Indians networking more than most: LinkedIn CEO

Says Focus On Skills Becoming Important For Jobs Just Like Degrees And Work Experience

- Sujit John & Shilpa Phadnis

Bengaluru: Even as Facebook and Twitter are in ferment, a third seems to be making solid progress. In fact, as thousands get laid off from Twitter and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, it is LinkedIn that many are using to seek help. LinkedIn has been the leading professional networking site, and one of its roles, as a bridge between employees and recruiters, has just become acutely important. Ryan Roslansky, a company veteran who took over as CEO in 2020, had an exclusive virtual interaction with TOI. Excerpts:

Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn (2016) was a surprise. How has it been ? The strategy that Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) had when he acquired LinkedIn was to leave LinkedIn as a standalone company inside of the Microsoft umbrella. When Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, we were doing roughly $3 billion in revenue. In our last 12 trailing months, we’re doing north of $14 billion in revenue. My guess is, this will be looked upon as one of the most intelligent product acquisition strategies and technology. We have the ability to leverage great Microsoft technology to help us scale. We have the ability to leverage the Microsoft sales team where relevant. I think Satya has done a masterful job in terms of seeing what this standalone strategy could do.