Why Did This CEO Get Fired, Pleaded With to Return, Then Hired by Microsoft?

Unless you were actually in the OpenAI boardroom discussions this weekend nobody knows the real reason Sam Altman was fired but a flurry of commentary by the players themselves on X allows me to provide this recap and blunt thoughts: ?

Friday Nov 17: "not consistently candid in his communications"?was the Board's reason for firing Altman Friday evening and appointed Chief Technology Officer?Mira Murati as Interim CEO. ?

Then followed a tumultuous 48hours: ?

Saturday Nov 18

• Investors unhappy with the Board's decision tries to backtrack and reverse Altman's firing
• Rumors that Altman may well return as CEO circulate Saturday evening

? What caused the board to back track? Surely everyone was in agreement when they fired their CEO- so did more information come to light or was it purely in reaction to the alleged multiple job offers and investment pledges Altman was getting? - or pressure from investors including Microsoft who weren't given advanced notice of the firing? ?

Sunday Nov 19

• Twitch Co-Founder, Emmett Shear appointed as new OpenAI's CEO

Monday Nov 20

• The rehiring attempts failed and Microsoft won the AI talent battle...
• Microsoft announces?that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman are now running MSFT's AI Research team

? "We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI's new leadership team and working with them. And we’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success."

• OpenAI Co-Founder and participant in Altman's firing Ilya Sutskever backtracks on X:

"I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company."

• 505 of the 700 OpenAI employees have?told the board to resign -?(Sutskever himself signed the letter!)

"Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAl. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for?our mission and employees. We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAl and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAl employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join. We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman." ?

• New CEO, Emmett Shear?shared on X?his 30day plan as new CEO, which is good in a usual course of business, but doesn't address the 505 employee group resignation unless the board resigns.

? "I have a three point plan for the next 30 days: - Hire an independent investigator to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report. - Continue to speak to as many of our employees, partners, investors, and customers as possible, take good notes, and share the key takeaways. - Reform the management and leadership team in light of recent departures into an effective force to drive results for our customers."

• With an interesting pps at the end of his post dispelling one myth:

"PPS: Before I took the job, I checked on the reasoning behind the change. The board did not remove Sam over any specific disagreement on safety, their reasoning was completely different from that. I'm not crazy enough to take this job without board support for commercializing our awesome models." ? ...So we still do not know why Altman got fired and the news cycles are focusing more on the?battle for talent?than the original trigger for this crazy course of events. ? Was he avoiding telling the truth to his board, or was he telling them truths they didn't want to hear? As fascinating as this turmoil may be - it is time to ask - what can you learn from this? ? Board members:

• Make sure you have Truth Telling Norms in your board, with your CEO, and have created a Truth Telling Company
• Ask yourself if your CEO left tomorrow - by choice or by force - how many of your employees would follow them? - are people attached to your company or one leader?
• MSFT is a 49% owner of OpenAI - and were out of the loop of the decision to fire the CEO - what would your investors do if you made such a move?

CEOs:

• Do you have confidence in your ability to truth tell to your board and investors?
• Have you created a Truth Telling Company where people can share the truth even when the news is bad?
• How strong is your relationship with each of your board members and every one of your investors? - are you aligned in doing what is right for shareholders, investors, and employees?

Executives:

• How do you assess the truth telling ability of your company? - can you share the truth upwards, sideways, downwards and to your board and investors?

Everyone else:

• If you don't understand AI - teach yourself so you have opinions on the players, products, services, myths and realities of this new technology

....even my 15 year old has taken this point seriously and just finished the incredible?Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamp ?

If you want to understand more about Truth Telling, the first chapter in my third book?Words That Work: Communicate Your Purpose, Your Profits, and Your Performance?is dedicated to sharing how to create a Truth Telling Company.? Comment or DM me with TOOLS - if you want free electronic copies of the Truth Telling tools I use with executive teams to accelerate truth telling in a company.?

Here are?Five Critical Truths about Truth telling:

1. Giving and seeking out the truth is at the heart of the way every company works
2. The higher you rise the greater the need for truth telling - and the lower the likelihood you get it
3. You might have strong truth telling habits, but it can conflict with how your peers, your boss, and your company typically acts
4. You can transform and become a truth telling company but it has to start with your CEO and board.
5. As a CEO and Board, truth telling is contagious whether you do it right or wrong your employees will replicate your actions

This saga has given me a reason to go back to spending more time on X, the reports, rumors, and proclamations by so many make this a sure-fire candidate for a future Netflix documentary! ? The Hollywood deals are soon to be made!

Val News:

• Words That Work has been translated into Simplified Chinese learn more
• I have three new executive groups launching of The Wright Exchange Network in the coming weeks, contact me to learn more or sign up today?and secure your spot
• If you are an executive in transition or thinking about your next career move DM or comment with?CAREER MOVE?as I would love your advice on a new free?program I am considering launching
• If you know of a conference, event, or team who might want to explore booking me to speak reply with?LET'S TALK?as my 2024 & 2025 calendar is filling up rapidly You can find out my most popular topics?here

Where is Val for the rest of 2023?

• 11/28 - Opening Keynote - CIO Executive Summit NYC Evanta a Gartner Company
• 11/29 - Opening Keynote - CDAO Executive Summit NYC Evanta a Gartner Company
• 12/7 - Opening Keynote - CIO Executive Summit Boston Evanta a Gartner Company

Dedicated to growing your business, ?

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday:?

https://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/