Ed Boyajian of EDB: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a C-Suite Executive
The idea that a CEO is unapproachable is a myth. I see myself as a colleague and a teammate to my staff. I think this goes towards the concept of servant leadership, which I subscribe to. Of course, the CEO has a very important and prominent position of authority, accountability, and responsibility, and that may conjure a notion that the CEO position doesn’t demand the same type of collaboration as other jobs. To do the job well, the opposite is true. The role demands involvement and constant communication.
As part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company” I had the pleasure of interviewing Ed Boyajian.
Ed Boyajian, President and CEO of EDB, drives the development and execution of EDB’s strategic vision and growth strategy in the database industry. Ed joined EDB in 2008 after six years at Red Hat, where he rose to Vice President and General Manager of North America. He played a central leadership role in the development of the modern business model for bringing open source to enterprises. Before that, he was Vice President of Red Hat’s global OEM business, responsible for all partnerships, including the early Linux adoption by HP, IBM, and Dell.
As a 15+ year veteran of the open source software movement, Ed is a seasoned enterprise software executive who emphasizes that EDB must be a technology-first business in order to lead the open source data management ecosystem. He is adamant that great technology above all else drives market leadership. Ed believes strongly in the importance of investing in partnerships across the open source and commercial software and hardware ecosystem. Ed served as a Captain in the U.S. Army and trained as an Airborne Ranger. Within EDB, he coaches and encourages each employee to hone leadership skills. Ed is known for his passion, relentless energy, and strategic leadership.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I started my career in the Army as a second lieutenant and served overseas. I always had the ambition to be involved in entrepreneurial ventures, so as a way to transition out of the military, I went to business school. Soon after, I joined an early-stage non-tech company in sales, which felt like a good fit for my leadership background. Shortly into that role, I became more aware of the technology market. The Internet was really starting to become popular, and I made a career switch, diving head first into the tech world, leading sales teams in some early-stage companies. Eventually, one was bought by Red Hat, and that launched my career in open source technology over 20 years ago. My experience in building a business around open source was really defined at Red Hat, and I’ve carried those learnings to EDB. I’ve been here for almost 13 years, and many of the things I learned in the early days of open source adoption apply here, but so many things have changed. Today, we don’t have to evangelize open source or subscription licenses, which now seem somewhat commonplace. We’re perfecting those models, but more importantly, we’re building stronger and healthier open source communities, particularly Postgres.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
In 2008, I decided that I was going to take a job as a first-time CEO here at EDB. It had been a lifelong ambition of mine to lead a company. I had a great career at Red Hat, and I was comfortable there, but I pushed myself to grow out of my comfort zone because I had a bigger leadership ambition. At that time, I knew about Postgres, and I philosophically believed, and still believe now, that Postgres could be transformative in the tech world.
When I came to EDB, as part of the interview process, they asked me to be involved in figuring out if the company was going to need to raise money. I looked at all the financials and knew that the answer was yes. In early 2008, the market was still doing fine. I went to the board and said I’d sign on the condition that they would commit to giving me an additional equity investment for the company if I had any struggles raising money. So, we pre-negotiated that money. I left Red Hat in June of that year and immediately started looking to fundraise for EDB. When the market eventually crashed, there was no money to be found for a company the size of EDB. That investment I negotiated before I started proved the difference between a momentary market phenomenon and the survival of the company. EDB burned through a lot of the original money, and all my drive, all my ambition, and all the will in the world wouldn’t have overcome our early financial hurdle without that capital.
It was an incredibly powerful lesson about the fragility of early-stage companies and how much you have to think about what needs to be in place to endure difficult times. If you look at the landscape of early-stage open source companies, specifically early-stage open source database companies, it’s littered with roadkill. Thirteen years later, I can remember those periods where EDB hit other difficult moments, much like that first one. Still, my early experience taught me a powerful lesson about the importance of building a company that can endure over the long term.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
It was my first day on the job in the Army. I was a newly minted second lieutenant, and I volunteered to be a platoon leader in Korea of a unit with both American and Korean soldiers. It was my first time living out of the country. I got to my first duty assignment and my new company commander picked me up to take me off to our base in Korea’s countryside. I remember the first thing he said to me after we said hello. He said, “Lieutenant. I believe there are two kinds of people in this world: those who make things happen and those who let things happen. Which one are you?” While I’d always thought of myself as a person who focused on making things happen, that was a kind of a crystallizing moment for me, and in some ways, it has defined a lot of my approach and career since then.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on your leadership style? Can you share a story or an example of that?
