Srishti Sofat, VP of Product Development at Oracle Marketing Cloud, argues that innovation requires execution, not just ideas. She uses hackathons to surface ideas across the organization and emphasizes hiring diverse talent across gender, race, and background to build products for global markets.
Chapters
innovation at every level with every individual in your team. I mean, if you can build a culture really where everybody who comes to the team is sort of contributing as much as you believe you're contributing to your startup, then you have an execution plan there, right? And to me, this is an important aspect, right, for you to build product and successful product for that matter, which actually end customers will use. Technology and customers are an important portion of the idea. But really, there are lots of ideas, not all companies are successful, right? Not— we always, we know the case where it was somebody else's idea, but execution is key too, right? So let's talk a little bit about, at least, you know, from my perspective. And, you know, I think people and building a team and having the right group is super important. I mean, I know, you know, many of you are very young and, you know, you It's about, it's my idea, I can build it, I can, you know, conquer the world. And sure, you can. But I think having the right team, and, you know, if it's a startup, it's probably a small team to start with. But having that right team is super critical. And really, you know, to me, it is about trust. And I, you know, I've led large teams, different sizes. I've led teams, you know, I just started my career with a team of 2 or 3. you know, lead a larger team now. Anybody who is part of your team should trust you, right? Should really know that you're being open and there is no ulterior motive there, because otherwise it's not going to work, right? And it's even important when you just start a small team, right? Having these things open and how we are working, whether it's, you know, when we get the first— when we raise funds, what's going to happen to the equity. I mean, all of these things can can make a difference for the successful execution of a company. So I would definitely encourage you all not to undermine the human aspect of the whole thing, right? I mean, because you can have a great idea, but if you're not able to execute, it's not worth it, right? Then you've lost it. Then you look at the other guy and say, oh, I had that idea before. It doesn't matter, right? So I think that trust, transparency, and empowerment for everybody is super, super important. I mean, I know you guys did a hack. What I'm also seeing right now, I mean, my team's much larger, definitely. But like, when I do these hackathons, some, you know, which is sort of like across the teams, some of the best ideas come from those teams. Right? So which is, you know, for a large organization, that's a way to look at, let's do innovation at every level, right? And you really look at, you know, you can have a hierarchy and somebody top down can say, this is the best idea. I can read that much. I'm up to speed on that much. There is a limit. And also, I have my own tunnel vision. I mean, we all do, right? I mean, it's a way I think about things. But once you open it up, and if everybody believes that their idea is on the table, on the team, and doing some innovation, whether it is the product, whether it's process, as you really start building product, you know, there is process to take care of, whether it is management of how you will sell it, doesn't matter, right? Innovation at every level with every individual in your team. I mean, if you can build a culture, Really, where everybody who comes to the team is sort of contributing as much as you believe you're contributing to your startup, then you have an execution plan there, right? And to me, this is an important aspect, right, for you to build product and successful product for that matter, which actually end customers will use. That means a product which will go to market. It will not be built by an individual. It'll it will have a team aspect to it. And, you know, I see, I see, I see a global setup here. So, you know, hopefully you will keep that in mind as you build your teams that I think today it is the world of distributed talent. Right? I mean, I think that I was reading and I'm sort of like believing that a little bit more like Zoom is the new office. Zoom is the new conference room and Slack is the new office. Right? I mean, you're really talking about distributed teams and interacting with each other on Zoom and just slacking each other. And that seems to be something that's happening. I mean, it's, you know, we still have office buildings. I go to work to an office building. But, you know, you're seeing that trend. So especially as you guys are starting on early and building companies, you could think about talent, especially, you know, your programmers, your experts, They could be in any part of the world, right? And you, you probably don't want to restrict and have these walls because of that, right? So that's, that's really another important thing to keep in mind as you build your companies, as you build your startups. And again, diversity, right? Each of these successful products today are successful across the world. Right? I mean, you look at WhatsApp, look at Uber, look at Netflix. I mean, they are all across the world. It's not a US-centric market. It's not a developing world-centric market. It is, I mean, it is all over the place, right? So I want to make sure that as you build teams, because it's easy to get carried away and forget some of these things, but I have seen a lot of value in just having people from different backgrounds, whether, you know, Definitely gender, definitely race, definitely different backgrounds in the mix because everybody thinks differently. Again, this is about you not just going down a path and not getting the larger perspective, especially if you're building things for the consumer economy. Just having that perspective helps, right? And I have seen this in and out so many times, right? I mean, especially in the hackathons when you kind of have a global hackathon. It is amazing. It is amazing how people come together and people think about problems which you may not because of where you're sitting and your worldview, right? So again, I think as you build teams, keeping these things in mind is important, right? We all can just get carried away, but that's the point.
