Chairman of the Board (former CEO), Five9, Inc.
How Five9 is Rewriting Customer Experience with People + AI
Why Did Mike Burkland Return as Five9 CEO? In this exclusive CX Summit interview, Wendy Nicole Colley sits down with Mike ...
Transcript (13 segments)
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Winnie Nooi0:00
Hey guys, it's Winnie Nooi, the contact center whisperer, CEO and founder of Solid Rock Consulting. I'm here at the 59 CX Summit in Vegas with Mike Burkland. Drum roll. Hey guys, listen. Y'all know I'm a data nerd and 88% of you watching are not subscribed to the channel. If you're finding value in this content, could you subscribe? It allows us to continue adding insights on customer experience, employee experience, business profitability, and workforce management. Thank you so much. You are truly valued. That's my imaginary drum roll.
Mike, I am so excited to sit down with you. This morning you kicked us off, shared your mission and vision for Five9 and your why. You talked about being a second-time CEO and the return. Tell us about that – why you left and why you came back.
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Mike Burkland1:08
Yeah, first of all, to clarify, I never really left. I became chairman of the board when I got stage four cancer in 2017 and stayed very close to the business and the team. Recently, my doctors gave me a very good long-term prognosis, allowing me to get back to doing what I love. There were four main reasons. Number one: I believe strongly in this team at Five9. We have a unique culture, amazing people, and exciting technology to change customer experience. I believe in the market opportunity: cloud contact center and CX replacing legacy systems, a 10 to 15 year runway. And the fourth reason is that I care. I've run this company for 10 years and been chairman for five. This company is like our fourth child. I care about the people, customers, partners, analysts, influencers. That's why I came back.
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Winnie Nooi2:33
I have a question for you. I know the audience is burning to ask this. When you move from CEO to chairman, how does your day-to-day capacity and impact on the business change?
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Mike Burkland2:48
Oh, it was dramatic. A CEO runs the company day-to-day; a chairman runs the board. Completely different. I was an executive chairman for the first two years, much more hands-on. Even as chairman, I stayed involved because of my history and the leadership team wanted my input, but it's nowhere near the CEO's day-to-day involvement.
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Winnie Nooi3:29
You talk a lot about the power of people in technology. How do those two pair together, and how do you personally connect with that?
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Mike Burkland3:40
Oh my goodness, that's a long topic. People in technology – we're a technology company providing cloud software for contact centers and great customer experiences. Unlike the old days of shipping software, this is SaaS. That 'as a service' means we earn our customers' business every day. We are an extension of their team. Because of that, the power of people becomes more important. It's not just technology; enterprise customers choose us for our people too, because we're an extension of their team and we have to execute.
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Winnie Nooi4:37
I resonate deeply with that. As CEO of Solid Rock Consulting, we deliver professional services, training, workforce management, managed services. It's the people that create stickiness for us and our customers.
One last question – I'll talk to you all day. All right, I'm happy to do it too. Last question: For other CEOs or entrepreneurs out there, what one piece of advice would you give to take their business from wherever they are, ideation or already successful, to the next level?
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Mike Burkland5:15
Yeah, the one thing is be yourself and be a leader. My definition of a leader is simple: a person that people want to follow. Your job as a leader is to help the people you've brought onto your team succeed. If you take that approach, it's an obligation and a duty, but I love it – that's what I live for. That's the number one piece of advice: keep that in mind. That's the real job of a CEO.
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Winnie Nooi6:11
That's amazing. I have an acronym for CEO: Create opportunities, Equip others, take extreme Ownership. Sometimes that looks like obsession – being so obsessed with creating opportunities and equipping others that people know you care. I absolutely love that. One last question for real: What is the thing that is really exciting you right now about where you are in the Five9 journey?
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Mike Burkland6:55
Oh my goodness. We are in a unique situation in our market. The importance of CX is not one thing but three or four things coming together – a perfect storm. Customer experience is becoming mission-critical for every enterprise. It's no longer a cost center; it's about improving CX. Digital transformation, the shift to the cloud, and AI – this revolution we're living in. It's taken the world by storm. The overall market opportunity is the most exciting part, and we have the team and technology to go conquer it.
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Winnie Nooi7:44
Well, thank you so much for sitting down with me. I really appreciate it. Thank you. All right, y'all. Another executive exclusive here first. See y'all soon.