>>live from Seattle, Washington. It's the key nude covering smartsheet engaged 2019. Brought to you by smartsheet. >>Welcome back, everyone to the cubes Live coverage of smartsheet engaged here in Seattle, Washington. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight coasting alongside Jeff. Rick. We're joined by Mark Mater. He is the CEO of smartsheet. Thank you so much for coming, Warren. Thank you. So great job up there on the keynote way. No, this is the third annual conference of 4000 people from 39 different countries. The theme is achieved more, and the theme is actually tied to a very special announcement you made today about the about the achieve as one alliance. What can you tell our viewers a little bit about that? Yeah. The chief is >>one alliance is really figuring out how to take the cultural changes that Aaron flight right now and marrying those with the people in the technology. And we think that it's important as things like concepts that are intimidating people. Aye, aye. And ml worker replacement say whoa, whoa, whoa. These are things where we actually think technology and people should work together as opposed to being a replacement for and I think there's a lot of education that needs to take place. So we plan on doing is doing research through this alliance and then publishing that work is I think a huge part of this is educating the market and giving them confidence and take that step. It's a >>different way to treat people. We're in this weird spot where you know, the super low unemployment. And yet in that you know so many things. Air service is and a lot of your assets walk out the door every single night. You hope they come back the next day. So you're trying to give them meaning. You're trying to do more than just kind of the core function of the business. You had a great hackathon yesterday for good. So it's a really challenging, people challenging time for employers to keep the workforce engaged. And you're really trying to help them kind of move some of the roadblocks and may be easier for them to keep those folks and gay >>it is Jeff and what we're seeing is and you see the studies come out where there's never been a higher percentage of people who feel disconnected from their work, and I don't think that's just giving them good tooling. They actually want to know who is being benefited. Ultimately, what's the endpoint benefit? And if they can somehow feel connected to something purposeful, that is a mechanism for feeling connected to work. So we want our team. We want our customers showing up to their offices, everyday organizations feeling motivated. And I think absent that human dimension absent knowing who you're helping, I think makes it feel a bit hollow. That's one of these about engaging Brings this together. You see it firsthand, very invigorating. >>Talk a little bit about the customers that you had upon the main stage, telling their smartsheet stories and one of the ones that you find most inspiring and and most sort of life affirming to you as the CEO of this company. >>Well, the thing that that never gets old for me, Rebecca, is when somebody felt something one day was completely unattainable. And then they have that unlocked moment like Holy smokes. I pulled it off, and what's even more exciting when they pull that off with very few resource is they didn't have to go to I t. At every turn. They didn't have to mobilize on a big budget ass. They just got it done. So one of the real memorable moments from me this year was when I visited Syngenta out in North Carolina and I spoke with a head of health and safety and she said we mobilized on Smarty. We enabled all of our team members to submit issues safety concerns they had. How do you simplify the process of taking a picture of a potential issue getting into a queue getting it responded to? They saw a 500% increase in the number of people who are saying, I think that you could use improvement. I think that could use improvement. And it's 65% faster resolution time. So she is convinced that people's lives are being materially impacted to the positive. Because of this, I mean, how can she not feel empowered that it's a pretty big? That's a pretty amazing feeling, so that's one that really stands out to me >>in terms of the other customer stories. One of the things that also struck me was just how adrenaline pumping the main stage show talk a little bit about what it means to put up the customers who have these very compelling, visually interesting stories, from outdoor clothier Sze to travel destinations, and also what it means for smartsheet employees to be in the audience hearing these stories about what they're doing to help their customers. I >>think I think we all want to wake up every day feeling like whatever we do matters right, whether that's individually or with your family or with your business. And when you see someone like an Arc Terex or a Spartan race, or a Vulcan, which is helping do census on elephants, elephants and preserving that species coupled right alongside it with Cisco that is protecting our networks, which are more complex than ever before on your participating in that site. Okay, that can again back to that connectedness, right? Andi, I think I think diversity and who we serve also keeps it interesting. You never know who you're going to serve next. One day at Cisco the next day, it's agriculture. The next day it's saving elephants. That diversity keeps things fresh. >>One of the things that struck me in the keynote is there was a story of this guy. I guess it's gonna fly around the world in