How People & Culture Accelerate Growth and Innovation at SharkNinja, Elizabeth Norberg.

0:00Josh Bersin: So everybody, I'm really excited today to talk with a leader at one of the most fascinating companies that I've ever run across, Shark Ninja. And you're going to hear a lot about them. Elizabeth Norberg is the head of HR and other things at Shark Ninja. Elizabeth, why don't you introduce yourself? And then I want you to tell us a little bit about the company and the origin story so everybody understands what a powerhouse you guys are. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. Nice to see you this morning. And thanks for you and the team for putting this together and most importantly, for inviting us to tell our story.

0:32We're really passionate and proud of it and know that we've got a lot more road ahead of us than even behind us. So I am about 25 year plus executive sitting in this intersection, if you will, between people and business performance. My background, certainly current company product design and tech. prior to that, retail, hospitality, healthcare, restaurants, professional services, what I like to sum up as my eighth, this is my eighth industry. And there, I think that every one of those opportunities led me to this place where every day I learned something new in ways that we can impact our teams and, you know, the overall company.

1:14So not just HR, as you said, head of HR, plus I oversee real estate design, construction, employee health, and corporate communications. We have named StoryWorks because it's really about telling our many great stories. For me, the role here, reporting directly to our CEO, Mark Barokas, is more than the traditional role because of not only those areas that I provide leadership to, but it's a deliberate one leader that we've designed to own the end-to-end experience. So how our team members work, where, what they work on, not separate functions, but all grounded in this unique culture to drive performance, drive innovation, and so on.

1:58So it's really that depth and breadth of this role that has really been inspiring to me and we've learned so much. So many people know about Shark Ninja's products. They know Shark products, of which there are amazing ones from in-home vacuums and outdoor products from Ninja. Under the Shark name is also amazing beauty tech products, everything from facial to hair to body, just really an amazing array of really disruptive products. It is a 30-year-old company, the last 18 years of which have been under our current CEO mark. We're about a$6.5 billion US public company and really grounded in the mission of positively impacting people's lives around the world in and out of their homes through our innovative products.

2:49Our original founder, Mark R., founded the company in 94. They launched the Shark Ninja brand in 2007 with one great product. And his longtime friend, Mark Barokas, joined in 2008. And that really catapulted the company into what existed over those last couple of years, but certainly catapulted us into where we are today and where we're going. Ninja, our second brand, was launched in 2009 with a blender. Most people know the blender really well. And both of those have worldwide recognition. We design and sell home and personal products in about 38 categories. and we produce many millions of products every year around the world.

3:33We today, as I mentioned, are NYSE global product company under the ticker Shark Ninja SN. And we've separated from a company called JS Global. It was an investment partner for us just in 2023. So 38 international markets, over 4 ,000 team members. And I'm super proud, even though I had very little to do with it, more than 4 ,000 patents that our patent holders hold. And I think, Josh, it's one of the most extraordinary things. I sit in front of our patent wall and I stare at these names and these patents they have. And I try to imagine what it's like to have built something and been part of building something that will live on forever that is really impacting people and their lives and their families around the world.

4:21I mean, I think it's so ominous and so extraordinary. Super proud of it and many more to come. And then lastly, I would just share our mission, as I mentioned, to positively impact people's lives. Mark penned that himself back in 2008, 2009. And it is our guiding light. It's how we make decisions. It's how we operate. It's how we guide where we put our resources. It really is just extraordinary. So two guys who started this, one guy who's leading the way going forward, and a real obsession that we have around our consumer. So that's a little bit of our story.

4:55Josh Bersin: Thank you. Okay, so let's get under the covers a little bit. So we talked before and we visited with you guys and I did some research and the interesting thing I discovered, I think this is true, you'll have to validate, is that the actual product technologies are quite advanced and quite sophisticated. Apparently, they fall into the categories of airflow, suction, heating, motor blades, pumps, pressure, insulation, sensors, algorithms. So there's a lot of technology in these products. So I'm assuming you have a workforce of engineers, designers, and then incredibly passionate marketing people, customer experience people, and other things.

5:38Josh Bersin: And sort of leads me to the question of what is the people strategy that creates this incredibly fast-growing innovative company? And go back and tell me a little bit about your story that before you joined, there really wasn't a head of HR. So this didn't come from HR. This came from the from the founders and the people in the company. So because a lot of companies have technology, But bringing it together in this consumer process focus in such a fast-moving space is very, very difficult. You look at Apple. You look at Target. You look at Nike. I mean, anybody who's building consumer products stumbles all the time because things change so fast.

