About Mike Olson
Mike Olson, co-founder and former CEO of Cloudera, has been speaking publicly about the role and responsibilities of corporate boards of directors, drawing on his experience as a founder and investor. In a December 2023 talk at Monktoberfest, Olson described a board of directors as an "adjunct leadership team" whose primary responsibilities are strategic, while management handles tactics. He advised that founders should seek board members they like and trust, noting that a good board can be a major asset and a bad board a major drag. Olson also emphasized the importance of directors and officers insurance and recommended quarterly meetings as often enough, with the ability to convene the board as needed.
In earlier appearances, Olson discussed the evolution of big data, cloud computing, and data privacy. He described Cloudera as the first company focused on big data for the enterprise, adapting technologies from consumer internet companies for use by banks, hospitals, and insurance companies. Olson has argued that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe will be followed by similar privacy legislation in the United States, and that organizations should secure their data, set policies, and monitor compliance regardless of where data is stored. He has also expressed concern about large companies losing sight of their consumers, stating that businesses should aim for mutually beneficial, long-term relationships rather than simply extracting value.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Mike Olson's recent appearances.
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Transcript (5 segments)
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Steve Brown0:02
We are, where we've got humans coming in and experiencing whatever our platform is just like if they walked into your store, there's a virtual representation of your store or your office, whatever it is. And yet they're humans, and that brain is in play. But here's the problem, the trap is being too logical and too consumed with the analytics and the data, where it takes you into an anti-human mindset. Yeah, you could be actually leading or misleading the expectations of the data and totally overlook what is human, what the brain in the name and hopes and dreams and a family is needing from you in that moment. Yeah.
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Mike Olson0:56
I, you know, it's funny, as you say that, I actually find that to be even far more the province of the big company. The large company tends to lose track of who their consumer is. We tend to lose track of that part of the equation. They've become the 800-pound gorilla more often than not to the point of just basically saying, here's my thing, take it or not, you know, because they've graduated to a point that conversion at a much smaller level still makes their business roll. They can think about bigger, broader things that way. I tend to find that small businesses that at least have gotten to a point past sole proprietorship, even when you're getting into that five or 10 range, nine times out of 10, those are the folks that really understand their consumer, and they really understand their consumer base. They may not know how to have that conversation with them. That's a very different animal, mate. But they know what they're looking for. They know who their core audience is. Sometimes it's that 20 to 50, it's that 20 to 100 that gets to be a challenge, because you know who your core audience is, that they're only big enough to get you to. Now I need 20 bodies to run this, if you want to be a business that needs 100 bodies to run it. Sometimes you've got to go out and then find those other audiences who need your offering and just don't know it yet. And that's where it gets. That's where all this comes in.
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Steve Brown2:34
I would argue there's this tipping point in organization. When it gets a certain size, it stops seeing people that are buying their products, or appreciating what they do, or really drawn to them, and stops seeing them as humans, and starts to put this consumer costume on it, which covers their things. And so make some faceless, nameless credit. They have credit cards that we, how are we going to exploit this potential consumer? And that's where it gets off the rails. And I think that's where marketing is broken.
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Mike Olson3:16
I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. I think so many times in that particular aspect, you start really rooting around for how do I squeeze one more dime out of this consumer? How do I get one more something, one more month subscription, out of this consumer? Part of the reason that I was happy to step out and start moving into being able to do this as a consultative effort is because you find yourself in too many conversations with too many C-level folks and legal concern saying, how close to this line can we actually get in our conversation? And once you're thinking in that regard, I think you've lost sight of your consumer. To exactly your point, you've pulled this mask over them. And it doesn't just change your relationship with them from how much you know them. It changes your relationship with them from how you think of them, that they're not that human being anymore. They're just the person that you're squeezing that one more little drop of blood out of. And I'll tell you, the folks that I think are always doing it best are the ones that are not that short-sighted, are the ones that understand that this has to be a mutually beneficial something between us for it to be long-lasting, for it to be something that long term, you have faith and trust in me.
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Steve Brown4:58
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