Influencers Transcript: John Donahoe, June 13, 2019

ANDY SERWER: John Donahoe wants to revolutionize the way companies are run. And so far he's well on his way. Donahoe leads the fast-growing management software company ServiceNow, which saw 36% year-over-year revenue growth in 2018 and just announced deals with the likes of Google and Deloitte.

Once the CEO of eBay and Bain & Company, Donahoe knows what it takes to build a world-class player. He's here to talk about how a small company is taking on the tech giants and how it just might win.

Hello, everyone. I'm Andy Serwer. Welcome to "Influencers" and welcome to our guest, John Donahoe, who is the CEO of ServiceNow. Great to see you, John.

JOHN DONAHOE: Andy, great to be here.

ANDY SERWER: Well, and it's great for you to be hosting us here at your headquarters in Santa Clara. So thanks for having us in.

JOHN DONAHOE: Yeah, thank you for coming.

ANDY SERWER: So you've been in many roles in the corporate world. You were at Bain. You were at eBay. How did you end up at this company, ServiceNow, and what are you doing here with this business?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, after 10 and 1/2 years at eBay, in 2015, I did a succession. And I used that. And we split eBay and PayPal, and I handed off to Devin Wenig and Dan Schulman respectively. And I took that time to kind of reflect on what it is I wanted to do next.

And as I reflected back in my time at eBay, the iPhone came out about three months before I became CEO of eBay. And so I had the opportunity to have a front-row seat in the consumer mobile revolution, where born-in-the-cloud applications like an eBay or a PayPal or an Amazon or Lyft or Uber, you pick your favorite ones, over the last 10 years they've completely transformed our lives at home. They take what's complex in our personal lives and make it simple and easy and intuitive.

Technology now adds value to our lives at home. And as I reflected, no one would ever describe technology at work as simple using, intuitive. Technology at work is complicated. It's frustrating. It makes you want to blow your brains out.

In my last few years at eBay, we brought in the three born-in-the-cloud enterprise software platforms, Salesforce, Workday, and ServiceNow. And I began to see for the first time how our CIO could begin to build some experiences that were on par with what we were building for consumers everyday with eBay and PayPal mobile apps.

And so I came to the hypothesis that if the last decade has been the consumer mobile revolution, the next decade is going to be the revolution or the impact of technology at work, because at the end of the day, we're the same people at home as we are at work. And we've come to expect the same kind of experiences. And so I joined ServiceNow with this belief that we're right on the cusp of what the next technology revolution's going to be, that is how we live our lives at work.

ANDY SERWER: So in a way what you're saying, John, is that while consumers were being treated to first-class software, people at work were second-class citizens.

JOHN DONAHOE: Yes. And what was really underneath that is the cloud came to consumer first.

ANDY SERWER: Right.

JOHN DONAHOE: We didn't call it cloud. Amazon, Google eBay, PayPal, Lyft, Uber, they're all cloud companies. We call them consumer companies or mobile companies. Cloud came to the enterprise, came to work 10 years later, Salesforce being the first visible sort of stake in that. And so the cloud revolution simply happening at work 10 years later than the cloud transformed lives at home.

ANDY SERWER: So what exactly does ServiceNow do? And how does it work?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, ServiceNow is one of the major cloud platforms at work. And our particular focus is around what we call digital workflow. In simplest terms that's saying how do we take the kind of experiences we have at home and make them happen at work?

A simple example-- you and I were just talking about employee onboarding. Employee onboarding is the first impression we create most-- for most of our new employees in whatever company you're in. And it's a highly manual, frustrating, time-consuming process, right, to get your badge from security, your desk from facilities. You've got to get your laptop from IT. You got to re-enter your personal information three or four different systems, payroll, T&E, health benefits, get all this compliance training.

ServiceNow makes it really easy for any company to turn that into one simple mobile app, a consumer-grade mobile app. So that new employee experiences onboarding as a one, seamless, simple experience and can get it done quickly. And all that complexity is hidden beneath the serviced a surface. And ServiceNow's technology enables you to hide that complexity and deliver great experiences for employees at work.

ANDY SERWER: So you get a personalized dashboard on your phone, one place to onboard, right?

JOHN DONAHOE: Yes. And that's true for onboarding. That would be true for any time you have a problem, your laptop doesn't work, a printer doesn't work, you have a question about your-- about payroll, about finance or benefits. You go one place, a mobile app, and you get those questions answered.

