Dan Streetman

Chief Executive Officer at TIBCO

"Vision is supported by the culture you create, the training you do, the skill sets you build. The people, processes, and culture aspects all go into making sure you do that. That's what gives any leader confidence that they can rise through a challenging situation. It's how you build a vision that everybody can understand, a culture, and then the people, processes, and systems that can do that."

Summary

In this episode of Leadership Matters, Alan and his good friend Dan Streetman, CEO of TIBCO, explore how vision, culture, and attunement are essential qualities of a good leader.

As a graduate of West Point, Dan grew up with a passion and respect for service, which he attributes to his parents. Following graduation, Dan went on to serve as an infantry officer and Airborne Ranger, where he learned the power of due diligence.

After starting a career in software and tech, Dan would go on to pause his career to serve a tour of duty in 2008 in Iraq, during which he was awarded a bronze star and the MacArthur Leadership Award. Later, he would go on to serve as CEO of TIBCO, arriving at the organization in March 2019.

Mentions & Resources in this Episode

• Admiral Jim Stavridi- click here to learn more about Admiral Jim Stavridi

• BMC Software- click here to learn more about BMC Software

• John Abizaid- click here to learn more about John Abizaid

• Tom Siebel- click here to hear Tom’s episode of Leadership Matters

• Marc Benioff- click here to learn more about Marc Benioff

• To Sell Is Human- click here to learn more about Daniel Pink’s book

• General Joe Riccardi- click here to learn more about General Joe Riccardi

Guest Bio

Dan Streetman is the Chief Executive Officer of TIBCO. Dan is an expert at leveraging real-time data to enable faster, smarter decisions. Prior to leading TIBCO, Dan helped propel significant data-driven transformations, most recently at BMC, Salesforce, and C3.ai. He is a strong advocate for creating cultures of collaboration, and he honed his leadership skills as a U.S. Army officer, serving in combat operations and receiving decorations including the Bronze Star. He actively advocates for veterans and serves on several non-profit boards supporting education and employment. Dan is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School.

Follow Dan on Facebook, Twitter (@dan_streetman), or LinkedIn.

Clips from This Episode

• "We'll continue to make the world a better place, as long as we're thoughtful about it!"

• On the challenge of making necessary personal contact during this COVID-19 Pandemic

• How TIBCO is working for the common good, especially during The COVID-19 Pandemic

• “This COVID-19 crisis has, hopefully, made us appreciative & aware.”

Episode Transcription

Alan Fleischmann 

Welcome, you are on Leadership Matters on Sirius XM. I'm your host, Alan Fleischmann. I'm here today with the CEO of TIBCO. Who's a very good friend of mine, Dan Streetman. And we're going to talk a lot about leadership, his insights during this COVID 19 pandemic, what he's doing with his leading company, and also his experiences throughout his career. You know, TIBCO is one of the most prominent data analytics companies out of Silicon Valley. It's global. Almost everyone has interacted with TIBCO's products and services, whether they know it or not, you're gonna learn about that today. For more than 20 years, TIBCO software has powered operations like banks and financial markets, airlines, airports, telecommunications, just to name a few. Dan became CEO of TIBCO in March of 2019 and has focused his work at the center of the data revolution shaping our society and economy. His company has played an important role in fighting the current pandemic, which is something I'm looking forward to discussing with Dan today. He's a West Point graduate, who served as an infantry officer and Airborne Ranger. He later interrupted his software career to be deployed in Iraq as a strategist for the commanding general of all the operational forces. He's actively involved in Veteran Affairs, causes and other things to support our veterans, each and every day. He is a longtime advocate of digital transformations, he led global Field Operations at BMC Software before he came to TIBCO. And he really put BMC on a new platform, as a leader in multi-cloud management. And he previously served in senior roles in leading software companies such as Salesforce, and C3, among others. So I am very excited that you're here today, Dan. There are many things that I know we're going to talk about. But when I think of you, you're one of these extraordinarily humble people. You lead by example. It's hard to get you talking about yourself. You're always game to talk about others. And I guess that's one of the secrets to your leadership. But as you know, for this show, we really want to get to a place where we can get some of the great examples of leaders to share not only how they lead, but also what they expect from others as they lead. And then those obviously, who influenced them along the way. So welcome.

Dan Streetman 

Well, hey, thanks, Alan. I'm a big fan of Leadership Matters, your podcast. I'm clearly a fan of what it intended at first, and I really enjoyed listening to some of your past ones. It's a real honor and pleasure to be here. And I will tell you, yes, it'll be a challenge. I love talking about concepts. And the more we can do about that, and the team around us, the better. I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to be part of the team at TIBCO. We have a tremendous heritage of serving our customers. And it's really fun and exciting to help lead the organization on to this next phase. But again, it's all part of being in a really powerful team with a great background and a great vision.

Alan Fleischmann 

Yeah, I want to get into I'm going to get into TIBCO's work because it really is important not only in the transformational work that you do but also in how you, as a company, have been leading through the pandemic. Before we do, though, I want our listenership to get a sense of your values. And frankly, your background a little bit, you know. I mentioned that you're an army veteran, you were deployed to nine different countries have I'm not mistaken, including a tour of duty in 2008 in Iraq. And during your service, you want a bronze star and the MacArthur Leadership Award. Knowing you, we will not talk about these awards you got. But it does go to officers who demonstrate the ideals of duty, honor, and country. So first of all, I always want to say thank you, because I think your example of service and those who have served with you, that have served before you, my father included, and then those who follow you are really our heroes, and many of them are never household names. And the fact that they serve to protect and do right by the values that we clearly need to build on in our country and globally is something that we're all very grateful.

