News headlines with failing companies, layoffs and corporate greed, have left many aspiring entrepreneurs without hope. Silicon Valley legend and super successful businessman Maynard Webb is using his experience to mentor business owners and give back as an angel investor and philanthropist.
Webb uses his 30 years of technology industry experience to offer his expertise to business men and women in need of inspiration.
In case the name Maynard Webb seems unfamiliar, look no further than online retailer eBay. During his tenure as COO there, Webb helped eBay grow from $140 million to about $6 billion. Webb currently serves as a board member at Yahoo!, Salesforce.com and chairman of LiveOps. He also heads his own ventures that help new businesses succeed.
Most successful businessmen don’t give you a pass for failure but Webb does. In his blogs he notes that it’s a part of the process, as long as it does not happen too often. Webb is also an advocate of building strong teams in a business who can identify and solve problems.
“Developing a culture that can discern which problems have the potential to become huge is critical to developing high performance teams. And, you have to not only identify the issue that exists, but also the potential ramifications of that issue,” Webb said in his blog. “With this kind of attention on identifying and categorizing problems, it’s easy to turn your problems into opportunities to make your organization better.”
One of Maynard Webb's passions is helping people master their craft and enjoy their work. In early 2013 Maynard Webb spoke to a group of business professionals at the Silicon Valley Bank CEO Summit. In his speech he spoke to them about being successful in their work environment, problems and solutions for today's companies “Taking risk is great, you need to be bold. I would not think that's all you need to do. You also need to win,” Webb said. “I've come to believe that our traditional model for work isn't working. Company longevity is way down. Way back when … in the 1930's, average tenure for a company in the fortune 500 and the S&P 500 was 75 years. In 2009 the average tenure was 15 years. Having a job for life is pretty hard when your company doesn’t last that long. What disturbs me the most is that job satisfaction is at the lowest in 15 years … in an era where we have more flexibility and more choice.”
WEBB INVESTMENT NETWORK
Webb started the Webb Investment Network as a way of providing seed money to businesses struggling to get off the ground and cross the finish line to success. The organization not only provides money for the business, but a support system of resources, advices and resources to make it easier to grow and develop the business. The Webb Investment Network takes special interest in technology based companies. “I love someone that’s aiming big and trying to break something big” Webb said in a Bloomberg interview about finding great startups to invest in.
What makes the group successful is that Webb understands what it means to work his way up. As a young professional he started at IBM shortly after graduating from Florida Atlantic University. That job gave him his start in the tech world and led him down a path that led him to leadership at eBay. While Webb advanced to his position as COO at eBay, he became a master of problem solving.
“When I arrived at eBay people had convinced themselves that availability and scalability issues were okay as what we were doing was “hard” and hadn’t been done before.” Webb writes in his blog. “That’s not acceptable. Problems need to be solved, not supported. So what’s the process and path to fixing problems early? In addition to a lot of listening, I would ask teams to identify three things that were in their control to fix.”
WEBB FAMILY FOUNDATION
Webb and his wife Irene (who also works in the tech industry) are passionate about helping others. As a part of their passion for helping everyone reach their potential the Webb Family Foundation was created. Since 2004 the foundation has been a provider of high quality education for underprivileged youth and gives support to people working hard to change the world and make their dreams come true. The foundation receives millions in grants from non-profits that support youth organizations to support its initiatives. The Spark program, Silicon Valley Children’s fund, and Juma Ventures are among organizations that have provided the Webb foundation with grant funding for its programs.
REBOOTING WORK
As a way of reaching business and career driven people, Maynard Webb authored Rebooting Work: Transform how you work in the age of entrepreneurship ’, a New York Times bestselling book that uncovers the positive and negative mindset of people about work. Job dissatisfaction and high unemployment was a part of the inspiration for the book.
“I spent time thinking about what was wrong with work—I found a lot that was—and I began thinking about what it was that made people unsatisfied and how to solve for those issues,” Maynard Webb said in a statement about his book. “I would like people to become the CEO of their own destiny and achieve their dreams.”
Webb, known by many as a behind the scenes super executive, is putting himself upfront using his experience as a guide to understanding how people think and how they can change in Rebooting Work. His lessons teach people how to restart their career or business no matter what failures or obstacles may exist.
The different types of work mindsets Webb defines in Rebooting Work include Company man or woman, the CEO of destiny, disenchanted employee and the aspiring entrepreneur. In a section he calls “Framework” Webb outlines steps for success for each mindset. He not only recommends the steps for individuals operating in business but for business organizations to embrace his steps and advice.
“I love changing the world, I love watching teams accomplish something that they never thought they could and making it look easy,” Webb said. “It’s my hope that everybody would have a chance to chase their dreams and achieve them.”