6:21Yeah. Okay. Let's start with the description of the technology you were right on. It's really mechanical, electrical. How many use the word industrial lightly? Absolutely. It's not cosmetic. It's, you know, it's a real equipment that's driving real opportunities. So I think your characterization is right on. I love the story that before I came, there really didn't exist people and culture. Yes, there was a department. Yes, there were people working hard, doing important things, but we were not the reason for driving that. And sometimes people in my field find that offensive. And it's really not because the way I think about it, I know Mark shares this view, is that imagine what we can accomplish when we ignite all of the things that professional HR, all of people in culture, story works, the buildings, the facilities, the employee health focus.

7:21When you bring all of that together under one leader, under one team that's focused on it, you really can accomplish extraordinary things. And we think that can help catapult, enable the organization into a place that it couldn't before. So I love that challenge and I love that opportunity for us. So that's one. I saw a joke to say they couldn't spell P and C. Obviously, it's a little bit of a tongue in cheek, but it's because we weren't bringing that value. We are about creating amazingness in the company. That's what we are charged to do. We do that through a lot of people's strategies, through communication, storytelling, and through where they work.

8:02But fundamentally, it enables us to problem solve, to delight the customer through our five-star disruptive. And the core of that is solving problems. Not just produce, not just make, but solve a problem. Oftentimes, Mark will get a question of, oh, you guys should create a... And there's always some great idea that comes following those sentences. But Mark will say, what's the problem it's solving? That's where we start. And if it solves the problem and we think it's something we can do really well, great. That's something that our teams will look at. And lastly, to your point, we have over 2 ,000 engineers, product developers, who dedicate their time and their craft to creating these extraordinary products that do just that, delight the consumer and solve a problem.

8:49Now, that's all amazing. But if we didn't have marketing, social media, and some of these extraordinary ways that we get the messages to the consumer to create that virality, it wouldn't be as amazing as it is. And those teams are doing unbelievable work. We are lauded for our social media. We have a new team and a new Shark Ninja marketing playbook that's going into wait till you see what's coming. You think that was good in the past. Wait till you see what's coming. In terms of our people strategy, it's really grounded in that creating amazingness and execution that's driving impact. Because also in my field, we have a long list of items that we think we shouldn't do because that's what we do.

9:31But here, the approach has not been to do that. The approach has actually been the opposite. The approach has been to amplify the extraordinary, what we call outrageously extraordinary culture. That is the foundation of everything. That culture has enabled everything that's happened in the past and certainly what is going to be what's happening in the future, big growth ambitions ahead. So it starts with the fundamentals of our outrageously extraordinary culture. It is definitely values and mission driven. We are on a mission to be the absolute best in everything we do. It's this existential need that we have every day, and it exists in more than 4 ,000 people at this company, that every day think of how they can do it better.

10:18What can we learn? Where are their problems? This is the first company I've seen that is in search of the problem. Not if it comes up, not if there's an issue. It's like, no, where's the problem? Look around the corner, find it, celebrate it, and then solve it. So it's really values-oriented and the acceptance of those kinds of things and deliberately looking for them. If you aren't solving a problem, you are missing something significant. That's how we look at it. We also look at our people strategy around energy. So we have, by way of example, hire three mindset performance coaches, and it's just the beginning with them.

10:58Their whole focus is to help team members, starting with a large group of leaders, to build that internal excellence, the mental skills, the resilience, the toughness that come every time you're dealing with really extraordinary challenges. Not just how are we going to solve the problem? Not just how are we going to embrace AI? That's part of it. But really the inner excellence around how we are going to take on these challenges in a very courageous, acknowledge the fear, but work through it. Acknowledge the anxiety, but work through it. And that mental toughness that comes with that produces a really positive energy that you can take on anything.

11:39They come from whether it was the military, elite athletes, businesses. Some of them were working with VCs in the early stages. So imagine what is going on in the heads of some of those extraordinary people. They bring that all together at the intersection of well-being, driving, and fueling performance. And we've learned so much from them in just the few months that they've been with us. So that energy that's created, and certainly by our buildings, we subscribe to many of the feng shui concepts in our spaces. And that just really produces a lot of energy togetherness collaboration that allows those challenges and pushes to happen.

