Leading with Noble Purpose

Chapter 4Go Beyond the Numbers

Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.

—Galileo Galilei

Hootsuite is a Vancouver-based SaaS company founded by Ryan Holmes in 2008. Holmes started the company when he needed a tool to manage multiple social media networks at his digital services agency, Invoke Media. Finding that there was no product in the market offering all the features he wanted, Holmes and his colleagues chose to develop a platform of their own. They're now the most widely used social relationship platform in the world. Their clients include Sony Music Entertainment, Adidas, eBay, Orange, Australia Post, AstraZeneca U.S., and Levi Strauss & Co. In 2015, they were named a top-rated Enterprise Social Media Management platform by software users on TrustRadius, the leading peer review site for business software.

Hootsuite's NSP is: We empower our customers to turn messages into meaningful relationships.

Holmes says, “Our purpose enables brands and consumers to take advantage and embrace social, allowing anyone to tap into its potential and revolutionize the way in which they communicate with their customers.”

Chief Revenue Officer Steve Johnson joined the company as employee number 27 in North America. Johnson was an established technology executive who had been involved in a number of other fast-growth companies, as well as established firms like Constant Contact, Blackbaud, and Scopus. He joined Hootsuite because he believed in the power of social media. ...