“I’ve been at Esri for 25 years, which is hard to believe because it feels like 5 to 10. I’ve been having so much fun,” says Brian Cross, Director of Professional Services at Esri. When asked what has kept him engaged at the company for so long, Brian cites the meaningful mission and incredible people. “I came to learn very quickly after I joined Esri, and it has continued to sustain me here, that while the tech is cool … what really is great, and compelling, is the mission that we have.”
Brian describes the mission as empowering users to tackle the world’s biggest problems through geographic information system (GIS) technology. “The fact that what we do makes a difference in the world matters. When you get to work with the best of the best, who are truly committed to the same mission as you and you’re getting to work on really important problems that the world faces through the users that we support and the technology that we build, it’s really remarkable and sustaining.”
Leading with Purpose
When it comes to his leadership viewpoint, Brian focuses on entrusting teams to do their job and fostering open communication. “I have a variety of philosophies that I think add up to a style. One of those philosophies is empowering people and teams to have the information and the support they need to make decisions so that they can effectively run their part of the business.”
Rather than hoarding information, Brian aims to create an environment where “information is free flowing.” He explains, “There’s a saying that ‘information is power’ and people have interpreted that in different ways. I think an older school way of managing is that information is held close by a management team and this makes them powerful because they have all the required intelligence. I see the inverse, that information shared across an organization makes an organization powerful. If ideas, information, and even just cool things that we’re doing, are made known across the organization, that helps everybody do their job better and helps us collectively make greater impact with our customers.”
To accomplish this, Brian focuses on open communication, particularly as the company has grown. “As Esri has grown, I’ve had to adapt and think about ways to communicate and make sure that we have alignment across our teams and a sense of shared purpose and mission.” He continues, “We intentionally reinforce the impacts that we make in the world through our work and everyone can see the results. People who are working on one piece of that puzzle need to be able to zoom out and see the whole picture that we’re creating.”
Enabling Career Growth
When it comes to professional development and career growth at Esri, Brian emphasizes the importance of connecting individual work to the broader mission. Part of my job is to make sure that either myself or others who have stories of success and impact are sharing that with the organization, which creates a foundation of shared purpose. When you have shared purpose and intent, then it’s a lot easier to break down any silos that naturally emerge through natural behaviors in big organizations.”
Brian adds, “My job as a leader is to make sure that I’m communicating that shared vision as we’ve gone to a more geographically dispersed and larger workforce. And with a lot of newer employees, the word of mouth sharing of values is no longer sustainable as the way that we help everyone be part of something bigger.”
Making an Impact on the World
At Esri, work is about more than developing innovative technology – it’s about enabling users to create positive change. As Brian explains, “Really we boil our activities down to 3 things in support of that mission. Number one, we want to support our users to take our technology and apply it to the world’s hardest problems.”
He continues, “The second thing we want to create is a place for people to do their life work. That’s more than just having a job doing something that they’re passionate about. It adds up to outcomes that matter at the end of their career when they reflect back. The third thing we need to do is run a healthy business. We need to run a healthy business so we can keep doing the first 2 things for another 55 years.”
Brian emphasizes, “The order of those statements is very important. Not all companies would put running a healthy business or “making money” as the third thing on the list. That helps you understand the philosophy of Esri.”
Who Thrives at Esri?
When considering potential new hires, Brian looks for people driven to create a broad impact. As he explains, “When we think about the kind of professionals that are attracted to and thrive at Esri, there are a few universal traits that I want to point out.
One is that they may have been from the field and been using the technology, but they are driven to scale their impact.”
He continues, “By that, I mean, you can be an individual user of the software, and for many people that’s amazing, but you can also step back and teach other people to fish or build the tools and to take the metaphor too far, build the fishing poles. The people attracted to Esri want to help, either at a principle engineering level, building the next generation of software that thousands of people around the world use, or they want to be in sales or consulting, where they’re helping many users understand the power of the technology and how to apply it to their mission.”
Brian adds that successful team members also enjoy solving complex, interdisciplinary problems. “We did a new employee boot camp this week outside my office in the conference room here, and I remember telling them ‘If you were looking for an easy job, like routine work every day, you’re probably in the wrong place. People are attracted to Esri because we solve the hardest, most cutting-edge problems in mapping and geospatial space.”
After 25 years at Esri, Brian Cross is still passionate about the company’s mission and people. By empowering teams, fostering open communication, and connecting work to real-world impact, he continues to enable career growth and success. After over half a century of pioneering leadership in geographic science, Esri persists in its commitment to building a more sustainable world through the power of location intelligence.
Learn more about the company and the roles they have available here.
