Turning to Nature for Inspiration

Another word we hear a lot about now, especially true for CEOs, is versatility, especially since the pandemic. We know that you have to be more agile and more versatile than ever. How has your experience running Coupa changed your understanding of adaptability in the workplace?

It’s interesting. It’s one thing to have a vision of where you want to be. And it’s another thing to execute on a daily basis, but to your point, the third thing is to be able to navigate the challenges on that daily, weekly, monthly basis. And resilience gives you that, right? Resilience is this opportunity to sort of absorb negative news and see the positive that it may lead to because it’s pushing you in a different direction. And just to be open to where the world is kind of pushing you while still staying oriented toward the outcome that you want to reach. I mean, you see that in nature, right? You see that in plants, with trees or whatnot. I always looked at them, you know, metaphors in nature as a way to kind of try to navigate my own approach to things.