Workforce Agility & Leadership: Insights from Karthik Suri, Chief Product Officer at Cornerstone

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_04]: Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Inside the C-Suite. This is Ryan Leary. I'm here with my

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_04]: cohort and friend Mr. William Ting Cup, and we have a very special guest today. We are live here at Cornerstone

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_04]: and

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_04]: we're speaking with Karthik Suri who is the CPO here at Cornerstone. Karthik, welcome in. How are you today?

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Outstanding. Having a blast, Ryan.

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_03]: And so sometimes CPO can be Chief People Officer, so I'm sure he gets diagnosed with that all the time.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_03]: That's right, but I'm Chief Product Officer. There you go. I am in the people business.

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, yes. That's a good point. Good point. Good clarification. Add a people tech. That's right.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_04]: There we go. So this is an interesting show for us because this is all about you. This is

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_04]: what drives you, what motivates you. We're going to kind of dig in a little bit and learn about your

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_03]: background. So where do you want to start today? You got to always, for me, you got to start with

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_03]: now. Now. What are you doing now? So you're Chief Product Officer at Cornerstone. Great.

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_03]: What does that mean? What are you over? What are you managing? Etc. Yeah, it's probably the

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: best gig that I've had so I could go on for an hour. So listen, I'm Karthik Suri and I'm

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Chief Product Officer at Cornerstone. Cornerstone is the one unified holistic workforce agility

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_01]: platform that actually bridges that workforce readiness gap. As Chief Product Officer, I design,

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_01]: develop my team and I design, develop and deliver products that actually solve this

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01]: workforce readiness gap, be it skills gap through learning solutions, an expectation gap like

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01]: you know people, employees expectations are changing that one size fits all to development

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_01]: is completely transformed. So our elevate solutions like our performance, our career marketplace,

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_01]: our telemarket place, our scaling solutions. And then how do we transform? How do we help

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: organizations become that skills based organization? So that conceptualization of that

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_01]: is the product suite that we offer and I had that in addition, I also have the privilege

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_01]: of running our content business. Content is that bloodline, that bloodstream,

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: that oxygen that flows into growth and development of people. Real small business,

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_02]: like 120 million or something like that. I can't talk to the exact numbers. We had a message to

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: deliver. Real small business. It's a phenomenal high growth business but one that our customers

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_01]: love so that excites me most as a product geek because it is the contextuality of the content,

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: right? That the right content at the right moment when you need it in the flow of work.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It's difficult to actually precisely nail that to the point that it's not annoying and it's not

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_01]: like passive aggressive. It's much more authority today. Hey, you need this.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you also as you mentioned, you're also in the people business. You brought in a great

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_03]: leader for that particular part of the business. We interviewed him this morning.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_04]: He did and he said he wanted us to tell you that he thoroughly enjoys working for you.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly right. I'll then know him the payment.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01]: One of the pleasures of being a Chief Product Officer at Cornerstone and the privilege that

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Himachal has given me and our board has given me is to build that bench. So one of our product

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_01]: leaders that manages a vast majority of our SaaS products across learning and talent

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_01]: is Brenda. She was a previously a competitor, then a customer and now she's leading. She

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: understands skill and innovation. Mike Bullinger is a veteran in HR Tech.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Like he's attended, like he says yet, 16, 18 HR Tech conferences the last several.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: He brings that platform centricity, the skill center, the ecosystem centricity.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Giri that you just spoke to, he's been in media and design so he understands engagement at

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_01]: its core and using tools like artificial intelligence to drive that engagement for people because

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_01]: towards the outcome I brought in a head of design. She's amazing and bringing that consumer

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_01]: great experience but also not just usability but also things like accessibility. We build

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_01]: products for all of humanity and not just for the privileged few. So making sure that you

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01]: have that human centered design as you're building these products. Our head of ecosystems has been

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_01]: both in Cornerstone and in this business for quite a while. So I'm in many ways privileged and lucky

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_01]: to have a team that complements me but at the same time it's teller in their own way.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, it seems like a common theme with all the leaders that we're getting to speak with.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_04]: They use the word privileged when they describe their team and for the work that they get to do

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: which I think is really interesting. Yeah because I find that fascinating for a few reasons right.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So I built my career at GE in the 90s in the era when Jack the talent development was essentially

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_01]: the biggest part of the whole like you know the ethos of the company was you know you

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: know build and launch talent. So through the course of my career in going from GE into the

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: valley as well this persisted is that I've always had the privilege of working with coaches,

