- November 15, 2021
EPISODE #
TikTok’s Shant Oknayan on leadership and building a winning culture
About this episode
Shant Oknayan is the Head of Global Business Solutions at ByteDance (TikTok) across Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joins us to discuss his role in shaping a startup in blitzscaling mode i.e. growing at hyper speed! Having worked at the world’s top firms like Google, Facebook and now TikTok, Shant has witnessed the evolution of our digital lives and brings a lot of depth and expertise to the conversation.
If culture eats strategy for breakfast then what does it take to build a great culture? How do you align your own North Star with that of the company’s? How do you ensure that you create the social fabric that is the foundation of a culture while hundreds of people are working remotely? We also discuss what it means for leaders to lead at scale and what are the traits that every leader should have to be successful. Do you encourage your team to put the “we” before the “me”? Do you encourage your team to openly share the most intimate stories for the sake of making everyone else around them a better colleague?
So much to digest in this episode that I am confident you’ll appreciate if you’re currently leading a business of any size. Also if you’re considering working at TikTok or any other leading tech company, there is a lot to learn from in this chat.
SPONSORS:
This episode is sponsored by our friends at Astrolabs. Check out: www.Astrolabs.com/loulou to avail exclusive discounts on company registration in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, co-working space as well as discounts on online courses covering coding, social media, digital marketing and more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00 | Sponsor’s message and exclusive offer to listeners. Visit www.astrolabs.com/loulou
01:06 | What is on Shant’s mind as he leads a business witnessing incredible scale
07:40 | The 4 Ps of building a successful work culture
13:12 | How do you create “diversity” within your company
15:43 | The 5 Hs are behaviors that everyone within TikTok would aspire to have
22:20 | Shant’s views on the values and limitations of a hybrid work model
26:13 | Linear media consumption to knowledge graphs to social graphs to the content graphs
31:39 | The age of User Generated – VIRAL – Content and the impact on your business’ bottom line
36:07 | What makes companies like Google, Facebook and TikTok so successful
39:57 | What does it mean to be a leader?
48:03 | Loulou’s closing message
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guest profile
Shant Oknayan
Shant Oknayan has two decades’ experience in leading business development, with subject matter expertise in digital strategies across corporations and governments.
Shant is currently the Head of Global Business Solutions at ByteDance and its leading entertainment platform TikTok, across Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Shant is the former Group Director for Facebook’s family of apps and services, heading commercial partnerships across multiple industries (FMCG, beauty & luxury, retail & ecommerce, telecom media and technology and real estate across the MENA region.
Prior to Facebook, Shant was Google’s head of strategy and operations, and head of marketing for Small & Medium businesses across MENA, focused on enabling businesses across the region.
Previously an Engagement Manager at Booz&Co (now Strategy&) as part of their Digital Business and Technology practice, Shant focused on digital transformation programs on behalf of governments.
Shant was also the founding Chairman and CEO of GlamBox, the premier beauty ecommerce subscription service across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. After raising over $4m across 2 rounds of funding and being nominated a start-up to watch out for by Forbes in 2015-2017 as well as personally recognized as a Top 50 SMBE Executive by Arabian Business, Shant led the sale of GlamBox to a consortium of regional investors in 2017.
In 2019-2020, Shant was an Advisory Board member to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Doyof Al Rahman program as part of Saudi 2030 Vision, providing expertise and guidance on digital strategies and innovation.
Shant holds a double Masters from MIT (MBA) and Imperial College Londong (MEng with Honours), grew up in Italy and has been living in Dubai for the past 14 years with his wife and 2 children.