THE 10- Q: TECH’S RESILIENT FORCE

Intuit CEO brad smith on the secret to disruption, the lakers and Celtics of silicon Valley and the best advice he ever got from steve Jobs’ mentor.

Intuit CEO Brad Smith sits down to talk market disruption, forming alliances with old rivals, the best advice he ever got and more.

how does 34-year-old intuit stay in shape?

We identify a hypothesis, run a rapid experiment and fund projects based on those 90-day experiments.

What set you on this path?

We used rapid experimentation when I ran our Quickbooks division. When I became CEO, I added it across the company.

As a business grows as large as intuit, how do you keep people motivated?

Reward the right thing. Employees who win our innovation awards can use 50% of their time to work on any project for six months. They get to do what makes their heart beat really fast.

Success, of course, can breed insularity.

We study other successful companies. I’ve shadowed Sheryl Sandberg. We had Satya Nadella speak yesterday on how he’s leading transformation at Microsoft.

That’s ironic. microsoft and intuit once hated each other.

When I interviewed Satya onstage, I said, “We used to be like the Celtics and Lakers.”

What did you learn from shadowing?

Three things. Use small teams—no bigger than what two pizzas can feed. Second: “The customer breaks all ties.” And third: “Speed and quality are not tradeoffs.” Speed forces you to focus.

Fintech startups are certainly moving fast— and must seem like a real threat.

We see about eight trends that will shape the next ten years. I took our top 30 executives, formed teams of 3 or 4 and said, “Learn everything you can about these trends.”

What are those trends?

Block chain, AI, augmented reality, machine learning, speech and mobile are some. The U.S. is not the leader in mobile apps. We spent time in China studying Alipay and Wechat.

You also spent time with Bill campbell, the intuit board member who died last year. how important was he to you?

My own dad passed away from a heart attack at 58. Bill was like a second father.

he famously mentored people like Steve Jobs. What was his best advice?

“Your title will make you a manager. Your people will decide if you’re a leader.”