Dan Streetman 

Well, thanks, Alan. Now look, on behalf of those who've done so much more, I'll accept to be grateful for your sentiment, including your father, who had a very, very interesting background during World War Two and a tremendous impact on who our country is. And as you all are sisters and brothers who served. And of course, clearly, right, that is not just in military uniform, that is in intelligence that is in our front lines and our first responders. Anyone who has the call to something greater than themselves, we should always make the effort to be thankful for and grateful for and—so your sentiment is well appreciated. I not for me, but for all of those sisters and brothers that I appreciate.

Alan Fleischmann 

Thank you. You know, when you think about the armed services, there's a very specific structure, philosophy around leadership, certainly around the chain of command. I tell us a little bit about that. And I'm curious, you know, knowing you and talking to you about your leadership and the way you lead in the private sector and private industry, you draw on a lot that you knew and observed lead and also learned from in the military. So I'm curious when you compare the leadership in the military with your experiences as a CEO in the private sector, how are they similar? And how are they different?

Dan Streetman 

Well, first that, you know, you learned a lot of great lessons going to West Point. And the first one was probably the power of due diligence. I had tremendous mentors and wonderful parents. My father was very involved in his community as a county commissioner. He ran a small business and, you know, clearly, you know, set a great foundation for what I saw in leadership. I don't think there was an evening where my mother wasn't at a volunteer event, whether that was PTA or other. She made a lot of casseroles and used the crockpot a lot.

Alan Fleischmann 

Where did you grow up, actually, Dan?

Dan Streetman 

I grew up in Orlando, Florida. So as Admiral Jim Stavridis, is one of my mentors likes to say, you know, he calls himself Admiral Florida Man. I try not to tie too deeply to those roots. My parents are still there. I haven't had the opportunity to live there since I left West Point. But my parents are great role models. I also had, you know, speaking of power mentorship, a phenomenal role model in my wrestling coach, a gentleman named Kevin Carpenter. And he was all about winning, was all about putting in the effort, but always about doing it with integrity, and always about doing it as part of a team. And so when you have those surroundings and those foundations, the first time to go visit West Point, and I happen to do it on a spring day in April, and the entire corps of cadets is out running. And I'm thinking, this is exactly what I love. It's all about service. It's about fitness, it's about being prepared. But I didn't really realize it was like the first warm day of the year. Friday is their only day off and they're essentially all-out running because they're afraid they're going to fail the physical fitness test two weeks later. So, you know, essentially, with that much due diligence, I chose that's where I was going to go as a sophomore in high school. I put in the effort to be there. And it really was a great learning experience. And I think to me, the phenomenal and most important piece I learned was, one thing you have to do at West Point is learn what they call plebe knowledge. And this knowledge sticks with you forever. And one that's always stuck with me, was from my general John Schofield. And so general John Schofield was a West Point graduate, he served in the Civil War, fought for the union became the superintendent of West Point in 1876. So essentially 100 years after the founding of our country. And he basically wrote something, which is a very long piece, which we all have to memorize. And it starts like this, says, "The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army." And he goes on eloquently in, you know, five more sentences, which we all had to memorize and essentially said, you know, treat others as you would have them treat you. And to me, that's the foundational thing that I learned at the Military Academy, which was, how do I make sure that I'm always putting the organization’s needs first? And how do I do that with integrity? And if you bring integrity and teamwork to everything you do, you set that foundation, and that's something that I really enjoyed out of the military. And I think it's surprising to many people. Most of people's images that you see in the military are either in the intensity of combat, or right, the classic basic training view. And absolutely, during our initial training, and at Ranger School, and in conflict, you know, there's Yes, a lot of yelling and a lot of high stress, but so much of it is around the leadership bonds you build with your organization before them. And so to me, you know, bringing integrity and teamwork to everything you do is the biggest thing I learned from my time in the military that clearly cascades on. I've come on to—

Dan Streetman 

By the way, going into West Point, was that a—you know, you grew up with these two parents who obviously showed you service was everything and were active in their community. Did you know you wanted to go in the military when you said West Point? Or was it just because it's such an exceptional place to study? And you knew, okay, I'm going to go there. Or did you? When did you really have that awakening, I guess? The awakening literally was I—we went to visit, we were you know, on our way to New York to do a family vacation, and we did a side trip to West Point. And I became, you know, very impressed first with, right, you know, the focus and the intensity of the cadets that, you know, young women and men were very focused on that. And I love the idea of service. And so to me, those two things came together. It was less around, you know, weaponry and that than the idea of service. Clearly, you begin to understand it, and it's a very exciting place to be. It was an interesting time to be at West Point too. So I, you know, graduated in 86. Kind of what you would think of as almost the peak of the Cold War. In many ways, it felt like that to us, anyways, high schoolers. When I graduated, The Berlin Wall had fallen. So it was a completely dynamic change, where what you think the world is going to be like is different. And that's one thing I also took away from that time is, you know, never be confident that you can tell the future. That one thing constant is going to be changed and be ready for that.

Alan Fleischmann 

Which is a very hard thing for most people to learn. In fact, we're dealing with this uncertainty now, during the pandemic, which we'll come back to. Because that obviously, is something I'm sure that experience lends great value to those, especially young people right now, who think they know where things are and kind of things are set up and not used to that kind of change.

Dan Streetman 

Well, yeah, it I mean, it's exactly right. Like this, you know, one thing that I believe really carries forward particularly at times like this is you need to be prepared, right, for the black swans. Prepare for the unexpected. Again, that my story is really a story of great mentors who did great jobs building teams. My first commander when I left West Point was a paratrooper—was a gentleman named John Abizaid. JohnAbizaid is now the ambassador to Saudi Arabia. So you can imagine the high stress and the teamwork and the intensity, you know, John has day in and day out after retiring as a four-star general. And we would go into the most intense planning cycles, we were burning the midnight oil, we would brief him on what the operation was going to look like in training. And he did a phenomenal job, or at the end of giving us feedback and making us go back and revise the plan. And when it came time to execute the plan, he changed it all again.

