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View from the top: Dan Nye, CEO of LinkedIn
Dan Nye, CEO of professional networking website, LinkedIn, talks to Eric Kuhn about success after your degree.
Eric Kuhn: What is LinkedIn?
Dan Nye: The world's largest professional network. Our mission is to make the world's interconnected workforce more productive.
E.K: Is that what the site has always been doing, or has it evolved?
D.N: It has most certainly evolved. LinkedIn was started four and a half years ago as a concept. People were asked to invite others to join, they did that, the number of people in the network grew and the functionality of the site improved. Now users of LinkedIn are seeing the true value of it as a productivity tool. We have seen the network growth accelerating to where we are now adding over a million members every month and we’ve just passed the 16 million mile stone.
E.K: Have you seen networking skills, that might have happened five years ago, change because of your site?
D.N: Absolutely. Some examples will be small business owners who acquire major accounts entirely through LinkedIn. We hear about people who find the perfect job; about employers who did reference checks and worked their network in order to identify exceptional people who made a huge difference; investment firms who have acquired clients who have brought in millions of dollars; people who go out, ask a question on LinkedIn Answers, get great advice and end up making a very different decision because of the advice they received. LinkedIn is changing the world and is allowing people to be far more efficient and productive.
E.K: How many of your employees did you hire through LinkedIn?
D.N: I would estimate that we have found about 50% of our employees by posting a job opening on LinkedIn or by leveraging our own LinkedIn networks. We probably use LinkedIn close to 100% of the time to reference check and validate that we have found the right person. Of course, we pass on many more candidates than we hire.
E.K: According to your LinkedIn page you have been with the company for 10 months. What brought you there?
D.N: There were two big reasons. One is I believe the service really matters to the world and we are creating something that is incredibly valuable. I was personally inspired by having the chance to participate in creating a service that will ultimately have over 100 million members spread to over 200 countries. It is exciting to work on something that is such a big idea.
The second reason is I was really excited in the company itself. The company was very young, with excellent investors, really great people and an astounding founder in Reid Hoffman. When I thought about having the opportunity to take a company from 60 employees to thousands of employees, with such high quality people running together on such an inspiring concept, I knew it would provide a great challenge and opportunity to build the company from the ground up.
E.K: Reid Hoffman said you are among "the best organizational builders and leaders." What do you think is the key to your success?
D.N: I have learned, through 20 years in the work force, how to approach problems, select people and build processes in an effective way. I attribute that learning to the people I have been surrounded by, the schools I attended, and the companies where I worked (particularly Procter & Gamble, Intuit and Advent Software). I had the great pleasure to work for some amazing people and they taught me some incredibly valuable principles.
One, set the highest standards possible. Only hire people who you think have the ability to be the very best in the world at what they do.
Two, maintain a customer focus. Put processes in place and create an organization that goes out and actively listens to its customers, or users, to understand how you can solve problems for them in a better way to make sure you are always in touch with what they need.
Three, put a premium on critical thinking and strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, so that you are working with really bright people in ways where you are always learning and growing.
Four, maintain humility. Always be open to critical feedback from anybody, anywhere. Be very self reflective and always search for ways you can improve. No matter how successful LinkedIn becomes I will never think that we are great at what we do. We must always push ourselves to improve.
Five, teamwork – make sure that everybody is pulling in the same direction, sincerely cares about each other and is willing to go beyond their job definitions to make sure the company will succeed.
The last is clarity and communication. Make sure you do your homework and think through issues well enough to find eloquently simply solutions. Then communicate clearly, broadly and persuasively.
