7 questions for ServiceNow’s Invoice McDermott, who runs a $195 billion firm and sleeps solely 5 hours an evening

“Within the first hundred days I used to be right here, I travelled the entire world. The entire world. I met each single person who works for this firm in particular person, and shook their hand.”

Handshake depth is a factor, in McDermott’s world.

The primary handshake is extremely vital, he says. It’s a part of his mindset, particularly for coping with shoppers. He advises gross sales folks, upon coming into a room with a potential shopper, to “discover the decision-maker and shake his hand, however be the final one to let go.” 

He spoke to Fortune just lately in a penthouse suite on the 4 Seasons resort in London, throughout a enterprise journey to fulfill shoppers.

Query 1: Does this handshake factor actually work? 

“Sure, it does.”

“It’s not a perfunctory train to greet anyone. It’s not a perfunctory train to shake anyone’s hand. They should know you’re within the room and you must allow them to know that you simply care,” he says.

“So simply to shake fingers as if it’s just a few customary factor to do will not be sufficient.”

(So, was my handshake any good? “You have been high quality. I wasn’t judging you.”)

McDermott’s stewardship of ServiceNow is actually working. 5 years later, ServiceNow has 26,000 workers, revenues of $2.8 billion per quarter and a market cap of greater than $195 billion.

The AI-driven enterprise software program firm counts shoppers corresponding to IBM, KPMG, and Deloitte, for whom it gives an unlimited vary of back-end software program that handles customer support, IT operations, safety, and new worker on-boarding, amongst dozens of different companies.

The handshake factor is an efficient instance of McDermott’s intense, pushed type. This can be a man who solely sleeps for 5 hours an evening. He wakes up at 5 a.m., reads three newspapers, drinks an espresso, does a light-weight exercise and walks his canine, Amber. He’s within the workplace by 8 a.m. He normally continues working till 11 p.m. at night time.

Query 2: Can you actually get by on simply 5 hours’ sleep? 

“5 hours an evening, , which is okay,” he says. “Through the week, , prefer it’s ‘go time.’”

He sleeps a bit extra on weekends.

Query 3: Does ServiceNow have provide points with Nvidia?

Most merchandise provided by ServiceNow are pushed by AI.

So is he getting what he wants from Nvidia, the AI chipmaker that has been accused of not with the ability to meet demand for all its clients?

“Maybe we’re lucky as a result of we have now such a strategic relationship however Nvidia has fulfilled all of our necessities and performed an ideal job,” he says.

“We began constructing fashions with Jensen [Huang, the CEO] a number of years in the past, and we have been the primary mover in enterprise software program constructing with Nvidia’s GPU stack.”

Query 4: Will you cave to Robby Starbuck?

McDermott isn’t afraid of the standard culture-war controversies which have come to bedevil leaders at massive companies. ServiceNow, as an example, has a well-developed, public going through DEI program, of the sort that has currently turn out to be retro. 

Robby Starbuck—the conservative activist who organizes boycotts of corporations that he believes are too “woke”—just lately compelled Ford, John Deere and Harley-Davidson, amongst others, to again away from their DEI initiatives.  

So what’s going to McDermott do if Starbuck comes calling? 

“Properly the excellent news about ServiceNow is we haven’t performed ‘acronym bingo,’” McDermott says. 

“In case you’re not rising and also you’re managing and all you speak about is company acronyms, that might be an issue for that telephone name. However if you’re rising like we’re, we have now to supply expertise from each nook of the earth to maintain up with the tempo of our development. So if we didn’t imagine in range, if we didn’t have an equitable and an inclusive tradition, there’s no means we might be the defining enterprise software program firm of the twenty first century. So I feel that decision can be fairly easy.”

Query 5: Is working remotely OK?

McDermott will not be a fan of 100% distant working. He requested the corporate to return to the workplace about two years in the past. ServiceNow at the moment has a versatile coverage wherein some workers are available in two days every week until they’re designated distant staff.

“I imagine strongly that individuals do their finest work in particular person.” 

“We want all people within the firm to cross-pollinate and innovate and work as groups. So, mainly, once I requested the corporate to do it, I didn’t should mandate it. I simply needed to say, we’d like it now, we have now to hit the accelerator, folks got here again.”

However when the CEO says “we’d like it now,” absolutely that’s a mandate? 

“In the event that they belief you, it’s not a mandate. It’s a want. It’s ‘I want you. I belief you. I would like you with me.’ I’m not telling you I’ve to have you ever tied to a chair, and I’m not telling you I’m going to fireside you if you happen to don’t do it. I’m telling you, I want you to do it and I don’t ask for issues that I don’t want. And so they responded subsequent day, the parking heaps are all full. There’s a distinction between main and managing and I don’t suppose it’s wholesome to really have those that really feel compelled into issues,” he says. “One volunteer is price 10 pressed folks.”

Query 6: Are you a micromanager or do you like to delegate?

This query is vital as a result of McDermott has, previously, insisted on driving alongside on gross sales calls along with his employees.

“I rent folks which are one of the best on this planet at what they do and I belief them with my life. I feel belief is the final word human foreign money and I feel one of the best leaders rent folks which are considerably higher than them. In each space of area experience. So, when you have a CFO, they should be higher at you than finance. When you’ve got a CHRO, they should know extra in regards to the folks equation than you do. In case you rent a head of engineering, they should be a unprecedented exemplar of an engineering supervisor and they need to know much more than you do. In different phrases, once I look across the desk of my management group, I’m humbled, that’s how good they’re.”

“I additionally imagine strongly that we have now to enter the small print and we have now to be with our clients and we have now to be shoulder to shoulder with the shopper so that you perceive the ache that they take care of,” he says. “I turn out to be obsessive about their issues. And I would like 26,000 folks to be obsessive about their issues, so we provide you with new options to make them higher.”

Query 7: What’s the most tough factor you will have tackled as CEO?

Rising the corporate from 7,000 folks to 26,000 will need to have concerned some difficulties. However McDermott received’t admit it.

“I really like scale. I got here right here from an organization that had 100 thousand folks. So my complete life has been spent scaling corporations, so the issues that individuals would possibly discover tough, we discover nice pleasure in, we convey new folks into the tradition, we get new folks to purchase into the function.”

That feels like PR spin. Absolutely there should have been ache factors whereas rising ServiceNow?

“I’ve encountered 1000’s of challenges, however is {that a} problem? Or is {that a} problem? Is that A setback? Or is that a possibility,” he says.

After which, simply in case you wanted a reminder of the extent of depth he’s working at, he provides:

“On the finish of the day, what’s ache? Your ache could be my pleasure.”