Alan Fleischmann 

Like a great General Eisenhower quote, right.

Dan Streetman 

That's right. You know, all plans are useless, but planning is essential.

Alan Fleischmann 

Yeah, exactly.

Dan Streetman 

And so in this world, right, we, you know, it took the quote, many people, no one could have planned for this. But in our planning, and in the steps we take in our culture, you set yourselves up to be as successful as you can be, and to support your organization in times like this.

Alan Fleischmann 

The other thing, I guess, is that, you know, you've dealt with us obviously, so often when you were in the military, but almost everything is uncertain to that point. I mean, you don't really know but you're being led by people who exude confidence. And it's not make-believe confidence. They're confident that they have the A-team to move forward and to deal with anything that's coming at them. For you as a CEO, I imagine right now, especially in this zoom world we live in right now, where, you know, people are uncertain. They don't know where, you know, where tomorrow will lead them. Looking to you must be another moment where you're drawing from that, right? Where you're, you know that your optimism, your confidence, your honesty, I guess, about where we are probably matters more than ever.

Dan Streetman 

Yeah, well, man, I think it all starts from the, you know, vision. So, you know, I'll eventually spell out why I say leadership is vital with those five letters. And vision is the beginning piece. In the military, we call it the commander's intent. And the idea is, before every operation in the operations, or whatever the planning you did, you'd have the most important paragraph, which was the commander's intent. And the idea was, the plan was always going to change. What you did in each step was going to change. But as long as you understood the vision, you could get to the other side. Now, vision is supported by, right, the culture you create, the training you do, the skill sets you build, right. The people processes and culture aspect, all go into making sure you do that. And that's what gives any leader confidence that they can rise through a challenging situation. It's how do I build a vision that everybody can understand, a culture that supports that, and then the people processes and systems that could do that? And I'm very confident with what clearly TIBCO has built over time, we drink our own champagne in our software, but it comes back to the culture that we've reinforced and built, which I think has prepared us to be helpful in a time like this.

Alan Fleischmann 

You know, people talk about if you—if there was ever a time to be in technology, this would be the time. If there's ever a time to want to be in software, this would be the time. So you're leading a company that is much more indispensable than people realize. So as we're talking about leadership, but maybe it would be good for people to hear a little bit about what is TIBCO? In a way that would actually have them understand and why it is so indispensable. I'm stunned by—I've heard first-party folks talk about when they're part of the TIBCO family using typical software, what transformation has occurred. And I love for our listeners to hear a little bit more about what TIBCO does. So we could feed a baby and we'll go into some of the stuff.

Dan Streetman 

Yeah, sure. So essentially, right, any organization that's dealing with complex data challenges, it is generally using TIBCO. We're in 21 of the 25 Fortune 500 companies. What we essentially help all of our customers do is first and foremost connect everything in their enterprise? How do they integrate their systems, their people, or the data they've got in different places? The second is how do you unify your view of that data? So how do you manage the data? Knowing you can't all get it in one place ever again. But how do you know where it is? So we call that Unify. And then finally, once you're able to connect to everything, to unify your view of that data, then you can predict and make confident decisions around what's likely to happen. As we said, all models are wrong, but they're all useful. We use data science and machine learning embedded into our visual analytics tools. The most popular one is called Spotfire. And we use TIBCO data science to help people then see now that I have this data now that I can understand its management, what do I do? What's the next best, most likely action that will happen? And then what action should I take? In the end, we call it we help our customers and organizations make right, faster, smarter decisions.

Alan Fleischmann 

So, in essence, you're using—you're developing and designing the tools that help leaders lead, in essence as well, when you think about it, they're making big, big, major decisions, whether they're a growing enterprise or one, or a vast enterprise that lives and breathes on data, how do they actually interpret it? Right?

Dan Streetman 

Yeah, another, you know, another great mentor, Stan McChrystal calls it, right, shared consciousness. The military term of situational awareness. And, you know, we've, for a long time, talked about that as the power of now, right. Our founder Vivek Ranadivé wrote a great book about that aspect of it. And first and foremost, until you have, right, all your sensors in place, and you have that data coming, it's very difficult to have that awareness. And then how do you push that down, right, to the most important pieces of your organization, so that the decisions can be made quickly at the right point in time, right? This isn't about centralizing a view of the world. It's about empowering people right on the front lines of everywhere to make the right decisions and giving that data. And we've been working to do that very clearly with our public dashboards around COVID-19. But it's something we've been doing for our customers, as you said, for over two decades. And I've heard stories and they're out there. You probably don't share stories about your, you know, clients, customers. But I know, for example, there are airports out there that were ranked among the least effective, least efficient airports in the world. And then once they got partnered with TIBCO, they created extraordinary efficiency. To the point that they were ranked among the very best in the world. So airports are a great example of a place where TIBCO really is a great partner. Aeroporti di Roma is the example you're talking about. It's, you know, two airports in Rome, that are, you know, work together. And if you think about multiple stakeholders, lots of things moving, people, processes, you, you know, obviously want to optimize the experience there. And it's going to be very different in this new world. We help them become, essentially, the most well-regarded airport in Europe from a customer experience perspective, by doing exactly that. They have to connect to all the systems, as well as their stakeholders. They have to unify their view of the data and then make, you know, smarter, faster decisions that cascade not just within the organization, but the stakeholders in an ecosystem. It's a really great example of what we like to call better together. And that's really what TIBCO helps make happen.

