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The CEO of TriNet talks about the importance of sticking to a vision, providing unique solutions, and prioritizing diversity. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Byline:<\/b><\/p>\n Kim Folsom<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is Part 2 of a two-part article featuring a conversation with Burton M. Goldfield, CEO of <\/span><\/i>TriNet<\/i><\/b> (NYSE: TNET). Read Part 1 here. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the second part of my conversation with Burton Goldfield, we covered topics like mentorship, innovation, getting funding, and diversity and inclusion. I hope you enjoy the many pearls of business wisdom he had to offer. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On mentorship and decision making<\/b><\/p>\n Mentorship is important. I hardly meet anyone who hasn\u2019t learned something from someone and doesn\u2019t want to pay it forward. But as a CEO, at the end of the day, the buck stops with you. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFirst and foremost, I love to get perspectives from a lot of different people,\u201d Burton said. \u201cAnd I have people that I respect just tremendously. But what I will say to you is that, at the end of the day, the hardest part of being a founder or being a leader is that you have to make the decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo, formal and informal mentors are really important,\u201d he continued. \u201cI try to help as many people as I can. You’ll always get a straight answer out of me. But at the end of the day, people who are starting and building and leading companies have to take all that input, and then sit down alone and make the decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Leveraging innovation to differentiate your offering<\/b><\/p>\n Over the years, customer expectations have changed. Burton said that in the past when customers submitted a question they might expect an answer in a week. Now, if they have a question and put it in the chatbot, you better answer them right away. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, incoming leads are looking for instantaneous answers on a website and the technology had better provide that. \u201cWhat we find is a large percentage of our net new customers come in because they searched us out through the web,\u201d Burton said. \u201cThey ask questions, or they find answers on the web that compel them to go further. That’s a warm prospect who is reaching out to you.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s far better than the old days of direct mail or spam marketing where the emails got in your email box, and most of them got swiped away before you ever looked at them to begin with. So, there is an inflection point for every business, where the buyer is in a position to really learn about what you have to offer, and that occurs in a split second. And frankly, it goes away very quickly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But from a go-to-market standpoint, technology is about the immediacy of answers. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When and how to take funding<\/b><\/p>\n When it comes to taking funding, Burton said he\u2019s a big Stephen Covey fan and cited \u201cBegin with the End in Mind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re trying to create an app, and you want to make three quarters of a million dollars and sell your app and go live on a desert island, I wouldn’t take any funding,\u201d he said. If you\u2019ve worked night and day and want to keep 100% of your company, hopefully you\u2019ll be successful and meet your vision or your dream. On the other hand, if you\u2019re trying to cure cancer, it\u2019s not a matter of if you\u2019re going to take funding but how many times you\u2019ll take it, whether it\u2019s five times, 10 times, or more. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you\u2019re going to take funding, the question becomes, who should you take funding from?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Burton sees it as a stepwise function, where at each stage, whether it\u2019s private or public funding, you\u2019re able to sell the next phase of the vision. For him that was always the same: have a meaningful impact on small and medium businesses with a unique product, and work with a great group of people.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s really as simple as surrounding myself with great people, having a big vision, and making sure that everybody believes as much as you do,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that means everybody who’s working with your clients, everybody who’s talking to your investors, everybody who is involved in building [your vision].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Integrating diversity and inclusion for business success<\/b><\/p>\n Burton has always been a very vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion strategies being integrated with key corporate strategies, so I asked him how he incorporates them. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been important to me to try to make a difference in the social fabric of what we are doing and impact not only our clients and make them successful, but the communities around those clients,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n