?? The Why of International, the Why of Your Career, and Remembering Susan Wojcicki

In business, it's extremely important to identify the "why." The goal behind the goal. The essence of why we're choosing to do a particular thing, versus something else. In this edition of Making Global Work, I'll discuss this topic from two angles: (1) the why of international and (2) the why of your career. I also share some words of advice this week from an important woman in tech who is no longer with us.

The Why Behind International Strategy in Business

When I ran International Ops and Strategy at HubSpot, we had a very clear "why" for our international business. We had a growth target to hit, globally. International was growing faster than our domestic business. Therefore, every dollar we invested in international would, logically, help us drive more growth from that part of the business that was naturally growing faster anyway, so we could hit our overall global target.

That said, even when your "why" is clear, it's extremely hard to drive growth for international, because of the very normal polarity you'll find in any business. Employees and leaders tend to focus on the country that drives most of your revenue, simply because those customers are the majority. And that makes sense! But it means it's so much harder to elevate the voices of international customers, when the majority (usually domestic customers or those from just one big market like the United States) drown out those minority voices.

International strategy can be a game-changer when companies get it right. But it's only possible for the international side of a business to make a real impact when the goal of the international business is squarely aligned with corporate strategy.

And yet, this topic sounds boring and fluffy. Whenever you use the word "strategy" people begin to yawn. I know a thing or two about it... it was part of my title for many years at a public tech company! ;-)

Strategy doesn't sound fun. It sounds like thinking versus action. And yet, the thinking behind our actions is so vital and important. If we get the thinking wrong, we could inadvertently ask a lot of people to take actions in ways that hurt a business, and people's careers, instead of helping them grow.

This topic is soooooo important that I have an entire chapter on this in my book, Take Your Company Global. In Chapter 2, I encourage readers to boldly ask, "Why do we think we need an international strategy?" This is incredibly important. Usually, you need an international strategy if and only if it will help you achieve a specific business or financial goal for your company.

For example, if you need to lower your cost basis to improve your profit margin, perhaps putting employees in a lower-cost market to help drive the same revenue is a way of doing that. If you need to accelerate growth, and international deals lead to faster sales cycles and higher revenue growth, perhaps you invest more in that part of the business, in favor of funding domestic growth.

But it makes no sense to even have an international strategy if it won't help you achieve some other strategic business goal for your overall business.

To me, international business is extremely important for one reason, no matter which business I'm in. I fundamentally believe that the best ideas, and therefore the best technology offerings, should not belong just to one part of the world. If they truly give customers an advantage, I want them to be accessible to customers everywhere, without geography being a barrier.

That's what I call global equity, and why I believe in building globally equitable businesses. It's an idealistic view, one that I truly believe in. But, it is not always realistic to strive for global equity, when a business is seeking mere survival or has a near-term financial goal to hit. As our co-founder and CTO at HubSpot Dharmesh Shah once joked with me, when we discussed using developed markets to fund entry in developing markets, you can end up with a "Robin Hood philosophy" to going global. ;-)

While we can appeal to a bigger vision of global access, the harsh truth is that a business cannot survive if its goals are overly altruisitic and out of step with financial realities. So, the sequencing of how you get there is extremely important. If focusing on international too early, or in the wrong doses, will hinder a business from achieving that bigger, longer-term vision, it simply does not make financial sense. And in some cases, I've seen companies make bad choices by investing too much, too soon, in the international side of their business - often before other key things are ready, such as product development, operational maturity, and so on. Timing is everything.

HubSpot co-founder and longtime CEO Brian Halligan wrote a great article for Harvard Business Review on this topic called The Art of Strategy is Knowing When to Say No. I recommend it to founders and business leaders often, because it so clearly illustrates why saying "no" is a powerful choice that enables other parts of your business to accelerate.

At HubSpot, for the nearly 8 years that I worked there, we made a habit of saying no. We did it, every year, operationalized as part of our annual planning. On top of outlining our strategy for the year ahead, we would intentionally state our "omissions" and the things we were not going to do. This was so important for ensuring we said no to the things that might have been great ideas... but that were simply not as important as other things were, in the context of helping us achieve our goals that year.

Saying no is a power move.

Because it clarifies your strategy.

And forces you to identify your "why."

The Why Behind Your Career Choices

Like many women in tech, I was shocked and saddened to learn this week of the death of Susan Wojcicki, an early pioneer at Google and YouTube. Many of us working in tech, myself included, have followed her life and career over the years.

As a mom of two daughters, I also enjoyed a book written by her mother, How to Raise Successful People, which gives glimpses into the very intentional strategies that her mother used when raising Susan and her equally impressive sisters.

Hearing of other people's deaths always makes us stop and think. Many of us during the pandemic faced this reality, as death tolls climbed before our very eyes. Some of us made big changes in our lives as a result.

But nothing makes you evaluate your own life choices like coming face to face with death yourself.

I wrote previously on LinkedIn about my experience of being abducted at gunpoint, and how hard it was for me to actually travel back to Latin America alone, even for something as exciting as launching our new local headquarters for HubSpot in Bogota.

I wrote about how fantastic it felt to know that I was still alive, and made it back home to my family and my two small kids again. That was truly one of the happiest days of my life.

What I didn't share was what was going through my head during the abduction itself:

"This can't be the end. I'm not done yet."

Of course I had thoughts about survival, logistics of escaping, and so on, but the one strongest thought I had was that I did not want my life to end yet, simply because I had more I wanted to do on this earth than what I had already done.