Alan Fleischmann 

In your background, you know, you've been in and out and living and working in senior leadership roles in Silicon Valley. So you coming in as CEO, I imagine, you're surrounded by a lot of people who speak the language of data. And you spoke the language of leadership, in a way, based on your background, and then, you know, in the military, but certainly your background also, in your prior companies that you worked with. Has that been an easy marriage? Or is that—I imagine that it's a necessary marriage?

Dan Streetman 

So clearly, there's—in any, you know, as you move from a discipline to another, we're here now, right, you know, medical doctors will be very, you know, clear to say they're different from epidemiologists, right. And so we all have our levels of specialty. But the key thing that brings it back together is a vision, right, is the integrity and teamwork you bring. And so I think that's been something I've been lucky to be exposed to as well here. My first role out of business school was to work with Tom Siebel, who was a phenomenal mentor and certainly understands the power of commander's intent and vision, founded Siebel systems, right, the very first really global scale CRM implementations in the world and helped them see that. I was lucky enough as well to stay, continue working on industry and work for Marc Benioff, who, you know, obviously has a great way of sharing his vision, but also as a vision for what it means to be involved in communities, right, around the world and to be involved in things that are meaningful, beyond, right, just the organization. So those were two great mentors which helped me see I can absolutely hold true to the values that I thought were important to me in military service, and bring that into the corporate world. I think that this idea of, right, bringing our ESG values or social values into what we do day in day out as organizations is powerful, and clearly, the technology that exists now can be brought to bear responsibly, to, I think, drive tremendous, you know, social advantage to our country, as well as to our world, right? If we just give it that opportunity and do it with our eyes wide open.

Alan Fleischmann 

You're listening to Leadership Matters on Sirius XM, I'm your host, Alan Fleischmann. I'm here with my good friend, Dan Streetman, who's the CEO of TIBCO, one of the leading data technology companies, software companies in the world. Based in Silicon Valley. We're talking about leadership, Dan, your background, your sense of purpose and philanthropy, your leadership, having been in the military, and then how you're continuing with great partners, I guess, internally transform our lives through the work that TIBCO does, and one of the most important stories about life in the age of the Coronavirus is been really how CEOs and companies—I talked about CEO statesmen, how they've stepped up to put the focus and putting the profits aside, really, in order to do the right thing to help society or help society predict what it needs to understand going forward. And I think your company is a great example of this. TIBCO, you know, how you've marshaled your technical expertise and data and analytics to build a whole bunch of tools that track and analyze the spread of the virus, for example. You've made other things available to your customers. So I'm curious if you could tell us a little bit of these decisions that you're making, and how you’ve dedicated these resources, honestly, for the common good?

Dan Streetman 

Yeah, well, you know, look, so first and foremost, I think we have the best system in the world. And it is based on a system, right, of democratic values, freedom, and profit, right. So I do not want to dismiss, right, the importance of making sure you run a healthy business because that's how you're able to make the impact you are. That said, there's a key difference between short-term profits, right, and long-term investment. We obviously saw the importance of making investments and helping communities understand what was happening in a COVID world. So we establish one of the first predictive dashboards, for example, which could give you the effective reproduction rate on a predictive basis down to localities as small as counties based on the effectiveness of their non-pharmaceutical interventions. We started to do that in our own data science team. And we made that dashboard public and freely available to all our customers and partners immediately, in very—in early March. And we think that's been a very, of course, significant investment of our team and our data scientists, but it's also had a tremendous impact on the ecosystem around us. I think it's a great way to demonstrate, right, how we can help solve the world's most complex problems. But it's also important for us to step up. Now we've gone beyond that. Our team members have demonstrated what we call TIBCO spirit by making face masks. And we even have those who are making their own plastic facemasks. We've also done in-kind donations to Direct Relief to make sure that PPE was getting to the right places, which is one of the first things we identified as part of our data analysis. But those things are investments in your community that absolutely, right, bring benefits back to you. In my personal world, you know, I'm fortunate enough to know several visually impaired marathoners, some through service, one a former Marine. A guy named Richard Hunter, who's great. And I run marathons with Richard and some of the other visually impaired athletes, every year, the National Association for Blind Athletes has their national marathon championships and I've been able to guide them every year. And yes, that's an investment of my time. And it's not a profit-seeking activity. I'll tell you, Alan, and I gain more from that. And the inspiration of working alongside tremendous athletes and people overcoming challenges than I do in anything else I do, So absolutely, yes, you make short-term investments that seem to not lead indirectly or directly to profit or to long-term gain. But I'm still convinced if you do the right thing when the right thing is needed, the right returns come to you and your organization.

Alan Fleischmann 

You know, you do have this wonderful way of setting these big goals too, right, that there's no such thing as a word impossible at TIBCO, right? I wonder, does that come from—I mean, you're a pretty hardcore Iron Man athlete. And I saw pictures of the last one I think you've competed in. I think you actually—and I know you help visually impaired runners. I didn't want to lose what you just said, which is extraordinary. But I know you actually at a recent time that you and I were together, you showed me some photos and I know noted, you fell off. And then you got right back up. And I got to think that kind of story about, you know, the intensity in which you raise—the intensity in which you’re serving must actually be culture building at the company.

