When Greg Clark was recruited to Symantec, he was the third CEO to take the job in three years. He had a lot to do to win the confidence of investors and to prove that he could revamp the 35-year-old cybersecurity giant.
Now, more than a year later, earnings have improved, Clark has integrated a batch of new acquisitions, and the stock has notched up a bit.
Clark says some of that success is thanks to help and mentoring from Symantec’s Chairman, Dan Schulman, who is also the CEO of PayPal. Schulman offered the CEO job to Clark after Symantec acquired Blue Coat, a security firm, founded by Clark.
“He’s given me plenty of great advice,” Clark says of Schulman, especially about leading a huge public company. Clark says he had “brief public company experience” before coming to Symantec.
“Keep your focus on what we’re doing in the medium and longer term to really make the company great,” says Clark about one of the key leadership lessons he has learned from Schulman. “I think he’s done a phenomenal job doing that at PayPal, and I’ve definitely learned a lot from him on that topic.”
Watch the video above for more from our conversation with Clark.