Cliff Rosenberg, Managing Director S.E. Asia & Australia NZ at LinkedIn, gives his thoughts on what makes a great leader and entrepreneur and also shares with us the highs and lows of his illustrious career.
1. What do you think are the most important qualities in a great entrepreneur?
A vast majority of great entrepreneurs have significant talent management skills, which I believe helps them stand out from the crowd.
This comes down to their ability to spot great talent, and surround themselves with very high-performing individuals with specialised experiences who then can collaborate to transform a great idea into a successful business.
If the entrepreneur does not have the natural ability to spot and retain the very best talent then they need to very quickly augment that skill gap with a business partner that does.
2. What’s the best piece of advice you were given and by whom?
Tenacity and perseverance is easily recognised but one of those attributes that’s difficult to learn and quantify.
I was taught long ago, by my father, about the importance of continuously trying new things, forever evolving and most importantly never giving up. These lessons resonated well with me at the time and still do today.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the important advice he gave me of having strong values and not deviating from them in professional, personal and family life.
3. Tell us about your big break?
I’ve been fortunate to work in many varied roles during my career to date, but I’d have to say my biggest transition was when I moved from management consulting to a strategy role with the CEO of Vodafone Australasia, Dr Brian Clark.
He was a great mentor and friend and certainly helped develop me and springboard my career. Looking back, this was definitely a ‘big break’ and the beginning of a whole new learning curve in my career from which I’ve been able to really build up my knowledge and expertise both as an entrepreneur and as an executive.
4. What was your biggest failure?
One of my key learnings is that each day and every interaction presents a learning opportunity and that to be in an environment which does not encourage personal and professional growth is a real shame.
I feel privileged to be working now in a company in which we are all encouraged, in multiple ways, to learn and to accept feedback as a gift.
5. What role will technology play in the future of your business and business in general?
Technology is now taken for granted as part and parcel of everything that we do. Faster processing, decreasing costs of mass storage, consumer mass adoption of fixed line and wireless devices, data moving to the cloud, to name but a few, are all impacting on how we think about our current and future business models.
Innovation and technology are inextricably linked and I am excited by the new opportunities that technology opens up for us on the personal and business front.
6. What’s the next big trend on your radar in technology?
One of the biggest challenges of the digital age is the enormous complexity created by the massive surge in data and information – the real-time access to a growing volume of information has made it challenging for professionals and companies to absorb, analyze and transfer that information into competitive knowledge.
At LinkedIn we are using the mass of professional data that we have, to build the world’s first digital graph to map how professionals, jobs, companies, universities, etc are all inextricably linked.
By doing this we hope to transform the lives of professionals around the globe as well as how companies hire, market and sell at scale. Our ultimate vision is to create new economic opportunities for professionals around the globe.