London plane in five days or eight days, but on the one of the test flights are a significant change. Was trying to fly to why there was equipment failure and he had to divert. And, you know, when you see the screen grabs and people working and smart, she looks super detailed. It's like a project plan, and there's resource is that died research, legalization. But in this case, they had to be able to flip on a dime. They had to be completely at around. I think she said, that eight teams around the world, I presume, where the stops are. That's a really interesting dichotomy of the tool that you guys were delivering to, to have the detail to be. Numbers focus. Okay, I focused, but at the same time be really right. In the real world, stuff doesn't always go as planned, >>be Rio and do it instantly. So if we have an issue with the plane, we're not gonna host a summit to talk about with how to get back on track way got to do it now. So the thing that's that's also need that example is you're talking about 8 to 10 people across multiple continents who have to work Right now. There is no mobilization. There is note, as they said, Summit and I think being able to do meaningful things quickly. That is a fairly rare combination, right? Very often meaningful stuff is heavy, Complex taste time. Eso again. I'm this constant pursuit of faster, more meaningful, more depth, more value >>in this kind of cross silo collaboration to I mean, that's the theme that comes up over and over again. Is that you need contributions from loss of people and lots of know, formally silo departments is maybe what they're gonna be called in the future to get to resolution so that you can move forward >>on. I think the thing that we spoke to in one of the product announcements was We're so inundated with information and Mark, I need a faster I need a faster yet again. It's a holy Rebecca. I can't actually process it. Also, one of the things we're trying to do is how do you also improve the context within within which people see things, right? So if you ask me a question and I don't have toe tab out to another application. I can actually see your question in the context of that work. And that's when I think one of the real big breakthroughs were releasing this This engaged. >>I mean, when you think about the the current status of work and you really and you really see it from where you sit, I mean, is it almost shockingly abysmal about how bad things can get at companies in terms of how many silos there are, how the number of communication breakdowns, the way the communication breaks down? Because, as you said, you could just be working >>on a different version. Great question, Rebecca. And the reason I would say it's not shockingly business because we've been doing this for years. It's like it's the norm >>Bates, >>the cost of doing business. So what our job is to how do we get people to get that spark to elevate a basic? Oh, my goodness, there is a better way, and it takes a lot to change people's behavior. You can't just say, Well, there's a better way. They have to experience it, right? So we're in that in that pursuit of how do you get more people to clear that hurdle the first time. Because the norm is it's hard. The Norma's is distributed enormous. I don't know what. So that's what we're trying to unlock for folks. >>And you said in the Kino, once they get that spark, and then achievement becomes the new norm that that has its own momentum to >>Yes, it's the you know Jeff does something amazing and I'm I I want in. Jeff doesn't have a monopoly on that on that. That's the viral effect. And it's not so much a vendor saying, Hey, Jeff did something now you should be motivated. You should feel that way, Rebecca And that's what we see at this conference. This is 4000 people who weren't told to go to the conference. These air 4000 people who want in, and that is a really special part >>of the conference for us. Shift gears a little bit on a on artificial intelligence machine, learning. We hear about it all the time, and I think everyone now has kind of figured out that it's not going to be a company delivering an ML. It's really applied a i N M l within an application When you guys look at the opportunities, especially with the data flow that you have and you know your sass application, where do you see some of the the short term winds and opportunities using A. I even better, you know, eliminate some of this redundant, painful work. >>I think part of it starts with educating people on the potential benefits of it. And then I'm an experiential learner. I think many people are so instead of talking about the theory, demonstrate how it could help. So we've already started doing saying things like recommending to people certain things based on actions they take. It's also very important. As a vendor, we have made a commitment to be very clear that for more advanced types of a I people need to opt in. So again, part of this what's happening to my data? Who's working it well, that's part of our platform. And when I look at the future, it's the first step I think is really how do you drive? Convenience improvement recommendation? How do you let someone take better advantage of the systems they're already using? And what people don't have to appreciate today is by exhibiting this behavior. But in taking information, structuring and reporting out, the system will observe a pattern. And ultimately, should they choose to opt in, the system will get to a point where we'll be able to make recommendations, recommendations and derive insights. Um, but again, a lot of