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_01]: mentors and managers who have always advised me coached me or mentored me. They said like you

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_01]: know hey throw your name in the hat for this project or stretch yourself with this particular

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_01]: assignment or go learn like you know as a call myself a recovering engineer. As a recovering

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: engineer go practice strategic practices and financial planning and analysis because you know

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01]: as you plan you know in your career you'll need all of this. So whether it is my manager's at

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_01]: GE at PayPal at eBay later you know when I was the chief operating officer at GE digital

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_01]: at each of these stages these mentors have guided me coached me. I've been privileged going back

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: to that operating ward I've been lucky. So part of my mission right now particularly with this vehicle

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: called Counterstone is to democratize that privilege to normalize that luck such that each

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_03]: and every person can get to control their destiny. So back to some of the other things that you

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_03]: might be a part of are you a part of the kind of corp dev and looking at some of because you

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_03]: the company has made two wonderful acquisitions recently. Ryan and I we've

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_03]: reported on it from in our news show but just on the outside you don't know what you don't

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_03]: know right. So we report on Talespan report reported on Skyhive but now that we've got to

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_03]: actually see them it's like oh my god these were amazing acquisitions. Every day I wake up

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I too think oh my god these are amazing acquisitions and here is the little bit of a big picture around

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_01]: this right as the head of product and head of product strategy you look at all aspects built by

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_01]: partner right and of course we have some amazing products that we've built and launched the

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Cornerstone talent marketplace. Content studio was built in this is this AI powered curation

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_01]: creation insights tool but then when we look at like something like spatial right like with

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_01]: that sourcing horizon OS with apples vision pro etc. That is at an inflection point and we have some

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_01]: amazing talent in people like Kyle that we felt we first partnered with them brought them into

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_01]: the ecosystem and then it just became dead obvious that no this has to belong to our

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: portfolio right now so so that acquisition was spurred by that Kyle reports my organization

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and therefore we have this opportunity to bring that sensibilities of innovation to the rest of

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_01]: the teams as well because they're all you know founders are always in the cutting edge.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_01]: In return we work with that organization to help them scale because it's very different when you

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_01]: have 7,000 customers and 125 million users same thing with Skyhive Sean and I have been

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_01]: partnering and we were in discussing about this coalition of willing because skills is you

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_01]: know a up and coming thing everyone wants to do it people want to find the best vehicle

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_01]: to get there right and this seemed like a match made in heaven and as a part of that okay yeah

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_01]: we have a great engine that we have built we will continue to use that but for those that

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: want to lean into that transformation soup to nuts get that neural system going yeah the AI

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: engine that that sky have a built is amazing so it made sense and you know and you and I

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_01]: chatted presented the case to our board we have a very supportive sponsors and they're like yeah

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_01]: do what's right for your customers at that point and never bring you know brought them into the

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_03]: mix yeah you could have you could have built it you could have built both those absolutely

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_03]: it would have taken years we don't know and we didn't want to find out part of this we

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_03]: want to find out so yeah terabytes of data exactly 15 terabytes daily that's that's yeah I

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_03]: don't want to know what it takes to build that yeah we're good we're good and it's

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_01]: going to an extremely scalable way right like that is that was important for us is because

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_01]: if it is a one-off solution it looks exciting but for us our big our name of the game is to

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_01]: make sure that our customers the trust that we have earned with them for you know quarter

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_01]: century it actually makes him pay a sense right right right right let's go back to 15 18 year old

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_03]: which one would you uh what you want to be this is where it gets dangerous oh no no no

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_03]: yeah I would imagine you didn't want to be as chief product officer but I might be wrong

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_01]: you know I as a as a joking I'm a recovering engineer so I started off my career in engineering

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_01]: in my eyes were like always my mom says my eyes are bigger than my stomach so I look around and

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_01]: there's so many things to those so many ways to make life impactful I grew up in India in the 70s

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and both my parents were like you know dual career couple which was not that common back in

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_01]: mom was in banking and dad was in sales for part of India southern part junei yeah

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_01]: born race there has always been you know spurring interest in so many diverse activities so

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_01]: after I graduated from after grad school I joined GE and GE was a microcosm of that that

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_01]: eyes bigger than being then stomach so many business units so many functions

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_01]: a talent mobility was a not only allowed but encouraged managed career planning etc so at

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_01]: that point in time you know they build the confidence into yourself that yeah you can navigate

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_01]: your way you can figure out what you're in a new country you figured that out you're in a new

