Last night there were only two dinners worth be
ing invited to in London. I was most privileged to get an invite to the second – dinner with Sheryl Sandberg – the COO of Facebook . The dinner was organised after Sandberg’s presentation to the eG8 in Paris and to the LSE. I was asked to observe ‘Chatham House rules” as the terms of my dinner nvite. Ben Rooney (WSJ) wrote a very good review of Sandberg’s LSE speech – The discreet charm of Sheryl Sandberg. Rooney – a pretty hard-bitten journalist – writes “it was impossible not to ever so slightly fall in love with her”. I felt the same – perhaps even more so. Every email I have had from other dinner guests used the word “amazing”. She was just that.
I have long been interested in how a young man like Mark Zuckerberg ,in his early 20s, can build a company like Facebook and resist the temptation to sell – not for millions but for billions. Otherwise sensible people are now suggesting valuations of $100b+ for Facebook. But I think last night I really ‘got’ a measure of the strength of Zuckerberg. Here was a guy in his early 20s recruiting a 40 year woman to be his COO. Not just any COO but a COO with experience (Sandberg had a pretty senior role in Google) and attributes that clearly Zuckerberg lacks. The very best leaders are always capable of recruiting people even brighter than themselves. So my respect for Zuckerberg was greatly increased.
A few years ago I wrote of Zuckerberg’s stated objective to get everyone in the world onto Facebook. Sandberg repeats this as an objective to “Connect the World”. A few years ago that might have seemed laughable. Now it seems quite feasible! It’s interesting that the last official update of the number of Facebook users was last August when they passed 500m. Maybe they are waiting to announce another major milestone?
Sandberg quotes many examples of how these connections are to the benefit of mankind – eg the Arab Spring. Commercially there were many last night – in particular the senior representatives of the big companies that were promoting their products on Facebook – that agreed.
I already had little doubt that Facebook would be THE major force in our sector in the next period. Indeed, readers know that Facebook is the closest thing to Holway’s MyTop around – and with every new announcement that gets closer still. But, after last night, I realised that Facebook wasn’t just a startup run by a young college guy that we all seem to think we know from watching The Social Network. This is a company with one of the most impressive COOs I have ever met. It bodes rather well for the future of Facebook – and possibly for our sector as a whole.