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Bijal Shah

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22

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2024-06-11

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2024-06-11

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1. “Yeah, I think it's been a good reminder for me of the importance of making sure that I continue to live each day to the values that are important to me that I prioritize and spend time on things that are meaningful in this world and that I believe are going to drive impact and that I ensure that I take care of my health and my well-being and do the best that I can to play offense on that, knowing that life will throw curveballs and that you can't predict exactly what's going to happen and when it's going to happen. And I think having the right support system around you and the right mindset at the end of the day, I think is really important.”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

2. “I mean, I think it'll drive awareness, but more importantly for me, first I love sports. And, you know, I've spent a lot of time thinking about athletic careers and second acts for those. That's not very long as a pro athlete playing in a sport that you've dedicated your whole life to. And so I do think it's really important that for athletes in particular, whether they're Olympians or Paralympians or not, that they have the ability to invest in themselves in educating themselves equally as in investing in their athletic careers, skilling and career mobility provider for Team USA is way more about how do we support athletes on their second act. And Bob, like I don't care if it's 10 of them or a thousand of them, it's a really important need and a thing that I think we owe to these athletes who spend so much time doing something and really do need help.”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

3. “I think she's a great storyteller and has the ability to understand how to break something down or make something relevant to a wide audience of individuals. And when we think about who we serve, we're trying to serve the broad American population and we're trying to ensure that the content we deliver and the learning marketplace that we curate applies to a broad population. And so yeah, I think there are things to learn about her approach, the ability for people to feel inspired and motivated by what she does, I think, are all learnings.”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

4. “Yes, and yes. First of all, I happen to love her music. I think she's an amazing lyricist. I think that she knows how to create, write, and produce a hook that stays in your head for a very long time. And as someone who grew up in kind of the world of product, the stickiness aspect of what she creates is genius, in my opinion. And then, yes, she is one of the savviest businesswomen I have ever heard of based on what I know about how she runs her operations, how she treats her team, how she enables her business and continuing to grow that business. She's an icon from a business perspective as well in my mind and very much someone that I fangirl wholeheartedly”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

5. “We've been pretty lucky in that we have employer partners who really do view this as a business imperative in order to have the workforce of the future and in order to make sure that they have people that they need in very critical roles. I also think that they are seeing in the broader labor market that going out and finding that talent, there is talent on the market, but finding the talent that has that specific skill set to bring inside their organization is actually quite challenging to find. And so their desire very much is to find people inside their own organization who they can skill. And so I do think at least for us, we are working with those employers who are kind of leading the conversation and leading on the solution that's most important for them to drive their business strategies.”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

6. “It's very much a part of our growth, but maybe not in the way that you think about it. How do we help our employer partners as well as employees understand how the future of work is going to change for their specific roles as AI continues to get adopted in the workforce? And for the tasks that they do every single day, which ones do we expect to get augmented or automated? And if those things get augmented and automated, then where should they be spending their time? And how do we make sure they get skilled for the role? And so we are using it to provide better insights to both the employee and the employer on exactly what they need to do next.”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

7. “There are 85 million adults working in the United States who need access to Guild, and so we're nowhere near done. We also have a lot of opportunity to build adjacent products and deliver on more specific or niche needs of the workforce. When we think about where America is headed from a workforce transformation perspective, there is so much to do in this country to upskill and reskill the notion around the restructuring was more about how do we put even more investment into growth opportunities and less so about right sizing because we're worried about growth.”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

8. “I did know that when I took the opportunity, that was something in order to continue to ensure that we were building a sustainable business, that this would be something that I would have to do. It is the hardest thing I've had to do in my career and something that I knew was going to have to come with the territory and the job and also made it something where I couldn't take the job lightly”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

9. “Yeah, I think their honest answer is yes And mainly because I had never imagined that this would be the role that I would play inside of guild, I didn't expect Rachel to go anywhere if you had asked me, like, do I want to be CEO of this business one day, let alone CEO somewhere else? My answer would have been, I don't know. If you had asked me that question 15 years ago, by the way, I would have said yes. I want to be CEO. And then something along the way changed. And I'm like, I'm good behind the scenes. And so I think that there was still some hesitation just because it's a new role and there's a lot of gravity to the role. And there's a lot of people that you're either going to like make proud or let down in some way. And there's a lot of really hard decisions to make as you continue to grow, you know, a high growth business. It's really messy. And so, yeah.”