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_01]: space you figured it out you have surround yourself with the right people who are complementary in

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_03]: skills and well jack had a vision about training that I don't think any other CEO at the time had

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_03]: I think it was a Hudson on the bay Crotonville yeah yeah yeah absolutely so it's like he would

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_03]: take the best of the best drop them in here cross train them on something else and go go do that

[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_03]: and then I don't know if another CEO in that in that era yeah that had that approach totally

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and we are talking about skills inflection point right now right like when I rewind back

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_01]: like every single era had its own inflection point at that time e-business was a thing right and and

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_01]: jack's point was you know disrupt your business before someone else does right and and just changing

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_01]: that brick and mortar scaling to like you know how do you think about like in the 90s right

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_01]: before the internet took off etc then digital industrial came in so so there are each of

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_01]: these when you just zoom out and you're old enough you look at that inflection point it

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_01]: may not be obvious at the start but somewhere the people who can understand those patterns

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_01]: just are highly successful now how do we bring that to every industry and every function

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_04]: and that makes life exciting your time at GM is that g e sorry sorry is that

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_04]: do you still draw inspiration from that throughout your career I can confidently say I draw

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_01]: inspiration from every single person on professional infactivity including being a dad

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_01]: being a husband being a son being being a g e being at paypal being at ebay every single

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_01]: episode of my career a professional chapter his has one nugget you can find something

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_01]: geez oh my my god it always is more interesting when you look back then when you look

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_01]: 100 you can't connect the dots looking forward as they say no no it doesn't make sense

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and that was that was a big part of my professional foundations yeah so I think it's

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_04]: interesting we've talked about this William but the more the more people that we interview

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_04]: for this particular show inside the C-suite it's interesting interesting to see their journey

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_04]: learn about their journey what motivates them mentorship all that stuff but I think the

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_04]: the connection that I'm putting together between those that we interview here on inside the

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_04]: C-suite and others is it feels like that they're taking nuggets from the company it's a company

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_04]: but not just saying it like they actually mean it they're inventory I feel like when we're talking

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_04]: to car think he means it oh yeah you live it you breathe it totally feel it totally and like

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_01]: like let me take ebay or paypal for example right like that this concept of ecosystem connecting

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_01]: a network of buyers and servers and developers right and transaction systems

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_01]: is something that at that point forward you cannot unsee that lesson right at that point in time you

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_01]: you take that with you and that when I speak about Konosho next 10 which is this HR tech

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_01]: marketplace where you connect like you know people to each our professionals to partners to

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_01]: others it just you pick that nugget that someone else has solved that problem why do we

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_01]: imagine starting it from scratch when you can do that and that's true in personal life too

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_01]: so did you you went from g to paypal I went from g I was at Barclays global and it goes back in the

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_01]: day quant investing so it was like you know big data before it was called big data and after that

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I went to yahoo yeah and then to eBay and PayPal they were the same company so I like you know I

[00:15:10] [SPEAKER_01]: then had you know career opportunities within eBay and within PayPal as well and then I went

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_01]: back to GE digital as the chief operating officer for a for their industrial IOT platform called Pridix

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_01]: oh yeah yeah there was a fascinating experience and then yeah I don't see you yeah it was great and

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_01]: then I then I went to this chief product and technology officer in a genomic company so genetic

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_01]: technology and how you bring that to mainstream medicine to improve health care because your

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_01]: genes have a lot of data oh yeah after that after my first conversation with Himanshu

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_01]: this felt like that was a phenomenal opportunity what did he put you on I'm always intrigued yeah

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_01]: started off with purpose he spoke about his own career journey and then he spoke about the

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_01]: purpose that we have right that this mission to unleash limitless potential in people but

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_01]: purpose with profits you know and then how do you connect it back to the business case

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_01]: that we are in and a product that is highly sticky high retention rates high net retention

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: rates and yet on the brink of transformation because expectation was changing right people wanted

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_01]: like you the audience experience economy yeah and and like and that was fascinating to me but

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_01]: because in enterprise software you take certain experience for granted and which has always bugged

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_01]: me nobody wakes up in the morning saying I want to open a purchase rack whereas when you think

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_01]: about consumer grade it's much more inviting to you right like you want it to be engaging yeah

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_01]: so the concept of a changing multi-generational workforce and an opportunity to build a product

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_01]: that not only connected the business complaint you still need to land planes you need to

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_01]: certifications to manufacture a vaccine you need your lines to not stop but at the same time

