20VC: Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora on How to Create and Sustain Competitive Advantage and Defensibility | What Makes Masa Son a Genius Investor of Our Time | How the Best Leaders Communicate and Delegate

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nikesh Arora is the CEO @ Palo Alto Networks, the leading cybersecurity company in the world with a market cap of $102BN. Before joining Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh was the President and COO of SoftBank Group. Before that, he spent ten years at Google as a senior exec, and President of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before that Nikesh was CMO for the T-Mobile International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG. Nikesh serves on the board of Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A. Previously, he served on the boards of SoftBank, Sprint, Colgate-Palmolive Inc., Yahoo! Japan and Tipping Point.

In Today's Episode with Nikesh Arora We Discuss:

1. From Investing with Masa @ Softbank to CEO of Largest Cyber Company:

What are Nikesh's biggest lessons from working and investing with Masa @ Softbank?
What are Nikesh's biggest takeaways from 10 years at Google and working with Eric Schmidt?
What does Nikesh know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career?

2. What Makes the Most Valuable Businesses in the World:

How does Nikesh think about competition and monopolies?
How does Nikesh assess the idea of defensibility, moats and sustaining competitive advantages?
What are the most common reasons why incumbents are overtaken?
How have Palo Alto Networks been so successful in their M&A strategy?
What has worked in M&A? What has not worked? What is their process?

3. What Makes the Best Leaders in the World:

Does Nikesh agree that the best CEOs are the best resource allocators?
How do the best leaders communicate with large teams at scale?
How do the best leaders approach decision-making? What is Nikesh's framework?
How does Nikesh approach the idea of delegation? What does he delegate vs what does he not?

4. Behind the CEO: Nikesh Arora: Husband and Father:

How does Nikesh reflect on his own relationship to money today?
What are Nikesh's biggest lessons in what it takes to bring children up in a world of affluence and ensure they have hunger and ambition?
What are some of Nikesh's biggest lessons on parenting?
How does Nikesh reflect on what it takes to have a great marriage?

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you find a market where nobody owns us to build a product, you're either a genius or totally stupid. Competitor advantage lasts for about two to three years in any enterprise software business. Our view on acquisitions is we buy innovation, we buy a product, we buy it early. Because if you buy it later, you're paying multiples for revenue, which I don't believe in. I mean, if you look at Massa, he's one of the geniuses of our times, where he's one of
0:21.6	the very few people in the world. His risk appetite hasn't changed as he ages. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm so excited for the show's day. It is not often that you get to welcome the CEO of a $100 billion company to the hot seat. So a big day today. And Nikesh Aurora joins us in the hot seat.
0:37.9	Nikesh Aurora is the CEO of the largest cyber security company in the world, Palo Alto Networks,
0:43.7	with a market cap of $102 billion. Before joining Palo Alto Networks,
0:48.4	Nikesh was the president and CEO of SoftBank Group, and before that, Nikesh spent 10 years at Google
0:53.8	as a senior exec and president
0:56.0	of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This is an incredibly wide-ranging show discussing everything
1:00.9	from leadership, competitive advantage in business, to parenting and what it takes to have a great
1:06.2	marriage. So get the notebooks out. But before we dive into the show today, we're all trying to
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	...

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