   2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

10. “Talking to every single one of our customers, either in person or through Zoom and understanding what's working, what's not working, what we could do better. And I thought I'd face a lot of resistance. And people were like, yep, that sounds great. You should do it. And so there's some surprises or delightful surprises, I would say.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

11. “When you're at the top, the decisions that I make and what we ultimately end up doing, they truly do rest on my shoulders. And I think I had an experienced that type of burden and responsibility at this type of scale before. There's a weight and a gravity to it that I think you can't fully appreciate until you do the job. There are also some other things around, you know, changes I wanted to make or things I thought were important for us to put at play that before I'd have to go get alignment from many other people to actually enable. And there's some amazing thing that happens when you become the CEO that people just say like, yes, we can do that. And so I try to like use that very, very sparingly. But there are times where I get really excited about something. I'm currently on a customer listening tour. So going around the country.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

12. “Yeah, I think there are things that were surprising. So one, the job at the top is truly lonely. And I think when you're on executive team, you know, if something's not going well or you're upset about something, there's someone to talk with and be like, ugh, I'm annoyed at X or Y or Z.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

13. “It was not clear what the recovery plan or timeline will look like. The recovery on strokes are quite variable. She was 34 when she had the stroke, the ability to recover at 34 is wildly different than the ability to recover at 65. So I think in the back of my mind, I thought, yeah, she'll come back. And so that's how we operated, except that the board and Rachel both made it clear to me right after I took on the interim CEO job, they were like, to be clear, the title says interim CEO and it's your job to make sure you act like the CEO. The interim is just there because there is another CEO who's on leave. And it was really great to also hear that from Rachel. She was like, you know what to do with this business? You know, this business better than anyone. Go do the things you need to do to make sure this business. Continues to thrive.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

14. “Hey boss Beach, are you Boston? And it was incredible. I wasn't sure what to expect. And it just kind of removed my anxiety and it was off limits to talk about work. But if you have met Rachel, Guild is her third baby. She says that to everyone that will listen to her say that. It's a core part of who she is. And repeatedly, she would ask me questions. And repeatedly, I'd have to say, we can't talk about that right now. I've been instructed that I can't see you again if we have conversations about guilt.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

15. “I did not communicate with her for over a month, and I had asked a few times to see her, but she really was focused on her recovery. The first time I did get to see her, I went to her hospital room. We've worked together for six years. We don't always agree on everything. And I remember telling her dad, like, I just want to argue with her again about something. And he's like, that time will come. I hadn't seen her until I got to go to the hospital. And I remember being super nervous and not knowing what to expect. I mean, she had a stroke. And so there were obviously physical differences, but from like a mental agility and sharpness and awareness and ability to inspire me in some ways, like no change in that. And as soon as I... Walked in the door. I just remember her saying to me,”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

16. “There was a business continuity plan in place, and so it was known that likely it would mean that I would step up, but the continuity plan doesn't really contemplate months or even years of something happening. And so, you know, I had very frank conversation with the board about why it would be a good idea to keep me in as interim CEO, what the gaps would be, what the areas of opportunities are, who else is on the executive team, and is there someone else better suited? I asked the executive team if they thought there was someone better suited once we realized it wasn't a few weeks and it was going to be at least several months. I thought it was really important for us to make sure that we were having a conversation about who is the right person to be leading this business, because first and foremost, I really care about the mission of what Guild does and that it continue to.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

17. “Rachel is in the hospital in critical condition and in the ICU. I am reckoning with my own postpartum. I have a new baby. I'm struggling with breastfeeding. I remember turning to my husband and being like, I don't know how I'm going to do this. And my husband, Amit, was like, you're going to put one foot in front of the other and you're just going to get through every single day and every member of the executive team and the leadership team rose to the occasion. I showed up on Monday. They asked what I needed. They said they have my back. And I felt incredibly supported.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

18. “Yeah, that's correct. I'm not sure exactly what time she had had the stroke, but she was found on her patio in the morning by her aunt who happened to be walking by, and it's a miracle that she found her and she found her in time and knew exactly what to do and exactly what was happening.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

19. “As you can imagine, the board's super concerned about Rachel, as was I and everyone else who is now learning about what had happened. I then called the executive team and then the following Monday stepped back into the business.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

20. “Yeah, so last summer, in the middle of August, I was out on parental leave. I had just had a newborn baby managing what I would describe as postpartum symptoms after having a pretty tough delivery. And at about seven o'clock in the morning, I got a phone call from someone in Rachel's family and they said, Rachel went to the hospital. We need you to clear her calendar. And I said, I'm on parental leave. Is this something that's urgent? And is she going to be okay? And they said, we don't know we'll call you back. A few hours later, I got a phone call from her dad explaining that Rachel had had a stroke and that she had been sent to the best care facility in Colorado, but that I needed to call the board of directors. I called the board of directors. I let them know what happened.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

21. “We work with some of the world's largest employers to help enable their employee population to get upskilled and reskilled. We come to those employer partners with a curated learning marketplace of offerings. Those employers fund the education experience for those employees, and then they get certifications, degrees, they finish their high school diploma, they get skilled in very specific roles or pathways so that they can hopefully continue to grow at their existing employer or find new opportunities in the future.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

22. “There was a business continuity plan in place, and so it was known that I would step up. Remember turning to my husband and being like, I don't know how I'm going to do this. I am reckoning with my own postpartum. I have a new baby. I have a three-year-old as well. And my husband was like, you're going to put one foot in front of the other and you're just going to get through every single day.”

    2024-06-11 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT