What Darren Huston Learned From Bill Gates?

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What Darren Huston Learned From Bill Gates?

• Source www.bcbusiness.ca

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Darren Huston, family farmhand, worked as the CEO
of the 60 billion Train Group Inc., one of the
most successful C-suite exports to move out of
the province that you may have never heard of.
Hope, B.C. In 2011, Darren Huston landed on the
Amsterdam-based travel website Booking.com as
CEO In less than 3 years, he tripled the size of
that operation, and then Darren Huston was named
CEO of the parent company. In addition to
Booking.com and the website to its name, the
train's other online properties include Kayak,
Rentalcars, Neighbors and Villas. This June, the
open-tableble, buy-booking app OpenTable, a
restaurant reservation site in vogue at 2.6
billion, expanded into a new digital arena.
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Is it true that even Darren Huston had never
heard of Booking.com before he became a candidate
for CEO?

• Darren Huston said Yes, this was partly due to
  the fact that the historical focus of both the
  Booking.com business, as well as brand awareness,
  has been in Europe. Darren Huston was attracted
  to the potential for growth, but Booking.com also
  adapted his passion for technology, travel,
  consumer-oriented business and leading people. In
  the Netherlands, it was always the biggest fear
  that Americans would come and run Booking.com,
  because the culture was too European. When they
  knew that Darren Huston is Canadian, it was a
  real positive and they were relieved.

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There are countless other travel websites from
Expedia to Travelocity. Whats Darren Huston
competitive edge?

• Darren Huston plan for the moment. He run the
  entire business on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
  They have an annual plan, but it is for board and
  not really how they think about things. They have
  a lot of success how do they innovate against
  customer needs and can Darren Huston keep the
  team hungry and humble enough to move forward?
  Everything they have in terms of opportunity is
  largely in front of them.

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Darren Huston called Bill Gates one of his role
models. What did he gain from working with Bill?

• Darren Huston spent time with him when he was
  running Microsoft in Japan. Darren Huston said,
  I really respect the fact that Bill Gates is a
  curious person and how much he reads. He has
  already solved a set of problems and now he wants
  to solve global health issues.
• Darren Huston think it is very impressive for
  him to live two lives now - it is very
  surprising. Bill Gates is a person with very high
  values ??and very strong beliefs, but also just a
  very good person.

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OpenTable seems to be a strange fit, given its
the only property Darren have outside the travel
realm. Why the acquisition?

• Darren Huston said, OpenTable is a natural
  extension for us. The work they do day-to-day
  with restaurants fits well with the day-to-day
  work we do with accommodations. 
• He Said, Our dream is to make OpenTable a
  truly global business, allowing our travelers to
  easily book restaurants wherever they are and to
  help restaurants build business with people from
  all over the world.

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