Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo and Deidre discuss the inverse relationship between a company’s growth and its alignment. As a company scales up, alignment on outcomes often goes down — the strategy doesn't trickle through the new layers and most people get further from customer.
Zuora's OKR program reconnects people to the outcomes they drive for customer and company; it's unlocking growth and unleashing the power of teams for this high-growth SaaS company. In this podcast, Tien talks about the shift to an Outcome Mindset™, how OKRs are scaling managers and leaders to help scale the company, and why every day counts.
Tien is the CEO and Founder of Zuora, an innovative company that predicted the modern subscription economy well before others. He is a widely recognized thought leader on SaaS and the author of the best seller Subscribed. He holds an MBA from Stanford. He was employee 11 at Salesforce, where he was CMO and Chief Strategy Officer prior to founding Zuora.
Tien Tzuo is a visionary pioneer of the Subscription Economy, coining the term and building Zuora into the leading platform for subscription management and recurring revenue. He empowers companies worldwide to thrive in subscription-based models through innovative monetization tools.
As founder and CEO of Zuora since 2007, Tien transformed a bold idea into a public company (NYSE: ZUO), serving over 1,000 global customers after taking it public in 2018. Previously, as employee #11 at Salesforce, he architected its original billing system and rose to Chief Strategy Officer.
Tien authored the bestseller "SUBSCRIBED," speaks at global events like G-20 and SaaStr, and mentors founders on disruptive growth strategies.
Deidre Paknad has founded and led three tech startups, acquired companies and been acquired, and led a high-growth business as an executive at IBM for several years; this affords her a unique perspective on using both speed and scale to drive growth. In her role as CEO at WorkBoard, she works with senior leadership teams at some of the world’s largest companies to clarify, align, and drive strategic priorities with greater speed and agility. She is a frequent speaker on Outcome Mindset™ and tapping into ambition.
Deidre has over a dozen patents and has twice been inducted into the Smithsonian Institution for innovation. Goldman Sachs named her one of the 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs of 2019. Deidre hosts The OKR Podcast, which focuses on accelerating outcomes and fostering an outcomes culture.