Qlik’s new CEO discusses why he joined the company, the opportunity he sees at the intersection of data and AI, and what customers and partners can expect from his leadership.
Qlik CEO Saugata Saha recently sat down with Jessica Dubois, Senior Director of Global Tech Partners, for his first external conversation since joining the company.
They discussed Qlik’s strengths, the challenge of unlocking value from trusted data, the importance of customers and partners, and Saugata’s priorities as he begins leading the business.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
What drew you to Qlik?
Jessica: I know our customers, partners, advocates, and Luminaries are eager to get to know you, so let’s jump in. What drew you to Qlik, and why did this feel like the right opportunity at this point in your career?
Saugata: Qlik is an incredible business. It has been around for three decades. It has incredible foundational capabilities, the trust of customers, strong existing relationships, and, most importantly, thousands of dedicated colleagues who understand what our customers need and build products our customers want.
When you combine those capabilities with the future of AI and the increasing amounts of data our customers have, there is a significant opportunity. Finding meaning and insight in large data sets and layering in AI capabilities is hard, and that is where we come in.
Qlik has an incredible right to win in helping our customers sift through vast amounts of data, find meaningful insights, and make decisions that create value for them. I’m excited about a future in which we are our customers’ number one trusted partner in helping them do that.
What do data and AI mean for Qlik today?
Jessica: I’ve heard you say that AI is like the engine and data is the fuel for that engine, and that data is a true competitive advantage in this new age. What does that mean for our business today?
Saugata: There is no shortage of data. There is, in fact, an overabundance of it.
AI models are getting smarter, and there is also an abundance of models and access to them. What is hard is bringing the two together in a governed, trusted manner, with the appropriate controls and layers of semantics.
Those capabilities help the models work with the data and help our customers use that data in a trusted way to generate insight.
That is exciting, and I think it is a huge opportunity for us. It is also a huge opportunity for our customers to unlock value that is sitting trapped in the data they have on their servers, in the cloud, and across their organizations.
What role does the Qlik ecosystem play?
Jessica: Qlik delivers a great deal of value to customers directly, but let’s zoom out. How do you see the relationship between Qlik and our broader ecosystem in helping customers achieve that advantage?
Saugata: The challenges and opportunities are so significant that we cannot do it alone.
We need our trusted partners, channel partners, and the people we go to market with to help us succeed and help our customers succeed.
We want to make sure we are good partners and good collaborators. We want to show up for our customers alongside others, combine our strengths, and solve our customers’ hardest problems.
That is where the future lies.
What are your priorities for the coming months?
Jessica: What are your thoughts about where you will be most focused in the coming months to set Qlik up for long-term success?
Saugata: My first priority is getting to know the company even better from the inside over the next 90–100 days.
I anticipate being on the road quite a bit, visiting our major locations, meeting colleagues, customers, partners, and distributors, and understanding their perspectives.
On top of that, I will be building a compelling vision for the future and a clear, articulated strategy to get us there.
All of us at Qlik need to align behind that and move to execution. That is what is going to get us there.
What can customers and partners expect from your leadership?
Jessica: You have been a leader at many organizations and have also worked closely with customers. What can Qlik’s customers and partners expect from you as CEO?
Saugata: They should expect me to set a clear vision for the future, establish high and aspirational goals, and get everyone aligned around those goals with a clear path to execution.
They should also expect candidness and transparency, as well as a plan for joint value creation.
We win when we work with others across our ecosystem to create value for our customers. They should expect us to be obsessed with creating value for the company, the people around us, and our customers.
Jessica: Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy first 90 days. I know our customers, partners, and everyone across the Qlik ecosystem are looking forward to getting to know you better.
Saugata: I’m very excited about the future and delighted to be here. I’m looking forward to getting to know more of our colleagues, partners, people across the ecosystem, and, of course, our customers.
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