this is fairly theoretical. We're in the early innings of this, Jeff. People are just starting to figure out I can automate something. So, you know, I think there's a much like people said 10 years ago. You know, the future is now. The future is kind of showing up today, and then the next phase is still a couple of years out, but it's a very exciting. It's a very exciting prospect. >>So those recommendations then, can become best practices because I'd like to get it back to this. This achieve as one alliance and sort of how you're going to take that research and educate the market and then use it to implement these new technologies. And best practices of this is how we can get more done and achieve more together. You and >>I think by showing examples of how a I n. M. L can contribute to someone's performance as opposed to you. Did these 10 things the machine is taking over those 10 things? What's my role in it? That's not a very exciting conversation to have. So I think, by demonstrating how somebody's game can innocence slow down. So if that machine can help me further inspect more deeply, assess have that next moment of insight that's contributing, not taking away. And again we need to show examples as an industry that happening until we show it. It's sort of all for not so. I'm really excited about about helping our customers through that journey. >>Yeah, there's so much opportunity, and the the other one that comes up in other times is unplanned downtime, Right? So a lot of talk always about unplanned, unplanned downtime machines, right? It's completely disruptive. You don't want it scheduled maintenance, but no one really talks about unplanned downtime of people not necessarily in the way being sick but being distracted by often mundane, often road often anticipated task. I won't even call it work that suddenly get dumped into your lap that you have to take care of, and those really think huge opportunities to add some automation and get those things kind of off the plate. >>You think about the breakthrough ideas you've had in your lives? Does it happen when you're like feverishly working ways? No. It's usually when there's a moment of just peace before you're able to process. That's when the breakthrough happens. So one of the things we talked about today was how, also his leaders. We need to empower our teams to not just drive for more yielding throughput. Take that extra benefit in. Actually, look at the board, process the board and think about what we're going to do next. And I think again, you need to exhibit. You need to give people the permission to work that way because we're all feeling this this pressure to innovate. You got to give people time to do it >>and do more with less to do you think it's realistic? Do you think leaders are going to be able to do that? And >>I think the leaders of successful companies will do that >>and role model. That, too, because they can also be worried about their own throughput. As you said, >>right, Right? Yeah. I mean, as Gabby, have you reset at the end of her talk. You have to exhibit the behavior. You want others to practice. So I think that was a wise, wise statement. >>Well, I really loved the outdoor clothing company who, you know, specifically said, We want our people out doing the things that our customers are doing, experiencing what they're experiencing and really bacon that into the culture, not just saying it, but get outside and go run around on and do what we want our customers to do and what our customers do do a very different approach. >>It is, It is. I think, again, back to back toe us, understanding what our customers are doing. This is equivalent to our Super Bowl every year, right, we get 4000 these people coming in here and there is no substitute for that in the flesh interaction. And that's again one of the reasons why it's everyone's such a positive, engaged mood right now, >>so they're not only interacting with a smartsheet folks, but they're interacting with each other at learning how each company uses smart cheat. >>I mean, when you think that 1/2 of all collaboration that takes place on our platform is cross company, it's not a surprise that people interact with another. It is it is happening. We have companies who interact with hundreds of brands outside of their own. So we service that cross connect for companies, and that's the modern company. I don't know of a company that is completely insular. So if you can help promote that safely, that za real advantage for company >>wrapping up, what do you think you're going to be? The themes for next year's conference? What is what are sort of what's on your plate? What are you thinking about? What are the big challenges that you're gnawing on right now? >>Yeah, I think the I think the continue shift from efficiency to effectiveness people. I think most people are still measured on the output goal. How many units did I do? And while that may serve you well in the quarter in the next quarter, it does not prepare you for years two and three. So you have to be very committed to the investments today that may not pay off in that 6 to 12 month window. You have to, and I think stories will come out as people are learning new ways. Toe work of examples of Here's what we did in 2019 which ended up being a home run in 2021. So it's back to effectiveness, effectiveness versus efficiency. That is gonna be, I think, one of the themes we speak to next year. >>Thanks, Mark. A pleasure having you on the show. I'm Rebecca Knight for Jeff. Rick. Stay tuned of more of the cubes. Live coverage of smartsheet engage.