NetApp CEO George Kurian Discusses Leadership at Poole College Event

George Kurian, chief executive officer of NetApp, joined Annette L. Ranft, dean and Stephen P. Zelnak Chair at the NC State Poole College of Management on September 20, 2017 for the college’s first Executive Leadership Series conversation for the 2017-18 academic year.

As a STEM college graduate, Kurian said he decided to pursue a career in software, following the advice of his elder brother.

That experience led to a desire to work more closely with customers, to help them solve their problems. And that, he said, led him to pursue his MBA degree – a platform that he said allows you to reset your career, re-establish your identity and take your career in the direction you want to go. For Kurian, his MBA led him to the world of consulting, where he said he gained “enormously broad training, management experience and problem-solving skills.”

Following are several key takeaways from his conversation with Dean Ranft. Listen to the full audio podcast on Poole College’s Executive Leadership Series iTunes podcast page.

• One of the true joys of working in the technology world: you get to reinvent yourself every few years.
• Innovation is born of imagination molded by pragmatism. The heart of innovation: bringing customer problems to talented people who have the aspiration to solve them.
• Change challenges your position of competitive advantage; you have think about that clearly as a threat but need to lean into changes to make them an opportunity for you.
• One of the responsibilities of the company’s leader is to try to systematize innovation without killing inspiration.
• To get really good at doing something, you have to love doing it, so pick the career path that you love, don’t worry what others say because if you really love it, you’ll be good at it.
• One of the beautiful things about life is that upon reflection, each individual sees a tapestry of their own design. Focus on painting your life with colors of your own choosing, and remember to cherish the truly important things in life, like family.
• We all have bad days, when you didn’t give of your best self and you feel like you let yourself down, but the good thing about life is that the sun goes down and comes up on a new day, and you get a fresh square on your personal tapestry, a new brush, and you get to decide what you will paint. Just paint it the best way that you can.
• Enjoy the journey, enjoy school while you’re at it; enjoy what you’re most happy with.

The next Executive Leadership Series program will be held Wednesday, November 1, 2017. Matt Hong, chief operating officer of Turner Sports, will be speaking. View registration and other details here.