Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
Before Jamie Iannone became president and CEO of eBay in April 2020, he wrote a 10-page white paper for the board of directors, spelling out his ideas for reviving the online marketplace, which was facing pressure from an activist investor. But before rolling out his plans, he spoke to every top leader in the company and asked them the following questions:
- What three things need to change at eBay?
- What three things need to stay the same?
- What did they hope he’d do as CEO?
He says those conversations gave him a deep understanding of how to carry out his strategic plan while also evolving eBay’s culture. “If you can find it inside them, most companies have the answer,” he says, to finding the best path forward.
Feedback fuels ideas
Iannone’s thirst for feedback extends to the buyers and sellers who use eBay. He recalls, a few years ago, sitting next to two handbag sellers at a dinner. They felt constrained by limits on photos of their wares they could show—12 at the time. Potential buyers of vintage bags wanted to see every zipper or closure, linings, and more. His team figured out how to add photo capacity without dramatically increasing costs. At a subsequent eBay user conference, Iannone announced that the company would increase the photo limit to 24 images. “If you listen to your community, they’ll have all kinds of good ideas for what you need to do in this business,” he says.
Iannone believes happy buyers and sellers will increase activity on the platform and fuel eBay’s growth. For example, the company says word of mouth remains its biggest source of new business. That ethos helped drive several changes and new features he’s introduced to enhance trust, including postsale authentication services. (Earlier this month, the company said it would prohibit the sale of auto airbags and airbag inflators after reports of deaths involving counterfeit parts installed in used cars.)
Seizing secondhand opportunities
eBay, which earlier this year completed its acquisition of the secondhand fashion site Depop, has also been buoyed by surging interest in thrifting. The global secondhand apparel market is expected to reach nearly $300 billion this year, more than double the 2021 sales of $141 billion, according to research from ThredUp, an online consignment site.
The moves have paid off: eBay’s share price has nearly tripled since Iannone became chief executive, and the stock is up more than 20% this year, outperforming the broader market. Earlier this year, in a show of support for Iannone’s strategy, the eBay board voted to reject an unsolicited takeover offer by GameStop.
We’ve all encountered executives who can get defensive when questioned, so I asked Iannone how he manages to stay so open to customer and employee opinions. “It’s my philosophy that feedback really is a gift,” he says. “If people are super nice to me because I’m the CEO, and they didn’t tell me things, we’d be a much worse company, and I’d be much less effective as a leader.”
How do you seek feedback?
Iannone ended our conversation with a tip. He says he ends most meetings with employees, regardless of the person’s seniority, by asking: “What’s your advice for me?” How do you solicit feedback, and what changes have you implemented as a result of advice from an employee or a customer? Send your responses to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and we’ll publish the best anecdotes in a future newsletter.
Read more: the CEO listening tour
- “Customer obsession” is the new customer service
- Why do so many companies get customer service wrong?
- 3 ways companies can use customer service to stand out