Dan Streetman 

You know, clearly, there's, you know, you will definitely say right through your challenging experiences, you learn the importance of getting back up, right, you know, the saying it's not, it's not how many times you're knocked down, it's making sure you get back up each time. I, yes, I had a, it was an Iron Man in Santa Rosa, California. Was racing, actually a very good friend of mine, and thought I had a good lead on him, hit a rut, and slid out a pretty good long-distance on the bike. thought my race was over. I lost, probably, I don't know, most of the skin on my upper arm and lower leg. But all the bones were working. And my bike with the exception of not being able to shift was also working. So I thought, well, maybe I'll be able to catch Joe and, you know, a half Iron Man later, turned out fine. It was a fun experience. But I do believe that when you have those challenges, and you rise to those, it does sell something to your organization, it sells something to your team, that you're not going to be set back by short-term challenges. And I love the way the team at TIBCO has risen to this challenge. We are now obviously like everyone else working remotely. We have kept 100% of our systems up and secure for our customers. And we're helping Gilead Sciences, we're helping the University of Washington, all do research on both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions. And we take comfort in that. It's a critically important task. And I think when you know you're working on something so important, that's also inspiring, it helps you bounce back up from those challenges. And so I really appreciate the way the team has risen to that. Well you know, so clearly, the social contract, you know, with workers and others is interesting, we talk about how much more people move from role to role because you can and because, right, the system is evolved to that. But at the same time, the organization, particularly whether it's a company or other, has filled more and more of the social part of people's lives, as well. As our personal lives and our work lives blend, you know, supported by technology. But just as a nature of things. Where you work is as important a part of who you are as ever before. And you want to make sure that the organization shares those values. We start with our value statements and at TIBCO, we're fortunate that our name makes a great value statement. We work together, we are innovative, we are bold, we're customer-focused, and we're optimistic. That spells TIBCO. But it also was a great testament to the foundational heritage that we have here. And our you know, we've got employees and team members who have been here from the founding. Over 20 years, and we have those who've been here for 20 days, because we are still hiring because of the importance of the role we're taking on. And they all can rally around those principles and do that. And again, if they feel like they're their workplace is a place that values now, which we certainly do, and they can put their work towards very important problems that are helping the world be a better place, which we certainly do, then those things fall in place. And you match that with a culture of caring and sharing. And really wonderful things can happen.

Alan Fleischmann 

How do you incorporate that among the youngest? The newer employees of the company too. Because, you know, this idea of looking for mentors, you've been so grateful to those who were your mentors along the way, you know, I know how busy you are. How do you infuse a culture, build a culture, where, you know, among the newer generation of employees, they not only seek out mentoring themselves, but they also seek out mentors? What advice do you give? Do that again for me. TIBCO. What does it stand for, again?

Dan Streetman 

So we work T Together, we are I Innovative, we are B Bold, we are C Customer-focused. And finally we are Optimistic.

Alan Fleischmann 

That's amazing.

Dan Streetman 

And so, you know, that is a, you know, a just a great way to put a framework in place. It's obviously fun and easy to remember. We don't say it like it's a high school cheer like that. But we do hearken to those in every quarter in our company all-hands meeting, we celebrate both individuals and teams that represent those values. You know, we are very proud of the innovation and the work we continue to do particularly on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence and data science, and machine learning. But we're also very proud of our team members who are customer-focused and solve, right, important challenges for our customers. And so we celebrate those clearly on a quarterly basis, but often more often than that. you know, our use of our internal tools for social connecting as well.

Alan Fleischmann 

I mean, TIBCO certainly is a company, that's a household word, when you're in Silicon Valley, for sure. And I know how important not only for you to lead a company on purpose, but also for people to go into a company of purpose. But the optimism part strikes me because, you know, it's hard to be optimistic. You know, I got young kids, you know, you've got, you know, kids in their 20s. And, right, and I, I'm struck by the fact like, what is this new horn—this new bee or, you know, that's coming out.

Dan Streetman 

Killer Hornet.

Alan Fleischmann 

Killer hornet. Exactly. And you know, my six-year-old last night, she says to me, daddy, okay, now we have a hornet to deal with.

Dan Streetman 

Like, now killer bees?

Alan Fleischmann 

Yeah, exactly. It's just like, you know, that actually can sting you over and over again that eats flesh, and she went on this whole thing. And as she's walking up the stairs last night to say good night, to me, between the pandemic, the hornet, and a few other things, she looks at me She's like, it's getting hard daddy to be optimistic. And, you know, and I got to imagine it is, you know, I mean, you and I both are optimistic people, but we're not fools. So we have to—we have to be the pragmatic optimist, as you and I talked about. But how do you bring that? I guess it goes back to that authenticity part. But how do you have honest conversations with your teams in a way that leaves them understanding that if applied well if rallying well if playing I guess that together role, can we actually prevail?

Dan Streetman 

Yeah, well, so clearly, it helps to be a student of history. At West Point, I studied national security and Public Affairs, so which is a mix of obvious strategy, political science, and the history that underpins them. Now, my classmates would joke, it's good for not studying, particularly anything, acronym NSPA. But I thought it gave me a really good understanding of challenging historical times, right? Where it was difficult to be optimistic. And each of those times, our world, and particularly our country, and our unique system, we have here in the United States, of a free market and democracy have overcome some pretty phenomenal, you know, I would say what felt like overwhelming odds. And each time, we've gotten to a place where things were even better than they were before. Now, it's clearly flawed. There are lots of things we need to be careful about in our environment. There are lots of areas where this challenge is clearly making those who are less fortunate, you know, make—you saw the same news today. If your salary is less than 20,000, you're far more likely to lose your job than someone making more than that. So we have to be very cognizant of all of the impacts all around us and make sure we are addressing those things that won't just solve themselves by being optimistic. That said, I still believe that a confluence of technology of culture and of social awareness and engagement is going to make this world a better place. And we will get through this in the same way we've gotten through new pandemics or things like the Spanish Flu before. And the trick is, what do we learn from that? So we don't repeat the same mistakes the next time around? And yeah, I'm optimistic we've continued to do that time and time again, the bulk of the world is in a better place right now than it ever was in history, again, not to ignore places that are in crisis, or people are in challenges. There are less deaths by violence as a proportion of the population than ever before in history. So yeah, I'm optimistic we'll continue to make the world a better place, as long as we're thoughtful about it.

