Jack Dorsey: I think of the CEO role as “Chief Editor” of the company “I think of my role as CEO of Square as an editorial function,” Jack Dorsey explains. “By editorial, I mean there are a thousand things we could be doing, but there’s only one or two that are important.” He continues: “All of these ideas and stories from users, engineers, support people, designers, are going to constantly flood what we should be doing. We need to choose the one or two that are really going to drive and sustain the product. As an editor, I’m constantly taking all these inputs and deciding on that one — or the intersection of a few — that makes sense for what we’re doing.” There are three “access points” that Jack pays attention to in particular: 1. The team. “We have to bring the best people in and edit away any negative elements… At the end of the day, we’re just a group of people working on one single goal, and if we can’t step in a cohesive, coordinated fashion, we’re going to trip all over the place. Recruiting is no. 1.” 2. Internal & External Communication. “Internal communication is just the coordination of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it… If you have the vision, the next 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, and year maybe, it makes it very easy to set priorities and for all the edges of the company to do the right thing. The external communication is the product, and the product is the story we’re telling the world… We don’t want it to be about a person. We want it to be about how people are using it, fitting it into their lives, and what they’re doing with it. That’s the strongest story we have.” 3. Editing the “money in the bank” story. “This comes in two ways: 1) through investment… or 2) through revenue.” Jack concludes: “My three priorities and focus areas are in that order. That’s what I’m constantly editing as CEO, and I think it makes managing a growing company in a fast-paced environment very easy because there’s basically one thing you have to do: You have to make every single detail perfect and you have to limit the number of details. That’s it. If you can do that well… you’re going to succeed because you’re paying attention to the smallest things. And if you pay attention to the smallest things while knowing what’s important, then everything else takes care of itself.” Video source: @Stanford (2011)