The CEO of Vimeo landed the job at 34 — and she learned a huge leadership lesson in her first 12 months at the top

She immediately had to make difficult, dramatic changes in order to better align the company with its mission.
Sud says leaders must make the right decision for the company, even if the choice is unpopular — but to work with others effectively and become a leader in the first place, it's usually important to be well-regarded and popular.

When Anjali Sud became the CEO of IAC-owned Vimeo at just 34 years old, she had to make some changes.

"When I took over as CEO, we pivoted away from this strategy to build Vimeo as an entertainment destination,"Sud told Business Insider for an episode of our podcast "Success! How I Did It." "That meant in the first couple weeks on the job, we had to make a lot of changes. We had to shut down parts of the business. We had to shut down offices and teams, and reallocate teams. That's hard, especially when you're stepping in for the first time."

She continued: "But it was also my job to bring clarity and focus to the company. We had to be razor-focused on our mission. Our teams and our organizational structure needed to reflect that. I think that's an example of sometimes you have to do things that aren't easy."

In the year since then, she's realized that willingness to prioritize the company's mission is critical.

"For me, leadership is about doing the hard thing or the right thing, even when it's not the popular thing," she said.

"As a leader, I find now that often you're in a situation where you may be the only one in the world with all the information or all the contacts," Sud continued. "Sometimes, you have to make decisions that aren't going to be popular or that people might not fully understand."

That was a big lesson for her, she said, "because when you're young and you're moving up in your career, often you have to be well-regarded and popular to do well and to be able to have people want to work with you."

Sud attributes her opportunity at Vimeo's helm to IAC's chairman, Barry Diller, who prefers to hire leadership internally and challenge young leaders to succeed. "We're trying to build a company that also creates those accelerated career paths for people that gives them an opportunity to throw themselves in the deep end of the pool and own things that they might not normally get a chance to own," she said.

"It's a trial-by-fire approach, but I think it rewards results and talent over pedigree, and that can be really powerful."