Alan Fleischmann 

How global is TIBCO? And how often are you having to switch cultural thinking when you're dealing with folks abroad?

Dan Streetman 

So we are a very global company, I think that's important to say. We have almost as many team members in other countries as we do in the United States. That's, you know, worldwide. We also work with great partners in countries like Japan to partner and do that. So understanding other cultural perspectives is absolutely important. I still believe, right, most of the places we operate adhere to a high value of human rights. That's a nonstarter for me if you're not addressing and dealing with that. But I was lucky again, as a young officer, you know, you said I trained in nine countries, I deployed in that one country in conflict. But it—to see all those different cultures early on in my career was great, and be exposed to that. I was lucky enough to be part of an organization, when I was stationed in Italy, called the Allied mobile force. And the Allied mobile force was all of the paratrooper organizations in NATO. We would get together and train very difficult and take under difficult training. We would do jump exchanges. So I learned to jump with the Spaniards and with the French and with the Italians, but then afterward, we would have these great sessions where we would, you know, get together and socialize. So, you know, the Spaniards made great Paella, the Germans brought phenomenal beer. The Americans pretty much just brought our appetites. But you know, we would say Allied Mobile Force, AMF stood for that, but it also stood for alcohol makes friends. And it didn't take alcohol to do that, but that gathering was powerful. And it taught me a lot about different cultures, all of those, you know, paratroopers, were all there to do the same thing, serve the common good, protect their country, protect their citizen's rights. And yet we took—we got different systems and did that. In the end, I think as long as you understand the context, and that brings me to actually, you know, the A, in my leadership foundational principle of being vital. So we talked about the importance of vision, we talked about the values of integrity and teamwork, which I brought in when I talked about ITSA that, and that A and that is attunement. And attunement to me is slightly different than empathy. I can't always put myself in someone else's situation, that's very difficult to do. And I have to be honest, right? My background, my experiences are always going to be different than theirs. So empathy is a lofty goal, but it's very difficult to do, but I can be attuned to that person. I can understand the context that they're operating in. I can understand what's driving them and I can make sure that I am in sync with those things that drive their decision-making. And that's the key piece to me. So I think early on, having that exposure was great. And I encourage anyone they can to study abroad and be exposed to others. But you can develop attunement, right, in your own world. You can do that by going across your town or going to other parts of the country. And I think that's a critical life skill that everyone should bring. It's clearly from Daniel Pink's book To Sell Is Human. He talks about it's no longer about always be closing. It's about a two-minute buoyancy and clarity, but I love the attunement piece and it's something I've tried to carry with me as well.

Alan Fleischmann 

Well, I love the attunement piece as that actually there's a humility to it right? You know, I love the—I also love the way just described empathy. I often describe empathy as if everybody should just have it. The way you just described that it is a lofty goal because there's an arrogance to assume you can be empathetic if you take it too far, right? The way you just described, it was, you know, we can aspire to be empathetic. But let's really work every day at attuning. I guess, knowing you, you ask a lot of questions. Don't always expect the answers right away. But having the right questions asked are probably the first way of getting to attunement, I guess, right?

Dan Streetman 

Exact right. Oh, you know, it's the learner’s mind to come in, and not be thinking, you know, we know this challenge, right? That anytime we get into a discussion, it becomes you're listening to figure out how you can make the counter-argument or get your point across and attunement to me is listening from the aspect of gathering that person's perspective and their context. And being able to do it. Again, Daniel Pink tells it in the story in the context of how, right, we're all selling. But I think it's just a human goal. Empathy, the Latin, right is to put myself in your place. So obviously, it's very difficult for me to put myself in a person's context throughout their whole life. But I can certainly be attuned to what those backgrounds and experiences were, and do my best to adjust my approach and our organization, right, to that. So globally, yes, we spend a lot of time being attuned to each other. And that starts off with that first value, right? We work together.

Alan Fleischmann 

Yeah. And I guess the other thing, which I'm hearing, and you're talking about, even back to your West Point, days, and even the way you describe your mother and father is respect, you know. If you walk into a room—and one of the words I really dislike, but I know maybe it is a phase, when you're trying to combat hate or differences, people talk about tolerance. And I always find tolerance to be a tough word, because it means, you know, that we don't really like you, but I want to hurt you. But respect, if you walk in with the idea that you're going to respect one another, you really do have the opportunity to actually listen and learn. The way you described your parents strikes me because your eyes lit up. And you can't hear that on the radio. But by watching you. And you know, and obviously, you have enormous respect for your parents today. And I think the way you describe West Point is like, you know, a lot of the lessons you learned were about respecting one another as much as it was in planning and learning the, you know, the most important parts of a military.

Dan Streetman 

Yeah, it was a good—so that was a foundational experience. I was lucky. I was actually up—Again, this whole idea that you can't tell the future. I was on my way back to go teach at West Point. And I was going to teach economics. And so the army sends you— allows you to go to business school. And this was 1998. And as I said, that, you know, Berlin Wall had fallen. It felt like we were going to be at peace for a long time. And, you know, so I chose to go to business school and actually not continue my military career on active duty. I stayed in the reserves, which is how I ended up back in active duty 10 years later in Iraq. But my leadership professor, there was Nitin Nohria, who's now been the dean at Harvard for 10 years. I was also lucky to be elected our section president and, boy, talk about, right, being able to understand people's different perspectives, because now you have a group of, you know, 82 very successful, very strong-willed team members, right, in your section, and to lead them and I'm using air quotes, which you can't see, is a challenging endeavor. Nitin was tremendous at helping me get that idea around, going well past tolerance, right, to attunement and respect for their views. You know, you raise a Social Fund, right? How do you spend that money? You're not going to spend it on alcohol, because some people, it's in their belief system, they don't want to drink. So how do you make sure you bring all those things together? Those skills that you gather and put into your kit bag, so to speak, I think helped build all of us. So I encourage anyone to branch out and become as much exposed to other people's ideas as possible because it really does help you become a better, more well-rounded leader.

