Here's what LinkedIn's CEO said to motivate employees after his company's stock was slashed by 40% (LNKD)
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When LinkedIn's stock nose-dived last week after earnings, even its CFO admitted that he was "pretty surprised" by its skid.
The social network for professionals lost more than 40% of its value in one day, slicing $10 billion off its market cap.
At an all-hands meeting last week, LinkedIn's CEO, Jeff Weiner, tried to reassure employees and remind them that's it not about whether or not you'll experience this issue, but how you get through it.
Weiner said:
We are the same company we were the day before our earnings announcement. I'm the same CEO I was the day before our earnings announcement. You're the same team you were the day before our earnings announcement. And most importantly, we have the same mission, vision, and sense of purpose in terms of our ability to create economic opportunity. None of that has changed. It hasn't changed one iota.
But what did excite Weiner was the World Economic Forum report that showed that 5 million jobs would be displaced by emerging technologies by 2020. Innovation is moving too fast and outstripping the ability to train people for the jobs that will be here in the future, he said, summarizing the report.
"Does that sound familiar to anyone?" he said with a smile. "It should, because that's been our narrative for years."
Weiner believes that LinkedIn's role will be helping people in the workforce keep up with innovation, and hinted at a new holistic plan for the company to do it. While the video of the meeting, released by LinkedIn, cut off before that plan was revealed, Weiner said if the company executes on it, "our valuation will take care of itself."