‘Culture sorts people,’ Snowflake CEO says about growing companies

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman joins Yahoo Finance Live’s Julie Hyman and Brian Sozzi to discuss his leadership approach, an outlook on the next generation of leaders in corporate America, and the state of the cloud industry.

Video Transcript

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BRIAN SOZZI: Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman came to the US from the Netherlands in 1984 with $100 or so in his pocket. Some 38 years later, Slootman is credited with the host of big software deals, selling data domain to AMC in 2009, taking ServiceNow public in 2012, and bringing Snowflake to the public markets in late 2020. Now Slootman is sharing his blueprint for success in his new book "Amp It Up, Leading for Hyper Growth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity." Frank Slootman is here with us now.

Frank, if there ever was a title tailor made for me, this was it. So I really enjoyed the book. And thank you for coming on here. Look, CEOs have a lot on their plate right now trying to find workers, trying to just keep the culture intact during the pandemic. What message do you have for them as they try to navigate this environment?

FRANK SLOOTMAN: Yeah, well, the reason that we wrote the book is that, you know, as you pointed out, we've had three successful companies over the last 20 years. And we have this flood of incoming requests for, what do you guys do? What's the secret sauce? You know, what's the playbook?

So this is really our attempt to create as much insight from our perspective. You know, that's the, OK, look, this is how we think. This is how we-- you know, how we do things. And hope you like it. Try it on for size and see if it fits, and we'll go from there.

But the message is for CEOs. And that's the title of the book-- "Amp It Up." There's incredible room. There's a lot of slack in organization to, you know, step up the energy, step up the intensity, step up the pace, raise your standards on everything.

And it sort of unleashes that X factor in an organization where everything goes faster, and quicker, and better. And we sort of lose that feeling of, you know, swimming in glue and moving like molasses. So there's-- it's right underneath-- it's right in front of you, but you sort of need to tap into it very deliberately, you know?

BRIAN SOZZI: Frank, I cover a lot of companies here. A lot. And my sense has been over the past year or so of the pandemic, a lot of them are just settling. They're settling for OK. It's OK just to have a warm body in the seat as long as that warm body is there. But should one use-- should a manager in this environment use this opportunity to just rid themselves of slackers, and just start rebuilding the companies from the ground floor to come out of the other side of the pandemic?

FRANK SLOOTMAN: Well, you should always be doing that, right? I mean, raising the standards, you know, drives the intensity and the pace of high standards all the time. It's a not now type of issue. It's an always type of an issue, right? I mean, leaders are going to set the pace, right? Leaders are going to set the standards.

And it's really important if you want to attract and retain talent that you have an environment that is highly energized, you know, unpolitical, apolitical, all these kinds of things. Otherwise, you just can't hang on to people. People don't want to be in companies where, you know, they're surrounded by, you know, mediocrity, and slowness, and politics, and difficulty. So it's in your interest to do this all the time every time.

JULIE HYMAN: Hey, Frank, it's Julie here. I'll take the other side of that. How do you-- how does humanity fit into this picture? In other words, yeah, we're coming through a year where maybe, to Brian Sozzi's point, companies are settling to some degree. But we're also coming through a couple of years where people are exhausted by the external factors that are out there. So how do you balance that with demanding that top performance from people?

FRANK SLOOTMAN: Yeah, people do get exhausted when you're working in companies where everything is difficult, and hard, and political, and slow, and uninspiring, you know, I would say, because we're just not aiming for anything great. That's what makes people tired, and exhausted, and looking for other pastures. So you keep the energy up, you keep the pace up, and people are going to have a much better time at work.

Now is that for everybody? Maybe not, right? But, you know, culture sorts, right? It sorts people in terms of the people that like it and people that are like, well, this is really not my cup of tea. I mean, we're not really declaring it as sort of one size fits everybody.

But when you're in a high growth environment, yeah, it is a very energized, high-pressure undertaking. There is no getting away from that. We do mitigate that a lot, you know, at Snowflake. You know, we make sure-- because, you know, people have twice as many meetings today as they used to have because of Zoom. So we're very aware and dialed into the fact that that fatigue sets in.

And we always tack on extra days to holidays between Christmas and New Year's. You know, the whole company around the world got the whole week off. So we're trying to create these hiatuses to allow people to sort of recharge and recuperate a little bit. So, I mean, your points are very valid. But at the same time, high growth companies, I mean, it is a pressure cooker.

BRIAN SOZZI: Frank, you talk about in the book how, as a teenager, you were cleaning toilets, and you rose the ranks to where you sit today. You know, as you look at the next generation of leaders in corporate America, do you think they still have that drive and that hustle?

FRANK SLOOTMAN: I actually think they do. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was at a retreat for founders and CEOs that was hosted by one of our investors. And I saw 70, 80 founders, CEO people that were pretty much half my age, which was another revelation.

But I was there for two days in numerous conversations with these guys and gals. And it just sort of left me completely rejuvenated that these people are the same, you know? There is nothing different. I mean, we put labels on them in terms of generation this and generation that. They're not different, you know, from the generations that went before them. As best as I can tell, they care about the same things. They have the same preoccupations. So I sort of walked away from that thinking, we're going to be all right.

BRIAN SOZZI: Frank, tapping into your-- let's just say your veteran standing in the industry, we've seen a real selloff in these software stocks on interest rate concerns. And someone that has seen a lot of cycles in software, are you seeing anything in your business that would warrant these types of selloffs we're seeing in software?

FRANK SLOOTMAN: No, not at all. You know, as you guys well know, I mean, the stock market short-term is a voting machine. And, obviously, that creates opportunities for people to get in at a reasonable price. You know, over a long haul, the stock market always gets it right, so that's what you worry about. You know, the short-term preoccupation is not helpful. I always tell our employees, look, the only stock price that matters is the money you sell, that everything else is entertainment, you know.

BRIAN SOZZI: Point well taken. Really enjoyed the book. Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman, we'll check back with you soon. Have a great rest of the week.