Alan Fleischmann 

Yeah, and how do you actually encourage that? How do you actually make that happen, where you develop those skills—and the way you talking about your journey, it really wasn't like, waiting—a lot of people wait, and say, oh, that's not my responsibility. You know, now I'm too early in my career, that's something for me later. And I feel the difference between really successful CEOs and those who never get to be leaders in the true sense of like being that one person at the CEO level is that when you talk to people who are CEOs, they'll often tell you, or they'll other show you by the way you're describing your own journey, that these are skills they fought for and tried to develop early in their lives. And I think there's—I think those who say, tomorrow, I'll learn those skills or tomorrow, I will make myself responsible or accountable for others. It's not something you want to wait on, you want to learn them along the way. And that makes a better culture, I guess, too. How do you actually fuse that?

Dan Streetman 

I think it's a really, that is a super good question. Because it's different for every person. You cannot be prescriptive about what the right path is for someone in their career. I do mentoring with young women and men who are leaving military service, help them make the transition. And I always say, all career planning is best done in the rearview mirror. Right. So you know, I—to say that I set out on this path would not be—but I was very specific about what skills I wanted to get, what type of organizations I wanted to be exposed to, and most importantly, what kind of people I wanted to work with. And that does build over time. For me, you know, I did leave the military with two young children and a lot of business school debt so I knew I was going to go on a journey to gain skills and gain exposure to build myself to this point for others, their risk tolerance at that stage in life may be you know, able for them to go move in or found a company and be a CEO immediately. And I think the risk there is you get so focused on the leadership task, you forget about building the leadership right. On leading yourself and engaging and so I feel very fortunate to have had these opportunities and build it out to this point, where, you know, I feel like it is my highest and best use to be in this situation right here right now.

Alan Fleischmann 

That's very cool. That's very cool. How often you get together with your non-direct reports as the CEO?

Dan Streetman 

You know, it almost comes back to the final piece of this one and the leadership framework that I have of right, vision, integrity, teamwork, attunement, and the last one is silly/ It is love. L. So leadership is vital. My West Point roommate Joe Riccardi. Now general Joe Riccardi is also a Ph.D. and his Ph.D. thesis was literally leadership and love. And this idea of your passion for what you do and your passion for the people you work with. They're intertwined and can't be separated. I think having skip-level conversations, having Town Hall engagements, you know, locally with people enables you to build that for people to see your enthusiasm, your love for what you do, as well as your love for the organization. And that's very difficult to do. Just through your, you know, I’m using air quotes again, “chain of command.” Right. I think that's really something that maybe another stereotype people have at the military operates completely through chain of command. Clearly, it's important and it's important in conflict or in times of tight time cycles. But building the sinews around that, again, this idea of shared consciousness and empowered execution is the most important thing you can do. And you do that best by expressing, right, and touching people, not just in their minds, but in their hearts. In my first, you know, 90 days here, I traveled for 77 of those days to see our customers but also to see our people. And if there's one thing that I find most challenging during this time, it's exactly that the ability to make that personal connection. Clearly, the technologies we have are great for this. But there's still something to be said for the personal touch. You had a great discussion with Alan Murray, before this began all around, in this time, we're more connected than ever before. You know, he's seen the importance of Fortune to do in-person events. And to create that, and I don't think that goes away. Will it be different? And will it take us a while, you know, post-vaccine to get there? Yes. But I don't think that personal connection, desire, goes away, nor do I think the benefits of that go away. So I guess I would say I'm still optimistic that that human factor, that this piece of how do I demonstrate, share, and exhibit love, won't go away.

Alan Fleischmann 

I love the use of the word love is a powerful word that is not used enough. And then, you know, when you think of the best of human ingenuity, it's built on the fact that people care. You know, that's why, you know, and that people show passionate love for one another. Because when you think about, we're living—and I'd love to talk about that for a few minutes, we're living in an unprecedented time where it is the technology that would deliver us. If this were another time in our history, that we were going through this pandemic. If, you know, if all these challenges we're facing, where we didn't have the technology, the sciences, the access to Wi-Fi, e-commerce, what you do every day at TIBCO, we couldn't advance the way I believe that medicine will advance us because of that collaboration. But it's all based on, you know, if ever we're being tested to serve humankind globally, it's right now and you're showing it obviously, with how TIBCO's leaving and how you lead personally, through your own philanthropy, which is an example for others. But, you know, if you imagined with that same thinking, you know, knowing those who serve and serve well, knowing what we should do not just what we will do, what would those be? If you think about as we're coming through that New World Order, when I asked a question, you know, what do you think it will be? And you've heard me talk about this, people, you know, look at me, like, What do I know? And if you're different, you're TIBCO. You do predictive analytics, so you may know. But when I say, what should our society look like, you know, what are the things that we should aspire to be? I think people can be much more committal. I'm just curious, as we're, you know, as we're talking here, and you're imagining what should be, both from a company perspective, from a leader perspective, both in community, and as a CEO, what would you want those things to be?