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_01]: you want this self-directed self-motivated ability to scale oneself and the in that

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_01]: sweet intersection of those two felt like a fun problem to solve that's also meaningful

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_03]: he seems like he seems like he'd be fun to work with oh he's amazing he seems like he's amazing

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_03]: it just I mean I don't know him from Adam however he just seems like he'd be fun to kind of

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_01]: collaborate with absolutely he's a he's a deep thinker yeah he's uh he's analytical so he's

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_04]: definitely got that yesterday yeah good press about himself and but

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_01]: kind human being yeah he connects at a personal level yeah which are all the hallmarks that like

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_01]: you know you you want out of a leader you want to keep it human you want someone that you can

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_01]: have a conversation with to kick back and have a beer with that or whatever and I you know that

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_01]: connection was there he's tough too oh yeah it's like which which means that he's accountable

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01]: exactly in the relationship with the board how is the we have a really good solid set of sponsors

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and it's about bi-directional trust and transparency as with our employees as with

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_01]: anywhere else and that's another portion that I want you know want to talk about is like with

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Karina Cortez our chr launched employee value proposition and bringing this ethos of tomorrow

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_01]: together right like sparking greatness you know sharing success shattering boundaries

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_01]: that process itself taught a lot for me not just on observing absorbing it as a leader

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_01]: for my own employees but how do I build a product that energizes that right so having a customer

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_01]: zero in house is is is like having my own my first customer is r&d yeah she's right next to me

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_01]: right like so I can test everything and if something's not is it something's not working

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_01]: exactly I hear from it first and they're tough customers to like others so so that's why I feel

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_01]: like there are so many things that have fallen in place and this that makes it fascinating what is

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_04]: the so you talked about lessons or things lessons you've learned that you can't unsee

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_04]: at PayPal and some of these others what is that lesson what is that thing that you want to create

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_04]: here that your teams or people will see that they can't forget when they move on yeah that's a

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_01]: great question right and let me unpack it the first and foremost is is human-centered design

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_01]: right we we are building things for the person behind the professional whichever space that they

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: are in so having that design centricity that design thinking mindset is is number one that is a

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_01]: product ethos that I hope I leave behind right and number two is that openness

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: you a rising tide lifts all boats which means that if you are embracing the ecosystem you're better

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_01]: off than building a wall garden a playground is more interesting than a wall garden you talked about

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_01]: that yesterday about your api exactly whether it's api whether it's an app store whether

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_01]: it's even you could compete fiercely in one layer of the stack but if your customers want

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_01]: something else you want to meet them where they are in the journey so you want to embrace

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_01]: all of that so that is number two number three is that actual craft right like building launching

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and servicing products and I say products it's just not the software code it is the service the

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_01]: support etc is a craft that we should continuously improve it's not a project that has a start and

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_01]: stop it's a product that is that lives beyond us so making sure that we take the depth the

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_01]: the details etc on the craft person so to speak it is a third big portion fourth is

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I hope we create a culture of data driven decision making right so you have internally

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_01]: internally for your customers everything right and definitely in a responsible way right like

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_01]: an animal where anonymized where anonymized respecting privacy etc but like but you harvesting

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_01]: the power of data for the betterment of humanity is something amazing and last but the one that speaks

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_01]: to me the most and I hope we leave that is being responsible right like our ai is just not a fancy

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_01]: tool it scans for hate speech yeah our design ethos includes accessibility which means like you

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_01]: know people who are temporarily or permanently differently abled making sure that we accommodate

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_01]: for their condition versus just so these five principles if that becomes the part of our

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_03]: DNA I would have done my job how are you tracking ethical and audited ai so ethical there's a whole

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_03]: line of thinking there and audited third-party auditing and things like that how are you at this

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_03]: point kind of conceptualizing what you want to do there so I would I would unpack it into the

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_01]: spirit in the letter yeah first we want to be categorical about the spirit whereby its

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_01]: privacy security human in the middle explain ability bias mitigation an example of bias

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_01]: mitigation is like you know the taxonomy sometimes comes and says our job description

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_01]: say salesman and you want to update it to salesperson right like as I said

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_01]: you know I was going to say craftsmanship but then I changed in my previous when you asked me

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I said craftspersonship so these are things that we have to inherently understand and our

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_01]: machines have to understand this so so in spirit we have our principles of foundation

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_01]: we have a governance body that actually looks at it etc and then you know we we go into the letter

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_01]: which means like how do you bring external people to look at it how do you make sure that

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the industry experts are comfortable with it how do you have reversibility so if a data

