ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott On ‘Bold’ Expansion Plans, Innovations, New Chairman Role

Talk about ServiceNow’s third-quarter financial results. What’s the big takeaway?

I am super excited. We beat both our top and bottom line goals. And that seems to be a fairly rare thing to do these days in the market. So I’m super proud of the team. And you can see that businesses really are leaning into this generational shift from architectures that were built in the last century to platforms engineered to this century. They’re going for improved experiences. They need that for their customers, employees, and creators. And we‘re becoming the center of gravity for digital transformation in every industry and geography around the world. And I think it’s because our focus on value creation is literally unmatched in the industry in the marketplace today.

What part of ServiceNow’s revenue goes through indirect sales channels?

If you were to look at the overall revenue of the company, it’s a relatively small piece of the overall pie. But it’s one that‘s growing fast, and one that we’re looking to expand quickly. In fact, one of the things that we‘re doing today is announcing RiseUp with ServiceNow. RiseUp with ServiceNow emphasizes faster and more equitable career paths. And we’re looking to engage and skill one million people on ServiceNow’s platform by 2024. And we believe, according to the World Economic Forum, that this is an $11 trillion global GDP opportunity by 2028. And I think I’m under-calling it with a million. Sometimes people try to calm me down a little bit. But we’ll skill at least a million people. Now keep in mind, some of those people will work for ServiceNow. But most of those people will work for our customers and our partners as they expand their franchises on the ServiceNow platform.