Apps Developer Talks Leadership, Talent

Will Treves, General Manager of Ask Applications, a division of IAC Applications, makers of wildly popular apps such as Match.com, Tinder, HomeAdvisor, Vimeo, About.com and Dictionary.com, gave some candid advice on leadership and company culture at the BCW’s Leadership Conversations program held at the Castle Hotel & Spa in Tarrytown on Wednesday night.

Treves, who is in charge of the day-to-day operations of Ask, gave an inside look into the workings of the leading software and technology company based in Yonkers.

The proximity to New York City and easy access by train coupled with the comfortable, open working space of the company’s headquarters, has allowed IAC to recruit top software developers in a competitive market, Treves said. He said the informal work setting has allowed for organic collaboration and sharing among the 100 employees at its headquarters. “What they wear doesn’t matter. As long as they are productive and doing what we expect, they can play as much ping pong as they like,’’ said Treves. That’s not to say that Treves doesn’t have high expectations for his team, saying he encourages them to excel. “The most demoralizing thing is to have a boss that tolerates mediocrity,’’ he said.

Some other takeaways from Treves:

On leadership: Be clear about expectations. Transparency is important. Be open an honest. It helps employees understand the broader concept.

On what’s next in the applications industry: Artificial intelligence and data. Using analytics to predict what customers want and give it to them before they ask.

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