12:18And then lastly, capability. As you can imagine, we've got tenured people. We've got, we call them our OGs. We've got a lot of new people. We've hired over 2 ,000 since I've been here. And those are bringing new capabilities. They might be early in talent, which I hope we get to talk about some of the things we're doing in that space, but also new hires who come with seasoned experiences. And then a third leg of that is subject matter experts. Those three come together, what we call knowledge acceleration. When you take an OG, a new person, and somebody with deep expertise, and you put them in a room to solve a problem, it's literally the rock concert we were talking about earlier, where they really can just about solve anything.

13:04Someone's got an answer, someone can iterate and build on. And then we really push decision rights and accountability as close and as deep in the organization, as close to the consumer as possible and as deep in the organization. No one knows our business better than those that are on the front line. And we're really working hard to make sure we hear their voice, hear their sentiment, and can bring those things forward in a really great way. Lots of forums to be able to do that. So that's in a nutshell our strategy and why we think that's so imperative. If I may, can I just add one more thought?

13:37I worked in healthcare at Northwell Health, an extraordinary organization in and of itself. And I worked with a chief nursing officer named Maureen White. And I was rolling out this amazing engagement strategy. And me and the team had come up with some really great things that we were going to do. A wonderful survey, collect the information, create some action plans. You know the story. all of us could write that. And she looked at me in this very serious that only chief nursing officer executives could do. And she said, Elizabeth, people want to know that you care about them as an individual, not as a strategy.

14:13And my first reaction was that I didn't fully understand what she meant, but I understood the surface of it, thought maybe I misspoke, but then realized we were talking about it as a strategy, as a set of actions. And it was really one of the beginning points in my career of rethinking the work that we do to really drive well-being and care to end at that intersection of performance and that the organization is successful, but that the individual feels that success based on what they think is important and their value system to align with the company. So she was probably more than she realized is really influential in me, and it certainly fuels our people strategy here.

14:57Josh Bersin: Wow. Okay. Thank you. So a couple of observations, and I want to ask a few more questions. So first of all, on the latter point, I couldn't agree more. Organizations are basically constellations of individual, high-performing human beings. And if you think about each individual, the organizational stuff is much easier to understand. But let me go back to a little bit of the beginning of this. There are a lot of companies that have good engineering, that have problem-solving cultures. We call it falling in love with the problem. I mean, there's a book on that. Lots of companies build technology, industrial products.

15:33Josh Bersin: But, you know, most of them don't move as fast or adapt to the consumer market like you do. I mean, they're building a turbine or maybe an iPhone that takes 10 years to engineer and then it comes out and it's fantastic. there's something about the pace and the iteration capabilities you have that's very different and one of the things you mentioned to me i don't remember the name of it is this behavior where anybody in the company can point out to an executive something that's not working or broken or on fire or whatever could you explain that a little bit and what are the behavioral and cultural things that have created that type of experience because to me that's a really important part of this that industrial engineering companies can't do.

16:18Yes, yes. So I'll start with the first part of what you described. Speed is our competitive advantage. We design and we produce faster than our competitors. That speed is enabled through a really capable group of leaders and team members. They may not have the capability, maybe they've never worked in class before, Maybe they've never worked with Fabric, but they have such a high learning velocity that through that knowledge acceleration, they can bring people together and pretty much figure out any problem or crack the code. Where they can't, they parlay those learnings into the next one. We've walked away from products after months of development, maybe millions of dollars invested, and said, that's not going to do what we want it to do.

17:07But boy, we sure learned a lot. We can parlay that. And in several examples, what they actually created based on those learnings was even better than where they started. So there is this high learning velocity. That's one. It's paired with what we call insatiable impatience for action. That's not a bias for action. That's not move fast. Hey, in two weeks, we're going to do this. Let's do something in three months instead of six months. That's not what this is. This says we're going to take this problem and we are going to break it apart into bite-sized chunks. We are going to be really outcome focused on what that is.

17:47And we are going to track week by week progress. And we have structure, infrastructure, if you will, in place to enable that. So it's not just the idea, hey, let's move fast. Let's have a couple meetings. It's a very structured, disciplined, rigorous process due to that. So I think it's that that comes together.

18:05Josh Bersin: You sort of engineered a way to move fast and iteratively, as opposed to just saying, this is a cultural behavior we reward. It's both. So it's an ecosystem of cultural drive, the mindset to do this, the skills and capabilities, experiences to do it. But all powered by this culture of speed is a competitive advantage. We've got problems to solve, and every day we're waking up thinking what those are. Now, it's easier to just go through that, but the real fuel in that rocket ship, if you will, is what you were referring to in the second part. It's what we call protect our plan or a pump. And that is deep in the organization.

