Name: HPE CEO Antonio Neri on navigating a path to reopening U.S. offices
Uploaded: 2020-06-17
Duration: 8 min 56 s
Description: Neri says that when it comes to his employees, safety is his number one priority.

Neri says that when it comes to his employees, safety is his number one priority.

HPE CEO Antonio Neri on navigating a path to reopening U.S. offices

Leadership

Neri says safety is his number one priority.

HPE CEO on navigating a path to reopening U.S. offices

Antonio, thank you so much for joining us. Let's begin by talking about coronavirus. As you know, just about every American company is opening up for business. Employees are coming back to work, but you're holding off from doing that at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Even though we see from your background as a virtual background, it looks like you're in the office. You're holding off from opening up until maybe July or later. Tell us why. Well, first of all, Suzy, thank you for having me, uh, in your show Appreciated. Given the opportunity to speak to you today, obviously we are living very, um, difficult circumstances. It's something we haven't seen before. Well, we continue to assess the situation on a daily basis. We are in the process right now outside the United States to reopening 34 offices where, you know the shelter in place is no longer in effect whether they didn't phase one phase two of the returning to work or opening um, communities back for business in the United States. Uh, we continue to encourage in place to work for home because we believe is the right thing to do. And obviously we follow the local rules. But I believe until we are absolutely sure that we can provide the right safety for our employees the right tools, Um, and we are not going to reopen the United States. And you're right. We believe that the earliest possible will be July and will be only 20% of the employees to begin with. And we will continue to work from home and encourage that to all our employees. All right, so you're saying that this is the right thing to do? What are you hearing from your employees? How do they feel about, um coming out of shelter after more than three months? Okay. You know, obviously everybody is looking to move on. Um, you know, we are getting requests to reopening offices at the same time, employees want to make sure that they can return on a safely safely way. So, you know, the employees want to get back to some normal type of life, including their professional life. You know, they told me they appreciate what we have done, but at the same time, we have been very clear with them that at this time, for their safety and for the safety of the colleagues. It is important that we continue to do the right thing and at this time, working for home, Still the right thing to do. And then obviously we communicate on a daily basis, and we continue to take aggressive actions where it's appropriate. So what are you saying to your employees? I mean, given the decision that you've made, what are you saying To keep them inspired and motivated to work? Um, in this difficult circumstances Oh, I start by engaging them, listening to them, communicating to them. You know, this is where I think we have done a very good job and engaging employees communicating, sharing our perspectives, lessening, incorporating their feedback in our plants. You know, I would say, you know, I'm very proud of what we have done here. Um, but obviously, if the situation is fluid, right, I mean, fundamentally, we still need to get out of the current environment. You know that we still living through the case is still not to the level we we would like to see. We see now researchers of cases in some states, particularly United States, and so it's just you need to be careful, because ultimately when we come out of this, we want to be in the right place, Um, and obviously don't have setbacks. And this is what it's important that we are patient about it, but at the same time, you know where appropriate, You know, move on as quick as you can. So that communication is key, right? Right. I'm sure it's really tough for you to navigate through all this. What would you say has been the key leadership lesson that you've learned through this Corona experience so far? And have you already put it into practice? Well, obviously, um, uh, I have lived through several crisis in my life, uh, in different parts of the globe and that informed me, have to approach certain situations. But ultimately, um, you know, I think the biggest lesson is that, you know, you need to be better prepared. I will say we were very well prepared in many ways, but we saw tremendous disruption, uh, in our supply chain and obviously in the communities where we operate and fundamentally as you know, our purpose to advance the way people live and work. And, um, you know, we can't think about, you know, approaching this from a pure business perspective. We have to also think about the communities and what we need to do to recover together with them. And I think, you know, we need to do a better job when this crisis come up to react to the community needs more in many ways than the business needs. We did a very good job on the business side. We step up on the community side. We have done some amazing things with voluntarism, donations, you know, making our financial balance sheet to work on behalf of the communities through special financing, you know, and that's something we're proud. But I think if you think about the level of disruption that we've seen in small businesses and in all the areas, I think we need to be better prepared for that. You know, there's been a lot of talking and guessing about the future of the workplace and the future of things like business travel and big gatherings of of conferences. And um, let's not forget that we're officially in a recession now in the United States. How are you picturing the new normal? Well, definitely. We're going to have a new normal Susie, Um, we are not going to go back to where we used to be. I think you know the workforce will change dramatically. We see that in our own place. Um, I think upwards to maybe 50% of our workforce will never return to an office. Um, I think, you know, we learned quite a bit, you know, using our own technologies, um, new processes to maintain or even improve productivity and then use our massive footprint to turn into a more collaborative, innovative spaces than just coming in and talking on the desk to do your day to day job. So and I think, you know, technology is going to play a phenomenal role in enabling these new remote work experiences. And we have the assets with Aruba Portfolio and our cloud services to deliver those new experiences. So I think there is a challenge, obviously, to navigate through this crisis, but also a ton of opportunities where our company can play a significant role in improving productivity efficiency and also help some of the societal problems we have seen. Because ultimately, uh, you know, technology has to be equal to everybody. And I think if we do this right? We can improve again the way people live and work. So as you reflect on all the feedback that you've been getting and all the experiences you've had over the last four months or so, um, what are the leadership skills that you need a CEO to lead HPV forward through all the changes that are going to be coming your way? Well, I think the first scale, um, is to listen. Uh, listening is an important quality. A leader needs to have. You know, we're talking to a leadership team the other day. The first instinct is to jump in and be a problem solver. The reality the first step is to assess lesson. And careful carefully, you know, depict the key messages, you know, and there is a lot of messages out there, So I think lesson is an important attribute. Second is all about communicating with people, um, you know, engaging, uh, thinking their input, but at the same time, involve them in the solution, because ultimately, this is going to be more than a CEO. This is requires the entire company to move forward and all be part of the solution. So those are some of the leadership attributes you need to put in practice. And I will say, you know, the one thing I learned, uh, through this crisis is that, uh we had a strategy as a company, and this unfortunate event actually validated our strategy and my what really did it in for me to move faster than ever before. If you believe in that strategy and now you were able to validate it to this unfortunate event go faster because we have saying this company, the future belongs to the fast and the faster you go, the better you're going to be positioned.