丹·斯普林格，85年

成长在一个时代 when checks were a part of everyday life, Dan 施普林格 would balance his mom’s checkbook for her. 但他对组织的爱好并不止于此. “I often created programs for myself and for other people in my family,” he recalls. “我认为它们更像是待办事项清单，而不是真正的时间表. 当然，是的，我是一个非常有条理的人.”

以21世纪的方式, DocuSign—founded in 2003—brings organization and structure to the documented agreement process. A $15-billion player in the e-signature and larger Agreement Cloud space, 这是施普林格的天赋, who joined the company as CEO in January 2017 after a long and protracted search.

Like millions of others, 施普林格’s initial exposure to DocuSign was as a consumer. 他说:“我认为这是一款令人惊叹的产品. DocuSign是世界第一. 一种在任何设备上进行电子签名的方法, 有560多个,在180多个国家拥有超过5000名客户. “People tell you stories about how they bought their house using DocuSign or used it at their job,斯普林格补充道. “这是一个很棒的工作场所，因为客户喜欢我们的产品.”

施普林格’s initial exposure to Occidental came during a college tour with two high school buddies, 他爱上了这个地方. In the grand tradition of the liberal arts, 施普林格 changed his major more than once. 在上了Roger Boesche教授的第一堂政治学课后, 施普林格说, “我想成为一个政治学专业的学生. 然后我遇到了伍迪·斯图登蒙德，我想主修经济学. 我一直在找教授，对他们的研究感到兴奋.最终，他选择了经济学和数学双学位.

他还参与了布莱斯基金, 学生经营的投资集团, 并在大四时担任了基金总裁. 和一个曾经是基德经纪人的校友一起工作, Peabody—the renowned investment securities firm—施普林格 and his team learned how to evaluate companies with the potential to be successful investments.

从哈佛商学院毕业后 拥有MBA学位的斯普林格得到了他梦寐以求的工作，在麦肯锡担任顾问 & 公司——首先在旧金山，后来在西雅图开了一个办事处. While he enjoyed developing strategies with various clients for their business, 他发现自己因工作的流动性质而感到沮丧. “我想成为成功的一部分，”斯普林格说. “我意识到我可能应该更多地扮演一个操作角色.”

在1997年底, 施普林格 became head of marketing at a company called NextCard 在旧金山—effectively a general manager role at an early-stage startup. 1999年5月，在他36岁生日那天，他帮助公司上市, and followed that with stints as CEO at Telleo (a San Jose-based startup) and managing director of Modem Media (an interactive marketing strategy and services company 在旧金山).

Those operating roles teed 施普林格 up to take the reins of Redwood City-based Responsys, a privately held email services provider that became the leading provider of cloud-based business-to-consumer marketing software under his leadership.

“对我来说，Responsys是一次很棒的经历，”斯普林格说. 当他4月1日到达时, 2004, 这家公司需要扭转局面, 在20世纪90年代末和21世纪初经历了一段火热时期, 就在点之前.互联网崩盘，”他说. “They had a couple of CEOs that didn’t work out and the company was floundering a little bit,” with shrinking revenues of about $15 million and a diminished roster of some 75 employees.

After Responsys went public in 2011, the company was sold to Oracle in 2014 for $1.60亿美元，“这是一个非常好的结果，”斯普林格承认. He calls his 10-year run as CEO “probably the formative experience for my career. 不管我的管理风格是什么，它都是在Responsys形成的.”

施普林格 was named the Bay Area’s Most Admired CEO at a public company with revenue under $500 million by the 旧金山商业时报 in 2011. “You get way too much credit for something being successful if you’re the CEO, 有时候，如果事情没有成功，你会受到太多的指责. 但我在Responsys上得到的赞誉远远超过了我应得的.”

在他成功的巅峰时期, 施普林格, 新离婚, walked away from Responsys to become a full-time parent to his two teenage sons. “我知道没有工作作为职业听起来很奇怪, 但那是我做过的最好的职业决定,他说. “I was always a very hands-on dad, but it’s a different level of when you will make that your No. 优先级1. 我在一家私募股权公司工作. 我帮助他们进行投资. 我加入了5个板. 我并不是什么都没做，但我只是朝九晚五地工作.”