18:48And we're rolling this through the organization more and more. Even in people and culture, it's a big priority for us. So this isn't an engineering or a product thing. This is a way of living in the ecosystem at Shark Ninja. And that is if anyone in any level sees a problem, they can raise it up. They can do it in a way of sending an email to me, the CEO, any member of my any of my executive colleagues or any manager and say, I spot smoke. There's a problem here. And we can jump on that problem, which happens a lot. And we could shift gears pretty fast. It's a collaborative table. So, you know, again, you're not talking about just engineering and product development.

19:30You've got marketing, supply chain, operations, people, you know, so on. Finance. Finance leads the way in finding these POPs, if you will. Now, there's another way to do it, which is a little bit more structured. There can be some data behind it. There can be a bluff, a bottom line up front. Here's how I'm shaping the problem. And maybe even some suggestions on solutions. The POP program must be sent to someone to drive that ownership. So it might come to me, Elizabeth, here's the problem as I see it. Here's some data that I think I've collected, qualitative or quantitative. Here's some ideas that I or the team have.

20:06It goes directly to me. We log it. We solve it. We even have workshops where people might need help to work through the problem. And they are tracked on a week by week basis and produced. And we celebrate the results that might be quantitative results. It also just might be qualitative. It might even be behavioral change. teams that are learning and are in new spaces that need to work together better. Things like roles and responsibilities, decision-making, resource allocation. So it can be the hard process. It could be the soft behavioral characteristics, but again, all grounded in our outrageously extraordinary culture, moving at a very rapid rate.

20:48Josh Bersin: Wow. So you really engineered a way to iterate and stay innovative. I was sort of thinking while you were talking. I remember when I worked at IBM years ago, we had a suggestion box. Yes. We'd stick a piece of paper in something and you never saw it again. And you never saw it. You always wondered. And then after a while, you're like, why do I even tell them? They don't do anything. See, this is the problem with engagement surveys. Engagement surveys, you know, a lot of people respond and some get very thoughtful. I mean, sometimes I've been so impressed with how thoughtful they are in their comments.

21:21And it's not that we don't look at them. Most companies do look at them. But do you really drive the action? And by the way, I might fill out that survey in one month, and it's probably two months later before it ever comes around in some way. Ours is an everyday suggestion box. Right.

21:40Josh Bersin: Okay, so let me go back to HR for a minute. But so you come into this company that's already incredibly successful with all of these behavioral and business practices and people practices that are working. And you want to build amazingness in the business, but it already has a lot of amazingness. I know you've worked a lot on early careers and on recruiting and talent acquisition. What did the company need from an HR perspective when you joined? And what have you been working on to make it even better? Yes, yes. Okay, so where we decided to start was amplifying the culture. We have this really strong foundation.

22:18We have an ecosystem that's wrapped around it in how we work, what we work, etc. We've got to bring those parts together. And we have massive growth happening across the company globally from products, categories, the actual product and so on, but also geographic growth. and we have the risk of diluting our culture by bringing on thousands of new people. And that will take us to a bad place. That's not how SharkNinja operates. What happens when you've got people who come from other companies, especially seasoned, established, they have their way of doing it. Now, we want to amplify everything we're doing, so that's why we hired them.

23:00But there is a core way that we operate and that we are not going to change. We just want it to get better. And so we started with amplifying our culture. When I arrived, they had already what we called success drivers in place. Everybody was held accountable to those. Those were things like winning as a team sport, being rarely satisfied, which is continuous improvement on steroids, and so on. They had just rolled out leadership principles, which were things like building an unstoppable team, owning others' success, inspiring team members to win big. We are not an exceed goal kind of company.

23:39We are a breakthrough goal in partnership with a company called Gap International and one called GH Smart. So it's not about exceed a goal. It's about what's the breakthrough, what's the really disruptive one. They had just rolled those out. That had not been operationalized. That was our starting point. Everything starts and ends with your unstoppable team. If you don't have a team that's adopted the shark ninja mindset and that they're beyond rowing in the right direction, right, they are finding new rivers to row on, then we're just really going to be challenged and it doesn't work. So that was a really big focus for us.

