speaker 1: the certainly there's gonna be a lot of businesses and
Speaker 1: business models that are under pressure right now. But for
Speaker 1: those that aren't, or for those that are are responding
Speaker 1: to this event, um, we're seeing um still significant levels
Speaker 1: of a lot of these industries. So you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm listening to what you're talking about, and Jason and
Speaker 1: I have been asking a lot of CEOs of various
Speaker 1: companies from different industries about what's what's kind of the
Speaker 1: longer term impact of the virus? So does how does
Speaker 1: it change our world? So when we emerge, know from
Speaker 1: this immediate crisis, what's the most important, in your view,
Speaker 1: underappreciated way that the world will be different and at
Speaker 1: least from your expertise, Yeah, yeah, no, great, great question.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think there's so many things
Speaker 1: that we've um just taken for granted in terms of
Speaker 1: how we do our work. UM that you know, we
Speaker 1: go into the office, we go into a meeting, We
Speaker 1: you know, take a couple of hours, we get teams together,
Speaker 1: we maybe take a while to make a decision. We
Speaker 1: don't necessarily bring in all the voices from around our
Speaker 1: company to make that decision. It happens to be whoever,
Speaker 1: whoever could attend the meeting, you know, you know physically
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, UM. Or we we go
Speaker 1: and we spend three days on a on a international
Speaker 1: trip to do one or two meetings in a different country. UM.
Speaker 1: I think what we're going to start to see is is,
Speaker 1: you know, how productive we can do with technology and
Speaker 1: how much more connected we can actually be with technology. UM.
Speaker 1: In the past couple of weeks, I've I've spent probably
Speaker 1: five times the amount of time I have historically with
Speaker 1: international colleagues, UM, and even in international customers. And that's
Speaker 1: because it's just so much easier where the expectation is
Speaker 1: that we're going be much more communicative and we're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to collaborate much more efficiently now. So I
Speaker 1: think you're actually going to see in a very odd
Speaker 1: way because of social distancing and increase in the level
Speaker 1: of connection that that teams have, in the connection you
Speaker 1: have with your customers, in the amount of collaboration that
Speaker 1: you're doing on a global basis. Um, And there'll be
Speaker 1: a lot of positives UM to that. I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna see all new businesses emerge. You're gonna see all
Speaker 1: new types of players be able to get customers that
Speaker 1: previously wouldn't have been able to serve on a global basis.
Speaker 1: And of course, at the same time, we're going to
Speaker 1: see real, real and severe impact obviously the local economy, um,
Speaker 1: you know, being right at the center of that. But um,
Speaker 1: but I think there's gonna be new and novel innovative
Speaker 1: approach is going to operate, and how work styles are
Speaker 1: going to evolve, and how companies are gonna be able
Speaker 1: to scale um, certainly because of the cloud and because
Speaker 1: of these these new ways of working, Right, Aaron, we
Speaker 1: just had a headline cross the Bloomberg about a company
Speaker 1: you've heard of just down the street from you, Google
Speaker 1: uh CEO Superpatrise, saying that they are going to slow
Speaker 1: hiring for the rest the year. What do you see
Speaker 1: in terms of your own business, especially given sort of
Speaker 1: how busy it sounds like you are. How is it
Speaker 1: changing the way you're thinking about expansion, hiring, all of
Speaker 1: those things. Yeah, I mean I think, you know, first
Speaker 1: of all, we want to be extremely imprudent just given
Speaker 1: the economic environment that we're in, So we want to
Speaker 1: be very thoughtful from a a cash flow standpoint and
Speaker 1: a cash position standpoint. You know, we're fortunate that coming
Speaker 1: into this year UM, you know, we've turned the corner
Speaker 1: and becoming profitable. UM. We're obviously going to focus on
Speaker 1: maintaining that and delivering on our bottom line results UM.
Speaker 1: But that being said, we are seeing growth in UM
Speaker 1: in certain sectors and in certain part industries that we
Speaker 1: serve UM, and so we want to be thoughtful about
Speaker 1: continue to expand to be able to serve our customers.
Speaker 1: So I think there'll be certain areas that we we
Speaker 1: grow in and other areas that we want to be
Speaker 1: prudent and continue to drive efficiency around so UM. So
Speaker 1: I think we'll see how the next couple of months
Speaker 1: and quarters playoffs. But right now we're focused on growing
Speaker 1: through this event, serving customers as successfully as possible, and
Speaker 1: that will lead to certainly more UM. You know, hiring
Speaker 1: in some areas UM and obviously, you know, continue to
Speaker 1: be very focused on our our profitability overalls the company.
