Rob Chesnut - Intentional Integrity
“In this world where we are increasingly interconnected, the focus on integrity has gone up. Integrity is about doing the right thing and going beyond the law.”
BIO
Rob Chesnut is formerly the Chief Ethics Officer and General Counsel of Airbnb, Inc. Rob is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia. He worked for 14 years with the U.S. Justice Department, where he prosecuted bank robberies, kidnappings, murder, and espionage cases, including the prosecution of CIA employee Aldrich Ames. He joined eBay in 1999 as its third lawyer, where he led eBay’s North America legal team and later founded the Internet’s first ecommerce person to person Trust and Safety operation. Rob subsequently spent nearly 6 years as the General Counsel and first attorney at digital education leader Chegg, where he helped take the company public in 2013. He joined Airbnb in 2016, where he grew the legal team from 30 to over 150 legal professionals in 20 offices around the world. His team led initiatives to promote home sharing and address regulatory issues with local governments and landlords around the world. Rob developed a popular interactive employee program, Integrity Belongs Here, to help drive ethics throughout the culture at the company. He is also the author of Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution.
Entire Conversation [41 min]
Synopsis
Integrity is at the heart of human interaction. In this conversation, we will start with the story of Rob and how he transitioned from being a federal prosecutor to helping tech companies to act with integrity. Integrity is more important than ever in this highly connected world. It is no longer sufficient to focus only on profits, to do only the minimum as required by law, and to care only about shareholders. Companies are now under pressure to do the right thing and to think beyond profits. They can no longer use the letter of the law as its minimum standard. We will talk about Airbnb, eBay, and Etsy. We will also talk about Facebook and why it is no longer possible for companies to do nothing. Every leader must go beyond the minimum and do the right thing in this new era where everyone is always watching.
Highlights from our conversation
Origin story: The why behind intentional integrity [7 min]
Defining Integrity [<2 min]
“Integrity is about your North Star - what you stand for and what you believe in.”
Do people care about integrity now? [<1 min]
“Integrity is often revealed in tough times. Those times reveal character. How you handle situations during tough times gets remembered. I think integrity is more important than ever.”
Doing the right thing at eBay [2min]
“Just because it is legal doesn’t necessarily mean you should allow it.”
How to decide what is right or wrong [2 min]
What makes Brian Chesky a strong leader? [<2min]
“Brian is always curious.”
The cost of NOT acting with integrity [3 min]
“Companies that don’t do the right thing or try to bury the wrong thing are increasingly finding out that it doesn’t stay bury.”
“Companies are now under pressure to think more than profits. They are pressured to think about doing the right thing.”
The world is more interconnected than ever [2 min]
“The world has gotten more connected and more transparent.”
“Injustice to one is now seen as injustice to all of us.”
“Integrity is at the heart of human interaction and trust.”
Compliance isn’t enough [<2 min]
“Compliance is doing what the law required. By definition, you are pushing the envelope when the law isn’t clear.”
“Integrity is a recognition that it is important to do the right thing in the best interest of your business and certainly the world.”
The need to go beyond just shareholders [3 min]
“The irony is that you are going to be more successful if you take time to think about other stakeholders beyond your own narrow self-interest.”
Doing good and doing good business are the same [1 min]
“You don’t need to choose between doing good and doing good business. They are actually the same thing.”
Great examples in tech [<3 min]
Airbnb’s willingness to forego short term profits in order to pursue its mission of connecting people.
Microsoft’s intentional focus on stakeholders.
Etsy taking responsibility for all carbon created by shipping of all all the goods sold in their website.
“Not my problem” doesn’t work [<2 min]
“Like it or not, if your frame is around your screen, and if your company URL is at the top, it becomes you!”
“Companies have been pushed to take responsibility for the content of their platforms.”
Advice to Mark Zuckerberg [2 min]
How do you recover from an ethical error? [1 min]
Airbnb: mission always first [4 min]
“You need to make decisions consistent to your greater purpose.”
Brian Chesky told Rob, “Stop! I don’t care. Airbnb exists to connect people. If [discrimination] is happening on our platform, we are failing as a company. I don’t care what the financial statement says. Go fix the legal problem. We are going to fix this problem whether we have to or not.”
“Airbnb is successful because they always put their mission first.”
Law has limitations [1 min]
“Law can’t always address every circumstances. Law is the baseline for people who won’t do the right thing. The most successful companies will be the ones getting in front of the law and they don’t even take it close to the law.”
Voted “Top 10 Business Books of 2020” by Inc. Magazine
In the bestselling book Intentional Integrity - America’s most powerful voice in business ethics shows that companies that do not think seriously about a critical element of corporate culture―integrity―are destined to fail.
Including perspectives on integrity from Reid Hoffman, Carlos Santana, former Attorney General Eric Holder, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Janet Hill, Ben Horowitz, Meg Whitman, behavioral psychologist Dan Ariely, and more.