ANDY SERWER: And so how fast is the business growing? I mean, the stock has been going up like crazy over the past couple of years.

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, we're blessed with very strong growth. We're growing sustainably in the 30% to 40% area. And that's largely driven by a strong cloud tailwind that this consumer mobile revolution-- it's now the cloud revolution at work. And we are well-positioned as one of the major winners and major platforms, winning platforms, in that cloud revolution at work.

ANDY SERWER: One of my engineers, I have to tell you, though, John, told me that she use it. But she's still found it a little complicated. Are there still things to work through?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, I think-- I think there's two parts to software. There's what the user and user experience is, and then there's all the complexity underneath it. Same thing is true in the consumer world.

You take a PayPal transaction or a Venmo transaction. It's really simple for the user, but there's an enormous amount of complexity that has to be dealt with underneath the surface. Same thing is true in the enterprise. And so ServiceNow software has done a great job of dealing with the complexity underneath the surface. And I think only now are we getting to what I would characterize as consumer-grade experiences for the end user.

ANDY SERWER: Let me broaden out and ask you a little bit about the environment in Silicon Valley right now. It seems like things are humming on all cylinders on the one hand. On the other hand, you know, you're hearing concerns from Washington about regulating and breaking up big tech, that maybe there's too much complacency here. This is an insular environment. You've been here for a while. What's your take on things?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, I think technology's having a fundamental impact on our lives all over the world, our lives at home and now increasingly our lives at work. And that is largely a very positive impact, right? It's taking things that were repetitive or difficult or automated-- or I'm sorry, not automated-- and making it easier, right?

It's much easier to order a car. It's much easier to buy something or pay for something. At work it's easier to get stuff done. So the impact of technology has been fundamentally good. But I also think there's some second-order consequences.

And some of what we're seeing-- and so some of the second order consequences are, for instance, as automation occurs, it's going to have some impact on jobs. It's not going to eliminate all the jobs. And we can talk more about our point of view on that. But it does have some impact on that.

It has some impact on issues such as income inequality. And so I think the technology sector has to face up to what are some of the second-order consequences and engage-- privacy issues, other issues-- engage as constructive citizens, not just in the technology world, but as members of society. And I think you're beginning to see some good examples of that. I think what Tim Cook's doing, for instance, at Apple around privacy, they're engaging thoughtfully around that topic. And I think that's a-- that's a good example of what I think all technology companies need to take seriously.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah. I mean, I was just going to ask and follow up. Are there ways-- that's an example. What other ways are there for tech to become more grounded and to sort of maybe work with Washington or be more aligned with the rest of the country in terms of the big trends that are going on in our society?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, let me just describe how we're thinking about it at ServiceNow. So there is a debate right now around automation. Is automation going to kill all the jobs? Or will automation allow us to take the 20% or 30% of our lives at work that are repetitive, administrative, frustrating tasks, low-value-added tasks, and automate those so that we can dedicate not just the remaining 70% of our time doing our creative best but 100% of our time?

We strongly believe in the latter. And our purpose as a company is we want to help make the world of work work better for people, a belief that the world of work's about the future of work and the impact technology will have. Work better for people is the belief that it's technology in service of people and not the other way around. And so we very much want to engage, to ensure that as automation comes to the workplace, it comes in a responsible way.

Now, two ways we are living out our purpose in a global impact way are one, there will be a shift in what some of the jobs are. And so having the skills of the future, digital literacy is something we're investing in, whether it's training vets, retraining workers, where they can have the skills of the future that are aligned with the jobs of the future. Interestingly, you don't have to be a computer science major. You don't have to be an engineer because platforms are making it that you don't have to write code.

But you've got to be comfortable technology. So as a company, we're investing our time and our volunteer hours in digital literacy. Similarly, as I mentioned earlier, technology's not the core driver of income inequality. But it is one of the contributors.

As a company, we can't solve income inequality. That's a very complicated-- very complicated and complex topic. But we want to say we want to be a participant in some of the solutions. And we've picked food insecurity as one of those topics because it's now true, certainly in Silicon Valley, that we have to earn $80,000 for a family afford to live.

