This is the
transcript of an interview I watched on Sunday. The show was Fareed Zakaria GPS
on CNN. He interviewed LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. I found this interview to be
thought-provoking. Note the answers from Hoffman that are highlighted. His basic thoughts are you must take charge,
you must adapt, you must always learn and be curious. You and I are permanent betas. (You will
understand as you read on).
One of my
most valuable and useful business social networks is LinkedIn, so an interview
with the founder is certainly worth taking time to watch or in this care
read. I hope you agree.
ZAKARIA: My
next guest has made his name by being ahead of the curve. Reid Hoffman is a
serial entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of LinkedIn and a founding team
member of PayPal. He is invested in some Silicon Valley 's most famous
startups, Facebook, Zynga and others. Before anyone had heard of them.
Fittingly his new book is titled "The Start Up of You." Welcome,
Reid.
HOFFMAN:
Great to be here.
ZAKARIA:
Now, you talk about in this book the idea that really you think of yourself as
an entrepreneur. What are you seeing that's different?
HOFFMAN:
Yes. Well, I think this kind of two things. The first thing is, that everyone
should think about themselves as the interpreter of their own life, is the CEO
of their own career. And all the things that apply to business you should think
about applying to yourself, not just brand, but also how do you invest in
yourself, how do you have competitive differentiation, how do you use business
intelligence in order to navigate.
Now what
that means is in terms of technology is you should be deploying technologies as
-- like using the Internet, using LinkedIn to figure out how to invest yourself
and how to essentially build your skills, build the connections with people,
learn what is going on in industries, and be able to kind of navigate the new
world of work.
Because it's
changing. Globalization, technology disrupts industries, how do you navigate
that both to protect the downside, not get laid off in a bad industry, and also
how to get upside in terms of how to find the right kinds of breakout
opportunities. And I think since technology is the driving force, both behind
globalization and behind industry disruption, attuning yourself to what --
technology change means for you is I think very important.
ZAKARIA: So
you found in your life a sort of these constantly meeting new people and
learning new things, this was crucial?
HOFFMAN:
Yes. I think it's critical for everyone. For example, one of the things we
advocate in the book is think about who you're going out to lunch with and
occasionally go out to lunch with someone who is, you know, presumably smart,
accomplished, maybe two degrees away from you, I think how we first met, and
then have a conversation with them where you're learning from each other. Like
what's going to change in the world? Where is the world going? How is
technology changing? Because then that helps you have the skill set and the
knowledge to be adaptable and to be inventive in what you're doing.
ZAKARIA:
When you look at the competition that Silicon Valley faces, do you think that
the United States can retain its edge in technology?
HOFFMAN:
Generally speaking the answer is yes. I think that Silicon Valley continues to
be a global leader in the kinds of technology it does. Now I think there's a
number of policies we need to be more intelligent about, like high immigration,
is one of the ones that every Silicon Valley person beats that drum. Because
it's really important. You're either going to import the talent or export the
job.
You know,
it's very simple. And if you keep the job here, that person then employs
restaurants, dry cleaners, accountants, you know, auto mechanics, the whole
thing. And that creates a whole wealth of ecosystem. Now, I do think that one
of the things is we need to work a little bit more on some technologies, like
manufacturing technologies and other kinds of areas because I think we're world
class at software but I think we still have a ways to go -- like I think we may
be competitively not at the absolute leading edge, I don't know, I'm not a deep
expert there, but I think there's a set of technologies we should also be investing
in.
ZAKARIA: Do
you think that when you look at the young people who come out today, are they,
in terms of, you know, science, technology, energy, dynamism, still world
class?
HOFFMAN: I
think there is a group that is world class which is really good. I think we
could -- we could quite happily can accept that number and still be really
under where we would need to be. And you know --
ZAKARIA: So
you feel there's a shortage of people with the kind of skills we needed?
HOFFMAN:
Absolutely. Critically so. I mean, and in fact, actually, given the technology
as part of what sets the drumbeat for the future, I think many more people with
their hands on, I know, how to participate in building and understanding
deploying technology. I mean like one of the things that I've come to realize
is, every organization should have a technology strategy.
Technology
is disrupting industry. So it's not just, oh, what am I doing to IT, and which
system do I use, it's how is technology changing the game that gets played in
my industry, changing the nature of products, changing the nature of how we can
deploy a service. If we use data, how do we use data to be a good business? And
so part of that is coding but part of that is understanding well, how does that
fit into a business strategy, how does fit into marketing, how does that fit
into product design? It's all aspects of it in terms of being competent in the
modern world.
ZAKARIA: Do
you think that all these new changes are moving so fast from the mobile to big
data and cloud computing, that it's conceivable that 10 years from now the top
technology companies in America and the world would be a totally different set
of companies?
HOFFMAN: I
think that the transformational speed, right, for example, I think in the '20s
and '30s the average 10 years and the S&P 500 was 65 years and the '90s was
10 years. The transformational speed you have to invest in the future. I think
that applies to organization as it applies to individuals. And given that
accelerating rate, I think it's perfectly possible that that the transition
happens even at an accelerating rate.
Now what
that means for individuals and organization is you need to keep investing and
reinvesting in yourself. In the book we refer to that as permanent beta. Which
is never think of yourself as a complete product. By the way that should be a
company as well as an individual and always be thinking how do I invest in the
future, how do I invest in the next generation, next wave?
ZAKARIA: So
when you apply the lessons in the book to yourself, do you -- I mean at some
level you're, you know, incredibly successful, fabulously rich. Are you done or
do you think of yourself as very much still a work in progress --
HOFFMAN: I
still think of myself as a work in progress in a permanent beta because --
ZAKARIA: So
what happens next?
HOFFMAN: I
think being a part of the modern world is being curious. So I always ask, what
do I -- what should I -- no. What should -- what question should I be asking
because that's part of how you then adapt to the future.
ZAKARIA:
Reid Hoffman, pleasure to have you on.
HOFFMAN:
Thank you
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