有一个操作角色和. a consulting role, he says, is being able to step away from the job each day. “当你刚刚成为董事会成员并与一家私募股权公司合作时, you go to lacrosse practice to watch the entire practice and pick the boys up, 你不去想工作——你的心思都在工作上. And being able to have that time, it really enriched our relationship to a whole new level.”

“当我想到是什么让丹成为一个特别的家长, 他对孩子和对自己都很有幽默感,85岁的丽莎·科西诺说. “He’s such a good listener and doesn’t interrupt someone 20 times even if what he’s hearing is really tough to hear.”

Coscino—an Oxy trustee and executive director at Pacific Art League of Palo Alto—reconnected with 施普林格 through LinkedIn, 在所有的地方. “我不相信丽莎会记得我，”斯普林格说. “我告诉她，‘你一定是在想别人.’她说:‘不，我记得.我说, “如果你能说出三件关于我的事是真的, 我出1美元,000元捐给你最喜欢的慈善机构.’ ”

科西诺对他说了三件事:“你是足球队的队长, 你有一头黑色的卷发, 你整个大学都在和85年的凯西·维特尔约会.斯普林格兑现了他的承诺, 邀请科西诺去看小熊队对巨人队的比赛, 从那以后，两人一直很亲密.

施普林格住在离DocuSign总部两个街区的地方 在旧金山. The company’s biggest office is in Seattle—two miles from his mother’s house. (当他去那里开会的时候, he sleeps in his old bedroom and has breakfast with his mom every morning.) Even so, it took some arm-twisting to lure 施普林格 back to the daily corporate grind.

Founded in Seattle, DocuSign relocated its headquarters to the Bay Area in 2014. 2015年10月, chairman and CEO Keith Krach announced he was ready to step down from his CEO duties, 促使人们寻找继任者. 施普林格’s name cropped up on the short list of candidates—but at the time, 他不是在找新工作.

除了他对儿子们的承诺, 在扭转了Responsys之后，他“达到了职业生涯的最高点”, 上市, 并出售公司“以获得一个好结果”,斯普林格说. “在很大程度上，我没有那种自我确认的需要.”

一年多以后, he was having a conversation with venture capitalist Pete Solvik about a CEO opening in the Bay Area. 经过一番交谈，他得知这家公司是DocuSign.

这一次，他很感兴趣. “DocuSign had a great industry-leading product—by far the largest in that space, 是第二大公司的两倍多,他说. Following a whirlwind of conversations—and with the blessing of his younger son, 罗伯特-斯普林格在圣诞节前夕签署了他的工作邀请.

有了全新的管理团队, 包括他在Responsys的一些同事, DocuSign于4月27日上市, 2018, 每股29美元. The day after the IPO, 施普林格 scheduled an early- morning meeting with his team. “I wanted to remind everyone we’ve got customers to take care of,他说. “It’s one of the reasons I try to get people to not focus on the stock price.”

As of this writing, DocuSign was trading within a few dollars of its all-time high of $92.但不要指望斯普林格是这个消息的传播者. “我只看周五下午的股价，”他解释说. “这周我不会看它. Stocks tend to be very volatile—I get that—but when people ask me about our stock price, 我想说的是, “我可以告诉你上周五的价格. 但我不知道周一、周二或周三是什么.’

他补充道:“我并不是对我们正在创造价值感到不兴奋。. “但这都是因为我们照顾好了客户. It’s all because we make this the best place for people to do the best work of their lives. 如果我们做了这些事情，股价自然会上涨. 当你开始关注股价的时候, companies get messed up because people start thinking about their own wealth creation.”

尽管他对DocuSign有自己的感情, the main reason 施普林格 wanted to get back into general management is his passion for developing people. He likens it to “having kids—when you start to realize I love someone more than I love myself and my focus is on their development.

“我很喜欢听到顾客说, “我喜欢DocuSign,’我们所做的事情很有价值，这让我感觉很好. 但最重要的是看着人们成长和思考, ‘She never would have been able to do that if it hadn’t been for this company. 他永远不可能实现那个目标.’ ”

这是一个真正的领导者的标志.