Name: Vivint Smart Home CEO: Giving back is at our core
Uploaded: 2020-09-21
Duration: 5 min 57 s
Description: Todd Pedersen believes that with good fortune comes an obligation to support your community.

 SUSIE GHARIB: Todd, thank you so much for joining us. Well, this has been an eventful year for you and your company, Vivint Smart Home. In January, you took the company public. You listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. A few months later, you were dealing with the pandemic and cutting costs. What would you say has been the leadership belief that's helped you to navigate through all this? TODD PEDERSEN: So Vivint being a company that provides smart home services to 1.6 million subscribers across the country, in a business that's growing and actually having great success during the pandemic, unfortunately for us, it's important to go back to what my dad taught me when I first started my company. He said, "If you're going to run a company and provide services, you've got to be extremely focused on delivering the best service possible to your customer base." And then secondly, "You've got to be incredibly focused on the main asset of your company, which is the employee base." And so I've really tried to fall back on those as a leader, especially during the pandemic and the crisis. Making sure that with everything going on, some of the distractions, complications that come about with running a company that has to be socially distanced for safety and security, that we just remain really focused on those two things. SUSIE GHARIB: So following your father's advice, what have you been saying to your employees? What have you been doing to keep them motivated during these unprecedented times? TODD PEDERSEN: For me, the most important thing for the employee base was communication. From myself, from the upper leadership team, from every business unit leader, understanding the changes that we were making, which were very real-time like most companies, why we were making decisions, how we were making decisions, what adjustments we believe we may need to make short-term and medium-term, and being very clear and concise about that in the open. I personally got on a video feed every week with the employee base walking through the previous weeks and decisions that have been made and really talking about real-time the business, the interaction with our consumer base, and how it was fueling about decisions we were making as a company. SUSIE GHARIB: The other thing that stood out that I learned about your company is that you had a pretty good track record when it comes to philanthropy, but you took it to a new level during this pandemic. You motivated your employees to raise money, and they raised $1.5 million, and you matched that dollar-for-dollar. The money has been donated to frontline health care workers, Black Lives Matter, and the people in the community you serve who just need money to get by. Why was this important for you? TODD PEDERSEN: You know, I believe, and I think a lot of people believe, that when you are blessed with good fortune and opportunity, it's a duty that we should all feel and a desire that we should all have to help and give back. And I really think that's the DNA of Vivint. We're a service-oriented business anyway, so we actually are in the business of serving consumers, protecting them, making sure they feel safe and secure, they have peace of mind. And that doesn't just happen with our employees or with our customers. We have the ability financially to reach out in our local communities on a more national scale. So it's something I just feel that we should do and were obligated to do because of our good fortune, and my employee base responds very well to that. SUSIE GHARIB: As you look back to 1999, which about 20 years ago when you started with Vivint, how would you describe your leadership beliefs, your leadership style in those times, and how has it changed over the years, especially during this corona crisis? TODD PEDERSEN: I think I'm more patient. I understand that things come about like this pandemic. And maybe when I was younger, I would have been maybe a little bit more reactive, maybe not in the right way, but we made good, patient, sound decisions, not knee-jerk decisions, that I think get brought-- I hope, brought comfort to our employee base, and feeling that we're safe and secure as a business, financially sound, and that we had a great future. So I've just maybe matured from a leadership perspective. I do believe I still have the energy I had back then and excitement about the future of the business because I do have that. SUSIE GHARIB: Well, Todd, as you know, there was a time when CEOs would steer clear when it came to talking about controversial issues or social issues even if it directly impacted their employees or their customers or the communities that they serve, but that seems to be changing. How do you think your responsibilities is changing as CEO? TODD PEDERSEN: I think that we all know that things have changed from a leadership perspective from a CEO, and not just the CEO but the upper management of any company, inside of the company with their employee base to be the moral leaders of all things that are happening. Social injustices, financial issues that go on in the work environment, all of these things are critical and crucial. I think, in the past, people did put their heads down. It was the easier path, but it's now expected and needed most importantly. So I feel that same thing for myself, that I need to do more and be more open to having those conversations and leading from the front. 

Todd Pedersen believes that with good fortune comes an obligation to support your community.

Vivint Smart Home CEO: Giving back is at our core

Leadership

Pedersen reflects on the company's support of the community.