Airbnb's chief strategy officer reveals how the company sets goals that keep it resilient and help it escape the tech backlash

Nate Blecharczyk

Airbnb's chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharczyk said the company had a new strategy around setting goals.
The company identified two to three principles for each of its five stakeholder groups, and created one to three metrics for measuring progress against those principles, he said.
The new goal-setting strategy is meant to encourage employees to make decisions with stakeholders in mind.
"You have to do well by all the folks in the ecosystem," Blecharczyk said.
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Airbnb's chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharczyk remembers the days when tech was still seen as a force for good.

It was a decade ago, and Airbnb had become newly "ramen-profitable," after nearly going out of business.

In the years since Blecharczyk and his two cofounders grew the homestay app into a $31 billion company, and tech has been barraged by controversy on issues ranging from climate change to data privacy.

The fallout could have consequences for companies hiring the next generation of engineers, designers, and product managers. College students aren't as interested in applying for Big Tech jobs as they once were, according to a trend detailed in a recent article in The New York Times.

In a fireside chat with professor Arun Sundararajan at New York University Stern School of Business on Tuesday night, Blecharczyk said Airbnb has started to change the way it sets goals to factor in its effect on the world. The strategy could help it avoid the backlash whipping other businesses in tech.

"A lot of entrepreneurs aspire to do good things, but as you become a bigger company and you have thousands of employees, each with their own goals, it's very easy to become narrow in your thinking," Blecharczyk said at the event.

You can watch a video of the chat here.

Here's how Airbnb's leadership sets goals for the company

In the past, the company set an agenda for the year that answered the question, "50 years from now, what do we want to be remembered for?" Blecharczyk said.

The problem was that its goals, such as creating millions of entrepreneurs or billions of friendships, were vague and difficult to measure, he explained.

Blecharczyk said:

"What we've said recently is that in our world, we think there are five stakeholders. There are guests, there are hosts, there are employees, there are the communities in which we operate, and there are shareholders. And we feel a duty to serve the interests of all five. We don't exist as a corporation just to serve the interests of the shareholders.

"That's a nice idea. But what does that really mean? We identified two to three principles for things like, we feel accountable for the safety of our guests. We want to promote diversity in our workforce. But we didn't stop there. For each of those principles, we've come up with one to three metrics to quantify our progress. So that, very objectively, we can understand each year if we're getting better or not."

At Airbnb, each team has at least one goal around creating value for a stakeholder. Blecharczyk said the strategy is meant to inspire employees to consider the ramifications of their decisions on the company's goals, as well as their own.

"Our long-term success is completely dependent on the success of all of our stakeholders," he added. "You have to do well by all the folks in the ecosystem."

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