Speaker 1: But let's continue our conversation with Aaron Levy, CEO of Box,
Speaker 1: still with us on the phone from Redwood City, California,
Speaker 1: And Aaron, you made some interesting comments before the break
Speaker 1: about you know, being able to engage with some of
Speaker 1: your international partners and customers. And I do wonder how
Speaker 1: this has changed, maybe in different ways or in other ways,
Speaker 1: I should say, sort of how you lead, how you manage.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's a remote world we're living in, but but
Speaker 1: I wonder what you've learned from from a leadership strategy perspective. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're going to see companies and leaders you know,
Speaker 1: continue to have to evolve pretty pretty significantly. Right now,
Speaker 1: i'd say, um, on the whole, I've actually seen um
Speaker 1: in dramatic improvements across our organization in terms of how
Speaker 1: we um, how we align, and and and how we
Speaker 1: you know, stay engaged across the company. For instance, just
Speaker 1: our ability to have conversations with dozens of people or
Speaker 1: hundreds of people at a time where anybody has a
Speaker 1: voice in that conversation has improved um by an order
Speaker 1: of magnitude and UM, and so you get a lot
Speaker 1: more two way dialogue, you get a lot more engagement
Speaker 1: across the business. Everybody UM is in the exact same
Speaker 1: you know situation UM uh. And as opposed to you know,
Speaker 1: normal meanings of a few people in the office and
Speaker 1: kind of owning the conversation and everybody else remote UM
Speaker 1: who's sort of you know, secondary in the in the conversation.
Speaker 1: This is you know, truly UM allows the company to
Speaker 1: engage altogether. So so I think you're gonna see actually
Speaker 1: more collaboration. You're going to see more communication in this
Speaker 1: type of environment from companies UM. And I think some
Speaker 1: of that will will necessarily carry through UM once we
Speaker 1: you know, move beyond a shelter in place environment. And
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be a lot of aspects to business,
Speaker 1: both in our work styles and then eventually our business
Speaker 1: models that continue to evolve because of this, you know,
Speaker 1: profound event So UM. So we do think that's going
Speaker 1: to shift things a bit. Having a little fun here
Speaker 1: if I may, um, Aaron is, I'm curious what's tough
Speaker 1: for you know, leading in a time of a crisis
Speaker 1: like the virus or leading when you've got pressure from
Speaker 1: an activist investor, which you guys have had to deal
Speaker 1: with and I know you figured some of it out,
Speaker 1: but just you know, leadership and crisis it's not easy. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, we've we've I don't know that we've ever
Speaker 1: had a situation in box in our fifteen years where
Speaker 1: where things have have been you know, you know, stable
Speaker 1: and easy for for more than a couple quarters in
Speaker 1: a row. But but you know, overall, I think, I
Speaker 1: think you want to stay committed to the long term
Speaker 1: mission of the company. You want to stay committed to
Speaker 1: the culture. You want to stay you know, committed to
Speaker 1: making sure that that we we're you know, treating our
Speaker 1: employees as necessarily and uh and UM appropriately as possible
Speaker 1: and building an organization that people have probed to work at.
Speaker 1: So whether it's a you know, a stock market issue
Speaker 1: or you know, a health event and crisis like this
Speaker 1: or um you know, all of the competitive battles we've
Speaker 1: had over the years. UM, you know, we've benefited by
Speaker 1: just thinking around, you know, about the long run of
Speaker 1: a business and making sure we're building um you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully a rock solid organization in the process. But but
Speaker 1: I think and in this event is certainly no no
Speaker 1: exception to that in terms of needing to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're you're able to guide the organization, um, you know,
Speaker 1: to to what we're ultimately trying to achieve and what
Speaker 1: we're ultimately trying to build, and there's going to be
Speaker 1: blips on the way to doing that well, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's interesting like talk to us about these blips
Speaker 1: because you know, sometimes we've had you know, we've had
Speaker 1: investors come on and say, crises is when we often see, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you know, the incredible innovation come out of it because
Speaker 1: you have to write. And we're seeing that in the
Speaker 1: medical community, we're seeing it in education because we don't
Speaker 1: have a choice here. So I'm just curious those blips,
Speaker 1: you know, or those mistakes, like what mistakes have you
Speaker 1: kind of learned as a leader, whether it was you know,
Speaker 1: because you know, Starboard the activist was about your heels,
Speaker 1: or whether it's right now this environment, you know, what
Speaker 1: have been the mistakes you've made and that you've learned from. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think you know, any type of either
Speaker 1: mistake we've made or or you know, something we've had
Speaker 1: to respond to as a business. Um ultimately uh. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: the way to get through those events are are you know,
Speaker 1: seeing really true to your principles as an organization and
Speaker 1: as a as a business of of what what you're
Speaker 1: trying to drive um uh and uh, and then being
Speaker 1: decisive and being able to you know, call a decision um.