Many of the people that are in our lives may work in our cafeterias or in-- in janitorial staffs or whatever, they're struggling to make ends meet. And so we're investing in Silicon Valley and all over the world-- in Silicon Valley with Second Harvest. Again, with food insecurity being an issue, that's one of the consequences of income inequality. And we want to be responsible citizens to say we want to be at least in that dialogue, a part of the solution.

And so there's no grandiose notions there that-- that we can solve any of it. But we're not trying to avoid it. We're trying to engage.

ANDY SERWER: I have to say you're more thoughtful about these issues than other people I've talked to. Do you feel like there's work for others to do? Do you try to share your vision with other chief executives?

JOHN DONAHOE: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think-- you know, I think we're not in the spotlight right now. And so I think what happens is a little bit when you get in the spotlight, the glare of the spotlight, it-- it's-- it becomes a little bit of PR battle instead of a substantive battle. I've been privileged to a lot of conversations with my peers. In fact, Chuck Robinson and I got all--

ANDY SERWER: CEO of Cisco.

JOHN DONAHOE: CEO Cisco-- got all the CEOs in Silicon Valley together, or many that would come. We had said, how can we collectively put our energies-- we're all doing things like what I described, digital literacy and food insecurity. Every Silicon Valley company has their causes. Would we be better served if we tried to coordinate?

And so I think there's a lot of awareness and desire to be responsible citizens and contributing. And many companies are doing things like that. But when you get into that kind of Washington glare, then it's a little harder. And so I have some empathy for what it's like for those that are testifying. And you almost can't win no matter what you do.

I think we need to get back to what are the underlying things where technology can have a-- take responsibly some of the second-order consequences technology creates and engage in those issues, be it privacy, be it income inequality, be it-- be it job security. And then, you know, use the talented people we have in our companies on a volunteer basis and use our resources to try to engage. And-- and I think you're going to see more and more of that.

ANDY SERWER: When was that meeting that you talked about? That's great.

JOHN DONAHOE: We first did that probably 18 months ago. It's called the Backyard Initiative. And so for instance, we picked homelessness. We said let's start in Silicon Valley, one of the wealthiest, well, I call it a zip code, wealthiest areas of the country. There are significant issues around homelessness and the affordability of housing. There are significant issues around food insecurity.

And so we've taken those two issues and saying, how do we collectively-- there are a bunch of others, education, transportation, a whole series of others. But let's just start with those two. How do we, together, try to put our energies to address those things?

So around food insecurity, for instance, ServiceNow, is working with Second Harvest to help create food banks at some of the universities around because many of the students are struggling in Silicon Valley as well. Chegg's doing another part of-- of food insecurity. Chuck and Cisco have taken a real lead on-- on housing. And so each company's trying to plug in to some of the core issues, and we're just trying to be a little bit more coordinated in our effort.

ANDY SERWER: It seems a little behind the scenes, which maybe is a good thing.

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, we made a conscious decision not to make it a PR-- one big press conference, say, hey, it's all about us, give us credit. No, we said, let's put our actions in place before we talk broadly about it. And so there's been, I think, a lot of good work. And-- and each company, it was sort of fascinating, when we went around the room, each company has their set of issues they're engaged in, whether it's education, whether it's food insecurity, whether it's housing, whether it's transportation. And so, you know, I think it's just time for us to-- to be on our front foot, let's say, rather than our back foot.

ANDY SERWER: It's interesting because also that sort of gets close to politics. And politics is a difficult place for a chief executive, particularly these days with things being so polarized. Do you feel that it's the chief executive's role to put their foot out in terms of standing up for issues that might be germane to their thinking?

JOHN DONAHOE: You know, Andy, the way I think about it is there's two buckets of issues. There are my personal views. I don't think it's my job to bring my personal views into the workplace. But there are things that are values of our company. And I do think it's appropriate to have a perspective on those issues.

So I described earlier, you know, in our case, are-- we make automation software. So the issues around automation, whether political issues, societal issues, we need to have a point of view on, that we need to be engaged in those issues and be politically active on those issues. And so I think each company has a different business-- business model.

I'm still involved. I'm still chair of the board at PayPal. And Dan Schulman and that team, they have a set of values and issues around payments that are around PayPal's purpose and mission. And Dan and his team are very involved in those issues. They're a little different than the issues that ServiceNow is dealing with, which are a little different than the issues that Apple is.

So I think when it's core to your purpose and your mission as a company, you have a responsibility to be engaged. And then different CEOs might have different perspectives on this. I think when it's just my personal views on issues not related to ServiceNow, then I can talk about those at home. But I don't necessarily bring them to the workplace.

