Three years into an extraordinary adventure that has seen him reshape a great, but narrow brand while tripling its market cap, Bill McDermott has been named chairman of ServiceNow.
It’s a clear recognition of the total trust that McDermott has earned from ServiceNow founder Fred Luddy, who stepped down from the chairman’s role to make way for McDermott.
One of the high flyers on the Cloud Wars Top 10, ServiceNow under McDermott has:
- pushed into new markets well beyond its original focus on information technology (IT) departments;
- begun engaging more broadly with the C-suite in addition to CIOs;
- boosted its international business aggressively; and
- opened up new ecosystem opportunities to reach a much larger total addressable market (TAM).
On ServiceNow’s earnings call last week, McDermott broke the news of his expanded responsibilities with classically unique language.
“I’ve been lucky enough to learn from one of the greatest innovators of the 21st century,” McDermott said. “Fred Luddy and I have been on a multiyear journey together, one built on love and mutual respect.
“At this week’s board meeting, I was honored to take on the role of chairman, while Fred will remain an active member of our board for the long term.
“Fred remains the soul and inspiration of ServiceNow, and I’m honored to call him our founder and my personal friend.”
We’ll have more on ServiceNow’s Q3 results tomorrow and next week, but I believe that this latest chapter in the story of the author of Winners Dream means that ServiceNow is only beginning to reach its potential.
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