24:16So we started with really training and educating people on the tenets of what that meant, behavioral characteristics. We reframed the entire recruiting process. We continue that work every day. We changed our performance management system, which was really kind of a click, click, click exercise on Microsoft Forms. No disrespect to Microsoft Forms, but we've advanced since then. And so we really looked at the life cycle of the team member and said, what are those key points that we really want to drive and amplify that culture? And by the way, where do we need to really get it right? If onboarding isn't really, really well done, the employee will come into our environment and draw from their own experience and they will dilute what is expected here.

25:04Quite frankly, they won't be successful here. So we really had to reframe what are we trying to accomplish and how for Shark Ninja, and then back into what are the people's strategies and the tactics to do that. And by the way, we were building all of this. None of this existed. Mark is an innovator, a genius around culture. This company is who he is and how he thinks. So the great benefit for us is we had Oz in front of the curtain that we could draw from and say, how should we think about this? How should we position that? Help us double click. By the way, we had extraordinary OGs that we brought in as cultural ambassadors to help us not only understand the behavioral side, original GOATs, the best of the best.

25:50Josh Bersin: Like the boat, yeah. So we were able to bring them in to say, how should the mindset and the behavioral expectations come together? But most importantly, and this is where many companies miss it, most importantly, how do we apply that to the actual work we're doing every day? Pictures on a wall is one thing, but that it actually is the way it works. When someone says, what is it like here? They're describing the marriage of that expectation, the how and the what, if you will. So from there, we really codified what is that mindset? What is that existential need to be the absolute best? Why is that so important for us?

26:32What does it actually look like behaviorally and operationally? And we just continued to pull layer after layer. In the nearly three years I've been here, I think we really codified the why, the what, the how, and then again, how to operationalize that. And every day, we're really satisfied. Every day, we've got an opportunity to do that better.

26:52Josh Bersin: My apologies for interrupting. No, no, this is fantastic. A couple more questions. So you had a lot of experience in a lot of industries with a lot of different kinds of companies. you come to this company that's already a very high-performing, culturally deep, people-centric business. I'm the HR expert. Here I am. I'm going to help you guys institutionalize and scale what you already have. What was your personal experience coming into a company that's already so good at this in a humble way? Yeah, yeah. This was not fixed. This was amplified. This was growth. So it amplifies the word. Yeah. Yes, that's right.

27:27Maybe a little professionalized as we build because we are this global powerhouse. There are certain things we have to have in place, need to have in place. So yeah, so it's funny. My very first day, one of my mentors, Josh Rubenstein from GH Smart, very first day says to me, Elizabeth, what we tell executives and leaders is forget everything you know. And think about it this way. He began the education of Shark Ninja. And he'd worked with Shark Ninja for over 10 years. So he was really deep inside.

27:57Josh Bersin: was really an inspiration to who we are today, all helping Mark frame up these many extraordinary ideas and how to operationalize them. Anyway, I thought to myself, hmm, isn't that why you hired me? And exactly how do I do that? One of my jobs in the past, I worked for a law firm for many years, but it had to do with jury preparation. And I always found it odd to tell jurors or potential jurors that when they say disregard what was just said, how do you actually teach your brain to do that? So fast forward, Josh says to me, set aside what you know and learn Shark Ninja. Now, I am a student of businesses, as evidenced by eight industries.

28:39I would often go into these new companies. I had no idea what they were talking about. So I speak multiple languages, and I would think to myself, they're speaking English, but I actually don't know what they're talking about. Let me tell you really fast, you learn to be a student of the business and you learn to be a student of people so that you can make an impact and a contribution. And so I put on my student hat and I took Josh's advice to listen, to ask a lot of questions, to learn and then leverage that foundation to make an impact. not the opposite, which is come in with all the answers and all the solutions and what I call at my last company-itis.

29:21My last company, we did it. My last company or best practice. That's my favorite one. Best practice is do this. It might be a best practice and it might be an extraordinary best practice for another company. But here there's a customization that might be important.

29:36Josh Bersin: Now, we're not arrogant. We are really humble. We're super learners. We're world-class problem solver, literally. And in order to do that, you have to be open. You have to be able to say, my baby's ugly. Like this solution maybe doesn't work. This product doesn't do it. You have to have the openness to listen and to get others who do, who know, that can build on those ideas. We're a highly test and learn and iterative organization. That openness is really a key to success for extraordinary leaders in general, but it's also a way to build resilience in your mindset. If you are so tied to the outcome that you are not open, that's an arrogance that is a sure way to lose.

