LEADING THROUGH CHANGE: HOW DENISE DRESSER IS STEERING SLACK INTO NEW HORIZONS

Tech moves fast, and the executive is its vital cog. The story of how Denise Dresser, now Slack’s chief executive, took the reins of one of the world’s leading enterprise communications companies, and survived the tumult following the company’s coup that removed the company’s management, offers a compelling window into the drive and cunning at the top. Dresser spoke out about the tumultuous takeover at TechCrunch Disrupt this October.

THE EXECUTIVE TRANSITION: NAVIGATING SLACK'S LEADERSHIP CHANGES

But it also represented more than a career move. Dresser’s rise to the top job at Slack was one of many executive turnovers: in one year, Slack had had three CEOs. Executive turnover that fast can cause headaches operationally, but it also change the tenor of the team, dragging it into question marks about control and vision. Denise Dresser’s career move from Salesforce to Slack characterised a clash between enterprise and entrepreneurial qualities.

DENISE DRESSER: AN EXECUTIVE'S APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP

Dresser had spent more than a decade in roles such as chief of staff, general counsel and chief legal officer at Salesforce before getting promoted from her most recent position as head of corporate development to run Slack. It’s that executive background, and the quiet leadership style it suggests, that Dresser has brought to this sales executives’ meeting. She describes herself as having an accountant’s heart, with a focus on organisation and incremental steps that never lose sight of the organisational strengths in place. That she’s ready to question the status quo, to want to dig deeply into the operational efficiency of the company, while still embracing the organisation Slack had already built, is an approach we don’t often see in nuanced leadership profiles.

EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS: FIRESIDE CHAT AT TECHCRUNCH DISRUPT

A fireside chat with Denise Dresser, the chief people officer at Slack – recorded at TechCrunch Disrupt onstage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco – offers a chance to learn about the role of a top tech executive in navigating change and about Slack’s forward-looking direction of travel. The session is scheduled for 29 October.

CHARTING THE COURSE: SLACK'S EXECUTIVE VISION

But Dresser is positioning Slack not only to survive those pivots, but to expand once again. She has spent her career at Salesforce, but before that was at Arthur Andersen through its collapse into bankruptcy, and later at Oracle. Her background gives her a clear view of the path ahead for the company – both thanks to her decade at Salesforce and the years beforehand. Her work today is a project that requires different types of leadership that the tech sector didn’t even have a decade ago.

TECHCRUNCH DISRUPT 2024: A HUB FOR EXECUTIVE NETWORKING AND INNOVATION

TechCrunch Disrupt is a beacon for startups, founders and executives seeking to rise to the top in their category. Having Denise Dresser as a speaker emphasises the significance of the event: more than 10,000 leaders and pioneering thinkers will come together to network, exchange ideas and tap into their creativity and innovation. The discussions in the SaaS Stage, regarding software-as-a-service solutions and executive leadership, will undoubtedly ignite creativity and optimise resource allocation in the startup space.

WHY EVERY EXECUTIVE SHOULD EYE TECHCRUNCH DISRUPT

Indeed, for technical leadership navigating the intricacies of the tech industry, TechCrunch Disrupt is a barometer for staying abreast of the trends. TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2017. Photo by TechCrunchAttendees can expect to learn from experts such as Dresser, whose session is a preview of the level of insights and advice they can expect. If a leader wants to succeed in the SaaS era and beyond, this is the place to be.

A CLOser look at THE executive's role

Why does the same question change so much when addressed to an executive like Denise Dresser at the helm of Slack, a company in a rapidly changing corporate space? Doing the job of an executive is incredibly dynamic today, partly because the work itself – envisioning what a future environment will look like, building a team with the capability to get things done, and creating a culture that motivates people – isn’t just about leading and managing. It’s about imagining the future that will come into existence and building it based on the co-reative and complementary strengths of the team.

Shouldering this task, the executive becomes more complex and, we believe, more rewarding than ever before, as industry pioneers such as Dresser show us that leading a tech giant across economic transition is not just possible: it is fruitful; it creates new paths of innovation and growth.