I think our clients trust us with their most critical problems. They trust us with the transformation that will enable them to, you know, not only succeed today, but to be players and leaders in their industry. Today, I'm joined by Bob Van Bebber, who is Chief Delivery Officer at Publicis Sapient.
It's great to be here, Alex. Looking forward to the discussion.
So what does the word delivery mean in the context of what we do here at Publicis Sapient?
You know, I get asked that a lot because some people equate delivery actually to project management. So when they come here and we're kind of going through what are the various roles at the company, you know, when we're talking about agile program managers, sometimes they'll say, oh, that's delivery. I'm like, no. You know, to me, delivery is a culmination of like all of our speed capabilities to solve the client's problem. And by solve the client's problem, I mean deliver the impact that we committed to. And that's an important, to me, that's an important nuance. So, you know, delivery is the sum total of everything we do resulting in the impact that we committed to make. You know, one of the things that we talk about a lot here are speed, our speed capabilities. So that's strategy, products, experience, engineering, data, and AI.
One of the things that I'm curious about is that a lot of our competitors have the same speed capabilities, and sometimes even our clients in-house have speed capabilities to some extent. So what do we mean when we say speed? And when we talk about it as a differentiator, what are we really talking about? What makes PS's approach to speed different?
I think PS's approach to speed is different in the way that we think about the integration of those ingredients. Like you mentioned, you can go to another company and find, you know, the ingredients of speed, but it doesn't mean that their culture, their way of working, and the way that they join those ingredients together, like a master chef would versus someone that's just serving you, you know, a good piece of meat or a good dessert.
If you had to boil down the secret to Publicis Sapient's success into one word, what would that word be?
For me, that word is commitment. I believe that we have a unique commitment to our client success and the impact that we are partnering with them to create. And I believe like no other firm out there, we take that commitment very seriously. We value it, you know, above any individual component of our performance. And I think our clients know that. I think our clients then in turn trust us with their most critical problems. They trust us with the transformation that will enable them to, you know, not only succeed today, but to be players and leaders in their industry in the future.
I'm curious what your pitch is to talent who you want to join Sapient, and then actually what ends up getting them to stay at Sapient?
I think early on, where we really set the hook is the nature of the work that we do, the nature of the problems that we solve, and the track record we really have of doing these things at scale on the forefront of, you know, the industry from a, you know, a solution standpoint. And I think people get really excited to come here, solve some of the most difficult problems in the industries with what is, I think, widely known to be, you know, a great pool of talent. You know, people that work well together to, you know, not only solve those problems, but to grow each other and really get to, you know, kind of foundationally different places through the experience that they have together.
So if you're talking to a job candidate, someone who's eager to join our 20,000 person global delivery team, what would you recommend that they emphasize in their job interview?
I mean, I would recommend a lot of things go back to values for me, our core values. And I tend to be looking for attributes of those values in the interview because as many things as I think can be, you know, taught, learned, and kind of adapted to, I think, you know, someone, for example, that truly is collaborative, that values being part of a team, you know, somebody that really puts client impact and, you know, delivering to our commitments first, somebody that's willing to be open about things that are going great and maybe things that aren't. Those are the attributes that I look for the most. And if I were coaching, you know, someone coming into an interview process here, I'd be, you know, hey, I can see your qualifications in the resume. I can understand your experiences through the things that you've done, but show me that you really can work in the way that we want to work together here, which is, I think, most represented in our core values.
Bob Van Beber, Chief Delivery Officer at Publicis Sapient, thank you so much for joining me today.
My pleasure, Alex. Thanks for having me.