Dan Streetman 

Well, you know, it's a multifaceted question. And so I think that the first piece is, again, I don't think this crisis dramatically changes who we are to people, it's made us more appreciative of many things. And that's great. We also have to be very aware, right, as, you know, our friend Van Jones has shared with us, we have to be aware, right? It's disproportionately impacting populations differently than others, right. Particularly the African American population. And so staying, for lack of a better word, attuned to that I think is critically important right now. And being able to address and work through that. I think staying true to who we are, continue to take on challenges is key. I do think we have the opportunity to embrace technology. You said, it would be very different, right, if we didn't have this technology. And look, it was. 1918 and 1919, in the Spanish flu, we didn't have remote workers. And as a result, many, many more people died, right, from that flu, then, you know, ideally, in the best of our predictions will die from COVID-19. So in the end, I'm optimistic we are better equipped to handle this than before. But we have to stay true to who we have been before. And I think even through this crisis, you know, we've got great models of leadership and not-so-great models of leadership. And I think that's also good for people to see. And the examples of, you know, folks like Dr. Fauci, right, stepping up and being as, you know, clear as he possibly can on what he believes yet, you know, managing a challenging time. That's good for all of us to see. And we see what good leadership looks like. And I think that's a positive as well.

Alan Fleischmann 

What's great. As you're talking to your own kids, and you and your wife are talking to your kids, what are the things you're telling them and what are the lessons you want them to take with them? I'm curious if that's any different than what you tell your colleagues at work or when you're working in the community or the philanthropic stuff you do?

Dan Streetman 

Yeah, well, so first that, you know, if you ask me what I'm most proud of, it's, and I guess, most grateful for the opportunity to marry my wife, Terri. We met in high school and actually dated through West Point, and she's been a phenomenal foundation for us and our children. And when we, Terri and I—and Terri runs her own small business, and so it's fun to watch them manage this as well. No, I don't think I share anything differently with my children than I do with my team members. You know, I can't be anything different to them. As we all know, our kids are able to tell when we are true to what we say far more than anyone else. And they're the best barometers of your truth barometer, I guess I should say. And I love that aspect about my kids. They're now 26 and 22 and thriving. My daughter's an arborist. And so she's an essential worker, managing, you know, trees, and we're doing the physical aspect of that, as well as the intellectual side. My son is a math major and a senior who's going to graduate this year, unfortunately without a graduation ceremony. And you know, they're both, I'd say optimistic as well. They're working hard to focus on things they know how to do. They recognize our ability to adapt and overcome, some things are going to be different. You know, yes, I think Berkshire Hathaway, right, you know, they did their thing. And Warren said, you know, he sold everything, all hi investments in airplanes and airlines. Yeah, that's likely to have an impact for a few years, probably a smart investment decision. Do we go back to flying again, at some point? Yes. Right. Do we go back to going to sports again? Absolutely. We did in the past. And so I think fundamentally, we hopefully are more grateful for certain things. But I'm also optimistic, and my kids hear that. They're great. The thing I'm most proud of, clearly, right, is the family that we've built and been able to do. Been able to maintain. We see our son because he's still down near the campus in a house via zoom more than anything else. But we also have been able to do family zoom calls as well, which, like, my dad would never have gotten on a zoom call with the family ever before. And you know, and now he's forced to, and I think that's great. And so I think there absolutely is many things we have to be concerned about, and there are lots of them in this in this challenging time. We have a lot to be grateful for. And I just keep looking for those small silver linings.

Alan Fleischmann 

You know, it's really amazing to hear you talk does leave me with a very strong sense of purpose and optimism. And I guess the other message for me, I guess, is that technology is so different today than it was a few years ago, the software is the solution probably to a lot of our challenges, even when you're talking about public spaces and sports and you know, being able to go in and out of airlines. It's going to be technology and software that's going to allow us to know, you know, whether it's safe, and whether we can, you know, track and protect people as you describe what you're doing at TIBCO. And certainly what others will do. And I actually am grateful for the developers, I guess. Those who are working with you day in and day out. They're first responders that are often overlooked because they're thinking around the corner, they're thinking about tomorrow. And so our gratitude to them.

Dan Streetman 

You know, look at this is true of data scientists and developers everywhere. All of them are working. Certainly a shout out to our data science team led by our chief analytics officer, Michael O'Connell. They have worked round the clock, right, to make sense and develop some of these ideas around effective reproduction rates. We have now an app available to our customers where they're able to measure the impact on their team members and then look at that and overlay that over very fine-grained geospatial data to determine whether or not team members would come into work or not. And using, right, AI and machine learning and algorithms to do that. They have worked tirelessly. And again, you know, these are those times where people rise to a challenge. And I'm very proud of the team at TIBCO that's done that. And we are focused 100% on our customer’s ongoing operations and their success. And you know, if that's your primary vision and your value, it's easy to keep people focused and have a lot of fun.

Alan Fleischmann 

Well, Dan, you inspire me and you inspire me in so many ways. I get to work with so many great leaders and interview so many extraordinary individuals. I've yet to meet anyone who is so seamlessly consistent across the board in every aspect of their lives with confidence but also with humility like you are so I am incredibly grateful that you took some time today. I know how much you and your company are doing on the front end, on the front lines right now, not unlike what you've done in the military, to help us solve some of our biggest challenges. So on behalf of the listenership of Leadership Matters as the host, Alan Fleischmann, I just want to say a personal thank you, to you, Dan Streetman, and to your colleagues and the team at TIBCO, for all that you're doing and to your family for sacrificing so much of themselves in order for you to do what you do. So thank you so much.

Dan Streetman 

And Alan, likewise to you, the work you're doing here at Leadership Matters and the work you do at the Laurel Group is phenomenal. I would echo all the sentiments, to meet a friend and make a friend like you, who is engaged in so many facets of our community, so many facets of business, and then take the time to share those on Leadership Matters is powerful. Please keep it up. I'm honored to be here and I'm honored to count you among my friends. Take care. A big honor for me. Talk to you soon. I look forward to having you back on the show.