Speaker 1: In some cases that means pivoting the business. So just
Speaker 1: in the past two or three weeks, as an example,
Speaker 1: we've actually had to literally pivot both our product strategy
Speaker 1: and our go to market strategy so we could better
Speaker 1: serve our customers during this environment. And there's there's so
Speaker 1: many you know, amazing companies around the world that are
Speaker 1: doing the exact same thing where they've had to say,
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe we were doing one thing, but
Speaker 1: that was a bit pre you know, social distancing world.
Speaker 1: We have to change our entire business model. We have
Speaker 1: to change the entire way that we serve customers. Do
Speaker 1: you have some amazing um, you know innovation happening around
Speaker 1: the world where companies maybe had a physical presence and
Speaker 1: they've gone completely virtual to deliver that same experience and
Speaker 1: had to make their their business model go digital really
Speaker 1: in a matter of weeks. And so so I think
Speaker 1: the companies that are are able to get through these
Speaker 1: types of events are those that are certainly resilient in
Speaker 1: terms of the foundational principles and and and and culture
Speaker 1: that they're that they've built, but then able to make
Speaker 1: these decisions quickly and able to recognize that the reality
Speaker 1: is different and they have to respond to that reality
Speaker 1: um as quickly and decisively as possible. And so you
Speaker 1: know that that's at least our our goal in this event.
Speaker 1: And I think there's there's amazing companies all around the
Speaker 1: world that are that are doing and trying to do
Speaker 1: the same thing. Well, and and we've only got about
Speaker 1: a minute left, But it also feels like Silicon Valley
Speaker 1: is having a little bit of a moment after a
Speaker 1: couple of years of people being like, I'm not so
Speaker 1: sure about this social media and tech lash and all
Speaker 1: of this, but it does feel like some of the
Speaker 1: good stuff is is uh maybe coming to the four there.
Speaker 1: Are you seeing a different sort of vibe there in
Speaker 1: the valley? Yeah, I mean I think you you uh,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's no coincidence that in a world
Speaker 1: of us being you know, physically separated, then everything has
Speaker 1: to go digital. And so the digital platforms, whether it's
Speaker 1: Google or Facebook or um or or Yelp or other
Speaker 1: you know platforms, they have to respond very quickly and
Speaker 1: be able to serve their customers in new ways and
Speaker 1: so UM. So I think you're seeing a lot of
Speaker 1: that ingenuity right now. And then it's it's completely changing society.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've I've communicated with more family members just
Speaker 1: in the past few weeks because of technology like Zoom
Speaker 1: and FaceTime and um and and you know, these these
Speaker 1: modern digital platforms are at the center of um of
Speaker 1: how we're communicating, how we're working, how we're transacting, how
Speaker 1: we're doing commerce globally. So that's gonna be with us
Speaker 1: no matter what what happens next, um, I think for
Speaker 1: the foreseeable future, because we've seen the impact of this
Speaker 1: has in our lives, um and so you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: that's one silver lining through this, through this whole precent
Speaker 1: is that we're gonna be able to use technology for
Speaker 1: good um and UM and then you know, hopefully get
Speaker 1: back to get that to work and be able to
Speaker 1: respond as an economy more broadly. All right, really good stuff.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for spending some time with this.
Speaker 1: Aaron Levy is the CEO of Box, joining us on
Speaker 1: the phone from Redwood City, California. Such a thoughtful guy,
Speaker 1: and uh, listen as he laid out and as you
Speaker 1: rightly questioned him about he's been through the Ringer, no question,
Speaker 1: and I like what you know. He had to say
Speaker 1: that sometimes you've got to pivot and you've got to
Speaker 1: just that that's what you've got to do. Um, And
Speaker 1: we've seen it. I feel like we've talked about that
Speaker 1: with Mary Barr. Gam Like they realized, Okay, what's the future.
Speaker 1: And it's gonna hurt, it's gonna be painful, um, but
Speaker 1: you've got to be decisive. That was one thing that
Speaker 1: he said that I thought was really stuck with me.
Speaker 1: So good, Uh, A really good conversation with Aaron Levy