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Lab's business
Laba Business School,
Editorial Team
Few managers can boast a career that has spanned Google, Meta (Facebook) and Renault. Emmanuel Dollé’s Google experience has made him an expert in leading sales and marketing teams at a major technology company, and with Meta, he helped redefine sales operations in EMEA. But his career began in a completely different sector: he spent 11 years at Renault, including helping the company launch the Mégane series globally.
In this interview with Laba, Emmanuel discusses the fundamentals of executive leadership armenia mobile phone numbers database shares his thoughts on the impact of the pandemic and the current crisis on the technology sector, and reveals his business inspirations.
What is the role of management in an era where AI will make key decisions?
I think it remains the same. People sometimes overestimate the impact of technology. Of course, technology helps to make optimized decisions, but it is still a tool. The role of the executive directors remains important.
A true leader takes responsibility and is accountable for the management and strategic direction of the organization.
The technology sector is going through a turbulent time. What has your experience in the sector taught you about leadership in times of crisis?
There are two key things about good leadership in times of crisis, but also in times of rapid growth. Authenticity is important , being yourself in the way you lead an organization or people. This also involves listening.
It is also important to be able to make the right decisions at the right time, with clear communication so that people (management, employees, customers and even regulators) understand your decisions.
It’s also about sticking to your long-term vision and how to execute on it in the short term. All of that remains the same in times of crisis. But some skills become even more important in times of crisis, especially the ability to make decisions in a timely manner and communicate clearly.
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Take for example some of the recent decisions made by major US technology companies, especially layoffs. Your stakeholders, employees, investors, regulators, media, and perhaps most importantly users and customers, need to understand why you had to make these decisions.
The second thing is the balance between long-term vision and short-term execution . If you have the right vision, there is no reason to change it. So you have to stick to it and re-explain why it is important.
What you need to gain is some flexibility and adaptability in how you execute in the short term. There may be more uncertainty and additional constraints from a financial perspective.
What should matter more to executives, shareholder value or their long-term vision?
One doesn’t exclude the other. Take shareholder value: If you’re a shareholder, you invested your money in a company for a number of reasons, probably because of the return on investment and/or because you believe in its mission. But most importantly, because you believe in the company – otherwise you wouldn’t have invested.
What’s important for a CEO is to clearly articulate the purpose of their company to every stakeholder, including shareholders. So you need alignment between what you want for your company and why shareholders should invest in that vision.
Google once gave a good example. After going public in 2004, the company's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, wrote a letter to investors explaining the company's purpose. They explained what was important to them and on what issues they would never compromise. There was also something about the company's mission and how this would always trump short-term financial results.
They put all of that information in the public domain. So that letter was public and shared with Google employees – and that played a big role in how the company was run. So clear communication and transparency is absolutely fundamental.
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Since you mentioned layoffs in the tech sector, is that a temporary phenomenon? How will that affect the tech sector?
I don't know if it's a temporary thing or not. Most of these companies were growth-driven. So if you look at the banking sector, for example, they look at quarterly results of the company: year-over-year revenue growth. So the leaders of these companies look at gross revenue, while maintaining good EBITDA, or profitability.
One consequence was that as companies grew, revenue growth also meant hiring. It wasn’t surprising that their teams grew by double digits every year. Now, with the financial landscape more complex, companies are realizing they’ve overstaffed and are making adjustments.
The long-term change is that investors will expect these big tech companies to be a little more cautious and to align their hiring strategies with market fundamentals. Focusing on maintaining healthy EBITDA will be key, and since human capital investment is a large part of the cost these companies have, this will remain an issue.
