In this Leadership Deep Dive episode, Francois Locoh-Donou, CEO of F5 (www.f5.com), takes us inside his leadership philosophy and demonstrates in a hard to refute way why diversity, open company structures, constant learning and ongoing transformation are not just values to look into, but crucial strategies to adopt if a company wants to stay competitive in its (ever evolving) market.

Francois has become CEO of F5 in 2017 and from this conversation, you can find out why in this time F5 has made a conscious and strategic decision to only acquire two companies (nginx and Shape security)

Francois also talks about growing up in Togo and living in the US, why he decided to invest in agricultural industry in his and what his background taught him about identity, pride, privilege and perseverance.

About F5

03:15 About F5 - Enabling 24/7 delivery and security of applications
04:40 Challenges of application delivery
- multi-cloud
- microservices and distributed architecture
- automation of continuous improvement
07:04 Telemetry-based security (Shape security)
11:47 Application capital economy
13:58 Code To Customer - integrated view across silos
15:47 How F5 has been evolving with IT architecture trends

Building Successful Teams

17:22 Company culture at F5
- humility
- loyalty
- embracing rapid transformation
18:36 How to make successful acquisitions
21:47 The roles that CEO has to play
- vision
- leadership
- strategy
- building relationships with clients

24:47 Developing and driving vision for the company with diverse perspectives
28:12 Building and supporting successful teams
- traits of a good leader
29:00 Using humility to grow and listen
31:00 How hierarchies kill innovation
31:40 The value of diversity and nurturing passion and commitment
36:57 Francois' fundamental values
- sense of identity and awareness of privilege
39:40 "Development in Africa will come from agricultural revolution"
- Francois' investment in developing Togo's economy
42:48 Mentors in Francois' life
- The driving force of drive and transformation
48:25 Francois' most memorable failure and what he learned
- persevering despite self-doubt and learning from mistakes
51:05 "Once you go through a period of severe adversity and self-doubt, your confidence and desire to take risks is greater."
51:29 Advice for future CIOs and digital leaders
- managing your time investment into risks and learning
- nobody gets anywhere on their own