I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.
This time it is Aneel Bhusri, CEO of Workday.
He talks about leadership during this crisis and likely changes in executive suites as healthcare becomes a major market opportunity and bigger HR challenge for every entity. He talks about conversations with fellow leaders on how best to re-open work places as the economy wakes up. He describes acrobatics in his customer base like running a million-person payroll and financial closes with nobody in the office. He also describes how cloud applications have scaled very well during the crisis and easily supported work-from-home efforts of customers.
Aneel is one of the nicest guys in the industry and while he credits his mentor and co-founder, Dave Duffield for that trait, his calmness comes across throughout the recording. Workday has done backflips for its employees and customers during the crisis - he describes some of each.
There is a definite feel-good, "be kind to each other", "have fun" vibe during the conversation. It is a small detail in the conversation, but I particularly appreciated his generosity with the Zoom background of Giorgio's Pizzeria, one of his favorite comfort-food places and his hope they survive the crisis.
I could almost hear 'Peaceful, easy feeling" by the Eagles playing as I was talking to him. Enjoy