30:19If you are tied to the mission, to the purpose of solving problems, delighting consumers with five-star products that will actually help them and their families to live their life better, then it doesn't matter if it's my answer or your answer, Josh. What matters is it's our answer. It's the best we have for today. And by the way, tomorrow, we're probably going to come up with something even better because we're going to be smarter. We're going to be able to parlay that into the next day and the next day.

30:47Josh Bersin: That was a wonderful conversation about how to think about your role as an HR leader. One more question that's a fairly big one, but I'd like to hear your thoughts. So the thing you mentioned a little while ago of bringing people into a company that's already very strong and very culturally deep, and they bring their experience and their baggage, so to speak, of what they've done before and what they think they want to create. And then they land in your company and they realize, whoa, this isn't the same. And then you're also hiring a lot of young people, new hires. Tell us a little bit about your early career program and how you, I don't want to use the word indoctrinate, but maybe acclimate senior people who've been around the block.

31:34Yes. So the idea is we are bringing on extraordinary talent at all levels. And we are buying those experiences. We are buying those capabilities. What is most important is that they are blending those. They are bringing in those experiences, those skills and so on, and helping us to build up. It's when you have to do it the same way, that's where there's a challenge. The assimilation, that's not a bad word. It actually is a really good one. And the reason for that is they want to come into the environment. They want to feel it. They want to see how we move. They want to understand why we make the decisions that we make, why a week-by-week level of performance is important, why we track maniacally progress.

32:21Why? Because to some it feels like micromanagement. Many leaders in this company prepare a weekly report that share the reflections of the week, the failures, the maybe few successes, the things that they're going to focus on. We're maniacally focused on priorities. Some people come into the organization and think, I have to report out every week to my boss what I accomplished. Like, what am I in early in my career? No, it is really to take a moment to reflect on where you are against where you're expected to be. And not just the list of activities, but are you driving the outcomes? Are you learning?

32:59Are you failing? Are you rinsing and repeating? Like, it's a reflection. In today's world, most people don't stop to even think about what they have for lunch, let alone what am I going to do next week that's going to drive the following week and really help us to create that differentiated experience that we're all driving towards. So that reflection. So assimilation, deep understanding, the what and the why is the success. We're not there yet. Let me tell you, my colleague Nuno and I are sitting through a cultural assimilation today and we're finding all kinds of opportunities globally. It is really important.

33:36It's easier to do in headquarters, but we have people around the world in lots of different places. Everyone has got to feel the oxygen of Shark Ninja and understand why that's important. So it's really bring everything that the person brings to the table together with Shark Ninja to amplify. It's not one or the other. I hope that answered your thought. No, it's fantastic.

34:01Josh Bersin: I think we're running out of time, but a couple of observations. You're a very intellectually smart company. It's obviously a very thoughtful company that's not growing through sheer sort of muscle, but through intelligence and strategy and focus on people, not just products and customers and marketing. Elizabeth, every time I talk to you, I just want to come sit with you and spend the day. So I just really think you're a unique person and I want to just congratulate you on all that you're doing there and obviously the rest of the company. I think you're going to really give the rest of the community that I support enormous number of good ideas and some really creative ways of thinking about the role.

34:42Josh Bersin: Let me give you one last opportunity to say of the things that you've learned the last three years here, are there one or two things that you really want people to remember or take home after they listen to this podcast? Thank you for that. Thank you for those comments about Shark Ninja and about me and the team. I will say a few things. One, I have watched and read about you for many years. And you will remember when we first met a few months ago, I walked in the room and I had this moment of, I'm standing and you were on video with Josh Burson. Like I had this kind of rock star celebrity. Now, I was in the hotel business for a long time.

35:20I saw a lot of celebrities and really important people. And I did not have that feeling that I had with you. So I want to thank you for the honor of being here and being with you. And I meant very genuinely everything I said that day on video. And I mean it when I say it here today. Thank you for that. Shark Ninja is a smart organization that is dedicated so much to its mission. That's why we feel the care. That's why you see this fast-paced growth. Our consumers need us. We have lots more ahead of us. We've only just started. But it comes from this place of this mission to positively impact people's lives in and out of their home.

