Laszlo Bock

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Bestselling Author and Former SVP of People Operations at Google; Founder of Humu and Gretel.ai

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Laszlo Bock: Biography at a Glance

  • Laszlo Bock is the former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, responsible for attracting, developing, retaining, and delighting “Googlers.”
  • During Laszlo’s tenure, Google was named the Best Company to Work more than 30 times around the world and received over 100 awards as an employer of choice. He was named “Human Resources Executive of the Year” by HR Executive Magazine.
  • He went on to found Humu, a platform that drives behavioral change with the power of people science and machine learning, resulting in measurably more productive, innovative, inclusive, and happy workplaces.
  • His latest company Gretel.ai, a synthetic data platform, allows users to generate artificial datasets with the same characteristics as real data so you can develop and test AI models without compromising privacy.
  • Laszlo's New York Times bestselling book, Work Rules!, has been published in over 20 languages and garnered numerous "Book of the Year" honors.
  • Laszlo is a sought-after expert in people management, entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology. 

Videos

Biography

Laszlo Bock is the Founder of Humu, Inc., a company with a mission to make work better everywhere, for everyone, through people science, machine learning, and a little bit of love.

Laszlo is best known for serving 10 years as the Senior Vice President of People Operations and a member of Google’s management team where he helped develop its legendary workplace culture. Growing the company from ~6,000 to ~72,000 employees and from $6B to over $90B in revenue, he was responsible for ensuring the firm’s culture remained innovative and robust. During his tenure, Google was recognized over 150 times as an exceptional employer, including being named the #1 Best Company to Work for in the United States eight times and every year since 2012.

His New York Times bestselling book, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google to Transform How You Live and Lead, has been published in over 20 languages and garnered many awards.

Laszlo is credited with creating the field of “People Analytics,” the application of academic-quality rigor and Google-paced innovation to people management. He also led the development of the Google Cloud Jobs API and what is now known as Google for Jobs, with a goal of solving unemployment by better matching people and jobs through applied machine learning and people analytics.

His latest company, Gretel.ai, is a synthetic data platform that allows users to generate artificial datasets with the same characteristics as real data in order to develop and test AI models without compromising privacy.

Previously, Laszlo served in an executive role at General Electric, and before that was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. He has served on the Boards of Pomona College, Evolv (acquired by Cornerstone), and Agilone. He was previously named “HR Professional of the Decade” and “Human Resources Executive of the Year” by Human Resources Magazine.

Laszlo earned a bachelor's degree in international relations from Pomona College, graduating in three years, and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Topics

The Future of Work
Work Rules!arrow-down

Insights from inside Google and elsewhere to transform how you live and lead.
Laszlo Bock's New York Times bestselling "Work Rules!" synthesizes a decade of explosive growth at Google, the latest cutting-edge academic research, and examples from the worlds of sports, art, nutrition, and business into 10 steps any organization can take to make work better. He explains how to build an unbeatable culture and hire better, why you should "pay unfairly", when to be frugal and when to be generous, and why your smallest actions can have the biggest impact. Taken together, he offers a roadmap to building an unbeatable organization. As John Doerr, managing director of the seminal venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers explained, "these principles are the handbook for high performance teams that win."

How to Find Your Deeper Meaningarrow-down

Some people work for a check, and some work to climb a ladder. But others work because they know deep in their souls that their work matters and that they are building something even greater than themselves.

No one understands this more than Laszlo Bock, who stepped away from the role-of-a-lifetime as SVP of People Operations at Google to start his own HR software firm. Why? In his own words, he wanted to “keep learning and growing,” and find out if he could make work better for everyone, everywhere.

During this keynote or moderated conversation, Bock explains how to find the deeper meaning in your own organization's work and to cultivate that connection to your people. He explains that if you want to be surrounded by passionate, motivated, high performing people, you need to connect them to a mission that matters.

Make Technology a Part of Your People Strategyarrow-down

Driving culture and organizational transformation has often been left to vague notions of “trusting your gut” and “best practices.” Laszlo Bock, CEO and Founder of Humu, believes that making people happy and motivated is the biggest key to true change.

This keynote or moderated conversation explores how advances in behavioral and computer science have converged to aid in the transformation of cultures and companies – and how these technologies can unlock amazing leaps in performance, retention, inclusion, innovation, and happiness. He shows how the technology Humu has developed can bridge the gap in order to create a data-driven approach that leads to a more personal touch.

Bock also insists that there is no single path to innovation and creativity. Different situations, different teams, and different problems all require different approaches. Drawing heavily on Google's history of innovation, Bock also details why the best way to innovate is to innovate in many ways.

What CEOs Can Do to Build Strong Workplace Culturearrow-down

In order to be at the forefront of tomorrow's workforce, future CEOs will need to learn some critical skills that will help them build a culture that will draw and retain employees. Laszlo Bock, CEO and Founder of Humu, and former SVP of People Operations at Google, provides key advice that CEOs can use to help reshape their organizations.

“Culture shows up in every aspect of how you do business,” Bock says. “How you interact with one another on your team, how you treat your customers, and, of course, the small stuff like whether you're a Coke or a Pepsi company. I repeat this classic line from management expert Peter Drucker all the time: 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast.'”

This keynote or moderated conversation will touch on topics like authenticity and honesty, and how acting “on intuition” is no longer the right decision. It will also explore a fact-based approach to work and hiring that puts objective assessments at the forefront of job decisions.

Bock also shares how Google built their people analytics powerhouse; how to move your organization's analytic capabilities from description to prediction; and how the latest technologies can unlock tremendous performance, retention, inclusion, innovation, and even happiness.

Drive Massive Transformation with the Smallest of Nudgesarrow-down

There's a reason why most transformations – be it personal or professional, individual or organizational – fail to deliver on their promises. Laszlo Bock, CEO and Founder of Humu and former SVP of People Operations at Google, shares the latest science and case studies showcasing how “nudges” – tiny, highly targeted, and customized interventions – are the key to energizing people and organizations and mobilizing them to drive real change.

When it comes to organizational transformation, “change at scale is almost impossible using traditional methods,” Bock says. “You can have all the consultants and top-down change programs you want. But the dominant strategy for most people is to duck their heads, passively resist, and wait until the latest flavor of the month program expires.”

“If you want real, enduring, transformative results,” he continues, “You need to activate everyone. And there's no better way to do that than nudges.”

With a dash of humor and anecdotes from his time at Google, Bock draws on Nobel prize-winning research and life-changing stories to illustrate how to implement change – in all types of organizations, and in our day-to-day lives. Bock shows that massive growth and transformation are possible – whether your goal is to finish your first marathon, implement an innovative idea, or generate an extra $400 million a year in profits.

Laszlo was amazing! He is such a great speaker.

HSM Brazil

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