ANDY SERWER: Makes sense. Let me ask you about the economy and tariffs. First of all, what are your customers telling you about the economy right now? What does it say to you? And then do tariffs and the trade war come into play with your business at all?

JOHN DONAHOE: So-- so to be-- to be honest or to be transparent, we only really see a portion of what our customers are saying. Because basically no matter what's happening with the macro economy, customers are investing in technology because technology is a future source of productivity and efficiency, as well as competitiveness. And so we still see very strong spend that's tracked as IT spend.

But we still see very strong spend in technology. And certainly our company and our platform are benefiting from that. And that's partly what's fueling our strong growth is that companies almost must invest in technology to help in their digital transformation agenda. And digital transformation, by the way, is no longer a business buzzword. It's-- it's a competitive reality.

ANDY SERWER: Right.

JOHN DONAHOE: So we see-- we are largely benefiting from that investment in technology. I will say, I also am chair of the Business Council. And so I get a sense of what that sort of macro view of CEOs are. And I think there's still optimism.

There's a little cautiousness around some of the tariffs and some of the dynamics going on there. But I-- I don't see any fundamental change in the outlook. To your second question, we are not that impacted by-- by the tariff situation at the moment largely because software isn't really as impacted. We're a global company. But software's not one of the items that either US made or not US made.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, that's really interesting. I mean, if you think about software companies writ large, I mean, particularly enterprise software businesses, they're not impacted by tariffs. So why would they? How would they?

JOHN DONAHOE: It's just because it's a-- you know, software's fundamentally a global issue. Software's a global asset. It may have been coded. We have coders building our software here. We have coders building our software in Amsterdam. We have coders building our software in Hyderabad, India.

And our code base, our platform, our cloud platform, is fundamentally a global asset. It's a code base that everyone in the world is pulling from the same code base. So it's not an American good or a European good, an Asian good. And therefore we're a very global company, as most software companies are.

So In our case, you know, 35% of our customers are outside the US. And they feel like they're buying global software. They're not buying American software. They're buying software from the cloud. And by definition, the cloud is a global-- the internet is a global phenomenon.

ANDY SERWER: Right. Shifting gears a little bit, I want to talk about where you were brought up, Winnetka, Illinois. Did you ever see yourself coming out to Silicon Valley as a high-school basketball player there, going back to those days?

JOHN DONAHOE: You know, I-- Andy, I feel so lucky. I grew up in such a more innocent era. The reality was we weren't really thinking about the future. We weren't worrying the future-- worrying as much about the future. I think partly because we were exposed to less.

So the honest truth is when I was at New Trier High School and growing up in 1978, I just thinking about, where do I want to go to college? And I wasn't worrying about much more than that. And so I've been very fortunate in that each chapter of my life has kind of unfolded one after another, and it's never been part of a grand plan.

I feel like my parents were people that said, you know, it's a lot more important who you are and how you carry yourself than what you do. That the things that last, your legacy is ultimately more driven by who you are and how you carry yourself and how you impact others around you. And it's actually less about what you do. And that's sort of Midwestern values a little bit, too, I think. And so I feel like I was lucky enough to be-- I feel like I'm still a Midwesterner at heart, even though I've been in California for 35 years.

ANDY SERWER: I think I read you worked at a beer distributor for a little while when you were young.

JOHN DONAHOE: Yeah. I worked on a Schlitz beer truck when I was 17 years old.

ANDY SERWER: Wow. That must have been a teaching experience, right?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, well, it was the greatest job a 17-year-old boy can have in the world, to work on a beer truc because the drinking aging in Illinois at that time was 19. But, you know, I had to join the Teamsters.

ANDY SERWER: Wow.

JOHN DONAHOE: And so all a sudden, I'm driving side by side with other-- or I was the helper in the beer truck. And my first route that I was assigned to was Cabrini-Green in Chicago. And you may remember Cabrini-Green was the housing project, a nationally famous housing project.

And I remember going into grocery stores and liquor stores where there no shelves, where literally they dumped the stuff on the floor. People are paying for things with food stamps. And it just gave me an exposure that there was another part of life out there and another-- you know, this issue of the haves and have nots, the income inequality issues that are very alive today, they've been there for-- for, you know, I don't know how many years. And I feel like I had some exposure to those at a young age and hopefully grew a little bit of empathy and understanding as a result.