Two books come to mind, and they might be surprising, but are a bit of a tell on my style, nature, and view of what it takes to build a durable company. The first is Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing. It’s a remarkable story of leadership, perseverance, and as the name says, endurance in the presence of seemingly insurmountable odds. It’s a beautiful reminder of the innate strengths each of us possesses that allow us to overcome our limitations, as well as the power of leadership in bringing those strengths out.
The second book is called Going the Distance: One Man’s Journey to the end of His Life, by George Sheehan. Sheehan was an accomplished doctor and ultra-marathon runner who reflects on the intersection of those experiences as he approaches his own death. The book includes a truly inspiring and brilliant quote that resonates with me and that I always keep close at hand: “Excellence is not something attained and put in a trophy case. It is not sought after, achieved and, thereafter, a steady-state. It is a momentary phenomenon, a rare conjunction of body, mind, and spirit at one’s peak. Should I come to that peak I cannot stay there. I must start each day at the bottom and climb to the top. And then beyond that peak to another and yet another.”
In thinking about the challenges of building a customer-centered, enduring, strong, and high-performance business over the last 13 years, there have been numerous extraordinary challenges (the market crash of ’08, COVID, etc). Without resolve, vision, and drive, these difficulties could have easily stalled or seriously hurt the company. But like Shackelton and Sheehan, we overcame them.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
In almost every circumstance, the thing that makes EDB unique is our people. Having been here for almost 13 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many different colleagues during different phases of the company’s growth. We’ve always focused on building a strong foundation, which requires bringing a lot of operational discipline and the right talent to each team. This focus has manifested itself in 45 consecutive quarters of growth. When you dig into that, you start to ask, are you good or are you lucky? When COVID hit, we had to dramatically shift the way we did things. We reacted very quickly in March 2020, in a meaningful enough way to be ahead of the curve. In the intervening period that elapsed, the team not only went fully remote, their commitment and dedication were activated across every part of the company in over 27 countries. The ability to adapt quickly was just astounding, and we had our most successful year ever — during a pandemic. I think that is a true testimony to how great our people are. So I say good, not lucky.
The road to success is hard and requires tremendous dedication. This question is obviously a big one, but what advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your success?
I say this to my own kids — who are not really kids anymore and off pursuing their own careers — self-awareness is a vital quality. It’s easy for each of us to have big ambitions that are inspired by outside factors, but it’s critical to be clear on who you are, what you value, and what’s important to you at your core. For younger people, that’s even harder because some of those things are still being revealed. However, I think having deep self-awareness and a good, honest self-dialogue will guide you. I say this to many people and young leaders especially. You need to know yourself and love yourself, because, if you’re going to aspire to leadership positions, so much of that journey demands operating independently in thought and action. Over many years, I discovered that the biggest fights I have every day are with myself. Knowing how to navigate the challenges of life and leadership takes practice, skill and constant reflection.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a C-Suite executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what a C-Level executive does that is different from the responsibilities of other leaders?
First and foremost, my job is to set a vision for the organization and that requires that I be clear-minded and assertive. In a way, I set the North star for the company. I spend most of my time communicating and ensuring there’s consistency across all the areas of the business. This is a continuous effort. It’s really easy for individual teams and groups to become siloed and focus more narrowly than they should. My job is to weave a thread that ties it all together, delivering a coherent vision throughout the whole organization.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive? Can you explain what you mean?