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_01]: source is shut off for you and you feel your your models have to unlearn it

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_01]: do you have capabilities of unlearning that particular model do you have consent front and

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_01]: center and all of these things so that is the that is the letter side of things and they both

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_01]: have to work together and your people need to internalize that it is the spirit that makes sense

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_03]: absolutely does yeah one last question for me of course when you're explaining workforce agility

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_03]: to someone that has no it I mean I always use the you're at a cocktail party and somebody

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_03]: asks you what you do blah blah blah so how do you explain to someone that doesn't have any idea

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_03]: what that is how do you explain workforce agility yeah I usually and this does happen quite a bit

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_01]: right like you know people do talk about these things and unfortunately it is a space that

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_01]: most people understand first and foremost what almost everyone gets instinctively is that the

[00:23:34] [SPEAKER_01]: world is changing and change is a constant and it's the most adaptable that's arrived

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_01]: the second how is it changing and people we start joking about like you know I use this phrase

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_04]: I have to do two kids 18 and 16 and the first one yeah 18 and 14 nice what are yours 16 13 and 10

[00:23:55] [SPEAKER_01]: perfect so you got all girls yeah boys regardless you will understand this that that that for them

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_01]: my older one applied for his entire college application through his mobile that they're

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_01]: stuck so that right like so so they are what I call the screenagers uh we're going to borrow that

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_03]: by the way you trademark that right I'm glad you said you should have tried mark that I said that

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_03]: to my wife the after you said it yeah I literally sent it to my wife I'm like mm-hmm exactly

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah it's a screenager so they get that people get the fact that they hold like you know the

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_01]: electric car right you know they talk about that etc so when you piece these three together

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the topic of skills somehow comes right so in other words like hey you talk about change you

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_01]: talk about our kids etc at a cocktail party there's so much change there and people talking

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_01]: variably about chat gpt or Gemini and say can you imagine three years back if someone came

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_01]: in and said I'm Karthik I'm a prompt engineer you would be like huh so so people understand

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_01]: that change people understand skills are changing and they say okay you know 50% of this are going to be

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: like you know turned around on their head in the next two to three years so and we get to talking

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_01]: about like then how do you upskill people and the second portion is um and this typically happens

[00:25:14] [SPEAKER_01]: in a slightly more professional setting right like which is not uncommon in the Bay Area right

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_01]: is then oh yeah like we have data spread all over the place etc like it's an LEDF system so you

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_01]: don't know what the how do you bring out there's a visibility issue it's siloed siloed and then we

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_01]: always speak about this multi-generation workforce and expectations changing right like invariably

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_01]: things like you know uh back to work kind of stuff topic comes up traffic comes up etc at the

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_01]: point in time you say that people's expectations on work work is and how it is done is fundamentally

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_01]: changing so at that point in time that the lead is yeah there is a

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_01]: skilling readiness gap across in the workforce and we have a platform what what do you do I build

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and service a platform that actually helps bridge this gap through learning through

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_01]: skilling through mobility etc and then it clicks because each of them just like the

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_01]: example I gave to you from my g and my paypal days each of them has one personal incident

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_01]: that they then starting right to talk through and then you zoom out and you're like this all makes

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_03]: sense it's it's fascinating to me because learning and training the world the words of yesterday

[00:26:29] [SPEAKER_03]: are boring to me like when someone talks about learning or they talk about training

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_03]: training and development like my eyes roll but when you talk about skilling or or upskilling or

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_03]: I get excited so it's almost like a rebrand of those terms those are the terms that our

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_03]: fathers use or grandfathers use etc you know but like when you're talking about skills you're talking

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_03]: about the half-life of skills the two-in-a-days skills all this like it becomes fun yeah it's a

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_01]: game absolutely and it's uh it's both not only pushed to you but pulled by you right like it is

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_01]: it becomes the amazon prime net like spotify this is about like understanding you and then

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_01]: and then giving you an opportunity to acknowledge at that point in time you he sounds like he'd be

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_03]: fun to work with pretty sure this call is recorded for quality

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_00]: car every shattered with my mom and my kids he sounds like he because he's curious are you telling

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_04]: me you want to job no no I'm just saying I mean if you want a job he's right here asking

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_03]: no no no I'm unemployable you know that I'm an employer but it just seems like he'd be fun because

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_03]: he's curious yeah and I like curious people especially curious leaders so awesome thank you so much for

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_03]: your time thank you so much guys it's been a blast take it awesome