36:02And by the way, have a lot of fun while they're doing it. Right. So it is a smart organization. I still, to this day, nearly three years, walk out of many meetings and say, goodness, those people are so smart and so capable, even if we're failing, even if we're trying to solve a problem. There's just so much dedication to it. And we thank all 4 ,000 plus strong of doing that. Lastly, I will say to your question, I think that the CHRO title or HR in general is really often misunderstood label. For me, CHRO is about business and people transformation, the business side to enable the success for sure.

36:40But the people transformation side is important. One of Shark Ninja's taglines is to help people accomplish more than they ever thought possible. And if you don't take that seriously, people don't know what they have in front of them. They don't know their potential. It takes someone and someones to really help to show that that's part of what we're trying to do to stretch, not break, but really stretch people in terms of what we are able to do. I bear that responsibility very seriously, live their best life, work their best life. That's what will really create that extraordinary. And then I want to end with a thank you for my Mark, Mark, our CEO.

37:18We have a masterclass in our partnership. I'm telling you, I worked for some extraordinary CEOs. I think he's my fifth or sixth one and a couple of founders within that. It's a masterclass in partnership and encouragement. Every day, it's lead, execute, drive, impact. he's not impressed at all with a great HR program. He immediately goes to what impact is it going to drive? What problem is it going to solve? How is this going to help us to be the absolute best? And as someone who's been doing this for a long time, I still think like a college kid, how do I tackle this project? I still think about how do I answer those questions?

38:00So it's a masterclass in partnership with your CEO and a master class to accomplish my personal vision, but Shark Ninja's vision to help people accomplish more than I ever thought possible. And thank you for giving me a few minutes to tell that story.

38:14Josh Bersin: Thank you, Elizabeth. This has been absolutely wonderful. So we'll wrap it up here and look forward to spending more time together. We will see you soon. Let's leave it at that. Thank you for everything. I have one more section here where I asked Elizabeth to describe their AI transformation, which I think you'll really enjoy listening to. So consider this like a little bonus section. I love that question around our innovation day and how we are leveraging AI for full adoption. For us, we call this the path to becoming an AI native company. So there were actually five key priorities for us. The first one was Jailbreak Shark Ninja, which is where we granted$1 million to give away in a global AI challenge.

38:59We invited every team member around the world to identify real business problems and opportunities that AI can unlock. These best ideas are now competing for awards and grants. And by the end of the year, we're going to happily give away that million dollars. There's some amazing things coming from that. Secondly, we launched this extraordinary event called Jailbreak Live. We essentially closed the business for four days, the entire company around the world. Meetings were canceled, non-critical work paused, cross-functional teams that came together around the world, building real AI solutions to real business problems.

39:38And from that came 400 ideas. We did six months of work in four days, Josh. Can you believe that? And we actually had a ton of fun doing it. We're going to do another round at some point soon in the future. The best entries are being built and deployed at scale. and it was across the organization. In departments such as engineering, product development, supply chain, commercial, everybody played an important part of Jailbreak Live. The next one that was really important for us was fluency for everyone. In some companies, they don't take the responsibility of educating and teaching people about AI.

40:18We believe very strongly it's important for everyone to get an understanding and learn how to live in the AI world. So we launched AI Academy, which is a tiered learning system. It has a credentialing arm to it, and it's where we started to meet them where they are. They take a competency assessment, and then we put them into curriculums and training programs at that place. And for our more advanced practitioners, we have university partners that we're leveraging their programs for an accreditation. So that fluency for everyone is very important for us. And then fourthly, a bet on the next generation.

41:00You know, a lot of companies are backing away from early talent. But for us, the next generation is absolutely critical. And so we're doing the opposite. We are building towards about 300 AI forward interns and co-ops by the end of the year. We call that jailbreak.edu. and we brought students together in our hacks at our Jailbreak live session. And they worked alongside business mentors, AI experts. And in fact, several of them were hired before they even left our building. It was an extraordinary group of talent. And so that was really important. We're actually continuing that shark program, Jailbreak.edu, as we move that around the globe.

41:41And then lastly, and very importantly, is some people have anxiety or concern about what AI might mean for them or their role. And so through our mindset performance coaches, whom we've hired in-house, we are helping people work through the concerns, potential fear, and how we turn that into productive energy and ownership. And so all of the items that I've mentioned to you help people to do that in a really productive way and staying at that high performance level. Now, why did we do all this? Because we believe in a top-down, bottom-up approach. We think that co-creating our future together is absolutely the way to go.

42:22And we think team members feel they own it. They're part of creating that future together. And it is what drives Shark Ninja's DNA and our outrageously extraordinary culture.