The idea that a CEO is unapproachable is a myth. I see myself as a colleague and a teammate to my staff. I think this goes towards the concept of servant leadership, which I subscribe to. Of course, the CEO has a very important and prominent position of authority, accountability, and responsibility, and that may conjure a notion that the CEO position doesn’t demand the same type of collaboration as other jobs. To do the job well, the opposite is true. The role demands involvement and constant communication.
In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Having now been with the company as long as I have and navigating the various growth stages, the role and importance of a board are underestimated. The CEO and board partnership is critical to success and growth. In the earlier stages where investors might come from different firms, who may have different priorities and objectives, keeping board members harmonized and aligned is a big part of the job. In later stages, that becomes easier. I’ve navigated three different boards, so I can say with certainty that each is unique based on each individual’s nature and the firms themselves. That’s an easy thing to overlook.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading From the C-Suite”? Please share a story or an example for each.
One thing I wish someone would have told me was how quickly a successful company will evolve through the early stages, and that the people who are really valuable contributors in those stages might not be right for the business at the next stage. This can happen over a matter of months. You need to be fluid and dynamic when considering how to deal with that. When I came to EDB in 2008, the people who could handle running the business with me had a certain skill set. I found out very quickly that my vision for EDB and the needs of the company required changes to that team as the company became operationally bigger and the strategies got more complex. I’m not sure I planned appropriately for the frequency of change as the company grew, especially early on.
I briefly mentioned this, but I wish someone would have told me more about boards. Boards are complex teams and require meaningful attention and CEO leadership. A big part of the CEO position is working with the board. They are instrumental in setting direction and also need guidance and leadership from the CEO. Transparent, fearless communication is an essential skill for a CEO to have.
Another thing I wish I had known was the importance of building relationships with a few CEOs in the industry to act as a sounding board. You’ll face many topics and issues alone, and it helps to have some outside support. Sometimes people have already dealt with the same problems, and if not, they can likely provide a perspective to help you approach those problems with a clear mind. This has been extremely helpful for me recently as we pivoted strategy due to COVID. For example, I was talking with the CEO of a public company recently, who commented that he needed to give his team extra time off. He wanted to make a point of giving everyone a long weekend within the coming month. When the pandemic hit, I remembered that conversation, which led to EDB starting “Wellness Fridays” where we give our teammates every third Friday off during COVID.
It also would have been good to know that it’s important to have a good finance partner, in addition to me, look through the books before starting a job. For example, early on, I missed the details on some debt with covenants that I didn’t understand and needed to rework. Also, I didn’t pick up on the exorbitant rent for office space the company was paying that wasn’t adding value in any way. Of course, I had reviewed the financials and thought at the time I’d been pretty careful, but in hindsight it wasn’t deep enough. This wouldn’t have changed my decision, but it would have been useful to have an outside partner review those numbers more closely.
Finally, as I mentioned above, when I joined EDB, I pre-negotiated additional equity investment upfront from the investors in case the market dried up. No one told me to do this. Fortunately, I thought of this myself and am now happy to share this advice with others: expect uncertainty and plan for it.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I tend to think of the smaller things that can make a bigger difference.
My experience starting in the army as a platoon leader in Korea, with both American and Korean soldiers in my unit and continuing to EDB with colleagues from 27 different countries, has shown me the power that a diverse team of people can create. These teams I’ve led have been more innovative and effective and have delivered better outcomes.
My background as a grandson of immigrants and my career experience was a catalyst for me to support immigration and citizenship in the US. I’m on the board of directors of a nonprofit organization, Project Citizenship, and we’re helping legal permanent residents here in Massachusetts get their citizenship. Unfortunately, in recent years, immigration has become a divisive and difficult topic. America is at our core an amalgamation of peoples from all over the world. My grandparents were immigrants from Armenia, and I think we’ve drifted from understanding and embracing the value of our diversity. Citizenship empowers individuals, brings families together, and builds more cohesive communities. For me personally, I want to help illuminate the value of that diversity not just in business but in our communities and society. I think we’d all do well to feel energized by the good things that come from our differences.
How can our readers further follow you online?
You can follow us at https://www.enterprisedb.com/ or @EDBPostgres
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