After being released from what was fortunately a very short period of being taken and held against my will, in true nerd fashion, my own form of therapy after the abduction was reading about how best to process that experience.

One thing I was curious about was, why did those particular thoughts go through my head? Was this normal? What did it mean? Was this what others thought too?

The more I read, the more I realized that the "final thoughts" people have before they die, or during a near-death experience, are simply a reflection of who they are and what they care most about.

For many people, "final thoughts" are in the vein of craving one last hug from a family member, to relive experiences from their past differently, or to have more time with others they care about. These general buckets of last thoughts or last words before dying are quite common.

My final thoughts were not in keeping with the typical categories of the majority of people.

• I didn't need one last hug - the ones I had up to that point were deeply appreciated, and already plenty for me.
• I didn't want to relive any past experiences - I savored them intensely enough and made sufficient memories when I went through them the first time.
• I didn't regret prior choices - those couldn't be relived so there was no point in thinking about rehashing those, for me anyway.

The overriding thought I had was not about past choices, or things that I would personally miss, but about future opportunities that would be missed, to make an impact on something bigger than myself.

The reason I am sharing this is because we're all different as humans. Respecting our differences, and not trying to force each other into buckets or profiles or patterns is important, because we never want to lose sight of what makes us individually special. I believe every person on earth has a unique value, and something special to contribute in t his world.

But that also means every person's "why" will be different.

Nothing forces clarity about your "why" like nearly having your life taken away from you.

Going through anything traumatic, such as losing a loved one, being diagnosed with a major illness, or losing a job you love has a similar effect, but less intense, on most people.

Living according to your own values and dreams and goals simply won't look the same for you as it will for someone else.

People might say well-meaning things like:

• "You should unplug more than you do"
• "Don't forget about work-life balance"
• "Life is short, make sure to relax"

I can see very clearly that folks who say these things are, with the best of intentions, applying their own view of what they think is right, or that leads to ultimate happiness for them, to the wrong person: me.

They cannot relate to my underlying motivations, and what makes me happy and fulfilled, simply, because they are not me.

Their underlying framework for deciding what's important is different.

Some people might want diverse experiences in their life or career.

Some people might want specific experiences, in greater doses.

Some people might want more of one thing, less of another.

And some of us want to deeply focus on a smaller set of different things, with a greater intensity than the majority of people do.

Those differences come out pretty clearly in the form of "final thoughts" on this earth, and what drives those thoughts is fundamentally linked to the person who thinks them.

So, as you think about your career, and the choices you make, as well as the things you say "no" to that ultimately define your strategy and thus your outcomes, I simply encourage you to stay true to who you are.

I know that sounds easier than it is in practice.

But if you're having a hard time figuring that out, life has a way of bringing us challenges, routinely, forcing us to do it anyway.

In Memoriam

I am skipping my Grace Notes this week in favor of a memorialization instead.

What many people don't know about Susan Wojcicki is that she was a mom of five kids, pictured here with 2 of them. This is one of very few publicized photos of her with her children, as she chose to mostly keep their identities protected from the public.

I relate to this photo, as I'm sure many other moms do. I relate to having kids this age, making memories, and relishing my down time with them. But I also relate to being driven, caring deeply about my work, and the incredible feeling you get from knowing that you're helping to build something bigger.

Susan had her 5th child at age 46, in the height of running a global tech company. She shared more about being a working mom of four kids, pregnant with her 5th, in this article. She was an outspoken advocate for paid maternity leave.

Earlier this year, while she was undergoing a two-year battle with cancer, her college-aged son died of a tragic drug overdose. Experts on loss and grief say that losing a child right before they reach adulthood is the worst type of grief that any parent can experience.

As a mother, I can only imagine how hard it must have been for her to live through that emotional pain, having his death so visible in the public eye and the media, while also fighting her own physical health battle.

That sort of pain is unimaginable for me, for most of us.

Here are some quotes from Susan:

Your kids get something from your career, and your career will get something from your kids. - Susan Wojcicki

It's important for me to show my children the richness of life and be a role model. I find that my organizational and management skills are tested more at home than at work! - Susan Wojcick

Having a child is a big life change, but the really hectic period is relatively short. You can get through it. - Susan Wojcicki

I've been, like, the mom of Google. - Susan Wojcicki

I don't feel like I'm a perfect mom, and then there are times at work where I feel like maybe I wasn't perfect here because of constraints on my time. But having the sum of both of those things going on in my life makes me a better mom at the end of the day, and I think gives me really important perspectives in the workplace as well. - Susan Wojcicki

Even though it was a start-up with fewer than 20 people, and I was pregnant with my first child, the best decision I've ever made was to join Google in 1999. Worst decision? Deciding to get a puppy and a bunny right when the baby came. - Susan Wojcicki

With this mix of quotes, I hope we can remember Susan not just as a pioneering woman in tech, but as a mom, and as a multi-dimensional person who had feelings none of us will ever fully understand, along with interests, hobbies, and relationships far above and beyond the scope of people who simply knew her in the work dimension.

She surely had her own unique "why" along the way that helped define her life and the impact she made in all aspects of it, just as all of us do.

I hope learning a bit more about her gives you something to reflect on, as you consider your own "why" too.

Bonus reading: Check out this excellent post from Carilu Dietrich . Her newsletter is another great one to subscribe to if you're in marketing, SaaS, or GTM!

Have a great week ahead everyone, and thank you for reading this edition!

Nataly