SaaStr 361: The 4 Phases of Company Growth & What Breaks At Each Stage, How To Instill Process with Scale Without Adding Barriers and What Great Change Management in a COVID World Looks Like with Lara Caimi, Chief Customer and Partner Officer @ ServiceNow
Lara Caimi, Chief Customer and Partner Officer @ ServiceNow, discusses the role of Chief Strategy Officer, the 4 phases of startup growth, instilling process without losing agility, and change management in a COVID world.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
From Bain To ServiceNow
Lara Caimi moved from 17 years at Bain to ServiceNow after a headhunter reached out about reporting to John Donahoe.
She joined as Chief Strategy Officer, later becoming Chief Customer and Partner Officer within the company.
insights INSIGHT
Four Phases Of SaaS Growth
Lara outlines four growth phases: 0–$100M, $100M–$1B, $1B–multi‑B, and scaling to $10B+ with ecosystem focus.
Phase three is the inflection where formal strategy and customer success become critical for enduring growth.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Introduce Process Without Bureaucracy
When introducing process at scale, define who has decision authority and teach meeting and program management skills.
Preserve growth culture by codifying values, running leadership development, and applying simple operational excellence.
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Lara Caimi is the Chief Customer and Partner Officer @ ServiceNow, the company that allows you the power to make work, work better. Prior to their IPO, ServiceNow raised funding from some of the best in the business including Sequoia Capital and Greylock. As for Lara, she joined ServiceNow in 2017 and spent 3 years as Chief Strategy Officer before assuming her current role just this month. Before ServiceNow Lara spent an incredible 17 years at Bain & Co across a variety of different projects and roles.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Lara made her way into the world of ServiceNow and SaaS having spent an incredible 17 years at Bain & Co?
What does the role of Chief Strategy Officer really entail? How did the role change in Lara's 3 years in the position? What is the optimal relationship between the Chief Strategy Officer and the CEO? How does Lara advise founders on when to hire their Chief Customer Officer?
How does Lara see the 4 phases of startup growth? What are the most challenging elements within each? How does one instil process and discipline without losing agility and speed? How does one set targets that are a stretch but also not a stretch too far? What is the right balance?
How does Lara think about what great change management looks like today? How does that change in a COVID world? How does Lara approach the right way to address enterprise customer communications? Why has that been made easier in COVID times?
Lara's 60 Second SaaStr:
What would Lara most like to change in the world of SaaS today?
What is the hardest element of Lara's role with ServiceNow today?
The biggest surprise for Lara internally since the start of COVID?
Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-361-with-servicenow-chief-customer-and-partner-officer-lara-caimi/
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