How billionaire executive Barry Diller separates good ideas from bad ones
When it comes to identifying great ideas, billionaire Barry Diller has simple advice: Don’t be skeptical.
In an interview for CNBC’s “The Leader’s Playbook” episode, which will air Wednesday, Diller said he’s a big fan of “creative conflict” group brainstorming sessions. In a creative conflict environment, team members passionately discuss an idea and weigh different opinions no matter how long it takes to reach a decision. It can be “noisy and argumentative… and a little bit brutal,” but “I think it’s a great environment,” he said.
For group brainstorming to work effectively and result in high-level ideas, you really need to consider other people’s opinions, said Diller, president and chief executive of holding company IAC and travel technology company Expedia Group.
“You have to try to be naive,” said Diller, 83, a co-founder of Fox Broadcasting Company. “You can’t be cynic. Cynicism kills everything. You have to force naivety.”
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If you’re cynical, you might think that your team member is coming up with an idea that will only benefit them, or that because you’ve been in your organization the longest, you naturally know more than the next person.
Instead of being condescending, join these idea sessions with a beginner’s attitude, said Diller, who has an estimated net worth of $5.5 billion. According to Forbes. This doesn’t mean you’re stupid, ignorant, or easily surprised; Instead, it means that you are open to new perspectives, learning new things, and challenges.
“I always continued to be as goofy a naive as I could,” Diller said. “You know, as you progress in life, you become more sophisticated and your natural tendencies become more cynical. If you want to use your instincts, you have to brush it practically every day.”
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The value of considering your colleagues’ unusual ideas can go beyond brainstorming.
In the interview, Diller discussed IAC’s acquisition of a majority stake in Expedia. Languages in July 2001 made a deal It will purchase 75% of Expedia’s shares for approximately $1 billion. Two months later, before the agreement was finalized, the September 11 terrorist attacks all but halted U.S. travel.
Expedia “had zero revenue for a while and it came back relatively quickly, but there was no business at that critical moment when we had to make the decision,” Diller said. “A lot of people said, ‘Now is not the time to pay more than a billion dollars for something that is completely unpredictable.’… But as we were talking about it, someone who was in the room at the thick of the discussion said, ‘If there’s life, there’s travel.'”
“As soon as I heard that, I said, ‘Shut it down.’ [the deal]. I bet if there’s life, there’s travel… and if there’s no life, then who cares?’ And that’s it. It was quite a binary situation.”
Diller’s IAC finally acquires Expedia in August 2003and Diller helped lead the company through the Great Recession and the Covid-19 pandemic. Expedia Group now owns and operates other travel sites, including Hotels.com, Vrbo, Travelocity, and Trivago, and currently has a market cap of $36.44 billion.
Watch Barry Diller on CNBC “Leaders’ Playbook″ Wednesday, January 14 at 10:30 PM ET/PT. All new episodes on Wednesdays.
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