What Darren Huston Learned From Bill Gates? Source : www.bcbusiness.ca
Darren Huston, family farmhand, worked as the CEO of the $60 billion Train Group Inc., one of the most successful C-suite exports to move out of the province that you may have never heard of. Hope, B.C. In 2011, Darren Huston landed on the Amsterdam-based travel website Booking.com as CEO; In less than 3 years, he tripled the size of that operation, and then Darren Huston was named CEO of the parent company. In addition to Booking.com and the website to its name, the train's other online properties include Kayak, Rentalcars, Neighbors and Villas. This June, the open-tableble, buybooking app OpenTable, a restaurant reservation site in vogue at $ 2.6 billion, expanded into a new digital arena.
Is it true that even Darren Huston had never heard of Booking.com before he became a candidate for CEO? Darren Huston said Yes, this was partly due to the fact that the historical focus of both the Booking.com business, as well as brand awareness, has been in Europe. Darren Huston was attracted to the potential for growth, but Booking.com also adapted his passion for technology, travel, consumer-oriented business and leading people. In the Netherlands, it was always the biggest fear that Americans would come and run Booking.com, because the culture was too European. When they knew that Darren Huston is Canadian, it was a real positive and they were relieved.
There are countless other travel websites from Expedia to Travelocity. What’s Darren Huston competitive edge?
Darren Huston plan for the moment. He run the entire business on a quarter-on-quarter basis. They have an annual plan, but it is for board and not really how they think about things. They have a lot of success: how do they innovate against customer needs and can Darren Huston keep the team hungry and humble enough to move forward? Everything they have in terms of opportunity is largely in front of them.
Darren Huston called Bill Gates one of his role models. What did he gain from working with Bill? Darren Huston spent time with him when he was running Microsoft in Japan. Darren Huston said, “I really respect the fact that Bill Gates is a curious person and how much he reads. He has already solved a set of problems and now he wants to solve global health issues.� Darren Huston think it is very impressive for him to live two lives now - it is very surprising. Bill Gates is a person with very high values and very strong beliefs, but also just a very good person.
OpenTable seems to be a strange fit, given it’s the only property Darren have outside the travel realm. Why the acquisition?
Darren Huston said, OpenTable is a natural extension for us. The work they do day-to-day with restaurants fits well with the day-to-day work we do with accommodations. He Said, Our dream is to make OpenTable a truly global business, allowing our travelers to easily book restaurants wherever they are and to help restaurants build business with people from all over the world.
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