Name: This Is How Blue Apron's CEO Shares Leadership Responsibilities
Uploaded: 2020-01-07
Duration: 3 min 17 s
Description: Too many cooks in the kitchen isn’t always a bad thing.

 Matt, you're young. You're a young CEO. You're a new leader. How would you describe your leadership style? Yeah, well I think my leadership style has been evolving a lot over the course of the company, I got to be honest. Because when you're a two-three-person organization, at the very early days of the company your leadership style needs to be different than when you're the CEO of a business with 3,600 people, which is what I am today. And so I think at the very earliest days of the company, I was a really bad micromanager because I did literally everything myself. I was packing boxes myself. Me and my co-founders are doing all the marketing. I did a 100% of our customer service myself from day one. And then over time as you grow, you bring in more experienced people. And now the kind of leader that I'm working towards becoming is one who can really help set strategy, helps that vision, help set the tone for the organization, and attract great people who can really execute on that. There are three co-founders. You are the CEO. I mean one would say there's too many cooks in the kitchen. Actually I would say the opposite. And in the early days, it was extraordinarily helpful. And today it's still extraordinarily helpful for me to have co-founders because we have very different areas of expertise. So my background was on finance, on business, on marketing, on strategy. I have one co-founder whose background is an engineer. And so he manages all of our web systems, our engineering, our development, our IT, our product management. And I have another co-founders background. He was a chef his whole career. And so it was actually a very natural fit. A lot of young founders actually start businesses with people who look exactly like themselves. Like two people will come out of business school. Three who will come out of business school. They're best friends their whole lives. They have the exact same resume. They start a company together. In those cases, I think you often have too many cooks in the kitchen. But you are the boss. You are the top chef so to speak. What's the hardest part about being the boss, being the leader? In the early days of the business, all the things I spent my day to day time on were things like how to optimize our outbound shipping logistics. And now there are people who are in charge of all those things and I'm still involved in them. But a lot of the work becomes making sure your teams are working well together across the company, setting the culture of the company, and setting that high level vision like I said that other people are now executing on those more specific business problems. Do you have a role model of somebody that you admire as a leader? And probably the most important role model my life is my father. He was a business person his whole career. He ran an organization, a big partnership. And it's really, really important to be a good listener in a partnership, and to treat people with respect, and just to have really sound and reliable judgment in those circumstances. And I think seeing that really influenced my style a lot. And I would describe myself as not a dictatorial CEO as somebody who has good judgment, who can help push things in the right direction but really cares about listening and learning. And I think that that's something that I really learned a lot from him. 

This Is How Blue Apron's CEO Shares Leadership Responsibilities

Leadership

Too many cooks in the kitchen isn’t always a bad thing.

How Blue Apron's CEO Shares Leadership Responsibilities

Matt, You're young. You're a young CEO. You're a new leader. How would you describe your leadership style? Yeah, well, you know, I think my leadership style has been evolving a lot over the course of the company. I gotta be honest, because when you're a 23 person organization, you know, the very early days of the company, your leadership style may be different than when you're the CEO of a business with 3600 people, which is what I am today. And so I think, you know, if the very earliest days of the company I was a really bad micromanager because I did literally, everything, myself, I was packing boxes myself. I was, you know, money. My co founders were doing all the market together. I did 100% of our customer service myself. Um, from day one, and then over time, as you grow, you bring in more experienced people. And now you know, the kind of leader that I'm working towards becoming is one who can really help such strategy helps That vision helped set the tone for the organization and attract great people who can really execute on that. You are there are three co founders. You are the CEO. I mean, one would say There's too many cooks in the kitchen, you know? Actually, I would say the opposite. And in the early days of his extraordinarily helpline today, it's still extraordinarily helpful for me to have co founders because we have very different areas of expertise. So my background was on finance, on business, on marketing, on strategy. Um, you know, I have one co founder whose background is as an engineer, and so he manages. All of our Web systems are engineering or development. Our I t R product management have another co founders back when he was a chef asshole career. And so it was actually a very natural fit. A lot of young founders actually start businesses with people who look exactly like themselves, you know, like two people will come out of business School of three. You will come out of this school. They're best friends, their whole lives. They have the exact same resumes. They start a company together. In those cases, I think you often have too many cooks in the kitchen. But you are the boss. You are the top chef. So to think, What's the hardest part about being the boss being the leader in the early days of the business? All the things I spent my day today, time on where things like how to optimize our outbound shipping logistics. And now you know, there are people who are in charge of all those things, and I'm still involved in them. But a lot of the work becomes helping make sure your teams are working well together across the company, setting the culture of the company and setting that high level vision. Like I said, that other people are that now executing on those more specific business problems. Do you have a role model of somebody that you admire as a leader? But probably the most important moment of my life is my father. Um, you know, he was a business person his whole career, you know? He ran an organization. Ah, big partnership. And you know, it's really, really important to be a good listener in a partnership and to treat people with respect and just have really sound and reliable judgment in the in the circumstances. And I think seeing that, you know, really influenced my style a lot and, you know, I would describe myself as not a dictatorial CEO. You know, somebody who has good judgment who could help push things in the right direction but really cares about listening and learning. And, um, you know, I think that's something that I really learned a lot from him.