ANDY SERWER: You went to Dartmouth and then started working at Bain & Company and then ultimately became CEO. Did you overlap with Mitt Romney at all when you were there?

JOHN DONAHOE: Sure. Well, Mitt was there when I joined Bain. And then Mitt soon thereafter formed Bain Capital, which was the sister company right next door. And then in the early '90s, Mitt came back to Bain & Company, became managing director. And I certainly worked with Mitt then. I was part of that next generation. And so I was managing director of Bain, too, after Mitt. So certainly, you know, know of him.

ANDY SERWER: What did you learn from him?

JOHN DONAHOE: Mitt was-- Mitt was-- Mitt's a get-stuff-done guy. And this is what didn't always come through in the political campaign. It did in the Salt Lake Olympics when he was Governor of Massachusetts. Mitt was the ultimate pragmatist. We need to get stuff done.

And so he had an ability to work with people, you know, what in politics would be all across the aisle, but I think a wide swath of people to get stuff done. And so I learned a lot. He was even handed, very steady, very objective, data driven. And so you know, and I think-- I think it was never about Mitt. It was always about what it is we're trying to get done. So I feel like he was a-- you know, one of many very good role models I've had a chance to interact with.

ANDY SERWER: And then when you went to eBay, talk to us about that. How did that come to pass, and what was that experience like?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, the managing director job at Bain has term limits. And so-- and Mitt, before me, when he finished being managing director at Bain, he went to become governor or run for Governor of Massachusetts. My predecessor, Tom Tierney, founded Bridgespan.

And so I knew I was going to leave Bain at the end of my time. And I ran into Meg Whitman. And I'd worked with Meg at Bain. She, in fact, was my first boss at Bain back in 1986.

And Meg just said to me at one point, hey, why don't you-- I don't have a successor here at eBay. Why don't you come worked for me for a couple of years and then be my successor? You can learn the business. I'll teach you a little bit about being a public company CEO. And then-- and then you can be my successor.

And so I decided to make that leap. The truth is I fell in love with eBay's purpose. And I've always been kind of a purpose-driven person, purpose-driven leader, purpose-driven guy. And I fell in love with eBay's purpose, fell in love with Pierre Omidyar, its founder, and then saw a wonderful opportunity to work with Meg and learn from her. And so I made that leap in 2005 and never looked back.

ANDY SERWER: So you did some deal making there. What was sort of your MO and your strategy with that company?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, by the time I got to eBay, and certainly by the time I became CEO, the core eBay business had lost a little bit of its luster. And-- and literally on day three after being announced, I declared that we were in a turnaround, which-- which in 2008, was not a word any technology company wanted to use in Silicon Valley. But it was what we needed to confront.

And so in the core eBay business, we confronted a very strong turnaround, where we embraced a lot of change. We changed almost everything about the-- the experienced search. I talked about mobile earlier. We fundamentally took advantage of the mobile phenomenon.

At the same time, we had this PayPal asset, which was becoming clear wasn't just on eBay, but had a huge opportunity off of eBay. And so, you know, I've always been a disciple of servant leadership. Meg did her 10 years at eBay and just did a phenomenal job.

I did my 10 years. And my job was to hand off an eBay that was stronger than the one I inherited. And I feel like I did that and then hand it off. And interestingly, when I first met ServiceNow, ServiceNow's founder, Fred Leddy, was very similar to Pierre, a plat-- a brilliant platform person that didn't want to manage a lot of people.

So just as Pierre handed off to Meg pre-IPO, which most founders don't do, Fred Leddy handed off to my predecessor, Frank Slootman here pre-IPO. And Meg and Frank both led those early years post IPO, massive growth. Meg handed off to me voluntarily when she was 50, after 10 years. Frank handed off voluntarily to me saying that you know what? I've done my job. Now, John, it's time for you to do your job.

And so I've been the beneficiary both companies in a very parallel way of being the third CEO inheriting really strong companies. And my job is to help grow and scale them to the next stage. And then I'll hand them off to my successors. And so that notion of servant leadership, purpose-driven servant leadership, is really common between both.

ANDY SERWER: Is that next phase potentially being acquired by Google? Because people talk about that.

JOHN DONAHOE: You know, our aspiration unequivocally is to build an enduring company, the same way it was at eBay. And eBay and PayPal are independent companies today. They had that aspiration. Pierre Omidyar always had that aspiration. And the same thing's true here.

And so we very much are operating for the long term. We're making the kind of investments in our talent and our product to build for the long term. Our founder, Fred Leddy, could have sold us many times. He wants to build for the long term. Our board, myself, we want to do that.

The good news is that our current valuation, I don't think there are many companies that, well, actually could afford to buy us. And the reality is we clearly communicate to our customers, to investors, and to our employees that we're trying to build what I would characterize as a great enduring company. And I do think there's an opportunity for the next generation enterprise software companies to emerge. And we want to be one of those.

ANDY SERWER: Before I let you go, John, I want to ask you about politics again a little bit and our society and the environment in which we find ourselves because you're so thoughtful. And you know, a lot of people are talking about, well, America's best days are behind it. And we're so divided up.

And we're so polarized. And we have candidates on the left, candidates on the right. And we really need to find our center again. What's your take on all that?

JOHN DONAHOE: You know, I'm an optimist. And maybe it's my Midwest roots. But I'm an optimist about the power of democracy and the checks and balances of democracy. And democracy's a messy process. Democracy's not a straight line.

We-- it can sometimes go to one extreme and then another, and another. But the fact is it always comes back and-- and often triggered by a crisis. Sometimes our political system doesn't really turn until things get so bad. But I think there are, you know, issues.

Do I-- do I love everything that's going on in our government or our society or our leadership today? No, I don't. Do I think we have some real issues we need to grapple with as a society, like income inequality, like-- like questions around privacy, like, you know, what are the fundamental human rights? My wife's very involved in human rights. Yes, I think they're really important issues we've got to grapple with which are hard issues.

But ultimately, I'm an optimist. And I think democracy and-- is the best political system. And I think it's also the best economic system. And so, you know, I'm-- I believe that we engage responsibly if we kind of just keep some of the polarizing, media-fueled-- I don't mean media. I mean, media-enabled. Media-enabled, it's not just, you know-- it's-- it's whether media enabled.

ANDY SERWER: You can blame the media a little bit, John. Everyone else does it.

JOHN DONAHOE: But I'm saying-- what I'm saying is it's media platform, as we would say, where people are able to express views that are highly divisive.

ANDY SERWER: Right. And then people only listen to those.

JOHN DONAHOE: And then they'll listen to that, right? And we-- and so-- as long as we-- you know, I love sports.

ANDY SERWER: Mm-hmm.

JOHN DONAHOE: And part of the thing what I love about sports, and I think even in today's world, sport brings people together. You can have two competing teams, with-- with, you know, fan bases that are really different. But you come together with a clear set of rules, and you engage on a playing field.

And-- and out of that comes a connection and comes continuity. And so whether it's global sports or sports within a country, I think-- I think that kind of mindset that says let's come together and engage with each other, even if we disagree, and, you know, let the best ideas win, just like you let the best team win, I think that kind of mindset is something that-- that we need. And again, I'm-- I'm-- I'm an optimist over the medium to long term.

ANDY SERWER: Last question, John. This is a program about influence. It's called "Influencers." So I want to ask you how you see using your influence? What do you see your legacy being?

JOHN DONAHOE: Well, Andy, I've been blessed with so many role models who I've learned from, starting from my father. You know, this notion of servant leadership, which is something I deeply believe in, I first learned from my father. I didn't think of my father as a leader.

But my father was a very successful businessperson in Chicago. My father never used the word "I." His focus was always on others, asking questions, drawing people out. My father treated the parking lot attendant the same way he treated the CEO. And I watched how people responded to my father. He created followership.

And so whether it was him or Tom Tierney or so many people after that, I feel like I've learned from servant leaders. And when I say servant leader, I mean the job of a leader is to serve the purpose, serve the customers, served the employees, and serve the community. And so one of the ways I want to give back is by practicing servant leadership and-- and-- where that's something I enjoy doing. And if I can have a hundredth of the impact on others that so many servant leaders have had on me, then I can put my head on the pillow at night and feel good.

ANDY SERWER: All right, John Donahoe, CEO of ServiceNow, thanks so much for your time.

JOHN DONAHOE: Thank you, Andy.

ANDY SERWER: You've been watching "Influencers." I'm Andy Serwer. We'll see you next time.